Balance Your Metabolic Health According To Your Body Shape

And what it tells you about your hormones . .

• Do you find yourself gaining weight easily, or struggling to balance your weight alongside your hormones? 

• Are you frustrated with trying to exercise and eat well, but not seeing any results? 

Weight and metabolic health is a dynamic system, an orchestra, and key players in maintaining overall health and well-being. Beyond weight, the studies abound linking metabolic inflammation to increased rates of heart disease, dementia, fatigue, disrupted sleep, hormonal disruption, cancer propagation, and cellular aging. 

Too often, the focus on weight loss and metabolic health completely misses the target. Losing weight and reducing metabolic inflammation is more than just calories and exercise. It is about balancing the background hormones (like insulin, estrogen, thyroid), detoxification, gut health, diet, and lifestyle.

Understanding your body shape can provide valuable insights into your metabolic tendencies, enabling you to target your efforts for balancing your metabolic health for effective results. 

Abdominal Weight 

Also know as, the round, apple, or the spare tire in the pesky mid section

This mid section weight is a product of cortisol dysfunction, stress, and insulin imbalance. Stress is any type of stress or fight & flight response. That can mean mental, emotional, or physical (inflammation, mycotoxin exposure, environmental toxins).

This type can also see:

• Fatigue

• Brain fog

• Low libido

• Disrupted sleep: inability to fall asleep or stay asleep

• Crashing after meals

• Anxiety, depression, OCD tendencies

• Trouble focusing

• Low libido

Thighs and Butt

Also know as, the pear, inverted triangle, or hourglass.

This region of weight can be a product of estrogen imbalance. We see this in state of high estrogen, low progesterone, high exogenous estrogens (ex. Plastics built up in the body tissue), long term use of birth control, poor estrogen detox, estrobolome, sluggish liver, GI dysbiosis. 

You can also have:

• Heavy menstrual cramps

• Heavy  menstrual bleeing with clots

• PMS

• Breast tenderness and swollen breat tissue

• Acne

• Fibroids

• Endometriosis

Overall weight gain

Also known as the triangle.

Overall weight gain is associated with hypothyroidism. You can still have the overall weight gain thyroid levels trending in range on your blood work. That means that your thyroid is not functioning optimally and needs to be addressed.

When you are hypothyroid, you can also experience:

• Fatigue

• Cold hands and feet

• Thinning hair

• Constipation

• Joint and muscle pain

• Depression

• Irregular menstrual cycles

• infertility

We are going to dive into how to specifically address each body type for improving weight balance and lowering metabolic inflammation in next week’s Thrive Live. 

But overall, there are key points that you want to address and bring back into balance to maximize your weight loss and metabolic health:

1. Improve the quality of your sleep. You can’t lose weight without quality sleep.

2. Balance the diet: Focus on consuming a variety of nutrient-dense foods, including fresh fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy fats. Avoid excessive intake of processed foods, sugary beverages, and refined carbohydrates, as they can disrupt metabolism and lead to weight gain.

3. Regular exercise: There is a balance between what type of exercises do the best for what body type, which we will get into Thrive Live. But in general, get up and get moving!

4. Reduce stress: Start journaling, meditating, going for walks. Step away from the busy world for a moment. Chronic stress can disrupt hormonal balance and negatively impact metabolism. Incorporate stress-reducing practices into your daily routine, such as meditation, yoga, deep breathing exercises, or spending time in nature.

5. Hydration: Staying adequately hydrated is essential for a healthy metabolism. Water plays a role in various metabolic processes, and dehydration can lead to a sluggish metabolism. Aim to drink enough water throughout the day to support your body's natural functions.

For more details on specifically what types of exercise, diet, supplements, and treatment are effective for each unique body type, join Thrive Live. We will be going into depth this upcoming month. Recording will be available for anyone to watch later, at your convenience.

Understanding your body shape and its impact on metabolic health can be a valuable step towards achieving a balanced and healthy lifestyle. By embracing effective treatments tailored to your specific needs, you can support your metabolism, optimize your body's functioning, and promote overall well-being. Remember that every body is unique, so it's essential to listen to your body's cues and consult with a healthcare professional before making significant changes to your diet or exercise routine.

Getting Help

Join Thrive Live!

Thrive Live delivers micro-lessons that are convenient, quick to access, deliver real connection and authentic engagement, all to get you feeling healthy and confident with natural root cause based solutions to get you back to thriving.

With so many irons in the fire, we need simple, reliable steps that are easy to implement for long lasting results.The bite sized lessons allow you to get the key points then get on with your day in 5-10min. Join Thrive Live and access it from the web or app.

Joint Thrive Tribe for personalized care

If you are struggling with hormonal weight and want to get to the root cause so you can get back to living, Thrive Tribe is for you. Work 1:1 with Dr. Jennifer Abercrombie to get individualized functional medicine testing, a personalized nutrition and lifestyle plan, virtual consultations, and unlimited support. Apply to become a patient here.