Lara Briden - The Period Revolutionary
Leading the change to better periods
A healthy metabolism or ability to lose weight depends on having healthy insulin sensitivity.
Struggling with hormonal weight gain around your middle? It’s a common problem with PCOS, menopause, and birth control, but it’s not caused by estrogen. In women, estrogen is beneficial for weight loss.
Instead, abdominal weight gain is caused by insulin, testosterone, and progestins with a “high androgen index.”
Here’s what you need to know.
Read moreHow Insulin and Testosterone Cause Weight Gain in Women
Sometimes a patient tells me she had only a salad for dinner. Or, even more puzzling: A green smoothie.
I could never do that. I’m tired at the end of the day. I’m hungry. I need a substantial dinner such as roast chicken with potatoes, vegetables, and butter. I honestly cannot imagine sitting down with just a cold green salad.
I don’t think I’m different from other women. Women get hungry. Women need food.
Insulin resistance is the condition of having chronically elevated levels of insulin. It’s also called hyperinsulinemia, metabolic syndrome, or pre-diabetes and is a major player in many women’s health conditions including PCOS, acne, fibroids, and heavy periods.
Insulin resistance also causes abdominal weight gain and is a risk factor for diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, dementia, and heart disease.
Do you have insulin resistance? It’s time to find out.
Antibiotics can cause weight gain.
It’s not unusual for me to hear a story from a patient like this: “I don’t know what happened. I was doing really well with weight loss, but then suddenly I just ballooned.”
When I hear that I ask: “Did you take antibiotics sometime in the last 3-4 months?” Very often, the answer is: “Um… Oh right! Yes, I did.”
Weight gain from antibiotics is a clinical reality. The research is finally starting to catch up.