Hormonal Weight Gain

Losing weight can be so hard! Losing hormonal weight gain can feel near impossible. I know I have been there. After having my babies my hormones were completely out of wack. It was not until I understood more our my body and hormones that I understood how to lose hormonal weight gain. 

I gained over 50 pounds during my second pregnancy that just would NOT come off. At least not while approaching weight loss the “normal” way.

In this blog post, I am sharing with you the #1 thing that took me from nothing working to losing 50 pounds and keeping the weight off for over 6 years now too!

I fully healed my autoimmune system. Am off all medication and my hormone levels are finally happy healthy hormones again!

Estrogen and Weight Gain

Can estrogen cause weight gain? Changes in these hormones can sometimes result in unexpected and uncontrollable weight gain. A few examples include; estrogen shifts. During menopause, premenopause, or other hormonal changes such as pregnancy or post pregnancy.

A decrease in estrogen is linked to lower muscle mass and increase fat stores for women, usually around the midsection or stomach. This is often referred to as a hormonal belly or the belly pooch. 

For women, the estrogen hormone menopause helps to regulate metabolism and body weight. When estrogen levels lower it may cause weight gain. Throughout a woman’s life, they may notice weight gain around their hips thighs, and abdomen. 

Specific weight gain in these areas is often linked back to hormonal imbalances. Also called hormonal weight gain. 

Some forms of estrogen are linked to how the body controls weight gain. 

Estrogen levels can be lower and women for many reasons. But the most common reason for low estrogen in women is menopause.

 Depending on a woman’s health before entering menopause these estrogen drops can come much earlier. Such as during pregnancy or post pregnancy as mentioned earlier. They can also show up during the premenopausal phase of a woman’s life. 

One reason why people might gain weight around menopause is changing hormone levels. 

Hormonal weight gain in women tends to be around the midsection and abdomen.  This weight gain tends to build up around the organs and is known as visceral fat.

 Visceral fat is very dangerous because it has been linked with several other medical conditions including;

•  Diabetes
•  Stroke
•  heart disease
•  and some cancers

Other reasons for estrogen imbalance

Menopause is not the only reason why a woman might have low estrogen levels. There are other causes of estrogen and balances that include:

• Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) 
• Lactation
• Ovary removal
•  Anorexia
•  Vigorous (over) exercising

What is estrogen?

 Estrogen is one of the two primary female sex hormones and is involved in the onset of puberty and menstrual cycles. It has many other functions as well such as helping control blood cholesterol levels, promoting bone health, and protecting the brain and mood.

 Symptoms of low estrogen include:

•  irregular or missed periods
•  hot flashes
•  night sweats
•  insomnia
•  vaginal dryness
•  low libido
•  moodiness for irritability
•  frequent headaches or migraines
•  dry skin

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms definitely reach out to your primary care physician about your concerns, you can also request a blood panel to test your hormone levels.

How to manage hormonal weight gain 

Maintaining a healthy weight, Even if weight gain is due to estrogen imbalance begins with eating well and staying active.

•  avoiding processed foods
•  eating the right fruits and vegetables each day
•  staying hydrated by drinking a lot of water 
•  avoiding soda, juice, alcohol, and other sugary and processed drinks

Quick Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor. I am an everyday person just like you, who was frustrated and did not want to be on medication my whole life without ever actually fixing the problem. I call my posts I share how I used food as medicine, clean nontoxic living, and modern scientific tools and research to heal my autoimmune system and be free of all medication in hopes that you can find your own healing journey too.

Do you want 30-Days The BEST Weight Loss Exercises at Home Workouts you can do in 10 minutes (free)? Click the link to read that post next!

The Custom Keto Diet Meal Planner

Instead of me listing the laundry list of foods that are hormonal disruptures, including estrogen, right up front let me share the BIG RED EASY BUTTON!

We will skip the two years of trying and nothing working in my journey and just right to what finally did work!

Before you roll your eyes and say, “yeah yeah been there tried that” let me share with you 9 out of 10 people who tell me that fell into one of two categories, some fell into both.

1. They thought they were “doing keto” but when I would dig deeper I quickly found they were doing it wrong. 
2. They quit too soon because they hit what is called the Keto-Flu, or detox phase.

I will admit for the first couple of months even seeing over 30 pounds finally drop off I was not even doing it right. 

When I started keto over 7 years ago the internet and wild popularity of keto were not what we have today.

As promised though to make sure you don’t fall into either of the two traps listed above.

Here is the BIG RED Easy Button.

Low Cortisol Levels and Weight Gain

While high cortisol levels may seem more common in the US, it’s important to be aware of the effects of low cortisol as well.

Chronically elevated cortisol may promote overeating and weight gain, whereas low cortisol may lead to weight loss in some instances.

Cortisol has an intrinsic relationship with the hormone insulin.

Insulin controls our blood sugar. 

When cortisol levels increase the cells in our body can become resistant to insulin. 

This may lead to increases in blood sugar, and weight gain, and often leads to type 2 diabetes. 

Emanating foods (as mentioned above) that are causing hormonal imbalance also known as endocrine-disrupting Foods is step one.

Step two is adding healthy supplements to start aiding your body in the rebalancing of your hormones. 

Hormonal Harmony is essentially a “multi-vitamin” for your hormones. 

It is an all-in-one hormonal Harmony supplement. Because it was formulated by doctors for people with hormonal imbalances. 

It is 100% natural. 

It saves time and not having to pull all of these supplements separately as well as money because buying all of them separately would be double if not triple the price of this one supplement. 

Hormonal Health and Weight Loss

When it comes to losing weight the first thing we must understand is food is either medicine or it is poison. The foods we are eating are either nourishing our bodies or slowly poisoning them. 

In America, we eat what is called the SAD diet, or the Standard American Diet. I am not sure anyone could find a more fitting acronym for US eating habits than SAD. 

Losing weight over 40 gets a bit more tricky than it is at puberty or after pregnancy, hormonal issues, or otherwise. 

Many women in perimenopause and early post-menopause gain fat mass as estrogen levels drop. 

Women of childbearing age tend to store fat in their lower bodies (“pair-shaped”), while both men and women postmenopausal store excess fat in the abdominals (“apple-shaped”). 

Estrogen imbalance around menopause can have big effects on weight gain or the ability to lose weight over 40.

I wish I could cover in a single blog post the magic formula to resetting your hormones to Happy Healthy Hormones. There is a way for me to get 6 or 7 years of research and what I did to heal my autoimmune system naturally using food as medicine and clean nontoxic living into one condensed post. 

Heck, I honestly do not know if I could fit it into one book. 

But I do know that most of us need help and guidance, to know we are not alone, have support, and even accountability. 

After coaching friends and family free for years I started having people ask how much I charge for my one-on-one coaching. 

Funny enough up to this point I did not realize I was “coaching” so many people (lol). I was just excited about the newfound healing and weight loss that I was telling anyone who would listen in hopes it could help them too.

Conclusion

Hormonal health and weight loss go hand in hand. Knowing what foods are healthy for your hormones and which are causing harm to your hormones is key in being able to heal and reset them. 

Your hormones have to return to their healthy ‘factory settings’ before hormonal weight gain will come off for good and stay off. 

Clean eating allows our body to focus on what it needs, not trying to digest foods that are unrecognizable to our bodies as food with so many dyes, chemicals, additives, and so on.

Comment below with any questions you may have and before you go be sure to search “hormones” in the search above. I have SO MANY posts on how I healed my hormones naturally using food and medicine and clean nontoxic living so that you can too!

xoxo,

K’Lee