"Some people would never imagine that their excess
weight has everything to do with nutritional
imbalances, metabolic challenges,
chronic inflammation, leaky gut,
environmental toxins, and changes in the
microbiome, even their genes."
Heaps of us don’t even think about our hormones; not giving them a second thought when it comes to us putting on weight. And yet, these chemical messengers feature high on the list when it comes to how our body works and our general health.
When our hormones are ‘upset’, they can cause chaos in the body. Women will know all about this chaos when they ride the hormonal roller coaster every month, experiencing PMS, heavy periods, mood swings, and even missing periods. Some women have had babies and their hormones have left them feeling depressed.
And what about the symptoms that come along with menopause? Lots of women don’t even want to talk about those symptoms!
Actually, there is very little that our amazing hormones don’t do for us. The shape of our bodies, the quality of our sleep, how our digestive system serves us; our hormones are involved in so much. But we are also quick to use the excuse when someone is suffering from some malady, to say, “It’s just their hormones”.
But modern living today can lead to a lot of this hormonal chaos, throwing these precious workers in our bodies out of sync; out of harmony.
There are different types of hormones...
Each second of the day, our hormones are speeding through our bloodstream, traveling all over to the various organs to receive orders for work to be done in the body. Some hormones you might not even be aware of. Let’s look at some top ones:
Oxytocin, (the love hormone). It responds to touch
Cortisol (the stress hormone), lets us know when we are in danger
Thyroid (our metabolism regulator)
Melatonin (to induce sleep)
Estrogen, progesterone, testosterone (the sex hormones)
Serotonin (the mood-boosting hormone)
Leptin (the hunger hormone)
Insulin (stores and uses glucose)
These are important ones, but there is a hormone for everything!
We have seen how important the hormone, estrogen, is in our body, regulating metabolism and body weight. Naturally, when it decreases, there will be weight gain. In both men and women, the fat builds up around the abdomen and around the bodily organs. You might have heard of this type of fat - called visceral fat. And visceral fat can be pretty dangerous, being linked to some medical conditions such as
Stroke
Diabetes
Heart disease
Even some cancers
It is important to maintain a healthy weight, even if it is related to an estrogen imbalance. People, both men and women, need to talk to their doctors about this hormonal fat caused by hormonal imbalances because many of them reach a stubborn weight loss plateau, where they think they are doing everything right, eating the right foods, exercising – it never occurs to them that their weight problems have anything to do with hormonal imbalances. They later realize that many of the obstacles they are facing with regards to their hormonal fat have nothing to do with how they are eating or what exercises they are doing.
Some people would never imagine that their excess weight has everything to do with nutritional imbalances, metabolic challenges, chronic inflammation, leaky gut, environmental toxins, and changes in the microbiome, even their genes.
Other hormones that can cause imbalances...
Another monster hormone, insulin, is what also causes weight gain, chronic disease, and inflammation. It is possible though to naturally regulate insulin so instead of storing fat, you can burn the fat. Other hormones, as listed above, are also responsible for hormonal weight gain. Let’s look at some more of these hormones:
Thyroid
Hypothyroidism, or low thyroid function, affects more women than men but unfortunately, in many cases, the condition does not get diagnosed. It’s diet, nutrient deficiencies, environmental stress, and toxins that impact greatly on the thyroid. Another cause of hypothyroidism is gluten intolerance. Other culprits are heavy metals and pesticides, etc. The thyroid needs certain nutrients to run smoothly and optimally and these include zinc, selenium iodine, and healthy essential fatty acids such as omega-3. Many doctors don’t even test correctly for thyroid function and when they do correctly diagnose it, they don’t treat it effectively by means of dietary changes, supplements, and the right thyroid hormone replacement therapy. And that’s really unfortunate because the thyroid plays a very key role in maintaining a healthy weight.
Cortisol
This is the stress hormone. When you have stressful thoughts, your metabolic pathways get activated, causing weight gain and insulin resistance. We carry stress around with us all the time without knowing how to reset our mindset. Even though cortisol is the stress hormone that helps us pump fuel into our bloodstream to get that quick energy, it is also the hormone that slows our metabolism and shuts down our digestion. This is all normal in the short term, but if left unchecked, high levels of cortisol will cause high blood sugar, which means increased belly fat, loss of muscle, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
Sex Hormone Imbalances
The sex hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, can all cause weight problems. When you have too much estrogen, as mentioned above, you gain weight, no matter if you are a man or woman. Too much sugar, alcohol, and refined carbs spike estrogen. It is very important to eat a hormone-balancing diet, a diet that is low in sugar and high in good fats and fiber.
When the hormones are not in harmony
As we have seen above, there are plenty of reasons why our bodies can be thrown into hormonal disarray. Poor diet and a lifestyle where we don’t get much sleep or exercise are top reasons, let alone the stress and all those toxins entering our bodies. When our bodies are in this state, look what we end up having:
PMS
Mood swings
Depression and lack-luster life
Irritability, angry, aggressive
A libido that could be non-existent
Periods that are heavy and painful or none at all
Migraines and headaches and other bodily aches
Excess, flabby weight around your belly
Skin breaks out from toxins entering
Vaginal dryness
Feet and hands that are always cold
Sleep problems
Constant tiredness with brain fog
Your stomach is always unsettled with indigestion and cramps
The hair on your face and thinning hair on your head
Food cravings for alcohol, sugars, carbs, and other processed foods
You can lose hormonal weight
Do you fit into any of the above miserable conditions? Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel and it’s this – hormonal weight gain needn’t be. You can change it, and lead a healthy, happy, hormonally balanced life. When your body is out of balance, your health is not only affected but your lifestyle too at the office, at home, at school.
If you are prepared to make changes and work hard at it, you can climb off the hormonal roller coaster. When you see the results, it will inspire you to carry on.
Look at it like this: Balanced hormones create a synchronized, beautiful dance in your body, not like a crazy body-jerking dance that makes you feel like you are falling from some dizzy height! Be in tune with your body, looking out for the typical clues that your hormones are unhappy. Start making them happy with these tips from today and see the difference it makes:
1. NOURISH YOUR BODY
You need the right food, and building blocks, such as proteins and healthy fats to make healthy, happy, hormones. It is vital to ditch all processed foods and refined sugars. Food forms the building blocks for our hormones and that means eating protein and healthy fats so that healthy hormones are produced.
2. MANAGE STRESS
This isn’t always easy with our hectic lifestyles, but thing is, when we are constantly in stress mode, always wired up, our bodies are constantly producing the stress hormone, cortisol. It becomes too much, and strains the body, throwing the other hormones completely out of sync. There are many ways to de-stress, a must for balancing hormones.
3. PUT MORE GREENS INTO YOUR BODY
Why? Because these are detoxifiers! Chard, spinach, and kale, are plants that do wonders for the body, cleansing it and supporting the liver, which in itself plays a huge role in balancing the hormones. Here’s a green smoothie to try for starters!
4. HOLD BACK ON COFFEE
While some of the more high-quality coffees aren’t too bad, a lot of us overdo it and drink coffee around the hour, exacerbating things like PMS, etc. There are alternatives, such as matcha tea, which is high in antioxidants, and low in caffeine.
5. A HEALTHY GUT IS A TOP PRIORITY
When your gut is unhealthy, it wreaks havoc on your body and your digestive system. You don’t even feel well, and you wouldn’t because an unhealthy gut impacts hormonal balance as well. It is so vital to clean up your gut, starting by avoiding processed foods, hydrogenated oils, and added sugars. Eat the foods that restore gut balance. Excellent ones are fermented foods like sauerkraut and kefir, probiotics, bone broth (try this one from a nutritionist and specialist in hormonal health), and high fiber foods.
More foods, habits, and treatments to decrease harmful estrogen so you can get rid of that hormonal fat...
Some foods are specifically beneficial in decreasing harmful estrogen dominance that is responsible for ‘immovable’ hormonal fat:
Keep your alcohol consumption down. But if you do every now and then consume alcohol, always take a vitamin B-complex tablet and 1 mg folic acid tablet to reduce the negative effects of the alcohol.
A probiotic is essential; take 1-2 capsules twice a day daily on an empty stomach.
Insoluble fibers help to bind the excess estrogen in the digestive tract. Your body then excretes the excess estrogen with the fiber, preventing estrogen from being reabsorbed into the body. Excellent fibers are wheat bran, rice bran, corn bran, the skins of veggies and fruits, nuts (particularly almonds), seeds (particularly sunflower seeds), dried bean, soybeans, and whole-grain foods.
Use only organic dairy and grass-fed meat products to reduce your exposure to hormone additives.
Eat weak phytoestrogen foods. These can be flax seeds, pomegranate, pears, berries, apples, oats, wheat germ, and barley.
Get in plenty of minerals and vitamins as well such as magnesium, zinc, vitamin B6 and other essential nutrients. These help in supporting the breakdown and elimination of estrogen. They also help in the function of enzymes responsible for converting of testosterone to estrogen.
Try and avoid exposure to xenoestrogens from plastics, birth control pills, and some cosmetics because they irritate estrogen.
Try and avoid unfermented soy products like soy milk and tofu.
Try infrared sauna treatments as they really do an excellent job of ridding your body of excess estrogen.
When you maintain poor sleeping habits, you cause a reduction in the melatonin hormone melatonin, and it is a hormone that helps to protect you against estrogen dominance. Try and aim for 7-8 hours of sleep per night in a room that is airy, cool, and dark.
For goodness sake...
Whilst there are many things that are responsible for your hormonal fat, when you address the imbalances, as outlined above, you can lose that stubborn weight. It might require some hard work, it might require that you work with your medical practitioner; but when you make these positive moves, you start to ignite the fire that will burn that hormonal fat away. Do it for your health's sake – you will really be hot then, just without the fat and the flushes.
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