Women and Weight Loss: Why Even the Fittest Female Athletes Sometimes Struggle to Stay Slim

The overall upshot of this article is that it may not be your fault for weight and fat loss problems. The REAL problem can be deep inside your physiology, somewhere havoc is being unleashed. But don't worry, there's a simple solution. 

If you’re a dedicated female athlete who tends to carry a few extra pounds or simply can't slim down despite regular, strenuous exercise, don’t despair.  There is an explanation—and a solution.  

Thanks to recent research, more information is available on the intricate nature of hormones and weight—most importantly, the relationship between insulin, metabolism and body fat.  If you’re like many women, you’ve followed the conventional low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet recommended for athletes.  But over time, this diet can create a condition known as insulin resistance.  If you are insulin resistant, your body will convert every calorie it can get into fat—even if you’re dieting.  While you may be gaining (or failing to lose weight), your cells are actually starving! 

A second basic link lies between stress (both physical and emotional) and body fat. Stress hormones, like cortisol, block weight loss. This is sometimes called the “famine effect.”  Despite eating an adequate amount of food, the body interprets the presence of long-term stress as a famine and begins to hoard calories.  Between working, training and meeting the demands of family life, female athletes are often subject to constant and unremitting stress, which not only raises cortisol levels, but contributes to the onset of adrenal fatigue.   

When chronic stress repeatedly forces the adrenal glands to sustain high levels of cortisol, two things happen.  First, the adrenals can’t attend to their broader role in hormonal regulation because the same resources they use to make hormones (like estrogen) are required to make cortisol.  Second, cortisol starts to damage healthy tissues.  Eventually, adrenal fatigue sets in, and many women experience several classic symptoms—weight gain, fatigue, insomnia, fuzzy thinking, depression, cravings and mood swings. 

When a female athletes combines a high-stress life with a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet, the end result is a powerful hormonal imbalance that makes weight gain (or the inability to slim down) inevitable.  What’s more, high-carbohydrate diets cause neurotransmitter imbalances that lead to food cravings.  Because your body can’t readily maintain optimal blood sugar and serotonin levels, you are compelled to have snacks and caffeine to make yourself feel better.  But these exacerbate both insulin resistance and adrenal exhaustion while adding body fat.  It’s a vicious cycle. 

What can you do to stop it? 

The first—and most fundamental—thing you should do is to check your adrenal (recovery) hormone and glycohemoglobin (average blood sugar) levels.  Don’t have the time (or insurance coverage) for doctors office and laboratory visits?  No problem.  You can order inexpensive, at-home assessments for both of these key factors at https://purecleanperformance.com/  

It’s also essential that you make sure you’re fueling your active body with the right food.  From a biological standpoint, no two athletes are exactly alike.  This means that what you eat should be tailored specifically to satisfy the demands of your body’s unique, metabolic needs.  PureClean Performance offers a comprehensive, on-line assessment that can help you determine exactly what type of fuel your body will perform best with.  You wouldn’t put regular gasoline into a diesel engine and expect it to run well, if at all.  Similarly, feeding your body the wrong kind of food will slow your metabolism and ruin your performance. 

While there are many other important, physiological factors that contribute to a healthy metabolism and sound performance (such as essential amino acids, essential fatty acids and mineral balance), it is critical that you assess—and optimize—your vitamin D levels and mineral status through the MLP Formulary. Optimal levels of vitamin D heighten the body’s ability to fight stress which, in turn, protects it from becoming insulin resistant and prone to weight gain. 

As with the other assessments previously mentioned, you can order your at-home vitamin D assessment at https://purecleanperformance.com/.

We also highly recommend you also look in to Dr. Cohen's MLP Formulary and our other health tests here

The Highest Bar. Life Elevated. PureClean Performance