Weight Loss and Menopause Hormones Can Help

By New Day Vitality Hormone Center

New Day Vitality Hormone Center

. http://www.newdayvitality.com/

More Complementary & Integrative Healthcare Articles

Weight Loss and Menopause Hormones Can Help

Women ages 40+ face more challenges when trying to lose weight. A woman's shifting hormones impact many weight-related processes, like how food is metabolized, how muscle is created, and how sleep patterns change.

Bioidentical pellet hormone replacement therapy can help relieve the symptoms of menopause to help with your weight loss.

Sex hormones impact sleep and research conclusively links poor sleep and weight gain. Estrogen impacts the human thermostat that's why so many menopausal women suffer from hot flashes and night sweats. These two common symptoms of menopause can wreak havoc on sleep. Another sex hormone, progesterone, which also diminishes through menopause, is considered a sleep-promoting hormone.

Declining estrogen also causes fat to be stored in the belly, not thighs and backsides. This belly fat produces toxins that interfere with insulin metabolism.

By affecting its insulin-signaling role, declining estrogen causes unstable blood sugar. This, in turn, impacts appetite and energy levels critical factors in weight loss. Reducing high-sugar foods, participating in five 30-minute sessions of moderately intense exercise weekly, and increasing muscle-building activities will help offset the effects of hormone loss on your dieting efforts.

It's a physiological fact that muscle burns more calories than fat tissue does. This makes muscle mass a key factor in weight loss. But menopause has an adverse effect on muscle mass. Testosterone (yes, it's found in females) is important in building muscle tissue but decreases as much as 50% between a woman's 20s and 40s. Decreasing estrogen decreases muscle mass, too.

For peri- and postmenopausal women, changing hormones signals a need to shorten exercise sessions. Cortisol, a stress hormone that causes fat storage, is released in larger doses during longer periods of more intense exercise. But, declining estrogen and progesterone can't counteract cortisol's negative impact. However, shorter duration (30 minutes or less) of higher intensity exercise raises the levels of hormones that work with cortisol to burn fat and help promote muscle mass.

Bioidentical hormone replacement can alleviate many symptoms associated with menopause and help fight weight gain. Hormone levels are measured throughout treatment and dosages are tailored to patients' unique needs.