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Your hormones impact so many things—from your mood and energy levels to your weight.
Your hormones fluctuate monthly but also throughout the course of your life as you go from puberty to adulthood and then into menopause. Hormones can become imbalanced due to a variety of factors, including perimenopause, menopause, or lifestyle choices.
When you are deficient or dominant in any one hormone, it’s easier to gain weight. This is particularly true for women who are experiencing hormonal imbalances caused by the natural aging process.
If you’re someone struggling with weight loss, you might benefit from understanding your hormone levels and trying these natural ways to balance your hormones.
Understand Your Estrogen Levels
Estrogen is the hormone responsible for the development of female sexual characteristics (breasts and hips). There’s an interesting connection between estrogen and weight gain in menopause.
During menopause, levels of all your hormones tend to decrease, including estrogen and progesterone.
Your doctor may have told you that your estrogen levels are plummeting, which is why it’s confusing to hear that estrogen dominance can cause weight gain in menopause.
While estrogen levels decrease during menopause, if your progesterone levels are decreasing more than your estrogen, you can still have estrogen dominance.
Estrogen dominance is really about the ratio of estrogen to progesterone—if you have too much estrogen compared to your progesterone (no matter how little it is) you can gain weight and store more fat around your middle.
The typical thought process is that menopause is an estrogen deficiency disease.
Basically, your ovaries stop producing it, which is true. But if you’ve been on any hormone replacement or if you have lifestyle habits that expose you to environmental estrogens, then no surprise—you could have estrogen dominance.
Exposure to environmental estrogens, which are estrogen-like chemicals in our environment, can cause issues.
Some of these are things we ingest, like pesticides, hormones in animal products, and plastics—all known as “endocrine disruptors.”
How to balance estrogen for weight loss:
To avoid estrogen dominance, you want to keep a fine balance between your progesterone and estrogen.
Integrative Medicine Doctor Sara Gottfried, M.D., recommends eating a pound of veggies per day, as she states the fiber will help remove any excess estrogen from the body.
Gottfried also recommends that women should aim for 35 to 45 grams of fiber intake per day, increasing their amount slowly so as not to cause stomach upset.
You can also naturally balance estrogen dominance by:
- Reducing your red meat intake
- Eliminating excess sugar or processed foods
- Exercising daily to promote detoxification
Understand Your Cortisol Levels
Cortisol regulates your body’s response to stressful situations.
Unfortunately, we are so inundated with a constant stream of modern stressors, like the need to communicate across a variety of channels, that our bodies are creating a surplus amount of cortisol.
According to lead cardiovascular researchers at the University Medical Center in the Netherlands, having excess cortisol puts you at increased risk of heart disease, and it also causes you to store visceral fat around your internal organs, which often appears as excess belly fat.
Related: 5 Ways To Increase Your Metabolism After 50
How to balance cortisol for weight loss:
Simply put, you need to reset your body’s response to stress.
Gottfried recommends slowly weaning yourself off excessive caffeine or switching from coffee to tea. If tea isn’t your favorite choice. You can also do other things to lower your cortisol levels, such as practicing mindfulness.
This idea may seem vague, but it’s really straightforward: slow down, breathe, and pay attention to what you’re doing.
So often, we get distracted and rush from thing to thing, and this task-switching can significantly raise stress levels.
Instead, try paying attention to one task at a time.
Other ways you can naturally lower your cortisol levels include:
- Meditation
- Taking a magnesium supplement or B vitamin
- Consistently get better, longer sleep
Understand Your Leptin Levels
Leptin is produced by the body’s fat cells, and its primary function is to tell a part of our brain (the hypothalamus) that we’re satiated or full.
Our modern diet is saturated with a type of sugar called fructose, found in many processed foods (everything from pasta sauce to salad dressings).
When too much fructose floods your body, your body stores it as fat. This leads to an excess of leptin; when one has too much leptin, it’s possible to become leptin resistant, meaning your body no longer can tell if you’re full or not—and you keep eating and gaining weight.
PS – do not get this confused with the naturally occurring fructose in sugar.
Natural sugar combined with fiber is used differently in the bloodstream and is generally not a problem. Fruit can (and should) remain part of a healthy diet.
How to balance leptin for weight loss:
A huge component to balancing your leptin levels is getting enough sleep. When you don’t get enough sleep, your leptin levels are lower, and you don’t feel as satisfied after you eat. Harvard studies show that sleep deprivation reduces leptin levels and actually increases your body’s desire for fatty or carbohydrate-rich foods.
If you suspect a leptin imbalance is to blame for your weight gain, make sleep a priority each and every night—we should all be prioritizing sleep anyway for its myriad of health benefits.
But if weight loss is the kick in the pants, you need to start catching more zzz’s, then let that be your motivation.
Other ways to balance your leptin levels include:
- Take an Omega 3 supplement or eat more Omega 3 rich foods such as fatty fish, grass-fed meats, and chia seeds
- Decreasing your fructose intake by eating little to no added sugar
- Exercising regularly
Understanding Your Insulin Levels
Insulin is a hormone created by your pancreas which helps regulate glucose, or blood sugar, in your body. If you’re overweight or storing too much visceral fat around your organs, your body’s glucose regulator (insulin) gets thrown off balance, and you may have a harder time losing weight.
In addition, if you tend to eat sugary foods throughout the day, you keep your insulin working overtime, trying to clear the sugar from your blood.
Insulin stores extra sugar as fat.
How to balance insulin for weight loss:
One small step you can take is to start the day by drinking filtered water with two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. This will help you regulate your blood sugar first thing in the morning.
If apple cider vinegar sounds too harsh for you, ease into it or at least drink 16 oz of water every morning before you eat or drink anything else.
This acts as a natural body flush. (I like to add lemon to my water for added health benefits.)
Other ways to naturally balance your insulin levels include:
- Getting enough protein with every meal
- Eating smaller, healthy meals more often
- Eating low-glycemic carbs (fruits, beans, non-starchy veggies)
- Eliminating added sugars from your diet
Hormone Balancing Summary
The bottom line is this: if you’ve been struggling to lose weight but can’t figure out what you’re doing wrong, your hormones may be to blame.
You can ask your doctor, nutritionist, or chiropractor to test your hormones, as well as use the above information to try different techniques to bring suspected problem hormones back into balance.
It’s your body, and you should know everything you can to not only lose weight but feel happy, healthy, and whole.
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Thanks for this great post – this describes ME!! I have been feeling utterly confounded by the perimenipausal weight gain, feeling I eat well, exercise well (regular yoga, weights, cardio) but growing around the waist! – there’s a few things I can pick up here (more veggies, more sleep!) – but thanks for holding the menopause conversation. Women need so much more information and support on this significant life bracket! Posts on for and against HRT would be great too, it’s so hard to know if it’s a good or a bad thing for bone health etc if you’re not necessarily struggling with overt symptoms.
Thank you for a amazing article, I’m 61 and I’ve had a complete hysterectomy 15 years ago and I lost my complete large colon 12 years ago. I’ve been getting a Estrogen shots for the last 10 years! I’ve tried the patch and medicine but nothing worked. My family Dr suggested the shot and once a month I get it.. I have insomnia, bad skin ( thin skin, tears easily due to no colon) many problems.. After reading your article I’m rethinking everything! Any suggestions?
Hi Kathy – First of all, the majority of our suggestions are based on diet and rethinking what you’re eating. However, the fact that you had an early hysterectomy and removal of your colon, I don’t know how that affects what you are able to eat. Talk to your doctor about whether or not you still need the estrogen shot – that would be your best bet probably. Wish I could be more help! But way to be on top of your health and thinking about what’s best for your body!
Great Post. I am a breast cancer survivor and I am taking tamoxifen ( estrogen blocker) for 5 years. Menopause is tough! I do not sleep through the night and I notice my metabolism has slowed down.Been exercising regularly and that does help. I am going to eat more veggies!! Thanks Chris!
I also read on Wellness MGT corp. website, that it is highly important to balance testosterone level in order to lose weight, especially for men.
My name is Amy. I am 43 years old. My cycles stopped 2.5 years ago on their own. Since they stopped things just haven’t been right with me. I exercise 1-1.5 hours each day, weigh and measure my food and eat not gluten or sugar. I have been able to maintain my weight with the routine I have. The last year has been horrible for me. Bloating, breast swelling and tenderness, depression, no libido to list a few. I have been going to see an herbalist because I didn’t want to be prescribed an anti-depressant and birth control from my ob. They referred me to a doctor for testosterone pellets. The beginning of November 2016 I had 2 pellets inserted and they also put in an estrogen blocker pellet. The first 7 days after the pellets I felt like I had been cured. Then day 8 I bottomed out again and things have been horrible since The pellets are suppose to last 8-12 weeks. Right now I am at the end of the pellets as they have been totally absorbed in my body. Now things are even worse. So with the pellets my testosterone increased to a way to high 743 but my estrogen was blocked until now when my testosterone is all absorbed and the estrogen blocker is too. Now my body is making an abundance of estrogen to make up for when it was blocked This is horrible I just want to give up.
I am in the process of doing urine testing to check my hormone levels and praying that this reveals what is going on and I can get relief and feel like living again.
Please share if you have a similar story and have recovered or any advise/help.
Thank you so much
Hi Amy, I read your post and was in somewhat of a situation myself a while back…I am 48 and a few years back was sick of the weight I had gained, started walking went through have a breast biopsy (no cancer, Thank God) and just felt on an emotional rollercoaster. In Sept-Oct of 2015 I was always feeling bloated, not sleeping well and was just not myself. I was looking for something all natural to help me, a friend of mine introduced me to Thrive. An all natural 3 step nutritional program that has changed my life, my husbands and many of my family. I spoke with a dietician and others who have studies nutrition extensively and trust and love the product and what they have told me. This is just the short version of what I’ve been through but hope it helps in some way. I sleep great again, last year I found another lump, but miraculously it went away, I’m calmer, & healthier than I’ve ever felt! Good luck with everything! I hope you find what works for you.
Hi everyone- I am really happy to find this post too. I have some of the same issues flooding my life with the up down weight gain or loss. I hate it! Just 10 years ago I could practically eat what I enjoy (healthy with few cheats) and not gain weight. I went from 131 to 150. For the last 9 years I weighed a healthy 141 and in one night gained 7 pounds that was not water weight. The weight stayed with me no matter what I tried. Protein diets, calorie diets, hormone docs, hormone pills and creams and more. I made an appointment with a endocrinologist this month. We shall see what happens because I would like to get this uncomfortable weight off. Otherwise I have healthy labs and my docs tell me to go with the flow. That is NOT my style! Talk to y’all soon!!
Hi Kat, this sounds exactly like my me! I can’t lose the weight no matter what I do. Excited to see your results.
Kat I’m going to my OB tomorrow for same issues hoping she will order full blood panel
and get some answers (possible hormone imbalance or thyroid issue is what my signs lean towards). What was your results with endo doctor?
What about progesterone? I am 25 and have recently gone on to the mini pill as my stroke risk is to high for the combined and have experienced crazy hunger, terrible skin and weight gain – combined with much bigger boobs and butt (I don’t really mind that part). How can I balance out this progesterone to stop the side effects??
Hi – Well I’m not familiar enough with the progesterone levels in the mini-pill. I have often heard that the mini pill is progesterone dominant and that would help with weight loss – it’s a natural anti-inflammatory and helps to regulate appetite. But if you are estrogen dominant – that increases your risk of cancer and stroke. So I’m assuming you are getting more progesterone in the mini-pill which should be better for you? But yes – you want to balance the 2 horomones for best results. That being said exercising regularly can help with hormone levels. And if you are looking to increase your progesterone levels for some reason – check out this article: http://youqueen.com/life/health/top-7-natural-ways-to-increase-progesterone/
I know this is a late reply but I have fibromyalgia and I spent $5,400.00 on a personal trainer for over a year and ate what is suggested here/by the trainer and did not lose more than 5 pounds in that year’s time. I kept telling the trainer AND my doctor that its got nothing to do with my diet. I was at 1200 calories. I even cut it down to 800 a day at one point to prove a point to the doctor and ended up fatigued with no energy/no weight loss and then gave up. I stopped the gym, began 1600 calories instead (nothing outrageous mind you, nothing fried) and lost 5 pounds then I added DHEA slowly and went up to 25mg. Then I just added pregnenolone and progesterone. Turns out all those low cal diets and exercise exhausted my Andrenals which are ALSO part of the hormones complex. Best thing to do is to get a hormone test of all of them to see what’s out of whack and then work with someone that knows what supplements to recommend. I supplement now with a high amount of D3, DHEA, pregnenolone, Magnesium Glycinate and progesterone cream daily. Amazing the energy I’ve regained, the food I can eat without gaining (I’m still at the same weight since losing that 5 pounds 5 months ago since going up to 1600 cals), so now so I can begin to go back to exercising and lose the weight I want (I’m 50 lbs over weight). I can even run up and down the office building stairs several times a day whereas I couldn’t before even during my personal training year. And the fibromyaglia pain is not so bad anymore. (I’m age 51 and perimenopause since tubal ligation 6 years ago.)
I have tender beast, dryness, and weight gain. I don’t eat that much and very little sugar and carbs.
Thank you for this conversation – it is so difficult living in a house full of men (husband and two sons) who can eat anything and lose 5 lbs with a trip to the bathroom. Their advice of “oh just eat a little less and move a little more” elicits thoughts of a throat punch. I appreciate your support and honesty of experiences!