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Are you paranoid with the thought of admiring yourself and trying the belly moves in your room? Are the fats taking over and dominating your confidence about looking obese?
Finding it tough to stand in front of the mirror because you have put on too much weight? did that just put you off?
For a fact you should know that you are not alone, several women all around the world feel the same way.
Any kind of hormonal disturbance or imbalance is natural to hit on your weight, you either turn into a dangling skeleton or you look like a balloon, it is always extreme cases talking about imbalanced hormones. It is not going to take too much of you to cure and correct these disturbed hormones and come back to your usual shape. All that matters is are you willing to work over it.
This article focuses on bringing across all the weight gain problems that occur because of hormonal imbalance. Get to learn it all and accordingly take steps to fix hormonal imbalance causing weight loss or weight gain.
What Is Hormonal Imbalance in Women?
Hormonal Imbalance is a condition when few hormones do not get produced or they are either released too much or too less in the body. The very basis of the hormones are disturbed.
It would make a difference on the body if the hormones are not produced or released efficiently because these hormones take care of three functions, metabolism, fertility and the overall growth of the body.
Additionally, for the hormones to control and perform its functions it needs to receive messages from the pituitary gland and then accordingly pass on the same messages to the rest of the body. During this course of passing on messages if the hormones fail to perform their function correctly, it will lead to an imbalance in the hormones.
This imbalance in women usually occurs when there are physical changes happening in a woman’s body. The changes could be menstruation, pregnancy, breastfeeding and menopause. It is during this time that the hormones lose track and there is an imbalance in the hormones and this ends up making a woman healthy.
Why Does Hormonal Imbalance Cause Weight Gain?
Majorly, hormonal imbalance causes weight gain because of an increase or decrease in the level of how the hormones are produced. Losing weight because of hormonal imbalance gets difficult as one grows up.
Usually, women gain weight because there is an imbalance in the body due to age, too much stress and menopause.
1. How Does Age Cause Weight Gain?
The rate at which hormones are produced in the body comes down in women after 30. Given the fact that hormones are not produced the way they used to be produced, estrogen levels in a woman’s body drop down and then the progesterone as well drops down.
When both these hormones start to drop down, metabolism in the body gets affected, a woman tends to put on weight in her abdomen, the body gets weak and lazy and this, in turn, becomes one of the reasons why a woman loses motivation in taking steps to lose weight.
When a woman is nearing her 40’s and enters menopause it is no more an easy task to lose weight because the progesterone, estrogen and testosterone levels drastically fall down.
2. Hormones Responsible to Cause Weight Gain
When 6 hormones are disturbed having a major imbalance it causes weight gain in women. To name the hormones they are, cortisol, thyroid hormone, progesterone, estrogen, testosterone and insulin. That said, an effect of one hormone can have an impact on the other in the case of few hormones.
Things you should know about each of these hormones so that you have clarity as to how each hormonal imbalance causes weight gain.
a. Cortisol
The adrenal glands produce cortisol, it is a stress hormone that goes into the blood to better the metabolism and it handles all the stress that your body goes through.
How Does it Affect Your Weight?
For any reason if you are stressed too much it affects cortisol and when cortisol is affected increases the insulin levels in the body and this ends up making you crave for food too often. Overeating becomes the cause of weight gain.
b. Thyroid
Thyroid has multiple roles apart from taking care of the body’s metabolism it is responsible to take care of every cell in the body and synthesizes proteins.
How Does it Affect Your Weight?
Thyroid hormones are impacted based on how insulin levels are affected. That said, if the insulin levels increase and lead to insulin resistance, it ends up lowering the thyroid hormone.
Now, if the thyroid is not getting produced as much as it should, it would directly hit on a person’s weight. This condition of the thyroid hormone going down is called hypothyroidism.
c. Estrogen Progesterone and Testosterone
All these are sex hormones, each one having somewhat similar functions and that is monitoring the reproductive aspects of the female body. The fluctuations in these hormones can cause an imbalance in the body and lead to weight gain.
How Does it Affect Your Weight?
There is a hormone named estradiol, it is one form of estrogen. This hormone is responsible to control metabolism and usually, it reduces in women after a certain age causing weight gain.
Progesterone majorly does not affect your weight directly. You indirectly tend to put on weight because a decrease in progesterone levels causes bloating.
Testosterone monitors the libido levels in the body and this decreases during menopause. Apart from this, it is known to help burn fats and if this is disturbed its consequence is no doubt weight gain.
d. Leptin Causes Weight Gain
Leptin is a hormone that lets the body know if it is hungry. When insulin levels rise and thyroid levels go down it makes the body crave for more food and this causes weight gain.
All in all, if all these hormones are produced correctly and they are stable, nothing to worry. However, when any of the above-mentioned hormones get imbalanced and disturbed, they become the causes of weight gain.
How to Balance Hormones For Weight Loss
There are sure ways to treat imbalanced hormones and lose weight quickly. Even if it takes a long time to lose weight, make it a point to start working on ways to fix your weight and stay healthy.
Tip 1: What You “Eat,” Says It All – Reality Cannot Be Concealed!
It is vital to get a little serious with your diet when you know that an imbalance in the hormones has led to weight gain. What you eat will show on your weight and say it all. Thus, take a look at the foods to eat and avoid.
Foods To Eat To Lose Weight
- Eat Protein foods so that it keeps you full to avoid unnecessary cravings
- Eat Fiber foods, this also helps in bringing down the estrogen levels in the body
- Eat Sources of Omega-3fatty acids, one of the best is fatty fish
- Eat whole grains
- Keep your body hydrated with sufficient water and the other healthy drinks
- Add two tsp of apple cider vinegar in water, it helps in keeping the blood glucose levels in control
- Drink warm green tea, it helps in removing all the toxins from your body as well as keeps your skin fresh
Foods To Avoid To Lose Weight
- Avoid eating processed foods
- Do not eat too much sugar, have honey as a substitute, drink juices as they are without adding sugar
- Avoid drinking alcohol
- Avoid eating unhealthy fats
Thus, eating the right food is one way of keeping your hormones balanced and when you can balance your hormones by keeping control on your food, you are good to go, in time you would lose weight.
Tip 2: Do Not Take Your Sleep For Granted – Be A Sleeping Beauty!
Sleep isn’t an exception either. If you do not sleep well it is sure to hit on all your hormones causing cravings and unhealthy eating will lead to weight gain. Besides weight gain you would end up losing memory, risk of heart diseases would increase, you will have digestion problems, your skin would get worse with dark circles surrounding your eyes.
Since you know you are going to have so many problems, you better sleep 7 hours every night. Good sleep keeps you away from carvings and you are healthier.
Tip 3: Keep Your Body Moving – You Are Not Meant To Be Stagnant!
While your hormones are imbalanced it is close to impossible to stay motivated to exercise and be on your toes. Having said, you would have to motivate yourself until you get your body ready to exercise. If you want to get rid of hormonal imbalance once and for all, you will have to devote time to a workout.
You have tons of options on the fitness front. You can cycle, hit the gym, go for a walk, go jogging, learn a new style of dance, use the stairs instead of the elevator. Do anything but ensure to exercise in order to balance your hormones and lose weight.
Having gone through what is hormonal imbalance, what causes hormonal imbalance and what are the different ways to balance the imbalanced hormones to lose weight.
You are now clear with the fact that hormones get disturbed because of our taken for granted attitude towards our health and the solution to balance hormones and lose weight is in the solution alone.
When a woman comes across different phases there is a change in her body mentally and physically. In case her body is not able to make changes the right way or if the woman herself is unable to mentally cope up with changes, it leads to an imbalance in the hormones. These changes are prone to occur in times of the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, childbirth and finally during menopause.
Follow simple tips of eating well, taking enough rest and exercising! No imbalanced hormones would be able to disturb your balanced hormones and cause weight gain.
