People who struggle to lose weight may believe that an imbalance in their hormones may be causing the weight problem. Indeed it has been documented that there are conditions where a hormonal imbalance may have a negative impact on the metabolism, but it has also been revealed that such conditions only affect a small percentage of the obese population and in fact most overweight people simply eat too much and/or exercise too little.

Hormones are powerful chemical messengers that cause the body to make certain changes, which can affect body weight. The profile of our hormones will change from day to day and often affects our mood, metabolism and energy levels. Any change in the balance of hormones within the blood must have a cause, and it is important to point out that changes in hormonal balance are largely dependant on the lifestyle we lead, in other words an increase or a decrease in a specific hormone is the result of the body adapting to the level of activity we choose to do. For example, when males become less active there is often a gradual decline in the testosterone hormone within the blood. Testosterone is known to boost the metabolism and has the benefit of helping to lower fat levels, thus a decline in this hormone may cause fat gain in males, however in this case the change in lifestyle triggered the reduction in the blood levels of the hormone.

The opposite occurs with a more active lifestyle. Regular exercise creates a need for the body to adapt to the increase in stress. To achieve the adaptation the blood profile of hormones is switched and cells receive the message to speed up the chemical reactions involved in recovery, a process that boosts the metabolism. The body changes the hormonal profile in the blood because exercise causes the muscles to breakdown thus an adaptation must occur for survival purposes.

Basically our hormones can make a big difference to the outcome of our physical self and lead to a problem losing weight but instead of our hormones working against us they are simply adapting to the lifestyle chosen by the individual. For our hormones to work for us we need to give the body a reason to boost our “metabolism boosting” hormones by choosing an active and healthy lifestyle.