I am a personal
trainer who is a 45 year old pre-menopausal woman.
I do cardio 5 times a week and strength train
almost every day. I am training for my first triathlon
in Sept. At the gym where I work, we have a newleaf
metabolic analyzer. I know my RMR and my V02 max.
I train in all my zones every week often times
I run in the morning and bike at night or swim
and run etc. My RMR is 2300 calories and I write
down everything I eat. I try to eat 2700 a day.
I am trying to loose 20 lbs. I weigh 159 and want
to be 140. I am 24% body fat. (with an Omron).
Help!!! What more can I do? Am I eating too much?
not enough? I am on hormone replacement therapy
for testosterone, progesterone and DHEA. I have
a thyroid condition and take cytomel and levoxyl.
All of my hormones are in normal ranges.
Answer:
Well, this is a great example of how there is
more than one piece to the healing puzzle. You
are learning and most of society is as well, that
just exercising and eating right, sometimes just
do not cut it. Not to down play them, because
they are important, but you can see that there
is more to your healing puzzle than just that.
There are a lot of questions within your question,
so I will do my best to answer them in sections.
PHYSICAL STRESS: When it comes to being a triathlon,
overtraining and being in some sort of Adrenal
Fatigue comes with the territory. In the Textbook
of Functional Medicine Thomas Sult in Chap. 24
states that overtraining can actually decrease
sIgA in the gut. This is our first line of defense
against foreign invaders. Without it we decrease
the strength of our immune system, create an environment
for bacteria, parasites and fungus, creates stress
to the adrenal glands, can create hormones imbalances,
and so forth.
When it comes to triathlon training, the main
goal should be adaptation to your many stressors.
This might entail certain types of parasympathetic
exercises, eating high quality organic foods,
drinking plenty of water and eliminating most
of the high lighter colored Gatorade drinking
(replaces them with electrolyte capsules), getting
regular soft tissue work, working with a professional
such as Chris Maund to get proper training, etc.
This will allow you to train effectivly, have
homeostasis within and will create homeostasis
with-out!
HORMONES: At the same time you need to get out
of the mind set the doing more = weight loss.
This is not the case and you are a prime example
of this. When you overtrain or can’t adapt
to the many stressors in your life, your adrenal
glands become overworked. You can end up in one
of three stages of adrenal fatigue, Stage 2 or
3 being very common in triathletes. When our bodies
are stressed, we over produce hormones (typically
cortisol) from the adrenal glands to reduce inflammation
and in order for us to handle our stressors. The
adrenal glands get these signals from the pituitary.
When the adrenals have to over produce cortisol,
a process called pregnenolone steal happens. This
is when pregnenolone (precursor) is stolen from
producing DHEA, testosterone, estrogen and progesterone,
in order to over produce cortisol. This is how
most women develop what is called estrogen dominance
(not enough progesterone to counteract the unwanted
affects of estrogen), from my clinical experience
and testing.
The problem with being estrogen dominant is that
estrogen inhibits T4 to T3 conversion, overloads
the liver, inhibits osteoclasts, increase water
retention, and is produced and stored in fat cells
(these are all symptoms when progesterone is not
there to oppose estrogen). So the more dominant
you are, the body converts more hormonal precursors
(cholesterol and pregnenolone) to cortisol, than
to progesterone. This leads to estrogen dominance,
which leads to excess weight around the midsection
and gluteal cleft area (according to Charles Poliquin,
this is where there are a lot of estrogen receptors).
Estrogen is stored and produces in fat cells.
The more you have or the more dominant you are
with estrogen, the harder it is to loose fat.
Besides this, cortisol is a fat storing hormone
as well. Anytime cortisol goes up, so does insulin,
which is another fat storing hormone.
My recommendation and that is all it is, is to
treat your hormonal issues from the precursors
down, not the end products up. Treating with DHEA
and testosterone, with low precurors, typically
will not do the trick from my experience. You
might feel good when on them, but once off you
will be right back where you started. As for the
progesterone, that is fine, but you need to add
pregnenolone into the mix, which is its precursor
(as well as fats!). You most likely have low testosterone
and DHEA levels because of pregnenolone steal.
I typically recommend bio-dentical progesterone,
secondary to the creams being stored in plastic
bottles (which contain a lot of Xenoestrogens,
lots of synthetic solvents and you can actually
measure how much cream is actually being absorbed
into the body).
As for the thyroid issue, there are a lot of
schools of thought that believe this is actually
the byproduct of an adrenal issue. You have the
HPA (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal) and HPT (hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid)
axis. The thyroid is the master gland of metabolism
and with stress and estrogen dominance, it actually
slows down to protect the body, in simplistic
terms. So treating it head on again, I have seen
little results. Using holistic nutrition and lifestyle
principles and aggressively balancing the adrenals
and progesterone levels is what I have seen to
work to facilitate thyroid function.
Now with all this, what do you do:
1. Follow holistic nutrition and lifestyle principles
(organic foods, eliminating plastics, sleep, water,
right types and amount of exercise and so forth).
As well, refer to my last Q&A on dieting.
2. Read the book How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy
by Paul Chek
3. Read the book The Metabolic Typing Diet by
Bill Wollcott
4. Find a practitioner, such as Dan Kalish, that
can help you balance your hormones with bio-identicals
head on, instead of backwards.
5. Contact Chris Maund who is a professional Endurance
Athlete, skilled Endurance Athlete Practitioner,
as well as has a certification on Endurance training.
Remember, our bodies are 3D representations of
what is going on inside. So you must get healthy
to loose weight, not loose weight to get healthy.
Good luck!
Joshua Rubin
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