What is the Weight Loss Plateau and Why Do Women Get Stuck there?

Women struggle with weight loss more frequently than men because women have hormones often not taken into account when “going on a diet.”t But “Diet” implies a temporary fix, which often turns into reaching a plateau or gaining the weight back.
Instead, the best solution is establishing sustainable, long-term behaviors that will work for you.

Unfortunately, society has taught us that quick fixes are what we need, and these yo-yo diets mess up our metabolism. As a result, women often start dieting in their teen years, messing up their hormones and metabolism for the rest of their lives.

Hormones Working Together

Hormones work together playing different roles in our body, which means if one hormone is off, it will start impacting others. For example, Leptin tells your brain if you have enough fat storage to burn calories at the normal rate. If it’s too high, you are more likely to have insulin resistance and more likely to be overweight. On the other hand, if it’s too low, your body goes into starvation mode, holds on to fat stores, can impact the thyroid, and can even cause fertility issues.

Toxins in the Liver

Leptin can impact the detoxification of the liver. The body can’t distinguish between naturally occurring fructose like fruit sugar and processed high fructose corn syrup. Dr. Gandhi recommends her patients cut out fruit temporarily to help decrease Leptin resistance, reset metabolism, and improve communication between fat cells and the hypothalamus.

Intermittent fasting causes a quick drop in weight, followed by a plateau after the metabolism slows down, and instead of helping Leptin resistance, it hinders it. In addition, stress is not conducive to weight loss. Eating three meals a day even when trying to lose weight will tell your body it’s getting enough nourishment and won’t send it into survival mode to store fat.

Final Tips

Dr. Gandhi recommends regular meals and eating protein in the morning to keep you from getting hungry sooner. Also, cutting out fruit (fructose) temporarily from your diet can decongest the liver and lower Lepin resistance. Dr. Gandhi also recommends moderate exercise, as heavy exercise can put too much stress on the body. Lastly, make sure to manage your stress levels and get good quality sleep. Getting your cortisol down to a normal level will allow other hormones to do what they’re supposed to.

Take control of your weight loss journey and see long-term results by increasing your leptin sensitivty and making long-term and sustainable lifestyle changes!

Guest Bio

Dr. Bindiya Gandhi is double boarded by the American Board of Family Medicine and the American Board of Integrative and Holistic Physicians. Her goal is to help her patients achieve optimal health by incorporating her primary care experience with functional and integrative medicine. In 2017, she opened Revive Atlanta MD to provide her patients with the utmost service and care.

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