Hormonal Imbalance and Weight Loss

Hormones have a powerful affect on our bodies and play a significant role in metabolism and weight loss.  Metabolism is involved in whether we feel hungry or not, have food cravings, how we deal with stress, how much energy (fat) our bodies need to stash away, our moods, our energy levels and even the health of our hair and skin.  Because of the wide range of influence hormones have on our bodies, hormonal imbalance can have an equally wide range of affects on our health and wellness. This includes having an impact on managing our weight.


Hormones that affect weight loss

The 3 main hormones that affect weight loss are ghrelin, leptin and cortisol.

(1) Ghrelin is the hunger hormone and is produced in the stomach. When we skip a meal, the stomach produces more ghrelin and this causes us to feel more hungry. Many people have found that when they skip breakfast thinking they will save extra calories only to find themselves with ravenous hunger well before lunchtime comes around. This is ghrelin at work.

(2) Leptin has the opposite role. It tells us when to stop eating. This one is our friend when dieting. Unfortunately, as we get older, our bodies build up a leptin resistance and we need to increase our leptin production to counter this resistance. Increasing the amount of omega-3 fatty acids and EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid) in our diets helps to increase leptin production as well as lower our leptin resistance.

(3) Cortisol is released when we are under stress. The stress hormone, cortisol, causes the body to store more energy (fat) and also makes us crave sweet and salty foods. Sweet and salty foods release pleasure chemicals in the brain that help to cope with stress. This double whammy of craving unhealthy foods and storing more of it as belly fat can have a negative impact on our weight loss goals.

Keeping hormonal imbalance in check

With such powerful hormones at work, hormonal imbalance is something that should be considered when it seems like weight loss is stuck in neutral. As experts in the Dr Simeons hCG diet, and having helped thousands of hCG dieters, we have experience with many types of difficult cases. We have formulated many products that can help with hormonal imbalance and managing stress and adrenal fatigue.