How do stresses affect the hormonal background and weight?
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Now we will talk about how the weight and hormonal background of stress, depression and chronic fatigue affect our weight. Did you think that we are losing weight when we are nervous? On the contrary, we can recover from a poor state of mind. And the consequences for the body can be the most serious.
[Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
This is a condition in which a person is sluggish, he has poor working capacity, irritability, mood swings and jumps in weight. Note that of the chronic fatigue syndrome, for the most part women suffer - 70%, and 30% of men.
How to overweight when the state of fatigue affects hormones?
After 35 years in women, the level of estradiol in the blood decreases. But the level of male hormones - anrogen - rises. This is accompanied by a decrease in the production of thyroid hormones, which is significantly weakened. The amount of insulin decreases, which means that there will be more sugars in the blood, which contributes to weight gain.
In addition, because of the reduced level of sugars in the blood (glucose), we stop getting the same amount of energy, because of what we move little and accumulate fatty deposits more and more.
As for the work of the ovaries, which also produce sex hormones, it also slows down with age. Then women feel an outflow of vital energy and weakness. That's what chronic fatigue syndrome is and why it contributes to the accumulation of extra pounds.
Risk group for chronic fatigue syndrome
- These are girls with irregular monthly and polycystic ovary syndrome
- Women of middle age with chronic pain syndrome
- Nursing mothers, whose sex hormones are suppressed by the production of hormones responsible for the production of milk, in particular, prolactin
- Women who have infertility diagnosed
- Women in the menopause (when the balance of hormones in the body is disturbed)
Know that if you perform hormone replacement therapy and raise the level of estradiol and testosterone in your blood to normal, the metabolism is activated, which means that fats will be burned more actively. And vice versa: a low level of these hormones in the body contributes to the appearance of fatigue, a slowing of metabolism and a set of excess weight.
This means that you need to constantly monitor your state of health and change your sleep, rest and treatment time to the optimal, prescribed by your doctor.
How does depression affect excess weight?
The fact that depression is the culprit of excess weight is a proven fact. According to statistics, most often its victims are women. And extra pounds under the influence of depression, they also recruit more often than men.
Increased appetite can occur in women as a result of:
- Hormonal failure
- Depressive state
How to determine which of the reasons is real, and which is invented? Or, maybe, both reasons have the right to recognition?
Pick up the calendar
To determine the cause of excess weight: in a depressed state or hormonal failure, do calculations. Observe when your mood is disastrously bad: for a week (10 days) before the onset of menstruation or it does not depend on the onset of menstruation.
If the culprit of excess weight is an imbalance of hormones, a bad mood will be especially noticeable one week before the month. At this time, hormones progesterone and estradiol vie with each other. Their imbalance also causes mood swings.
And for a day or two before the onset of menstruation or the first or second day after the offensive, the level of estradiol in the blood drops drastically. This, in turn, affects the work of the nervous system. Your mood, too, leaves much to be desired, you most often note its differences.
What other symptoms can occur with hormonal failure?
- Irritability and lethargy
- A woman tends to fall into a state of resentment, scream and cry for trivialities
- Sleep intermittent, often disrupted, can have nightmares
- There are bouts of increased anxiety, heart palpitations
- A woman can often and sweat profusely, and especially at night (due to a lower level of the hormone estradiol)
Risk group
- Women during menopause
- Women before menopause
- Women (and even girls) with irregular monthly
What other hormones are involved in weight gain?
In a state of stress, you increase the level of the hormone cortisol and insulin, which slows down the metabolic processes and causes an increased risk of fat deposition. In this case, you need to consult a doctor not for a sedative, which can only aggravate the process of gaining weight, but for hormone replacement therapy. It will help to adjust the balance of hormones in the blood and to correct the situation with excess kilograms.