Weight Gain: Is it Hormones or Habits

With the new year, many people often set resolutions to lose weight. While many lifestyle factors contribute to weight gain, there are also underlying medical issues that can make it more difficult for some people to lose weight. A person’s weight is largely the result of their lifestyle, but there are a lot of endocrine problems that can lead to a lifestyle that encourages an unhealthy weight.

How Hormones Impact Weight

The endocrine system is a collection of glands that secrete hormones, which are the chemicals that control the body. They control the metabolism, determine how quickly people grow, and generally guide the rest of the body’s systems. That is a complicated process, and there are a lot of ways for it to go wrong.

Hormone imbalances can make it easy to gain weight. That can be due to a direct impact on the digestive system, but it is even more likely for a hormone disorder to lead to lifestyle changes that make it hard to stay healthy.

Common Disorders

There are several hormone disorders that can lead to weight gain, but there are a few that stand out, because they are relatively common and because people rarely realize that hormones can cause these problems.

Hypothyroidism is one of the most common disorders that can cause weight gain. It occurs when the thyroid gland produces too little of the thyroid hormone, which is responsible for guiding the metabolism. People who have this disorder develop slower metabolisms, which tends to cause weight gain.

Why Habits Matter

Fat is a tool that the body uses to store energy. It cannot create that energy out of nowhere. It can only get that energy from food. Our bodies use that energy to power every other process. If we have more energy than we need, it goes into storage.