Excess Estrogen and Weight Gain
September 16, 2009 by Jenn
Filed under Estrogen Dominance Symptoms
Do you have an apple shaped body? Have you been gaining weight around your middle and, no matter what you try, you just can’t seem to lose
that extra fat? It could be caused by excess estrogen in your system.
Why does Estrogen Dominance Cause Weight Gain?
Estrogen plays an important role both in how your body distributes fat and in the way it burns fat. Because the tissues in your middle are sensitive to estrogen, that hormone tends to accumulate in the cells in your abdomen, hips and upper thighs if you’re a woman or in the chest and abdomen if you’re a man. When the estrogen enters those fat cells, it does what is genetically designed to do: it orders those cells to reproduce and multiply and, in turn, those fat cells create even more estrogen.
Estrogen also helps control how our bodies burn up those fats and get rid of them. When there is too much estrogen in those cells around the middle of the body, it becomes almost impossible to burn that fatty tissue away. That’s why the fat accumulating in those areas is often called ’stubborn fat’. No matter how much you diet or exercise, stubborn fat just refuses to go away. It’s tenacious and clings to your body as stubbornly as barnacles on a ship.
Weight Gain Encourages Excess Estrogen
Okay, now you’re trapped in the middle of a cruel cycle. You’re overweight because you have estrogen dominance and excess estrogen causes you to gain weight. Those added fat cells produce estrogen, making the problem even worse. You know that carrying extra weight, particularly around your abdomen, causes health problems like type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance and even some cancers. So how can you break the vicious cycle before it causes you to develop serious health issues?
How to Break the Estrogen/Weight Gain Cycle
First, make sure that you really are estrogen dominant. There are simple tests available that you can take to find out if you are suffering from this condition. Learn more about these tests for estrogen dominance.
Once you have determined that you do have estrogen dominance, there are several steps you can take to help get your hormones back in balance. The first is to learn more about what causes the condition and then you can find ways to help control it. There are many helpful posts on this site that can help you educate yourself about estrogen dominance, it’s other symptoms, the importance of getting your hormones back in balance, and steps you can take to accomplish that goal.
Unfortunately, estrogen dominance can create much more serious problems than weight gain, including potentially lethal illnesses such as breast cancer. Controlling estrogen dominance could not only help you lose that stubborn fat around your middle - it could save your life.
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