Hormone Replacement Therapy- Can Help You Lose Weight
Weight loss becomes much more difficult as you get older. No matter how much you diet and exercise, the scale refuses to budge. This can be extremely frustrating, but it’s important to know that it’s not your fault. Your hormones are to blame. More specifically, a hormone imbalance has affected the way that your body regulates your weight. But you don’t have to bear this heavy burden once you realize that losing weight begins by gaining hormones.
Hormones are responsible for the way your body functions, but your hormone levels naturally decline with age. Research shows that growth hormone production decreases at age 30, while women start to lose estrogen and men lose testosterone in their 40s. This is followed by a drop in progesterone, DHEA, parathyroid hormone, and calcitonin. Without the right balance of hormones, your body loses the ability to regulate the processes that lead to weight loss. This results in a slower metabolism, an increase in abdominal fat, and less energy for exercise.
Fortunately, through hormone replacement therapy, you can reverse your hormone imbalance and restore your ability to lose weight by simply replenishing the hormones you’ve lost. But not all hormones are created equal, so medical experts recommend selecting a hormone replacement therapy that uses bio-identical hormones rather than synthetic ones. Bio-identical hormones are preferred because they’re tailored to have the same molecular structure and biological effect as the hormones produced by your body. Research shows that bioidentical hormones may be safer and rarely cause side effects.
Once you realize how various bio-identical hormones affect the way your body regulates your weight, you can understand why you need ample amounts of them. When added to a healthy diet and proper exercise, these hormones can help you take off the weight:
- Testosterone: This sex hormone produced by both men and women inhibits fat storage, especially in the abdomen. Low levels cause sugar cravings and may lead to insulin resistance.
- Estrone: This form of estrogen helps women control their appetite and sugar cravings.
- Progesterone: This sex hormone facilitates the conversion of stored body fat to energy. It is often used in HRT for women since an imbalance of progesterone causes women to overeat.
- DHEA: A hormone that promotes weight loss by increasing the body’s metabolism, preventing fat storage and decreasing the appetite for dietary fats.
- Human Growth Hormone (HGH): This hormone is needed to convert body fat into muscle mass. It also inhibits the production of body fat and decreases visceral and subcutaneous fats.
- Insulin: In addition to regulating fat metabolism, this hormone causes glucose absorption in the liver, muscles and fat tissues.
- Incretin: This hormone helps ensure an appropriate insulin response after eating by preventing elevated glucagon levels, producing a sense of fullness, curbing food intake, and slowing the rate of gastric emptying.
- Pregnenolone: A powerful hormone that appears to regulate other hormones to prevent abdominal fat storage and stress caused by cortisol, keep metabolism high, improve brain function and memory, and provide rejuvenating effects.
By replenishing your ideal amounts of these hormones through bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, you can get your hormones back in balance and your weight loss back on track.
