Why “diet and exercise” is a fat loss myth for many women – are you one of them?
Welcome back!
I bet you have been on the “diet and exercise” merry go round more than once. And have had terrible problems where you eat like a bird, exercise like a caveman, and still can’t budge the scales.
There is a real chance it’s not your fault!
Let me explain…
Recent research has discovered that about 50% women who are peri and post menopausal are estrogen dominant to some degree.
This is a natural outcome of the cessation of a major progesterone spike when ovulating.
When progesterone production stops, then testosterone plunges too.
So what does it mean to you and why does it stop you from burning fat and thus “losing weight”?
First we must understand what each of the three hormones does.
Estrogen is a group of steroidal hormones that prepare the body for a baby. They make the endometrium thicker in preparation for the arrival of a fertilised egg.
They the womb stronger, and prepare the breasts for milk production and stimulate the fat cells to store more fat as an energy reservoir for milk production.
Excess estrogen also affects the neurons in the brain and hence mood. Plus they dilate blood vessels too causing flushes and headaches.
The day before the egg is released estrogens are at peak levels. Progesterone is essentially non existent during this phase.
When the egg (or eggs) are released, there is a large amount of progesterone made and it counteracts the growth activities of the estrogens. If there is no pregnancy, both hormone levels fall abruptly until a period occurs, and the cycle occurs all over again.
Progesterone is a growth modulator or controller. It is there to counteract the undesirable growth affects of estrogen. It helps control flushes, stops hormone based headaches, helps burn fat for energy, acts as an antidepressant and controls over growth conditions in the breast and womb.
Regular ovulation, and hence progesterone production can cease up to 10 years before cessation of periods (menopause)! Many women think they are ovulating just because they are having periods but this often isn’t the case.
Starting to see a connection here? No ovulation = no progesterone = no control of excess growth caused by estrogens.
As well women make testosterone at about a third of the rate seen in age same males. Testosterone is essential for bone growth, fat burning, libido and energy stimulation.
Progesterone production in women helps to make testosterone, and its brothers ASD and DHT.
Overweight and normal weight people can convert testosterone into estrogen in fat cells. This occurs in the presence of an enzyme called aromatase. So in fact estrogen levels in both men and women can climb as a result of this conversion.
What is so bad about estrogen dominance?
Maybe you can relate to the following…
- Weight gain that resists “diet and exercise”
- Hot flushes plus insomnia
- Clouded thinking
- Fatigue and depression
- Low or non existent libido
- Breast tenderness with headaches
- Mood swings and anxiety
And it gets worse.
Fat cells can also make estrogen.
Which causes more fat to be deposited (remember the body is storing energy for milk production).
Which causes more estrogen production. And the cycle repeats because the modifying progesterone is no longer made in the body in the quantities required to control the growth promoting estrogen.
There is also a complex interaction between estrogen and thyroid hormone.
And estrogen and insulin. And estrogen and cortisol, the main stress hormone
Too much estrogen causes thyroid hormone binding i.e. there is not enough freely available hormone to do it’s job so hypothyroidism becomes another problem (weight gain and loss of energy).
Too much insulin causes estrogen receptors in the body to become more active. So eating too many sugary foods (which stimulate more insulin production) will add to estrogen dominance. Diabetes can result.
Estrogen is linked to the stress hormone cortisol, which also causes fat to deposit, and helps create male hormones which are then converted into more estrogen.
If you stop and think about it this all makes sense. And you can now see the connection between weight loss failure despite “diet and exercise”.
So how can you solve this problem?
In my next article on the subject I will give you some more problems caused by estrogen dominance and the possible solutions.
Live long. Live well.
Rick Rakauskas