Adrenal Fatigue
and
Weight Loss

"Adrenal fatigue is another reason why some people cannot lose weight."

To understand, let’s go over your what your adrenal glands are, what hormones they produce and what they do.

The most well know adrenal hormone is adrenaline. It is the hormone that starts the body fat breakdown process when you exercise.

There are other hormones like pregnenolone and DHEA that play vital roles in your general health. There are numerous hormones that are produced by the adrenal glands and each has its purpose.

The problem with adrenal fatigue is that when the adrenals get taxed and are taxed for extended periods of time, all the adrenal glands lower except for one - cortisol

Two Problems With It

So there are two problems with adrenal fatigue: First is that the other adrenal hormones drop which make you less able to deal with the stress in the first place, second, the excess cortisol damages your health and body but being elevated for so long and make it even harder to recover from the fatigue.

Stages of Adrenal Fatigue

First, over-stimulation occurs. Then overproduction of cortisol occurs.
Overproduction of cortisol: As you know from "Hormones and Weight Gain" and "Cortisol" it is a destructive hormone when in excess.

When the adrenals are overtaxed for a long period of time, like any other body organ, they start to get fatigued and breakdown.

Here is a graph that shows this progression and how they relate to cortisol and other adrenal hormones.

The current model used to evaluate the response to stress is that there are three stages of response:¹

Alarm is the first stage. This is what we are familiar with everyday. Being late for work, having a fight with a spouse, etc. There is a rise in energy to deal with the situation. Here you get a small spike in cortisol but then this will go down once you have dealt with the situation

Resistance is the second stage. If the stressor persists, the nervous system starts to attempt adaptation to this stress. The problem is that by the very nature of the level of stress that is persisting, it is at a force and/or velocity to outrun the nervous system’s ability to adapt. This is a stage of hormonal imbalance where you have nutrients being robbed from one part of the body to support others; thus starting a viscous cycle that gets progressively worse in greater amounts over time.

All the symptoms that I will be describing below of excess cortisol happen in this stage.

Failure is the third and final stage. All of the body's resources are eventually depleted and the body is unable to maintain normal function. At this point the initial symptoms of being threatened occur but without the stressor needing to be present (sweating, raised heart rate etc.).

If stage three is extended, long term damage to the body may result as the capacity of the glands, especially the adrenal gland, and the immune system is exhausted and function is impaired resulting in reduced function.

The result can manifest itself in obvious illnesses such as ulcers, depression, diabetes, trouble with the digestive system or even cardiovascular problems, along with other mental illnesses.

Focus on the Resistance Stage

The resistance phase is what I am addressing here in my method. Something can still be done about this. This is the phase most people are in.

With adrenal failure, I can help with some of these cases but it needs to be on a one-on-one basis.

Fat Distribution Is A Telling Sign

Fat is NOT evenly distributed throughout the body. Most fat is in the midsection and belly.²

There is facial fat,³ especially under the face. Some people that had chiseled facial features, after time in this condition, can develop into a moon face. An example of this conversion is Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor.

There is also fat on the upper back and below the neck.^4,5

How It Stops Weight Loss

Adrenal fatigue is a barrier to weight loss for many because of a few specific reasons:

First there is so much cortisol in the system. This excess cortisol sets off a chain reaction that prevents body fat from being used for fuel.

Sugar Fuel Instead of Fat Fuel

Your body, when there is excess cortisol for prolonged periods of time ,will only use sugar for energy.

This is why you feel exhausted all the time and why you crave quick foods all the time.

Cortisol causes muscle to be broken down for food within your body. Your thigh and butt muscles are the most dense muscles so they are used as a resource for protein. People with prolonged adrenal fatigue have think leg muscle and weak butt muscles.

Until this adrenal fatigue is resolved, the high levels of cortisol will prevent body fat from being used.

Cortisol also causes dehydration of the cells. My book goes over the details of how this happens but to keep it short, it causes needed minerals to be urinated on a continuous basis and this demineralization stops water from being used by the cells.

Water is what breaks apart fat molecules to be converted to energy. When water cannot be used by the cells, fat cannot be broken down.

Instead it is muscle that is broken down. Executives, mothers and athletes tend to fall into this category.

Unbalanced Estrogen

There is another effect of adrenal fatigue and that is Estrogen Dominance.

Progesterone is a hormone that works with estrogen. There is a ratio of progesterone and Estrogen that is optimal. When there is too little progesterone, the body then has too much estrogen. This is one of the ways that estrogen dominance occurs and causes fat storage in the hips and thighs.

Women who had fat deposits on the hips and thighs and then went through menopause then additionally started getting body fat in the midsection, they are currently having a form of adrenal fatigue and it is exhibiting itself now that the ovaries are not producing estrogen and progesterone anymore.

After menopause the adrenals are thrown into overdrive to produce hormones that the ovaries used to.

Intense Exercise

If you are in this category of hormone imbalance intense exercise and low calorie diet will cause you to feel worse and lose more muscle. Exercise is just seen as more stress and more cortisol is released. Your diet and exercise program has to gradually get you up to a strong state so that you can have a fat burning body.

Metabolism Makeover

I have designed a specific road map to recover from this and successful lose weight by healing the adrenals and thus lowering cortisol. All other methods I reviewed and tried, even when they recognize the problem as so eager to give quick results, only focus on lowering cortisol or manipulating cortisol without addressing the reason why cortisol is so high in the first place.

If you have adrenal fatigue or signs of it, don't worry the plan and solution to solve that so you can lose weight is in my book, Metabolism Makeover. Solving it should be part of a comprehensive weight loss program that focuses of restoring health first to lose weight. Knowing how to use it will save you time, money and hassle because you don't have anymore guess work. I lay it out for you. It is all in this book. If you are interested check out Metabolism Makeover.

Got a Question? Ask Me Here!

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References