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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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Thank you so much for this useful information . especially it is for women
There’s no special “maintenance phase.” When dieters’ weight reaches a plateau, they keep on eating in the same way they did when they were actively losing weight. Whatever changes dieters make in their eating, they make permanently.
Hi. Thank you for this article.
I am definitely in menopause now. I’m 48 and really have gone through a lot even in perimenopause. It seems to me that I have gotten one symptom That usually lasts about a year only to move on to the next. Hot flashes were absolutely horrible for about 5 years yet at the time it was basically the only symptom. THEN the HORRIFIC stomach issues. For about two and a half years. There’s a lot more but I’m just so miserably sad and everything now I just need help.
I started on 10% Progesterone cream months ago. I mean 400 mg’s a day split into two doses. While my MIND feels much better my weight Is up by FIFTEEN POUNDS. I cannot get it Off me no Matter what I do. I was SUPER SKINNY yet within range for my very short self for ESPECIALLY the years leading up to full menopause
I mean I may have had lots of terrible hot flashes BUT I WAS HAPPY with my weight for a Very Long time. Haven’t changed a thing. But obviously my BODY has. I HATE this SO MUCH that I’m not sure anyone understands how depressed and completely miserable I am. I NEVER leave my house EVER.
Too embarrassed. The Progesterone cream as stated works great on my Feelings but that’s it. I would much rather be my thin self again than deal with this hideous self I now am. I am MISERABLE.
I AM BEGGING anyone to PLEASE HELP me.
I cannot ask hubs for more money to do that expensive testing. I just know that SOMETHING is STILL NOT RIGHT.
Please HELP. Do I need other biodentical hormones? Like DIM Or otherwise. I PRAY someone can HELP ME FAST. I’m really more than upset. I am just at the end of my rope. Now drinking a lot also. I cannot LOOK LIKE THIS AND SURVIVE. Sorry I sound so ridiculous but for me if I cannot look as I know I CAN I would much rather not even exist. Not to sound suicidal or anything. Just I’m BEGGING for Help about what I need TO LOSE WEIGHT. AND FAST.
THANK YOU FOR ANY HELP.
Hi Ann – I am so sorry to hear that you’re struggling so much. The first thing I want to say to you is that menopause sucks. Every woman who experiences it deals with horrible symptoms from weight gain to hot flashed to mood changes and more. So you’re not alone! However, it seems that a lot of your symptoms are pretty severe – my only recommendation I can give you is to visit your doctor is you haven’t already and really try to be honest about what you’re going through and allow them to help as best they can. Finally – feeling overweight is so hard and can be such a struggle for us women, especially. Try to give yourself a little break and show yourself some love – we all are beautiful no matter what the scale says. Keep eating well, exercising and talk to your doctor. Good luck and I wish I could give you a virtual hug!
I do all that you say to do. I am also taking bio-identical hormones. I exercise, don’t eat sweets. Keto diet. Half my portions and cannot lose weight. If I cheat at all, just a little, I gain 4 to 5 lbs in a day.
Sad in menopause:
From: Finally found the answer to how to lose weight during menopause
I am 50 years old. I am taking hormone pellets estradiol, testosterone, and sublingual progesterone for 2 1/2 yrs. I slowly started losing weight. I started to read, read, read everything. It wasn’t until I got extremely serious about losing weight that I had success. I started the Slow Carb diet by Tim Ferris 3 1/2 weeks ago. I have folllowed it with no slip ups. I have lost 8 lbs and 7 inches, 5 from my waist. The book is called the 4 Hour Body. Most of my weight is in my stomach area which I hate. My stomach is getting flatter which feels awesome. I walk 2 1/2 to 3 miles a day or ride my bike 5 miles. I also workout with kettlebells and a exercise ball for abs. Kettlebell is all you really need to get started for weight training. It really is amazing. Simple, inexpensive and very easy. I couldn’t lose a pound and I felt horrible and I am athletic and I wanted to look good in a bathing suit. We moved from Ohio to Florida and I just didn’t want to look like a fat person at the beach. I have my confidence back that I can lose this nasty weight and get back to my slim self. Good luck in you weight loss journey you can have success for sure!
Not to sound like a debbie-downer but I have not found any doctor who understands what is happening to me/us. I am 54 and have gained almost 30 pounds in 2-3 years. At some point I was diagnosed with glucose intolerance – but there is no magic pill for that. I will never understand how a lack of hormones can make you gain weight, but when you begin HRT, you still gain weight. Cruel. What is interesting is when I was younger (prior to all my hormones kicking in), I had what I would call a weight problem. But after adolescence, my body leveled out and I was 103 when I got married (age 24). I have to believe my weight gain is hormone related mostly. I’ve also recently tried Contrave – which made my migraine meds ineffective – something I cannot live with. I want to try Servital, however, I take Melantonin to sleep and you are not supposed to have anything on your stomach 2 hours before and 2 hours after (very difficult). I am also not quite Type 2 diabetic so those meds are out. Just keep gaining weight – even with calorie, sugar restrictions and exercise. CAN SOMEBODY figure this out?!
This article gives me hope. I’m 35 and have been in menopause for almost 10 years. At first I thought it was great, one less thing to worry about, until I discovered I have to start taking care of my bones. So I started on HRT about 6 months ago, and in that time I gained 20 lbs. So I’ve taken myself off the Premarin and Provera, until I slim down again. Maybe I should ask for bioidentical hormones? Ugh, it’s been a struggle, but I’m going to try these tips until I start feeling like the version of myself I know again.
I feel like the lady Ann Onny.
First of all Ann I want to say, I am so
Very sorry to hear all you r going through. 🙁
I feel the same way, if I can’t be the small size I have known most my life, I feel like I don’t want to exist.
I am not suicidal, it’s just really horrible feeling this way. 🙁
I feel trapped in this body, in this life & it’s not ” me ” anymore, the ” me ” I used to know.
I am in my 40’s my hormones r in a mess. I just found out my estrogen is low. I take depression pills that say can cause enlargement of breast, changes in periods, & can cause diabetes. It did all these things.
I was close to 105 lbs even lower at times, most of my life, I am a short
5″2. The weight I have gained a lot of weight on my breasts & a lot on my stomache is disgusting. I have a huge double chin, my face looks disfigured to me, I don’t look like me anymore.
I hate it, I am embarrassed of it.
I was a shapely healthy happy
” B ” cup, now I am a sad depressed embarrassed ” DDD “, yes
triple DDD, it makes me so so sad & concious, I hate it. I have a big very noticeable gut, where there once were shapely abs.
I became diabetic later in life, which is very quite possibly a possible side effect of pills I am taking. ( it is listed as a side effect )
I have a very compromised immune system, multiple types of chronic pain, I have some injuries from accidents. I just want some women that I can relate to. My diet I have an extremely limited diet, due to food sensitivities & I actually go in spasms, very painful,
after eating certain foods.
I have painful spasms with both my bladder & my bowel.
Anyone feel free to write, so I don’t feel so alone.
Hi Lynn – I’ll repeat to you what I said to Ann. I am so sorry to hear of your struggles. But please know you are NOT alone. Menopause and the weight/pain/ailments that come with aging suck. I’d really encourage you to speak with your doctor or a registered dietitian to see what might help you. I hope you can find some ways to improve and alleviate your symptoms. Try to be positive with yourself and know that no matter what’s going on with your body, you are valuable and deserve love! I am sending my best wishes and a hug to you!
I share the same exact story as Lynn, and many of the others who found this article. I have been working with a local DR. who put me on HRT (pellets) and I gained another 15-20 lbs all around my mid section and breasts. I can’t tolerate this weight gain, she tells me I will lose it, but I’m not hopeful anymore.
I am struggling so much. I hit menopause at 41 and I knew what it was but it took me 2 years to find a dr. who would at least agree to test my hormones. I had gained 50 lbs in a short period of time. I am a personal trainer and fitness fanatic, working out 6 days a week, logging all my food and to gain weight like that and now I can’t lose it. All the doctors kept referring me to dieticians. So when I finally found one who tested me and confirmed I am menopausal was a relief. I have been on bioidentical hormones for 2 weeks bu still gaining weight. My normal body weight is 160 (because I have lot of muscle) and I am at 218! I hardly go out of the house anymore .. I still workout. I just dont know what to do. Any suggestions?? I am at a loss.