Why, how and when ovarian hormones influence they weight?Dr. David Elia, gynecologist and author of the book "And if it was hormones? Being thin at all ages," gives us a panorama of the action of sex hormones.
Two hormones: estrogen and progesterone
Estrogens produce fat
Events hormonal puberty to menopause
Weight gain: a key hormone
Two hormones:
estrogen and progesterone Ovarian hormones influence the lives of women from puberty until the end of his life. These are estrogen and progesterone.
Estrogens are made between puberty and menopause, early life until the end of the cycle.
Progesterone, it is made of ovulation until the end of the cycle. Thus, if there is no ovulation, there is no progesterone.
Estrogens produce fat
Estrogens are hormones of femininity. They work throughout the body and have multiple properties (mammary gland, endometrium, bone protection, skin, etc..).
On weight, estrogen has a double action. They are involved in the production of fat and help water retention. These two mechanisms, they can induce weight gain when secreted in large quantities by the ovaries or when they are not offset by progesterone.
Note that the fat tissue is essential for the female body, it represents 25% of body weight. This fat is an energy reserve (1 pound of fat is 9000 calories) required the primary mission of the female body in relation to this case, which is to make babies and feed them. Fat is essential for reproduction and hormones are estrogens, among others, whose mission is to stimulate production. And this fat is stored in the thighs and buttocks.
Events hormonal puberty to menopause
The next step is that of contraception. If the dosage of the pill containing progesterone and estrogen is too high, there is a weight gain. To limit this drawback, now directs women who gain weight to a low dose of estrogen pill.
Then there's the famous estrogen hormones during pregnancy, which are made astronomical amount by the ovaries in early pregnancy, followed by the placenta to the third month of pregnancy. These hormones play a role, that is to say accumulate pounds of fat in order to "pay" pregnancy, which costs 80,000 calories. This fat is used primarily during the third quarter, when the baby grows the most. Energy is stored in principle prior to or during the first months of pregnancy.
Breastfeeding also expensive energy. Moreover, long-term breastfeeding is the only way that we have found to melt fat, also known as cellulite. It is clear that women do not breastfeed two years, for example, just to lose weight, but I said this to show what is this fat and explain that apart from that, it is so entrenched or surgically.
Anyway, with the fluctuation of hormones (estrogen oblige!), Women end up accumulating month after month a little water and a little fat, and thus gain weight.
Then we arrive at the peri-menopause (the period of 3 to 5 years before menopause) where there estrogen hormones are produced very irregularly. Women will then undergo the hazards of inadequate estrogen with hot flashes or those of excess estrogen resulting in water retention and fat surplus.
And finally menopause. In the absence of hormone replacement therapy for menopause, estrogen hormones having no effect on the production of fat, the body turns and masculinizes.
The fat was in the lower body decreases (thinner thighs, buttocks and breasts than smaller), while it increases above, especially in the abdomen.
Weight gain: a key hormone
So an overview of the action of estrogen hormones on the female body. However, this does not always happen.
Physical exertion can change things like diet. Genetics also plays an important role (family obesity, etc.).. It is therefore to solve weight problems, a key food key (energy expended), sports, genetics, etc.., But these data are already well known.
However, nobody has yet really considered the key hormone. Why? Because nutritionists are concerned only dish of the sports medicine as sports and gynecology, in general, do not care to find concrete solutions to their overweight patient most often they lead to their colleagues nutritionists.
So there is an impasse for women. Or, you can very effectively manage every stage to life-pouring hormonal weight gain, for example through treatments that must be carefully chosen.
There is a varied hormonal armamentarium to offer when the involvement of hormones is indisputable in weight gain.
Women need to know that this type of strategy is as accurate knowledge by the physician hormonal phenomena involved often lead to significant results.