Realizing your clothes are getting too tight is frustrating, but common. With age, both men and women tend to accumulate pounds. Even if you’re still young, you might notice weight gain and be stumped about the reason.
Weight gain isn’t something you should disregard, because weight gain — even a seemingly insignificant amount — can put you on the path to serious health conditions, including heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
Our caring team at Regenerative Health & Wellness Medical Center knows that weight loss is a struggle for many. Because of this, Dr. Jacob Holdren and Dr. Steven Foley offer medical weight loss services, and for some patients, this may include treatment for hormonal imbalance.
Why am I gaining weight if I’m not eating more?
No single factor causes weight gain. Your metabolism is a complex energy utilization system, and when things get out of whack, the pounds can accumulate.
It’s not always as simple as eating less and moving more. It may surprise you to learn that weight gain can be triggered by hormonal imbalance, too.
Since we’re committed to analyzing how your health history, lifestyle practices, stress level, medications, and metabolism impact your health, we don’t just put a band-aid on your symptoms and consider them in isolation.
Everything about your health is connected, and we don’t even begin to create a treatment plan for addressing your weight issues until we have thoroughly examined you, performed various tests, and had a long conversation with you about your past and present health, your family health history, and work/life balance, to name just a few important factors that combine to impact your health.
Could your weight struggle be hormone related?
It’s not the first thing people think of when battling their weight, but your hormones control so many body processes, from your growth to sex drive. Your appetite and metabolism are two others.
When hormones become dysregulated, they can cause your appetite to increase or make you feel less full when you should feel sated. If these become imbalanced, weight gain can also result.
Just a few of the hormones that influence your weight include:
- Insulin directs your body to store fat
- Leptin causes a feeling of fullness
- Cortisol is the “stress hormone” and high levels increase appetite
- Estrogen, the female sex hormone, can cause weight gain at very high or low levels
Hormones that are in disequilibrium can also lead to conditions that cause weight gain. One is the hormonal disorder polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Both men and women experience hormone fluctuations as they age, as well.
Treatment for hormonal weight gain is available
Here at Regenerative Health & Wellness Medical Center, Dr. Foley helps patients with treatments that regulate their hormones and help them lose weight.
When you come for your first consultation, Dr. Foley talks to you about your medical history in detail, including your family health history, your history of weight gain and the symptoms that accompanied it, and administers blood tests that may reveal hormonal problems, offering an explanation as to why you can’t lose weight.
Not only do we offer sound medical weight loss treatment, you may be a candidate for bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) if Dr. Foley concludes that your weight gain is linked to hormonal imbalance.
Bioidentical hormones are plant-derived and, as their name states, biologically identical to the estrogen and testosterone that your body makes. When your hormone levels decline, BHRT can restore them and help you feel more energetic and vital, lose weight, and gain a new outlook on life.
We administer the hormones through a small pellet inserted under your skin in either your buttock or hip region. This pellet contains a customized dose of hormones just for you.
Treatment typically takes a half-an-hour or less, and you’re set for several months, since the hormones are slowly released into your bloodstream over time. You’ll notice results quickly, in a matter of days, and the longlasting nature of BHRT treatment means you won’t need to visit our office frequently.
After we insert the pellet, we follow up with you after six weeks to see how you’re doing. Chances are by that time you will have lost some weight. If dosage tweaks are necessary, Dr. Foley can do those easily.
If you’re puzzled by unexplained weight gain, contact the Regenerative Health & Wellness Medical Center office nearest you to schedule an appointment, or reach out to us through our website.