You eat clean. You focus on protein. You don’t eat the bad carbs. You’ve done the diets and added the supplements.
But what does it seem like, no matter how well you eat, nothing is fixing your hormonal symptoms?
You still feel bloated. You still have low energy. You still struggle to sleep. You still have painful periods. And, worst of all, no matter what diet you do, you can’t lose weight for the life of you.
No matter how healthy you eat, there are several reasons why your approach to your nutrition is still not helping your hormonal symptoms.
Why Eating Healthy Isn’t Fixing Your Hormonal Symptoms
You’re Under Eating
This is the first thing I look at with my clients – how much they’re eating. The uncomfortable truth is, your body’s only job is to keep you alive. She doesn’t care that you’re trying to lose weight.
What does that mean? You could be in a calorie deficit, you could be doing everything right, but if you’ve been under eating (knowingly or not), your metabolism will adapt to the amount of calories you are eating.
If you have a history of chronic dieting or under eating, your metabolism isn’t broken, but it’s likely slower. Your metabolism hasn’t progressed to a point of knowing you’re dieting vs you are experiencing famine.
And when you have a slower metabolism, it’s important to re-fuel your body to improve your metabolism, and make weight loss easier.
Chronic Stress
Stress is not a bad word. You experience all types of stress all day long. Your drive to work, your kids, your gym session, when you digest food, when you’re dieting, and a billion things in between.
But there is a difference between acute stress, that you can manage and move on from quickly, and chronic stress, which lingers and starts to deplete your hormones, causing more symptoms.
Your body doesn’t care about good stress vs bad stress. She reads it all as stress. So it’s up to you to find ways to manage your stress levels (spoiler: that’s not another sweaty gym session if you’re already super stressed).
Poor Sleep
Sleep is your hormonal rehab. This is the time for your body to reset, recharge, and replenish your hormones. If you’re not getting enough sleep, your hormones are not restoring themselves.
It can feel like a sick cycle though. You are exhausted in the afternoon and can’t wait to sleep at night, but when night comes you struggle to sleep or stay asleep.
Poor sleep is also connected to less fullness cues, higher cravings, and more blood sugar imbalances, which will naturally cause overeating that can lead to weight gain.
Lack of Muscle Mass
No, you will not get bulky from lifting weights. Now that that’s out of the way, muscle mass is important for an optimal metabolism and fat burn. The more muscle mass you have, the less hormonal symptoms you have.
So, women, it’s important to do your cardio and, yes, you can do Pilates or your favorite classes, but it’s also important to lift heavy weights. Plus, your dream body likely has more muscle mass than you believe.
Blood Sugar Imbalances
Your blood sugar can be impacted from lack of sleep, like I mentioned. But high stress levels, chronic dieting, intermittent fasting, and going too long between meals all impact your blood sugar as well.
Even if you are eating the perfect meal, if your blood sugar levels are all over the place, you will have hormonal symptoms.
Unrealistic Expectations
You aren’t alone, I wish that I had the perfect, well rounded, and clean meals every meal. I also wish that you could lose 20lbs in a month safely with your perfect diet.
The truth is, you are a human. Not every meal will be perfect. There will be nights you have to stop for fast food between kids activities. Then there will be nights where you can make a beautiful home cooked meal.
How you eat should work for you and your lifestyle. But you also need to be realistic. If it’s not a diet you can stick to for the rest of your life, if you’re cutting out food groups, if you have a list of foods that are “bad”, then your diet is not sustainable and will likely be too harsh on your hormones.
Your hormones need fuel.
In conclusion…
Most women aren’t far off with their nutrition to help manage their hormonal symptoms and eventually change their physique, whether that’s to lose weight, get toned, or gain strength.
If you feel like your healthy eating isn’t helping with your symptoms though, there’s likely another culprit that needs your attention along with your diet.
Do you want to dive more into your diet and how it’s optimizing your hormones (or hurting them)? Let’s schedule a Free Hormone Analysis Call to chat!
