Estrogen and weight gain

One of the most frequent problems that occur in women today is the gaining of weight or obesity, and one should know that there are many other reasons that lead to this condition apart from physical inactivity and too much fatty oily food. There are cases when women notice the weight gain although they have not changed the diet, and this can be very distressful for those women who pay attention to their look, but also for those who take care about their health since obesity can cause various health problems. One of the causes for the unexplained weight gain is the female sex hormone estrogen.

Estrogen and weight gain in women

Estrogen and the increasing of the body weight are directly proportional. When the estrogen levels rise, it also means the increase in the body weight. This happens because the enormous amounts of estrogen have a great impact on the growth of adipose or fat tissues, especially in the waist and thighs. Furthermore, the weight gain in women can be noticed in the belly, lower butt and in the back of the arms.

Causes of increased estrogen

There are several reasons that are responsible for the increasing of the levels of estrogen in the woman’s body, such as, menopause, contraceptive pills and hypothyroidism, or inactive thyroid gland.

Menopause is a condition that typically occurs in women between 35 and 55 years of age. This period is characterized by many hormonal changes and fluctuation and in this period every attempt to control the body weigh is almost impossible. This is the period in the woman’s life when the overall change of the body shape occurs. The levels of estrogen tend to drop rapidly in this period and because of that, women stop ovulating. However, the fat cells are able to create estrogen and the body starts to convert the calories into fat in order to increase the levels of estrogen. Since the fat cells do not burn the calories, they accumulate and thus weigh gain occurs.Furthermore, it is proven in some studies that those women who consume contraceptive pills are susceptible to gaining weight due to the high estrogen levels in the pills. The child birth control pills cause water retention and salt retention in the body causing thus weight gain and swelling.Low thyroid gland or hypothyroidism is also a cause for the occurrence of high levels of estrogen in a woman’s body. The thyroid hormones and estrogen have the opposite roles and therefore, when the levels of the thyroid hormones are low, the levels of estrogen are high and thus cause weight gain.