Our estrogen, progesterone and testosterone ratios changes as we get older, or become more stressed.
Therefore this does change our moods, body shape and ability to lose weight.
As we know it was easier to lose weight in our twenties and thirties, but when you nudge towards the forties – OMG!!!
You see it was discovered that fat has receptors for our most potent hormones – thyroid hormone, growth hormone, estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone. All these hormones tell fat when it is time to liquidate and release energy into the system.
When we were younger, we had an abundance of these hormones. They work to grow our tissues, activate our reproductive systems and keep our energy and metabolism high, which people lose weight faster and keep it off more easily. But when we approach middle age we no longer need to activate our reproductive systems.
Biologically speaking, we’ve outlived our usefulness. At this point, the production of most of those hormones decreases, which means the messages to our fat to dissolve itself are less powerful. With our bodies burning less adipose tissue through hormonal messaging, we inevitably get fatter. (Great!!!)
At the same time, another hormone, cortisol, increases with stress and age. Cortisol is released from the adrenal glands in response to ongoing stress and is correlated with higher abdominal fat. All these hormonal changes together make it easier for fat to grow. We see it happen before our very eyes; even though we may not be eating more than we were when we were young, fat now sticks to us more easily!
Women especially experience this weight gain as they approach menopause. During this period their hormone levels plunge as their ovaries head for retirement and produce less estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.
Lower estrogen levels can cause increased appetite, reduced fat burning, and a redistribution of fat to the belly area, not to mention hot flashes and decreased energy. Furthermore, as the ovaries produce less estrogen, the body begins to rely more on fat’s ability to manufacture the hormone. Fat becomes a dominant source of estrogen in postmenopausal women. This alone, is one reason women have a more challenging time reducing their fat compared to men.
Progesterone also declines significantly, altering the progesterone-to-estrogen ratio and causing a condition known as “estrogen dominance”. This can lead to irritability, depression, sleep problems, water retention, a bigger appetite, and sugar cravings. It’s like premenstrual syndrome, except that it lasts for years.
Testosterone, which is critical for both sexes, also decreases, causing a reduction in lean body mass and energy, ultimately leading to slower metabolism. Although testosterone is known as a male hormone, at this stage in a woman’s body, we have more testosterone than we do estrogen at most times of the month and certainly during the perimenopausal or postmenopausal years.
So an interesting fact was when transsexuals have used their opposite sexes hormone therapy they found this….
When men have estrogen as a part of the transsexual process they have sex hormone therapy, the effects on fat are so powerful they gain body fat overall, even though their calories intake is the same as it was before.
Not only do they gain fat but they gain it disproportionately in the same places as women – the thighs and buttocks!
The same works in reverse – women to men transsexuals taking androgens (male hormones) lose fat in the hips, buttocks, thighs and gain disproportionately in the belly. Even small changes in hormone distribution can cause dramatically different effects on our fat.
So women can take a lot from this fact of hormonal life – Visceral fat of the kind that men exhibit is more dangerous to health than the subcutaneous fat that women get on the butt and thighs. That is because fat under the stomach wall can surround the liver, digestive tract, and other internal organs and impede their functions.
It is also more prone to inflammation. The female fat stored just under the skin merely makes us…fat!!!
As women age, their estrogen levels decline, which you might expect give them a break from all that hormonal fattening up. But you’d be wrong. At menopause, women gain even more fat overall, and adapt “male pattern” fat, too. Their bellies get bigger and contain more visceral fat. They actually become a combination of pear – and apple shaped, which sounds impossible but apparently is not!!!. One study showed that postmenopausal women carry on average 49% more intra abdominal (visceral fat) than do women who have not yet undergone menopause.
Women’s fat storage machinery actually works harder after menopause meaning women utilize less fat and store more. Part of the reason is that fat tissue produces estrogen, which may explain why the body holds onto fat postmenopause.
As men age, they too distribute fat differently, with excess going not just to their belly but also to the lower back and the nape of the neck.
So yes losing weight for women is harder than it is for men. Women eat less, yet gain proportionately more fat than men. And what’s even more frustrating is, women have to reduce their calories significantly than what the men do to lose the same amount of weight.
There is no doubt, the later years in life can be more than frustrating for many women in the weight loss area.
More so following a diet and exercise regime that a twenty or thirty year old is following, clearly is not ideal. With many hormones being effected and reacting differently, this is where older women need to seek the right help to work with their hormones, not continually against them.
I hope this has helped those frustrated with where they are at, that it has answered some questions.
If you would like to understand more about eating right and the way our body stores fat, some wonderful books are:
The secret life of fat – Sylvia Tara PhD (contents taken from this book)
Fat for fuel – Dr Joseph Mercola
Deep Nutrition – Dr Catherine Shanahan
Keep your chin up and talk to people about your concerns, sharing stories can help get you answers.
To your health,
Kerrie
Professional health, fitness and wellbeing coach.
