Thursday, November 26, 2009

Hormones Stress Response for Men and Women and Weight Loss Diets

You’ve probably heard that if you sleep longer than other people, you will lose weight. You’ve probably also heard that people who suffer chronic stress because of the hormone “cortisol” are dealing with weight problems and most specifically belly fat around the waist. This is also due to another problem related to high cortisol and that is insulin resistance.

People with high cortisol levels and insulin resistance are those who wake up between 2 – 4:00 a.m. and can’t get back to sleep. It is all connected: stress, high cortisol levels, and insulin resisitance. This leads to weight gain especially around the waist. It happens to women in their early 40s and to men a little bit later.

What is going on at the same time is that for women, they are losing their hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and DHEA. This comes at the time in life known as menopause. For men, it is andropause, when they also lose progesterone, testosterone, DHEA and their estrogen becomes unbalanced. This menopause weight gain, or middle aged weight gain is totally related to stress and hormones.

You must first visit a doctor to have a hormone test to find out which of your hormones needs replacing and then you need your own personalized prescription for bioidentical hormones. Because until you balance your hormones you will not be able to lose weight, so this is the first step.

Next you have to find a diet that will assist in developing and maintaining opitimal health as you grow older and then you need something like a hormone diet which will give you the nutrition you need at this point in your life and help you balance your hormones.

You will find at this stage in your life that you cannot eat sugar, white refined carbohydrates anymore. If you do, it will mean instant weight gain and raising and then plummeting blood sugar levels. You do not want this to be happening. There are some diets out there that are specifically designed to help you lose weight at this point in your life. Suzanne Somers has a Somersizing, Dr. Oz has a menopause diet and another hormone diet has been designed by Dr. Natasha Turner.

These diets will help you regain your lost figure, lose the fat and gain energy and health. They also offer some pretty delicious food. You can buy these books online at Amazon or in your local book shop. The internet also offers some reviews of these diets so you can decide which one is best for you.