Are Your Hormones Affecting Your Weight?
Balancing your hormones can make weight loss more efficient, improve your mood, and aid in motivation to make healthy choices!
Women are defined by their hormones from the time they are young, with familiar words like adolescent, childbearing years, PMS, postpartum, peri-menopausal and menopausal. So why are women met with denial or looks of confusion when asking health care professionals about how hormones affect weight? A closer look at the way hormones affect behavior, followed by how they can affect the body physically, shows that they have a great impact on a woman’s’ weight as well as her motivation, willpower and energy to follow a healthy lifestyle.
There are two ways hormones affect weight. First, they affect the way a woman feels, emotionally and physically, which then affects one’s actions. Let’s face it, the easiest time to go off a diet is during PMS or the mood swings that precede a menstrual cycle. In addition, an aversion to exercise may be due to low energy, lack of sleep or dwindling motivation, all of which are connected to how a woman feels during different times of the month depending on hormonal swings. If we “did well” all week by exercising and eating healthy foods, only to then binge on a gallon of ice cream due to an emotional issue connected to hormones, weight loss efforts are stalled and a poor mood can result. With all this in mind, it is easy to see how imbalances in hormones can cause us to feel depressed, lethargic, irritable, anxiety-ridden or unmotivated.
The second way hormones affect weight is basic physiology. A woman’s levels of the hormone progesterone can get out of balance with the hormone estrogen. As the primary female sex hormones, each of these hormones is necessary and each has important functions in the body. In relation to weight, estrogen causes the body to retain fat and fluid while progesterone is a natural diuretic and fat burner. When the two hormones are out of balance “estrogen dominance” results. This imbalance, which is extremely common in almost all women, can contribute to symptoms associated with PMS, weight gain, and may even contribute to female related cancers.
The delicate balance of estrogen and progesterone in a woman’s body commonly fluctuates as a result of today’s fast-paced, sedentary, society. Excess stress causes the body to produce more of the stress hormone cortisol to buffer our bodies from stress. As stress becomes chronic, the body will run out of “reserves” to make the cortisol, so it must “steal” reserves from elsewhere. The easiest place to steal from is the progesterone level, thus lowering progesterone levels and causing estrogen dominance. This can occur even when levels of estrogen are not considered high, but the reserves of progesterone are now lower. This is because a woman has less progesterone to oppose the estrogen or balance it out. As was noted earlier, this imbalance can have adverse effects on weight, diet, lifestyle and habits.
A woman who is overweight is usually estrogen dominant because fat cells tend to produce their own estrogen. This condition also worsens with age through the natural aging process.
An imbalance of hormones may cause: PMS, Menopausal Symptoms, Mood Swings, Weight Gain, Fluid Retention, Depression, Anxiety, Food Cravings, Insomnia, Bloating, Irritability, Headaches, Low Energy, Lack of Libido, Endometriosis and Hot Flashes.
Healthy Inspirations offers a women’s weight loss and lifestyle program as well as a line of all natural hormone creams to help women achieve and maintain a healthy, balanced lifestyle. This holistic approach has been successful in helping women around the world achieve their ideal weight through a combination of nutrition programs, exercise, relaxation therapy and personal coaching. Hormone therapy combined with diet and exercise will help promote healthy weight loss.
A diet that keeps blood sugar balanced will result in more sustained energy throughout the day and keep insulin in check so fat can be burned more efficiently.
An exercise program that includes both cardiovascular and strength training dispels excess cortisol from the stress of the day, aids in circulation and strengthens the heart while building muscle and losing excess weight.
Stress management is essential because lowering stress and the need to produce the stress hormone cortisol preserves progesterone and keeps hormones balanced.
These three elements of a lifestyle program are the foundation, but women may already have imbalances (see symptoms above) and therefore do not have the energy, willpower or motivation to begin or continue these healthy habits. Supplementing healthy habits with natural hormones and hormone precursors (meaning the body uses them to make hormones) will help the body rebalance.
In conjunction with hormone expert, Joseph Beldonza C.C.N., Healthy Inspirations created a program element of hormone therapy to provide a safe, easy and natural solution to hormonally based weight issues. The hormone products offered by Healthy Inspirations Centers are all natural creams that utilize many phyto (plant) sources that act as hormonal precursors. This means that the body will use the raw materials in the cream product to make its’ own hormones and re-balance itself. There are two different products being offered; Adrenal Cream and Female Support Cream. The products come in a pump form that squirts out a single dosage, which is then rubbed into thinned skinned tissue on the body 1-2 times a day as is necessary according to one’s symptom level.
The creams supply the body with all natural raw materials so that the user’s body can create its’ own needed hormones that will bring it back into balance. Only the purest and highest quality ingredients are used in the creams. Because there is still no real evidence about the safeness of natural estrogens, there are no estrogens in these creams. Because natural progesterone has been proven to be safe long –term, it is the main ingredient in the Female Support Cream.
The ingredients in these creams are water soluble and are cleared by the body in 18-24 hours when any excess cannot be used for the day. Cheaper creams do not use a base that is truly trans-dermal and the ingredients can tend to build up in the system over time (like fat soluble vitamins like A, D, and E can do if you take too much of them) and this can cause toxicity and further imbalances. Because of this it is unnecessary to have a woman’s hormone levels tested prior to using the creams. If someone wants to have their hormone levels tested that is fine, it just isn’t “necessary.”
The creams use a liposome delivery system, which means they work in a trans-dermal way similar to the patch for smoking cessation. Therefore when applied, the creams enter the blood stream and are time released. Because they go right into the blood stream and bypass the liver, they work better with less stress on the liver.
If you believe your hormones are out of balance, the next step is to visit or call your local Healthy Inspirations Center. A Center locator can be found on the website www.healthyinspirations.us. Contact your Center to receive a quick, two-minute questionnaire to determine if your hormones are imbalanced and, if so, how out of balance are they. The categories are very mild, mild or severe. Once the level of imbalance is determined, you can purchase the cream or creams that suit your symptoms. Next, you will be given a specific protocol for usage, along with all the information and materials that detail the simple application process and timing. Finally you will begin to use the product and begin enjoying the joys of living with balanced hormones.
