The Link Between Hormones and Weight Regain

Like many, I've struggled with weight issues for many years. I'd lose it, and then it would reappear. Some of that, at least in the beginning, was going back to old habits after the diet was over. However, even after making the diet changes permanent, weight is still an issue.

I'm sure I'm not alone. There is some medical news that explains the problem, and may eventually lead to new treatments to help people avoid regaining weight. It's not in our heads, it's in our hormones.

Our body produces a lot of hormones. They are what makes the various systems work. Eating and digesting have nine of them, and most of them are related to hunger. The study subjects were followed for a year after an intense weight loss program. Not all of them made it through to the one year mark but the findings in those that did were amazing.

The average weight regain in them was twelve pounds. As they had dropped a minimum of thirty pounds, that isn't all bad news. Blood tests performed at the one year mark showed that six of the nine hormones were still not at normal levels.

What does that mean for us? It means some very important things. First, if you are still following the lifestyle changes that helped you lose the weight in the first place, any weight gain is not your fault. It comes from a natural response similar to starvation mode. Your body believes that the more fat you have, the healthier you'll be during the next famine.

The second thing, and the most important, is that these findings could lead to new treatments to help us keep the weight we shed off. It won't be next week or next year, but this opens the door to further studies and possible counters to the hormone imbalance.

For me, another benefit of this study is peace of mind. Losing weight is hard work, and it's very easy to feel depressed and lose self confidence when it comes back on. As long as I keep to the plan made at the beginning of this program, I know weight gain isn't something I'm doing to myself.

Weight loss is hard enough mentally. Being hungry isn't easy, especially when there is so much tasty food around. It's good to know that there is another reason for weight regain, and that we may be able to stop it.