Are Your Hormones Making You Gain Weight This Is How to Find Out
Are you gaining weight but you don't know why? If you
haven't started midnight snacking or gone from being in the gym daily to
forgoing it for Love Island, then your unexpected (and quite frankly, unfair)
weight gain could be hormonal.
Hormonal weight gain is completely and utterly frustrating,
and often your GP won’t have an answer (it’s difficult to get hormone testing
on the NHS unless you have serious symptoms). So we called on two hormone
experts: Dr.
Sohère Roked and Dr. Fareeha Amber Sadiq, Clinical Director at The Marion Gluck
Clinic
to explain how hormones can cause weight gain, what signs to
look out for and how you can prevent them from breaking up you and your
favourite pair of jeans. Keep scrolling for everything you needed to know about
hormonal weight gain.
Which hormones cause weight gain?
Our hormone profiles (or levels) change throughout our
lifetime, and these changes can cause symptoms in some people. "At the
time of the peri-menopause and/or menopause, women find that they are more
likely to put on weight or experience bloating," explains Dr. Sadiq.
It's not just these broader changes, hormones fluctuate
throughout the month, and if you're unlucky, they can affect your weight.
"In the second half of the cycle, you can get big drops in the hormone
progesterone, which can cause fluid retention and therefore weight
fluctuations," says Dr. Roked.
The following hormones were highlighted by both doctors as
having a bearing on our weight. Dr. Sadiq takes us through them:
Oestrogen: Dominance [of this hormone] can lead to women
putting on more weight around their midriff and hip region.
Cortisol: This hormone is associated with increased
appetite, cravings for sugar, and weight gain around the abdominal region.
Interestingly, how people cope with stress and how they perceive stressful
situations may also impact the reactivity of the adrenal-cortical system to
stress and resulting fat distribution.
Insulin: As we know, this controls our blood sugar. If we
eat too much sugar, this can quickly convert into body fat. Excessive sugar
intake through processed and unhealthy foods, alcohol and even eating too much
fruit can lead to problems with insulin. We call this insulin resistance, where
insulin is unable to work effectively to regulate glucose levels in the blood;
this leads to sugar spikes and weight gain.
Leptin: A clever hormone, leptin tells us that we should
stop eating and that we are full. It also helps to regulate energy balance.
Produced by the body’s fat cells, it targets the hypothalamus gland in the
brain. But if there is excessive consumption of unhealthy foods that contain
sugar (yes, that culprit again!), this can lead to the brain becoming less
sensitive to Leptin, which in turn means that the feeling of satiety is not
experienced, leading to potential weight gain.
What are the telltale signs of hormonal weight gain?
Luckily there are telltale signs that your weight gain could
be hormonal but you need to be honest with yourself.
There are a two important questions for women to ask
themselves, says Dr. Sadiq.
Has your lifestyle and/or diet changed?
Are on any medication which may lead to weight changes?
"It is important for women to have their thyroid
checked, as having an underactive thyroid can lead to increases in
weight," adds Dr. Sadiq.
If alongside your weight gain you've noticed:
low mood,
increased hair growth,
low energy
irregular periods
Then Dr. Roked says this may warrant investigation.
It's also worth noting that where you gain the weight could
be a telltale sign that it's hormone-related. "Central abdominal fat
around the middle and the back can quite often be due to hormones," says
Dr. Roked.
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