Why diet and exercise aren’t enough to achieve your weight loss goals at menopause.
Did you know that about 90 percent of women struggle with their weight during menopause? If you’re like the average woman, you could easily gain 10 to 15 pounds during this time. You may have already realized that cutting calories and exercising more isn’t going to be enough to help you shed those pounds and keep them off. Why? Because menopausal weight gain is a hormonal problem that requires a hormonal solution. For effective, natural, and lasting menopausal weight control, you need to reset your hormones back to the balance you had before menopause.
The most important hormones to control are:
Estrogen : With your reproductive years past, the ovaries will stop producing estrogen. But your body still needs this hormone, and it will look for other ways to produce it. Because fat cells produce estrogen, converting calories to fat becomes a very appealing activity for your estrogen-deprived body. This is one of the main reasons why menopausal women will gain weight at menopause even if they have a healthy diet and exercise plan.
Progesterone : Declining progesterone can cause water retention and bloating. This can make the appearance of weight gain around the midsection even worse.
Thyroid : Many menopausal women are low on thyroid, the hormone responsible for regulating metabolism. It is absolutely essential to control thyroid in order to get your metabolism running at a youthful pace so you can burn more calories.
Testosterone : Testosterone also plays an important role in supporting metabolism. Low testosterone is associated with declining muscle mass. Since muscle burns more calories than fat, the more muscle you lose, the fewer calories your body will need. The extra, unused calories will get stored as fat.
Cortisol : If you have too much of the stress hormone cortisol in your system, your body will go into calorie storage mode. The preferred storage location for these calories? Your midsection.
Insulin : Without healthy insulin levels, you can end up with poor blood sugar control that can cause a sluggish metabolism, pre-diabetes, and weight gain. You’re already at a disadvantage because insulin sensitivity changes with age. But menopause can make matters worse because fluctuations in thyroid and estrogen also affect how cells respond to insulin.
How Renew Youth™ Can Help
With the exception of insulin, which can be controlled with dietary changes, the best way to control the other 5 hormones affecting menopausal weight gain is to start a quality hormone therapy protocol. At Renew Youth™, we offer safe and effective hormone therapy for women based on the latest proven science and research. We can help you bring your hormones back into a healthy range, just like you had when you were younger. Unlike some treatment providers, we don’t just bring your levels to a specific number and then stop. Instead we will adjust your levels of each hormone to find the spot within the healthy range where you feel your best. To learn more, please contact us at 800-859-7511.