Weight Balance and Wellness during COVID – 19 Pandemic

Wellness and nutrition emphasis has never been so strong in the US, as the nation is approaching an alarming obesity rate. According to the Center for Disease Control, the prevalence of obesity was 42.4% in 2017-2018 (CDC.gov). According to Wang’s research, this trend will continue with estimated 51% obesity rate by 2030 (Wang et al., 2008).

Eating healthy in America is extremely difficult. Most breakfast cereal boxes are full of sugar, and have very little nutritional value. Delicious sounding corn syrup filled coffee drinks are hard to replace with black or lightly splashed with half and half coffee. It is in fact hard to resist food industry invasion with processed, cheap, and comforting foods.

COVID – 19 Pandemic made it even harder to lose or even maintain healthy weight. As millions of Americans lost their jobs or started to work remotely, the obesity battle has never been as hard before.

There are numerous diets available, but the issue is that dieting leads to even more gain (Schwarz, 2011). Many know that maintaining an ideal weight is difficult despite the best efforts with diet and exercise. What most don’t know is that an undetected hormone imbalance can be the missing link – sabotaging our hard work to stay slim.

Most diets don’t work because they fail to address the hormonal root causes that are the most common reasons for weight loss resistance, like excess cortisol, insulin and/or leptin blockage, estrogen dominance, a sluggish thyroid, low testosterone, and problems with the HPA (hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal) control system.

What’s the Connection Between Hormones and Weight?

Dr. David Zava explains that hormones are key players in regulating weight, metabolism, blood sugar, insulin, and when and where the body stores fat. As we age, shifting hormones trigger numerous symptoms of imbalance – including unexplained weight gain.

Common hormone-related causes of weight gain often involve the following scenarios:

When your hormones are in balance, neither too high nor too low, you look and feel your best. But when they are imbalanced, you feel miserable, with a range of symptoms that include fatigue, sugar cravings, weight loss resistance, bloating, belly fat, trouble sleeping, anxiety or irritability, and constant stress.

You can assess your hormones with my free questionnaire (will we be able to finish in a week?) ( https://hormonesbalance.com/quiz/ ). However, you won’t really know if your hormones are to blame for your symptoms until you get some basic blood work done. So, record your symptoms and check in with your provider to ask for blood work.

Below is a list of the tests I most commonly order for my patients. Once you get the test results, you and your doctor can see the areas that need the most improvement.

References:

CDC. (2020, June 29). Adult Obesity Facts. Retrieved January 28, 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

Schwarz, N. A., Rigby, B. R., La Bounty, P., Shelmadine, B., & Bowden, R. G. (2011). A review of weight control strategies and their effects on the regulation of hormonal balance. Journal of nutrition and metabolism, 2011, 237932. https://doi.org/10.1155/2011/237932

Wang, Y., Beydoun, M. A., Liang, L., Caballero, B., & Kumanyika, S. K. (2008). Will all Americans become overweight or obese? estimating the progression and cost of the US obesity epidemic. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 16(10), 2323–2330. https://doi.org/10.1038/oby.2008.351

Zava, D., Ph.D. (n.d.). Weight Management. Retrieved January 28, 2021, from https://www.zrtlab.com/test-specialties/weight-management/