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In this article, Dr. Sarah Gottfried, hormone expert and MD from Harvard University, explains how hormonal imbalances are preventing you from losing weight.
When interacting with patients in my practice and online community, I constantly come across the same comments. Basically they are:
- I follow all the rules, but I just can't lose weight.
- I am getting older and my metabolism is slowing down. It's genetics. It's getting harder and harder for me to lose weight.
- The last 5 kg will not go away! Looks like I'll have to deal with it.
- There are some foods that are very difficult for me to refuse, although I am well aware of their harm.
- Can you prescribe me some medicine for weight loss?
- I have tried everything to lose weight. Maybe I should just accept myself as fat as I am and finally throw away the things I don't get wet in anymore.
- One-size-fits-all activities and dietary recommendations that work for everyone don't work for me.
- I threw off 2 kilos, and then gained 5. It's just awful!
Are you familiar with such complaints? If yes, then you probably do not know one secret: the reason why you are struggling with your weight so unsuccessfully is a hormonal imbalance.
As a certified gynecologist and a woman in one person, I perfectly understand the suffering that every woman experiences due to weight gain. I used to be fat myself. So I had to apply my medical knowledge on myself to get rid of extra kilos. And now I'm ready to share my knowledge with you.
We contain a huge amount of hormones, but there are only 4, specific to the female sex, the failure of which makes it impossible to lose weight.
Weight Loss Blocker #1: Estrogen imbalance.
Estrogen is a female hormone that gives a woman breasts and thighs, and is also responsible for interarticular fluid. Men also have this, but in much smaller quantities.
However, for people of both sexes, there is a threat of an overabundance of estrogen. Moreover, estrogen continues to be produced in the ovaries even after menopause.
If you have low testosterone levels, then the concentration of estrogen is almost certainly higher than normal.
Estrogen, like other hormones, is responsible for your response to food, drink, and other supplements. Because of it, women, unlike men, it becomes more difficult to lose weight with age.
What to do : To lower estrogen levels (and get rid of excess weight), I recommend eating about 0.5 kg of vegetables per day. Vegetable fibers will help flush out estrogen so it doesn't circulate in your body like bad karma.
Plus, vegetables will push meat out of your diet a bit. This is important for two reasons: first, the massive demand for meat is leading to irreversible climate change; second, the rapid changes in industrial agriculture and cultural development over the past century have outstripped the development of our genes' ability to adapt. Simply put, our DNA has yet to adapt to modern meat, and eating red meat can lead to an excess of estrogen.
I'm not saying you should cut out meat altogether, but there are strong arguments for limiting your intake. The paleo diet is beneficial for some (not all) women, but it produces much better results for men.
So far, there are no reliable studies for or against meat. Unfortunately, we don't have scientific evidence to show that eating meat is healthier than plant-based protein, seafood, and poultry.
Weight Loss Blocker #2: Excess Insulin.
It is known that every second American suffers from some form of diabetes, which is accompanied by obesity. When you are overweight, or overweight at normal weight, your insulin levels are disrupted and your body's cells become insensitive to the hormone.
As a result, the glucose regulator is disrupted, blood sugar begins to jump up and down, and fat accumulates.
What to do : There are many ways to eliminate insulin, but my personal recommendation is to drink filtered water with two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. A 2004 study found that drinking 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before a high-carb meal significantly reduced blood glucose levels in people with insulin resistance.
Of course, there are many more ways to eliminate insulin - you know about giving up sugar and artificial sweeteners. Remember that if you have a metabolic disorder, this is the first sign of problems with insulin.
Weight loss blocker #3: Excess cortisol.
Cortisol is produced in response to stressful situations, but most of us experience stress all the time. I have written about this problem in detail in my books because I believe that it is the main reason why women struggle with their bulges. When it comes to hormonal imbalances and weight gain, all roads lead to cortisol.
In theory, most of us know that excess cortisol damages our self-esteem and sense of reality, but theory sometimes diverges from practice. If your body is constantly experiencing the full gamut of stress hormones, it has to accumulate fat reserves. And most likely, they will be on the stomach.
High cortisol levels also lead to addiction to food in general and to sugar in particular. You begin to abuse cookies and convenience foods. As a result, pure fat is formed. And it is deposited in all parts of the body.
What to do : To reset your cortisol levels, you need to stop your caffeine intake. Stay away from coffee for at least a week and you will notice that you sleep better. And in general, they became calmer.
If giving up caffeine completely is an impossible task for you, at first try replacing coffee with green tea. It also contains caffeine. Then, if necessary, you can switch to white tea, and then refuse it.
Replace tea with hot water with lemon and a pinch of cayenne pepper. At
Consuming one or two of these cups in the morning will stimulate the digestive tract, make your stools regular, which in turn will help eliminate toxic hormones.
I know many more ways to regulate cortisol levels, but removing caffeine from your diet is definitely the first thing to do.
Weight loss blocker #4: lack of adiponectin.
Adiponectin is one of the key hormones that tells your body to burn fat. Encoded by the ADIPOQ gene and secreted by fat cells, it is needed to regulate glucose levels and the breakdown of fatty acids.
Some people have a genetic tendency to produce less of this miraculous hormone, and unfortunately this causes our body to store fat.
When it comes to resisting weight loss, our brain plays an important role. There is a secret communication between adipose tissue and the central nervous system, and adiponectin is one of the chemical messengers in this circuit. It regulates inflammatory and oxidative processes that contribute to weight gain.
What to Do : To even out adiponectin levels, I recommend eating pistachios. And actually, this is fantastic: one product affects the concentration of the hormone in the body as a whole!
A study in which 60 people with metabolic syndrome took part showed that if people with low blood levels of adiponectin were fed pistachios, their levels increased.
Plus, improvements were seen in waist circumference, fasting blood sugar, total cholesterol, LDL (so-called "bad cholesterol"), and high C-reactive protein sensitivity.
What else raises adiponectin levels? Intermittent fasting.
The simplest effective way of such a hunger strike is not to eat at night. For men, the minimum effective fasting time is 16 hours, and for women it is 18. This means that if you last ate at 18:00, the next meal for men should be at 10:00, and for women at noon.
In addition to pistachios, you can eat foods with monosaturated fats, such as avocados and dark chocolate.
Also, don't forget about exercise.
Let's summarize all of the above.
When I struggled with weight every morning, obsessed with the number on the bathroom scale, I tried to figure out how to get out of this hormonal chaos. As I gradually mastered the regulation of each of these hormones, this chaos became my meaning.
Now my most cherished desire is that you, too, feel the strength in yourself and be able to listen to your body. And, of course, draw the right conclusions about what kind of food and what kind of lifestyle will bring you the best benefits.
Understanding that stable weight loss is only possible with a stable hormonal background has helped many of my patients learn to control their weight.
You can talk endlessly about women and their excess weight. It's about power over yourself and the ability to start all over again.
Amazing things can happen when you feel energy, strength and oneness with your body.
You will no longer feel flabby, irritable, short-tempered and nervous, you will no longer feel guilt and hatred for your body.
You will finally be able to fully focus on your most cherished dreams and hopes, on your life plans. You will be able to understand what helps you feel active and truly Alive.