If you struggle with your hormones, you may have to temporarily shelve your fat loss-goals

November 10th, 2016 by

Many of you know that I have struggled in my journey before finding my groove, due to hormone problems. My experiences have taught me some hard lessons about what the body can handle vs. what you think it should be able to. Sometimes I get the opportunity to work with people who are currently going through the same thing, and unfortunately the lessons learned have a lot to do with patience.

Having hormone issues that need fixing and having fat loss goals are in a sense competing and opposing behaviors.

On one hand you have hormone balancing.
With low hormones you are trying to build the body back up, by giving it more of what it needs to feel well. Essentially giving it more to create hormones from. The building blocks of recovery come from nourishment. Nourishment comes in ways of prioritizing recovery, rest, reduced energy expenditure, and more nutrients (food).

On the flip side, fat loss takes a different process. We are aiming to remove stored energy, increasing expenditure, taking away nutrients, and food. Recovery to a degree is compromised due to lowered energy intake. We are pulling from our bodies resources to eliminate unwanted fat at a cost. For most people, this poses no problem if done correctly. For the hormonally sensitive or deficient, it is huge.

The balance of trying to do both is a daunting task to be sure, and patience with your body is really hard. Often times medication and replacing the hormones can create the difference in what is needed. Supplementing the hormones takes some of the burden off the body. Of course lifestyle changes are important to recovery, but those of us who have been at this a while are well aware that even small changes in stress levels can send our hormones spinning out of control or plummeting to unhealthy levels. In these cases, lifestyle change isn’t enough.

The point is that if you struggle with your hormones, you may need some extra help to get back on track and you may have to temporarily shelve your fat loss goals, until you are more balanced. Getting hormones optimized is not a single-effort occurrence. It usually takes life long diligence to monitor and adjust along your journey. Be patient with your body. Your journey will be longer and harder than someone who isn’t struggling with this, but it is STILL worth working for. Don’t give up!