How not to get better when you inject hormonal injections. How not to gain weight when taking hormonal. Combined oral contraceptives

Tips - how not to gain weight while taking hormonal drugs

You were prescribed hormonal medications ... And you look at the doctor with horror: after all, this is a sentence for a figure, getting fat from hormones is a couple of trifles! The treatment itself, its effectiveness, the healing process fade into the background. There is a more important concern - weight! And you are seriously thinking about ignoring the advice of a doctor and giving up hormonal in favor of your figure. Sorry, but what about the disease, what to do with it? Especially if it's gynecology?

Problems in gynecology occupy the main place among all the ailments that women suffer from. And many of these problems are solved with the help of hormonal drugs. The average duration of the course of treatment is 6 months (but, of course, the situations are different, depending on the disease)
says the gynecologist of one of the Kyiv clinics Natalia Ivanenko

The possibilities of hormonal drugs, contrary to the "duty" opinion that hormonal pills work only as an oral contraceptive, have a fairly wide spectrum of action. For example:

to regulate the amount of sex hormones;
with a "confused" menstrual cycle;
with premature menopause, that is, the "loss" of menstruation not related to pregnancy (as a rule, this often happens in girls and women who exhaust themselves with diets, "constantly losing weight", anorexia, etc.);
with various problems with the ovaries (for example, hypofunction of the ovaries) and the uterus (for example, a sharp decrease, the so-called shrinkage);
with painful periods (pain in the lower back, in the lower abdomen, accompanied by dizziness, loss of consciousness, etc.);
with complications after childbirth;
for skin problems (pimples, blackheads);
with the appearance of excess hair on the body.

The doctor makes the decision on treatment with hormonal drugs only on the basis of tests (as a rule, this is a set of tests - checking each hormone for the norm) of the patient. And the most common questions are, as a rule, "How much will I get better?", "How not to gain weight?", "Can I replace hormones with something else to avoid the problem of weight gain?". - In fact, the risk of gaining weight with the use of modern hormonal pills is very small. The main thing is to carefully monitor changes in body weight, your emotional state and well-being, and immediately report the slightest deviation from the norm to your doctor.
- says Natalia Ivanovna.

Pay special attention to the fact that you should not endure pain (for example, migraine), put up with discomfort or wait until you gain 10-15 kg, but stubbornly complete the course of treatment ... These deviations indicate that the drug is not suitable for you. Therefore, you need to immediately go to the gynecologist, who will prescribe you an analogue of the drug (that is, tablets with a similar composition aimed at treating your illness, only with a different name and a different manufacturer).

A hormonal remedy should not cause side effects - a sharp weight gain, pain during menstruation, migraines, swelling. The possibility of the appearance of all this is indicated in the instructions, but you can’t put up with it! It is necessary to try, look for "your" drug, select. Today, this is possible thanks to a wide variety of hormonal medications. One of my patients over the course of 6 months gained an extra 15 kg, and then, of course, came with a complaint. But who is to blame for her: she calmly watched all 6 months, how the weight increases, and did not bother to come to the doctor. If she had switched to another drug in time, such a catastrophe with the figure would not have happened.
explains Natalia Ivanovna.

Are you afraid of hormonal figures like an executioner? Observe the following rules:

Weigh yourself regularly (buy a bathroom scale and weigh yourself at least twice a week, if you wish, every day).
Follow the diet (perhaps not hormonal drugs are to blame for weight gain, but your habit of checking the refrigerator at night).
Include physical activity in your daily routine (aerobics, shaping, running, Pilates, yoga, hiking, etc.).
Carefully and strictly control your menu: hormonal intake often provokes an increase in appetite, keep it under control! The motto "Beauty requires sacrifice" in this situation is quite appropriate, especially if the victims are cakes, pastries, chocolate, pasta, fried potatoes, hamburgers, etc.

In some cases, even subject to all the rules, the weight still increases by 1-3 kg. The reason for this may be the accumulation of fluid in the body, on the molecules of which fat accumulates. In this situation, after consulting with your doctor, you can drink herbal diuretic teas (sold in pharmacies labeled "diuretic" or "kidney") or chamomile infusion (fill chamomile flowers with boiling water, after 15 minutes strain through a strainer and drink like tea).
explains Natalia Ivanovna.

Don't want to get fat? Limit or exclude altogether:

fatty food- contributes to the rapid increase in body weight.
Salt- retains fluid in the body.
Snacks(chips, nuts, crackers) - contain a lot of fat, preservatives and dyes.
flour products(buns, pies, pastries, cakes) - even if it were not for hormonal drugs, you know perfectly well how they affect the figure.
Sweets(sweets, chocolate, ice cream) - increase the amount of glucose in the blood.
Legumes(peas, beans, asparagus beans) - causes bloating.
potato b - due to the high content of starch promotes rapid weight gain.
Carbonated drinks(especially lemonade and all its counterparts) - contribute to an increase in body weight. This means that even Diet Coke will have to be abandoned!

Many of the fair sex, whose choice fell on such a method of preventing unwanted pregnancy as oral contraceptives (OC), before starting to take pills, they worry that this can negatively affect their figure. Almost every woman, when prescribing hormonal contraceptives, asks the doctor if they get fat from birth control pills. And their experiences are supported by the stubbornly persistent myth that taking hormonal contraceptives is necessarily complicated by weight gain.

Reading reviews about OK on the Internet, you can identify a number of pressing questions: “I am gaining weight from birth control?”, “I got fat from birth control and stopped taking them ...”, “What birth control pills get better?”. As a rule, the owners of new kilograms are in a hurry to write off weight gain precisely on oral contraceptives, but this is not at all true, since modern hormonal contraceptives contain a much lower dose of hormones that affect weight gain.

In what cases is it possible to get better when taking OK?

What birth control pills make you fat? It is definitely impossible to answer this question, because the body of each woman is individual. Except for a weight gain of 2-3 kilograms, then a properly selected OK drug will not cause obesity and will not spoil the waist and hips.

Questions like these stemmed from earlier use of OCs that were high in estrogen (this is the hormone that causes weight gain). Modern drugs contain almost half the amount of this hormone: if the first contraceptives contained about 50 micrograms of estrogen, then modern drugs contain about 30 micrograms, and low-dose ones - 20-15 micrograms. It is for this reason that modern OK can be used without fear of losing the harmony of the figure.

Is it possible to gain weight from the new generation of contraceptives? Significant weight gain can be observed only with the wrong selection of one or another drug. Only some women get fat from birth control pills in the first months of taking them (by about 2-3 kg), but this increase is reversible, because after a few months of taking the weight stabilizes.

Why do people get fat from contraceptives within 1-2 months of taking them?

Starting taking OK, a woman may notice some changes in her usual way of life:

increased appetite - is the main cause of weight gain, women are advised to follow a diet with a partial restriction in carbohydrates and a restriction in fats in the first months;
excess fluid retention - an analogue of progesterone, which is contained in OK, provokes a slower removal of fluid from the body, if edema is detected, you can use modern diuretics with a minimum of side effects or drink herbal diuretic teas;
hormonal disorders - if weight gain is observed with a diet, normal physical activity and the absence of edema, then weight gain while taking OK may indicate disorders in the thyroid gland and hormonal imbalance, in such cases it is necessary to contact an endocrinologist.

Which birth control pills don't make you fat?

Long-term clinical trials of other OCs have shown that drugs containing 20 micrograms of estrogen do not provoke weight gain, and tablets containing 30 micrograms of estrogen only maintain existing weight.

In some cases, for therapeutic purposes, women can also be prescribed those birth control pills, from which many gain weight. The composition of such drugs includes about 50 micrograms of estrogen.

If earlier, taking high-dose OK, every second woman gained weight, now these outdated drugs are prescribed extremely rarely. The average (up to 30 mcg) and low (up to 20 mcg) dose of estrogen contained in modern contraceptives in 99% of women does not affect body weight in any way. This effect is especially pronounced in monocomponent OKs, which include only a progesterone analogue (unfortunately, these drugs are not suitable for everyone).

What contraceptives can be recovered intentionally?

In some cases, with excessive thinness, women set out to find out if there are birth control pills to get better. Such a desire is generated, as mentioned above, by the well-established myth that taking OK will certainly lead to a set of kilograms. We emphasize once again - the use of modern drugs almost completely eliminates such an illusory hope. Any doctor will answer the question: "Do people get better from contraceptive pills intentionally?" - will answer in the negative.

Preparations with a high content of estrogen-like substances (for example, Anteovin, Ovidon) are prescribed only for therapeutic indications and are used extremely rarely in the practice of a modern gynecologist, in addition to weight gain, they have a number of very negative side effects. OK with an average content of estrogens (Regulon, Silest, Jeanine, Diane-35 Chloe, Microgenon, etc.) can cause weight gain only against the background of a deliberate desire to get better, they can also "keep weight" within the limits in which it was initially (at the time of the start of data reception OK). In other cases, weight gain can be observed only by those women who have not correctly selected one or another drug to prevent unwanted pregnancy or treat a gynecological disease.

Gynecologists and endocrinologists recommend that women do not torture themselves with questions about whether it is possible to recover from contraceptives. Follow all the doctor's recommendations when prescribing hormonal OK. A competent doctor will definitely warn his patient about the possible appearance of those symptoms that indicate a possible mistake in the selection of the drug. If they are identified, you should consult a doctor to find out the cause of the appearance of certain side effects and decide whether to cancel or replace OK with another drug.

Many girls who plan to start taking hormonal drugs are wondering: “Will I get fat?” The most terrible side effect of taking hormonal birth control pills is the inevitable weight gain. Surely, every girl has in her arsenal a vivid example of how some slender young lady, after taking hormonal drugs, turned into a “creepy fat woman”.

Causes of weight gain while taking hormonal drugs

Now, of course, we will never understand who and when began to invent scary stories about the inevitability of weight gain, but it can be assumed that this is due to the fact that the first hormonal preparations contained a fairly high dose of the hormone estrogen, almost twice as much as in medicines that are available today at the pharmacy. Because of this, various metabolic problems arose in the female body, in the form of a metabolic disorder, which led to the accumulation of fat in the abdomen and, in fact, to the fact that weight was gained.

With the development of pharmaceuticals, the study of the effect of hormonal drugs on the female body continued, the dose of estrogen was reduced, and, along with this, the number of possible side effects also decreased. Recent scientific studies have revealed that modern drugs do not affect the carbohydrate metabolism of the female body in any way, and, therefore, do not provoke unwanted weight gain.

Provocative factors of weight gain on hormonal contraceptives

To understand how not to gain weight on hormonal drugs, consider the reasons why birth control pills that do not contain any calories can upset us when weighing unnecessary kilograms:

fluid retention in the body. Any hormonal preparation contains an analogue of progesterone, which can contribute to a slight fluid retention in the body. This is associated with the appearance of edema, which can be perceived as weight gain, but in fact it is excess fluid. In order not to gain weight, in pharmacies you can buy drugs that have a slight diuretic effect, which avoids the accumulation of excess fluid in the body.

Increased appetite. Any hormonal pills, unfortunately, increase appetite, which can be the cause of weight gain. If you keep a balance between consumption and expenditure of calories, then they will be easily processed into energy, while maintaining a passive lifestyle, they can be deposited with additional kilograms. Therefore, women should follow a diet, limiting themselves in fats and, in part, in carbohydrates.

Endocrinological disorders. If, while taking hormonal drugs, you eat right, keep a balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, lead an active lifestyle, but still gain weight, then this is a good reason to contact an endocrinologist to examine the thyroid gland, a decrease in function of which may be manifested by an increase in weight body. Other symptoms of hormonal imbalance can also be a tendency to infections and increased fatigue.

How not to gain weight on hormonal drugs?

From the foregoing, we can draw the following conclusion: a woman with normal health, who eats properly and rationally, leads an active lifestyle, can safely start taking hormonal drugs to prevent an unplanned pregnancy, without fear of spoiling her figure with extra pounds.

The main thing is that before you start drinking OK, you need to consult a gynecologist who will advise the best solution and, possibly, prescribe some preliminary tests.

We all strive to lose weight quickly and easily. But someone succeeds without difficulty, and someone sweats for years in the gym, exhausts himself with diets, and at the same time the weight decreases slightly. If both spouses, husband and wife, lose weight, men usually get in shape faster, leading a woman to upset feelings.

Why does this happen, what determines weight loss and weight gain? First of all, the main cause of excess weight is hormones, or rather, metabolic disorders and hormonal balance of the body. That is, your first action in losing weight is a trip to the endocrinologist.

What are the causes of obesity?

Science knows a lot of factors that affect excess weight. Of course, they include both immobility and binge eating , and stress, heredity plays an important role, but many of the body's hormones responsible for metabolism play a significant role.

If you understand the mechanisms of action of these hormones, you can significantly reduce the likelihood of developing obesity in your body.

Many believe that excess weight arises from the fact that with food we get more nutrients and energy than we are able to absorb and use them, and this is true. In addition, many people think that to get rid of excess fat, you only need to eat less and spend more, and then you will begin to lose weight very quickly - but this is only partly true.

The body is a zealous host, if once it was shown how much to eat, it will remember it forever. If later he is deliberately deprived of food, he will “fill his bins” by hook or by crook, since a decrease in food intake is stress for the body: difficult times have come, the owner is starving him, which means you need to make stash for a rainy day .

He tries in every possible way to regain a state of blissful peace and prosperity (even with excess) food. Therefore, you eat less, and the weight is worth or even increases. This program is carried out by hormones, the guardians of the well-being of every bodily, including fat, cell.

Hormones start to increase your appetite, slow down the metabolism in the body, sending fats in reserve, which allows them to return the weight to its previous point despite your efforts.

The role of female hormones

The figure of a woman differs significantly from that of a man, this is due to female hormones and female-type fat deposition. Basically, the chest, buttocks, legs and stomach, arms and face to a lesser extent become fat. Nature designed it to carry a baby, she stores subcutaneous fat to cushion the blows and expend energy on the formation of breast milk.

The whole truth about excess weight from hormones

Female hormones are of the greatest importance during critical periods - when the body enters the stage of puberty, then excess nutrition will immediately be deposited in typically female places, thanks to estrogen. In addition, the body will fix such a program of weight gain and body type, and in all periods of a woman’s life she will strive for it.

Estrogens will have the greatest effect already at age after forty , especially if you like sweet and fatty, fried. Then the body prepares for menopause , and he stores his strength in the form of fat. Fat women endure menopause more easily than their thin girlfriends, so the body tends to be overweight.

What hormones affect weight?

One of the main "fatty" hormones is rightfully leptin. This hormone responds to the amount of fat in the cells, and if the amount of fat is reduced, low levels of leptin dramatically increase your appetite and metabolism. If there are a lot of fats in the cells, an increase in the concentration of leptin in the blood tells the brain - “enough eating!”.

Leptin is an excellent appetite regulator in healthy people, but sometimes our brain becomes deaf, its receptors become clogged with other substances, and it does not hear the increase in leptin levels. Then morbid obesity is formed.

Another hormone that plays an important role in fat metabolism is insulin produced by the pancreas. Due to it, fat accumulates in all places. It inhibits the activity of fat-splitting enzymes, helps the transformation of excess sugar into fat and its deposition in cells. When you consume sweets, the level of insulin rises sharply, which means that the transformation of sweets into extra pounds on your sides is activated.

play an important role in fat metabolism thyroid hormones(produced by the thyroid gland), they are activators of fat breakdown. With their insufficiency, hypothyroidism occurs - a disease in which the deposition of fat increases, people become very and unevenly stout. But with hyperthyroidism, or Basedow's disease, on the contrary, there is a strong emaciation.

Promote weight loss growth hormone growth hormone, it activates the secretion of fat cells and their breakdown. Another fat-burning hormone is considered testosterone- with its lack, men become stout, become decrepit in muscles and lose masculine strength.

Why do systems fail?

People themselves are largely to blame for this: they test the strength of their metabolic systems by eating too much fatty foods, and when the regulatory systems wear out and refuse to work, an avalanche-like disease occurs - obesity.

How can you still lose weight?

People with problems in insulin metabolism and leptin levels need to lose weight very slowly, combining a low-calorie diet with moderate (but not debilitating) exercise. Thus, you will convince the body that you should not put off fats for the future, as you need them now.

In other words, it is worth accepting the concept: “Now I will always eat like this, and always train,” - then the body will slowly but surely part with its fats. Over the years, the level of insulin receptors decreases, and year by year it is necessary to teach yourself to eat less.

In general, of course, hormones significantly affect metabolism and fat deposition, but your figure, ultimately, depends on your behavior. If you do not overeat, there will be nothing to store in reserve even with the help of hormones.

Alena PARETSKAYA

Hormonal therapy (contraceptives or medical therapy) is always fraught with weight gain. Following a few rules will help to avoid problems with being overweight.

Why do hormones get better

A couple of decades ago, hormonal contraceptives led to the appearance of excess weight in almost all women. This is due to the “horse” doses of hormones that the first generation pills contained. Modern pharmaceuticals have stepped far ahead and modern contraceptive pills contain a minimum amount of hormones. Nevertheless, complaints about problems with the figure did not become much less. One of the reasons for this is the independent choice of contraceptives. Remember: the female hormonal system is extremely delicate and experiments on it can be very expensive. Be sure to consult your doctor!

The second reason for weight gain when taking hormonal drugs is quite objective: by directly affecting the metabolic processes and the endocrine system, hormonal pills increase the feeling of hunger. Not knowing about this property of hormonal contraceptives, women are unable to consciously resist the active production of the hunger hormone ghrelin in their bodies. Increased appetite is explained for itself by a variety of reasons, and the result becomes predictable.

What to do? Having received a doctor's appointment to take hormonal drugs, be sure to rebuild your nutrition system. Eat 5-6 meals a day, but in very small portions. Such a diet “slows down” the production of grenaline and saves your figure from the appearance of extra pounds.

Keep your balance of vitamins and minerals under control

Another negative property of hormonal drugs is the ability to increase the consumption and excretion of vitamins and minerals from the body. This factor very much depends on the age, weight of the woman, her physical activity, general health. Deficiency of vitamins and minerals can cause a feeling of "I want something" and provoke extraordinary meals. Your doctor may recommend a diet high in vitamin C, calcium, zinc, iron, chromium, folic acid, selenium, or vitamin E, or prescribe medications containing these.

What foods are incompatible with hormone therapy

Due to the reduced ability of the body to process simple sugars under the influence of hormones, it is necessary to practically eliminate foods with a high glycemic index from the diet. These are any products made from white flour, sugar, beer. The consumption of potatoes, white peeled rice, fatty meats, sausages, sausages, cheeses, carbonated drinks and foods with artificial additives (preservatives, dyes, flavor enhancers) should also be minimized. After all, hormones increase the body's sensitivity to any non-natural products. And what could previously go unnoticed, against the background of taking hormonal drugs, can result in a problem.

Drink more water

Often, women, fearing the accumulation of fluid in the cells of their body, reduce the amount of water they drink during the day. In no case should this be done: feeling a lack of moisture, the human body gives the command to create its reserves. A paradoxical situation arises: the fluid in the cells accumulates not due to excess, but due to its lack. Drink at least 1.5-2 liters of water per day (30 ml per 1 kg of body weight).

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