HELP! Anyone know anything about hormone imbalance and weight loss??

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  • ronjsteele1
    ronjsteele1 Posts: 1,064 Member
    One more hormone thought. Get a full thyroid panel done. Don't just let a doctor do a TSH. You need at least your free t3 and free t4 done as well. Your frees should be in the upper 2/3 of the range and your tsh should be between .5 and 1.5. If those numbers are off you will have a harder time losing weight. Perimenopause also changed my thyroid. When my armour is not optimal, I can literally gain 20#'s in a month. When you see a doc again, have them check thyroid too.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    First of all congrats fellow survivor!

    I know this is not what you want to hear, but you are not in a caloric deficit. You can get BMR/REE tested if can budget this. There are services available that do this or you can check out local universities with metabolic labs. If you contact the grad department you may be able to find someone conducting research and may use you as a test subject. From clinical observations there is only a ~5% change in REE.

    I see a lot of similar issues related to hypothyroidism. The issue with weight and hormones is problematic as it is nearly impossible to maintain any sort of balance while overweight. Hormones are free cycling and will have greater difficulty finding their receptor sites simply due to the increase in tissue.
  • waterjcky43
    waterjcky43 Posts: 1 Member
    edited February 2017
    Hello....my battle is similar, however, I am a little older, well a lot older ;) (50). I had a hysterectomy at about 40, and did well with my weight until about 3 years ago. The nightmare was steady weight gain during exercise (cardio and weights) and eating torture. Stress is a HUGE part of the barrier to weight loss for mine and others with similar symptoms, it is so hard to relieve stress in these hormonal times. My journey has been filled with numerous changes, adjustments and flavor of the month advice and lots of screaming and tears. I had moved away from a doctor (4 years ago) with whom I trusted and who is empathetic and provides solid health guidance, he is also a tri-athlete. I got back in touch with him and he recently has suggested an overhaul in my nutrition & exercise profile, I am in my 3rd day, so nothing to really report yet, but the food advice is simple, determine my maintenance calories and reduce my maintenance by about 3000 calories per week (eat well no junk, a treat on occasion is reality and ok). For me, he is changing me to 90% cardio. Why is he having me do this? I need to burn fat, building muscle will help increase my metabolism some, but also will put on weight. Also, doing the labs again. So, this is my new start, hopefully, sharing my info helps! Keep at it, you will find the combination that works for you! If you like, I will report back on my journey!
  • Jess830409
    Jess830409 Posts: 285 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    I am perimenopausal and I also have a metabolic disorder. while weight loss for me is slower, I still lose weight.I would talk to your doctors and maybe get a second opinion and see if maybe a change in meds would make a difference as well(if you currently take any). also the less you have to lose the slower it is going to be. I have 22lbs to lose and they have been the hardest.as for hormone imbalances,it too would be getting the levels right.. if your stomach is getting bigger is any other area getting bigger? maybe get an ultrasound on your stomach done to make sure you dont have any issues causing it(stomach issues causing severe bloating,tumors,etc.).

    Despite uterine fibroids being unlikely with the OP's estrogen being at post-menopausal levels, I would also check this just to rule it out as the cause of the increased stomach. My fibroids certainly make my stomach bigger >.<

    Thank you both. I would say 90% of the weight gain is in my stomach. I gained almost 50 lbs, so I am definitely concerned. I appreciate you sharing and passing on these suggestions!!
  • Beeps2011
    Beeps2011 Posts: 12,169 Member
    ronjsteele1 wrote: »

    On the hormone side of things, I found using bio-identical hormone replacements to be far better in terms of actually balancing my hormones and making me feel better. I do not take the doctor's "they're in normal range" as acceptable. I try to keep my progesterone at 2/3 to 3/4 of the upper end of the range and my estrogen at 1/2-2/3 of the range. That's based on how I feel at those levels. You might feel better at levels higher or lower then those. The low end of the ranges most doctors will say is "normal" but it's not if it makes you feel like crap and affects your weight loss. I finally found a functional medicine doctor that knew how to tweak the hormones and then have them compounded specifically for what I need and I have done much much better over the years. Compounding bio-identicals allows the doctor to literally give you exactly what you need instead of "this comes in 20mg, 40mg, etc." What if I only need 38mg of progesterone per gram of cream? That extra 2mg can be miserable and it does affect weight loss efforts. So using compounded creams has been my lifesaver.

    Don't know if this helps at all, but this has been my experience.

    this is very interesting to me.

    I have medically-induced menopause, too. Went on HRT 6 months ago. Prior to tumor-ovary removal, my weight jumped 15 lbs in 4 months. After surgery, I stayed at the SAME (too high) weight for all the months on HRT.

    After seriously counting calories starting in November (....I have always been a 3-day per week lifter and 1-day per week cardio....so, the exercise piece is FINE and I do NOT "add back" any calories...), I have only lost 3 lbs. Basically about 0.3 lbs per week.

    I do follow Brad Pilon and he has told me in a conference call that "estrogen" will f**k up any scale-loss victories. So, I cannot "cut out" my HRT...but I wonder if I tried to "decrease" it if that might actually help my scale-loss?!?!?

    I have 12 more lbs to go....and, it looks like it will take me most of 2017 to shave that off.
  • Jess830409
    Jess830409 Posts: 285 Member
    @Beeps2011 I feel there may be more like us that struggle to even lose an ounce! HRT, for me, was a huge reason I put on almost 50 lbs. I have been ok being off of them - almost 5 months now - but that scale fails to move! Part of me wants to go back to a low dose and see if it helps, but I hate messing with hormone levels when I dont know if it will cause more harm than good! I wonder what the suggestion on estrogen is. For me, increased dose meant more weight gain.
  • Jess830409
    Jess830409 Posts: 285 Member
    @CSARdiver I have always wanted to get that type of testing done; just never had the funds to do so. I will probably look into it again, as I am sure my BMR has to be extremely low now. I have one from being able to eat 1,600 a day and reaching my 120 goal doing it - to now, I have decreased first to 1,500 and then again to 1,300...and nothing. Appreciate the feedback!
  • Jess830409
    Jess830409 Posts: 285 Member
    waterjcky43 wrote: »
    Hello....my battle is similar, however, I am a little older, well a lot older ;) (50). I had a hysterectomy at about 40, and did well with my weight until about 3 years ago. The nightmare was steady weight gain during exercise (cardio and weights) and eating torture. Stress is a HUGE part of the barrier to weight loss for mine and others with similar symptoms, it is so hard to relieve stress in these hormonal times. My journey has been filled with numerous changes, adjustments and flavor of the month advice and lots of screaming and tears. I had moved away from a doctor (4 years ago) with whom I trusted and who is empathetic and provides solid health guidance, he is also a tri-athlete. I got back in touch with him and he recently has suggested an overhaul in my nutrition & exercise profile, I am in my 3rd day, so nothing to really report yet, but the food advice is simple, determine my maintenance calories and reduce my maintenance by about 3000 calories per week (eat well no junk, a treat on occasion is reality and ok). For me, he is changing me to 90% cardio. Why is he having me do this? I need to burn fat, building muscle will help increase my metabolism some, but also will put on weight. Also, doing the labs again. So, this is my new start, hopefully, sharing my info helps! Keep at it, you will find the combination that works for you! If you like, I will report back on my journey!

    Thank you for sharing! It can be very confusing. Some say too much cardio is too much stress and only increases cortisol and hinders weightloss...others say the opposite! I would be very interested in your results! Best of luck!! Thanks again
  • ronjsteele1
    ronjsteele1 Posts: 1,064 Member
    Jess830409 wrote: »
    @Beeps2011 I feel there may be more like us that struggle to even lose an ounce! HRT, for me, was a huge reason I put on almost 50 lbs. I have been ok being off of them - almost 5 months now - but that scale fails to move! Part of me wants to go back to a low dose and see if it helps, but I hate messing with hormone levels when I dont know if it will cause more harm than good! I wonder what the suggestion on estrogen is. For me, increased dose meant more weight gain.

    I my experience is any help, I found progesterone helped weight loss and estrogen increased weight. If you have the option of doing bio-progesterone at a dose to bring you in normal range and bio-estrogen to put you barely at the edge of low normal that might be an option? Also, if you try HRT again, I would only add one hormone at a time and use that one for 3-4 months before trying the other. At least by adding them separately, if one starts to make you gain you'll catch which one right away and can stop that one. I have a feeling thyroid is a biggie too. It may have been fine a few years ago but menopause does strange things to people's hormones. A must check b/c it may not have been the HRT at all that caused the issues if your thyroid has been low and untreated the entire time.
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