When You're Told "Just Lose Weight"

Ever get the ol' 'You need to drop a few pounds' instead of a real damn answer to your health concerns? I’ve said it once and I’ll say it a million times, weight gain is a SYMPTOM of a larger issue, not a disease. 

Hormones. Those sneaky bastards can wreak havoc with weight gain, mood swings, and a laundry list of other symptoms. But do they get the attention they deserve? Hell no!

Today we're diving deep into a topic that affects many of us: how cortisol and hormone imbalance can lead to weight gain. So sit back, and let's explore the intricate connection between our hormones and our waistlines.

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Transcript

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[00:10] Kacey K: Welcome to the Simply Healthy You podcast, your place for overcoming overwhelm with your health to reach your fullest potential. I'm your host, Kacey Kane. I am so pumped to have you here. I'm a recovering burnt out high achiever who is diagnosed with an autoimmune thyroid aid condition by my early thirty s.

[00:27] Kacey K: I didn't realize that running myself ragged.

[00:29] Kacey K: In the name of being superwoman and determined to achieve all the things in life was killing my body. I created this podcast so that you don't have to continue the struggle like I did for over a decade. I sat down, studied the data and simplified what it means to prioritize your own health needs so that you can be the best for all the things on your to do.

[00:50] Kacey K: List.

[00:50] Kacey K: Everything you hear on this podcast I have tested and implemented in my own super pact, life with my family to bring you the tips, tools and strategies that will keep your life simply healthy.

[01:06] Kacey K: Hello and welcome to another episode of this of Simply Healthy You. I'm your host, Kacey Kane, an integrative health practitioner and certified holistic nutritionist with a master's in psychology. And I'm here to bring you science based conversations to help you live a healthier and happier life. Today we are diving deep into a topic that affects many of us how cortisol and hormone balance can lead to weight gain. If you notice, my energy level is a little bit different. I am recording this early in the morning. It is before 07:00 a.m. And I'll be honest, recording lately has been a little bit of a challenge. I'm sure you've noticed if you're an avid listener. Out of the last three weeks, there's been one episode that has come out. I'm usually pretty consistent with the podcast, but schedules have changed a little bit around here with the kids. As you know, we are all home all the time and I don't have a door on my office, so recording in my office and not going up to my closet to use that as a studio every time because it was just getting too hard to get everything onto my little laptop screen. I really do benefit from having two screens open, especially while podcasting because I've got the recording going in one window and my notes in another window. So it's been just a little bit of a juggling act of figuring out when it's going to be quiet enough and getting my butt up in the morning to have enough time to record an episode before they wake up. So here we are. My energy level might be a little bit different, but I'm still just as pumped to be here and we are going to talk about cortisol and hormone imbalance that can lead to weight gain. So sit back. Let's explore the intricate connection here between our hormones and our waistlines. This is something that I've talked about before in previous episodes. In some ways when I've talked about cortisol, but I thought dedicating an entire episode to this would be helpful because I know that so many of us have gone to the doctor and been told that if we just lost weight, we would be solving all of our problems, right? The doctor tells you you need to drop a few pounds instead of a real damn answer to your health concerns. I've said it once and I'll say it a million times. Weight gain is a symptom of a larger issue, not a disease. 99% of the time it is not because you are actually over consuming calories and your doctor is not going to ask you that. Maybe they'll ask you a diet and lifestyle question. Maybe they'll tell you something really unhelpful like just start eating clean and exercise more. Because if it was that simple, we're just being lazy, right? We would all just be doing it if it was that simple. Hormones. We need to be talking about hormones here. These sneaky little bastards can wreak havoc with weight gain, mood swings, and a laundry list of other symptoms that I am sure you are familiar with at this point. But do they get the attention that they deserve? No. Hell no. They are starting to. They are absolutely starting to. And I am here for that conversation. But I think when anything starts to become more popular, we also see a ton of misinformation coming out about it. And I think people are recommending some things out there that are just absolutely horrible for hormones and not things that I would recommend. So let's not also forget our gut microbiome. I do think that hormones are a big trend right now, but we have to also consider that our gut microbiome has a huge role to play in our hormones as well. Like, these two are intricately connected, and if we talk about one without the other, all the people who are now air quotes specializing in hormones, who picked up a few things like seed cycling and whatnot from everybody on the interwebs and then decided they're going to create their own program around it. It's not just that. It's not just that. If you're not absorbing the things that you're taking in, if your gut microbiome is all sorts of jacked up, then you're going to have problems there. Your gut microbiome is home to more bacteria than there are stars in the Milky Way. Like, let's be real mess with them and you're in for a world of hurt. From bloat to brain fog, migraines to fatigue. The list is quite long, and they do overlap very much with hormones because they both feed into each other. Your hormones are your messengers, and your gut is where everything comes in. So those systems got to be talking to each other clearly, and they've got to be functioning properly. Before we delve into the specifics, let's start with just a brief overview that I've talked about cortisol before, but I want to give you an overview of kind of how things operate here. Cortisol is often referred to as the stress hormone. It's produced by the adrenal glands and plays a vital role in our body's response to stress. When we encounter a stressful situation, Cortisol levels will rise, preparing our body for fight or flight. That fight or flight response, you've heard me talk about that before. However, chronic stress leads to prolonged elevated Cortisol levels which can have negative effects on our overall health, including weight gain. And it is a big factor here when it comes to gaining weight. And that's why I say that weight gain is a symptom of a larger issue. Because 99% of the time, like I said, I see this happening in my clients who are chronically stressed and depending on what phase of the stress cycle that they are in, whether it has been for a while and they're reaching the exhaustion stage, or if it's just been a short while and they're still in the alarm stage. These are things that we need to know and our body will tell us. Our body is going to be like, hey, what's going on here? We've been in fight or flight mode for like months and are you still like, fighting off a tiger or are you in a famine? Again, our body does not know the difference between real and perceived threat. So if you're also just stressing about work because you've got this big project happening for the last few months and you've had no room to breathe, well, that's going to be bad news as well. That is going to be chronic stress for your body as well. Even if you are mentally handling it, it doesn't mean that your body is not experiencing the stress of that constant go go. Now let's address the elephant in the room. How exactly does Cortisol contribute to weight gain? Well, Cortisol influences several aspects of our physiology that can affect our weight. One of the key ways Cortisol does this is by helping to regulate our metabolism. Elevated Cortisol levels can slow down our metabolism, making it harder for our bodies to burn calories efficiently. And the reason why it does this is because of that fight or flight mode, our body is not going to prioritize things like reproduction, digestion, metabolism, any of those kind of things because it is trying to conserve energy for the battle that it believes that it is going into. So I know a lot of people will dismiss when we talk about Survivor mode or fight or flight and say that it's not real and that doesn't happen. It absolutely does. It is the natural functioning of our body to do something like that to go into that mode. And I think a lot of people are explaining it incorrectly, but that's what happens. It is going to prioritize blood flow, it is going to prioritize oxygen flow. So you are going to see increased heart rate. This is where we get with chronic stress. This is where we get increased blood pressure because it is going to increase blood flow in our body. We are going to see increased blood sugar and blood cholesterol because it thinks that we are going to need to use those for energy. This is where we see people becoming pre diabetic and starting to have high cholesterol. This is why this is happening. It's all very easy to explain when you understand how the cycle works. It's very easy to spot when you understand how the cycle works. But that's not all. Cortisol also has a profound impact on our food cravings. When Cortisol levels are high, it can trigger an increased appetite, especially for high calorie and high sugar foods, because again, it's just looking for quick energy. It knows that. It thinks that you are going to be burning through stuff at an abnormal rate and so it is going to increase your appetite. It is going to start burning in the beginning, when you're in the initial stages of that alarm phase, you are going to be burning through stuff faster. You are going to feel like you have more energy. More often than not. This is not an area where people are starting to feel dragged down, yet it's usually coming down towards the end of that alarm stage. When you've been in that alarm stage for a while and you are starting to fizzle some things out, you are starting to develop some deficiencies because you're burning through some nutrients faster than others. So the cravings also increase because Cortisol stimulates the release of insulin, which leads to a sudden drop in blood sugar levels. Insulin is what shuttles your blood sugar out of the blood and into the cells to burn. And so insulin is going to be doing that at a faster rate and dropping your blood sugar, essentially taking that sugar out and pumping it into your muscles. Because it thinks, again, it all makes sense when you understand how this works, right? It thinks again that you are going to need to be fighting off a tiger and so it's going to pump that blood sugar into your muscles for quick use. Now, if you are not exercising and burning that off, you're going to start to run into blood sugar issues, right? So you're going to have a sudden drop in blood sugar levels, even though you probably have adequate blood sugar on board. But that is also what is going to make you crave those high calorie and higher sugar foods because we need the glucose, right? And that's the fastest way to get it. To combat this drop, our body craves quick energy sources, often in the form of sugary or fatty snacks. Unfortunately, when we start indulging in these too much and increasing our blood sugar and increasing our blood cholesterol, this is also where, yes, we might get into a calorie surplus. But we're also probably eating foods that are just nutrient poor, right? They are less nutrient dense. And so I don't often see my clients actually consuming excess calories in this point. I see them getting close to their calorie intake, but their nutrient intake is really poor. And so your body is going to start storing that excess that you're getting in those foods in your fat cells. Another crucial factor is that Cortisol influences fat distribution in the body. It tends to promote the accumulation of visceral fat, which is the fat that surrounds our organs and settles deep within our abdominal cavity. So this is why a lot of the times when I know it is pretty popular to tell people that when you're holding weight around your midsection, it likely has to do with cortisol. Right now, people have a whole slew of stupid things that they recommend to try to blast your fat in your midsection. That's not actually possible. You can't spot treat your body. It doesn't work that way. But this type of fat can be very dangerous. It is associated with an increased risk of various health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Now, I think this is a bit of chicken or the egg situation, right? Is the increased fat around your abdomen the thing that's causing these issues? Or is it that these issues are happening because of the chronic stress increasing your blood sugar, increasing your blood cholesterol, and you're also gaining weight at the same time? I think it's a latter, yes. I think the pressure on your body from holding excess fat in your abdomen can certainly contribute. But like I said, I do believe that it is a chicken or the egg kind of situation. I do not think that the weight gain is a thing that is causing the problem. I think that it is part of the problem. It is part of the symptoms. So now that we've explored the role of cortisol in weight gain and kind of how it has a multifactor impact on us gaining weight, let's talk about how hormone imbalances can further complicate matters. Our body's hormonal system is very intricate and very interconnected. As I've said, when one hormone goes awry, it can disrupt the balance of others, leading to a cascade of effects. And I've talked about this at length in my adrenal hormone episode, previous episodes, that one. And just go listen to that. Because there are so many things that hormones can affect, it can sometimes be very hard to pinpoint because there are so many symptoms that can come along with it. However, 99% of the time there is something off with your hormones when you are having these symptoms. And yes, it probably also overlaps with gut dysbiosis. As I said earlier, in women, imbalances in estrogen and progesterone levels can occur through different life stages. So some of the ones where we are told that it is normal air quotes because it's common, that kind of bullshit like perimenopause menopause, and then you have conditions like PCOS, polycystic Ovary syndrome. These imbalances can contribute to weight gain as well and make it more challenging to lose weight. But it is not normal for that to happen in these cases. PCOS is not something that you are diagnosed with and destined to have and suffer from for the rest of your life. These are things, again, that we need to get at the root of. And if it is chronic stress, we need to get at the root of that problem so that your hormones can function normally. Even going through perimenopause, going through menopause, it is not meant to be a miserable time. It should be manageable. And yes, there are shifts happening, but there are things that we know for a fact can contribute to a better shift in hormones and far less symptoms, and not symptoms for the rest of your life. Because, yes, your hormones significantly drop post menopause, but that doesn't mean that you still don't need to be factoring those in. And I know that I've talked about menopause many times in my previous hormone episodes. Go back and scroll through the episodes. There's several on hormones and talking about those kinds of things. It's essential, really, to understand that addressing hormone imbalances and managing cortisol levels goes beyond simply focusing on weight loss. Because in this whole situation that I've just described, you can see how if you were just losing weight and you would have to do it in an unsustainable way, the body would not feel safe in this situation, in fight or flight mode, to lose weight naturally. That's not what it's wanting to do. So when you're in this place and trying to lose weight, this is why resorting to these unsustainable methods that diet culture shoves in our faces every single fucking day is so enticing. Because for a short period of time, you probably could lose the weight. You probably have lost the weight. And then what happens when you try to change to a more sustainable way of eating? Everything comes right back, right? The body has not felt safe that entire time. It is an illusion thinking that you were losing weight because your body felt comfortable and safe to do it. You are just stressing it the fuck out so much and starving it so much that it has no choice but to burn something in your body. And that means other things, right? We also have to think about thyroid hormones such as T three and T four. They play a crucial role in regulating our metabolism. When these hormones are imbalanced, our metabolism slows down even more, leading to weight gain and difficulty in shedding those extra pounds. I just was doing a lab review the other day for a client and she has some hypothyroidism going on. Thankfully, her TPO antibodies were low. So I don't believe at this time that it is autoimmune and or it is in the initial stages where it has not really triggered the autoimmune response, which is great. It's a great place to catch it because now we already knew that there was hormone imbalance going on, but I wanted to check the thyroid as well to make sure that we were covering all of her bases. And so we know now that we need to be supporting the thyroid in addition to balancing out the estrogen and progesterone that aren't at the right levels. So it's really essential to understand that addressing hormone imbalances and managing cortisol levels goes well beyond simply losing weight. It's about achieving overall hormone wellness and optimizing our body's natural systems. This involves adopting a holistic approach that includes all the things that I do with my clients stress management techniques, regular exercise, but knowing the right exercises. Because when you are in chronic stress mode, you cannot be doing the same exercise program that you've been doing. You have to be very careful about how much you are stimulating your cortisol when you are doing a workout. My exercise program right now, as I am recovering from being very depleted and in chronic stress mode, I have to take a lot of breaks in my workout. It is very fucking annoying, I'm not going to lie. I'm not one of those people that likes to take an hour to work out. And I know that it is a significant barrier to my consistency. But I know now that I have to take that time if I want to be able to exercise and not be causing detriment to my body. So there are certain ways that you have to do exercise when you are in this phase. In some cases, in the initial cases, my exercise really could only consist of walking because anything more than that was going to stimulate my already too high, too burnt out cortisol levels. So there is that that may need to be considered. And then once you're reintroducing exercise in other ways because women, we should be lifting weights, we should be lifting heavy. That is what's going to protect our bones as we age. Now, for the past two months, I've been easing back into exercise routine. Really simple exercises to lift and lifting super, super heavy, like six to eight reps max and then taking a two minute break in there. So you really need to understand all of this. This is something that our personal trainer in Simply Healthy Academy goes through with every single person. Her and I are talking all the time to make sure that her exercise plan coincides with what is going on with an individual client. And this is why, I mean, it's a group program. It is so highly personalized. So her and I are talking all the time to make sure that her exercise program coincides with what your body is going through. You need to consider a balanced diet. Obviously, I'm going to talk about diet and most likely a well curated supplement routine for some time to get things back to baseline. It is going to be so hard to get things back to baseline without utilizing supplements, but you really need to know which ones are going to be the best fit for you and where you are depleted, depending on where you are in that chronic stress state. Before we wrap up this episode, I want to emphasize that weight gain is a complex issue influenced by numerous factors. If you take nothing else away from this episode, I really want you to emblaze that into your brain because I think the message out there is just right. We know this. We've been hearing this message out there so much that waking is our own fault and our own laziness and our own not eating properly, whatever the fuck that means. And I don't believe that's the case at all. At all. It's numerous factors and needing to get to the root cause of that symptom, just like any of the other symptoms you're experiencing, it's essential. It's essential to solving that issue for you. Cortisol and hormone imbalances are a piece of that puzzle and a big piece of it that needs to be looked at. If you're experiencing unexplained weight gain or struggling with weight management, it really is crucial to consult with a healthcare professional like myself who can fully assess your situation and provide that personalized guidance for where you are at. Now, if you have a doctor who won't look past the scale, I really need to throw this in there. You need to call them out on it, because we are not going to change this story. We're not going to change this narrative unless we speak up in those appointments. So call them out on it when all they're telling you is to eat, clean and lose weight. If they're not providing you with any useful guidance, ask them what their training is in nutrition and nutrition for weight loss. Or. I mean, there are some doctors who have some nutrition for weight loss, and it's absolutely ridiculous, the plans that they come up with. But ask them what their training is in nutrition for them to be saying anything to you about losing weight and what they know about hormones and what they know about cortisol and how they both contribute to weight gain. Ask them, call them out on it and demand that tests that you deserve. You should be able to get your cortisol tested. You should be able to get your thyroid tested, and in a way that gives you useful information. They're probably not going to do it, but my point is and they're not going to do it in a useful way, if they test your thyroid, it's just going to be TSH. And if they test your cortisol, they're not going to do ideally, you're doing the test that I use with clients, and it is saliva four times throughout the day that you take. So we can see your entire progression of your cortisol and making sure that it is following the norm, the normal curve that it is supposed to throughout the day. Because at any one point, if your cortisol is off, that tells us something about the stage of stress that you are in. It's your body, your health. It's not up for negotiation. You hire your doctor and they are a service provider, just like any other service provider that you would hire. We don't let other service providers talk shit to us like that, so don't let them do it either. They might be an expert at the things that they do, but they were trained by the pharmaceutical industry. They were trained to write prescriptions and recommend procedures. And beyond that, they have very little training. It's not that they're not an intelligent person, they just have very little training in other areas, if any. And a lot of them have big fucking egos. So it's time to knock them back a few pegs. And if they're not going to budge on it, fire them. Kick them to the curb. You do not need someone like that as a part of your healthcare team. Your healthcare team needs to be people who are going to listen to you, who are going to validate what it is that you're going through. And if they don't have the answers, they're going to be woman enough to turn around. And I'm not going to say man enough because I don't think that that is a manly quality per se. I think that very often we know when we need to refer someone to someone else, right? And I want them to be able to turn around and say to you, you know what? That's not my area of expertise. You should consult with X-Y-Z. Find someone who's got your back and is willing to dig deeper than the damn scale or who will at least say, this is beyond my scope. I think you need to go somewhere else. Your pain is not in your head. It is in your hormones, your gut, and real tangible symptoms that you have. Don't let anyone belittle your experience and gaslight you in those appointments. Remember, health is not one size fits all, and it sure as hell isn't about fitting into some size two genes. It's time that we really shift the focus to overall health and well being because the weight will follow. And I know that it's hard because I know you want to lose weight. I'm in that space too. But we really need to shift this focus to overall health and well being. That is what I do with every single one of my clients. And while many of them come in with weight loss lingering in the back of their head, they know that it is so much more than just focusing on the weight, that when they do everything correctly, the weight does just start to come off. If you've been down this road, I really encourage you to share your story. Reach out to me on Instagram. Send me an email. I can anonymously feature your stories, but I would love to hear from you because I really think we need to light a fire under this issue and push for a holistic approach to our health. Because we are worth it. We are absolutely worth it. And as women, we have gotten shoved around so much when it comes to our health, and especially when we're talking about weight loss and weight gain. It's just bullshit. We need to make that shift happen, and we can only do that if we team together and share these stories. That's all for today's episode of Simply Healthy You. I hope you found it informative and gained a better understanding of how cortisol and hormone imbalance can contribute to weight gain. Remember, taking care of our overall health and well being is key, and finding a balance in our hormones is an important part of that journey. As always, thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast and leave a review. I greatly appreciate your support and helping to get my message out to other women who need it. Stay curious, stay healthy, and until next time, take care.

[25:06] Kacey K: Thank you so much for listening to.

[25:08] Kacey K: The Simply Healthy You. Podcast.

[25:10] Kacey K: If these episodes are resonating with you, go ahead and click that subscribe button and leave a review with all the great nuggets that you're taking away from today's episode, I promise you I read every single one of them, as your feedback is really valuable to me in creating future episode episodes. As your host, I look forward to having you join me for the next episode. But in the meantime, remember, keep it simple and eat more plants.