Most women that have an Estrogen Dominant Disease such as fibrocystic breast disease, ovarian cysts, endometriosis, adenomyosis, menstrual migraines or menstrual acne also may have weight gain. Progesterone can help you lose weight. Typically the weight gain goes on the belly or the hips. This is because the woman is hypothyroid. Typically thyroid blood tests are normal or slightly below normal. But Estrogen Dominance does NOT affect thyroid hormone levels much. Instead, the Estrogen Dominance affects the thyroid receptor making it less sensitive to thyroid hormone. The end result is the woman is hypothyroid.

Thyroid hormone dictates general metabolism of the person. More thyroid action means more body activity and less fat and less weight. Less thyroid action means less body activity and more fat and more weight.

The end result is that the woman gains weight because she is hypothyroid. And she is hypothyroid because, she is Estrogen Dominant. She is Estrogen Dominant because of anovulatory cycles, and there are phytoestrogens and xenoestrogens in her environment.

Progesterone can help a woman lose weight by balancing out the Estrogen Dominance and waking up the thyroid receptor. The thyroid receptor becomes normal and the hypothyroid condition goes away.

Many times right after the age of 35, the woman begins to have anovulatory cycles. An ovulatory cycle usually consists of an estrogen pulse and then a progesterone pulse. The follicle comes up on the ovary and the follicle produces estradiol. Then, the follicle pops and the egg comes out. The used follicle becomes the corpus luteum and then produces progesterone. So a woman, at the beginning of the cycle the follicle on the ovary produces estradiol, and then the corpus luteum on the ovary produces progesterone.

After the age of 35, most of the time, the woman begin to have anovulatory cycles. An anovulatory cycle is a menstrual cycle where there is no ovulation. The follicle comes up, does NOT pop out an egg, and simply goes back down. There is no corpus luteum produced. The follicle produces estradiol. The corpus luteum produces progesterone. If there is no corpus luteum, then there is no progesterone produced. So after the age of 35, most women do not have progesterone pulses during their menstrual cycles.

As a result, most women begin to become Estrogen Dominant after the age of 35 because they do not have their own progesterone to oppose the effects of their own estradiol. Remember though that it is the synergistic action of xenoestrogens and phytoestrogens and the anovulatory cycles that causes the Estrogen Dominance.

As a result of Estrogen Dominance, women gain fat on the belly and on the hips sometimes very suddenly over a period of several months. The weight gain happens despite dieting and exercise.

The reason why is Estrogen Dominance causes weight gain is that the thyroid receptor becomes less sensitive to thyroid

Many times progesterone can balance out the estradiol pulses, and the woman will lose weight.

If the woman can cut out xenoestrogens and phytoestrogens out of her environment, then this will also help her lose weight. It may be possible, that after cutting out xenoestrogens and phytoestrogens, she may not even need progesterone cream after a while.

Empirically, I have found that after cutting out xenoestrogens and phytoestrogens, it takes about 1-3 months, for the xenoestrogens to wash out of the body.

I had one patient that had breast cysts. She dutifully cut out xenoestrogens and phytoestrogens (environmental estrogens) and took progesterone cream. The breast cyst started to go away. Then she decided to go on a family trip to a Texas Beach. She lived in Michigan. She told me that she had to use sunscreen. Unfortunately, the sunscreen that she used had xenoestrogens. The two week use of sunscreen made her breast cyst blow up to the size of a walnut over a period of two weeks. After coming back to Michigan, she wanted to use the progesteorne cream again. I told her not to use the progesterone cream. She used the progesterone despite my warnings.

The progesterone made her breast cyst bigger. I told her to stop the progesterone and wait 2 months. So she had to wait for two months and then take the progesterone for it to be effective again. The sunscreen took 2 months to wash out of her body.

Progesterone can help you to lose weight. But you must cut out all xenoestrogens and phytoestrogens, and the wash out time is 1-3 months. The weight loss can begin to happen as soon as 1 month but may take up to 3 months to start.

Sometimes progesterone does not work for weight loss and you must consider other factors such as diet and thyroid blockers.

You must first correct the hormone endocrine factors, THEN dieting will work. If you do NOT correct the hormones, then dieting is useless.

After you correct the hormone problems, you can then try the diet. I believe the state of the art dieting program is in the book "Eat More Weigh Less" by Terry Shintani, MD. It is radically different from all other dieting programs. Most dieting programs are calorie limiting diet programs. Eat less calories, and put out more energy and you lose weight. Terry Shintani, MD's approach is much different.

He classifies food into Low Calorie Density food and High Calorie Density food. A Low Calorie Density food is a food that is low calorie with high volume. A High Calorie Density food is a high calorie food with low volume. An example of a low calorie density food would be lettuce, broccoli, or carrots. A low calorie density food means that there is not too many calories, but a high volume. An example of a high calorie density food would be oil or meat. The food has high calories, but low volume.

The diet is simple. Eat as much of the Low Calorie Density food as you like. Eat the High Calorie Density food sparingly.

As the stomach fills up volume wise, you feel full. For instance if you drank alot of water just before dinner, you would feel full. The stomach expands physically, but does not get many calories from water. Since you feel full, the body does not think it is starving and does NOT lower metabolism. Metabolism stays high. You have energy and the weight comes off.

However, if you calorie limit and just eat 1/2 a hamburger for dinner, the stomach is NOT full. The body thinks it is starving. Metabolism drops. You lack energy. The weight does NOT drop. The weight does NOT come off. Despite the pain in "starving" there is no weight loss.

Let me give you an example. Calorie wise 100 cobs of corn are equivalent to a hamburger and a milkshake. To diet using calorie limiting, you would have to eat 1/2 a hamburger and 1/2 a milk shake. But after this, you are hungry. And hunger is a primal drive that is difficult to ignore. Your stomach does NOT expand physically. Your body thinks it is starving and you do NOT lose weight.

Now, let's do the Shintani diet. Eat 20 cobs of corn for dinner instead. 20 cobs of corn is equivalent to 1/5 of a hamburger and a milk shake calorie wise. The stomach expands physically. The body thinks it is NOT starving. Weight comes off effortlessly. Metabolism stays high. Energy stays high. You lose weight even while you sleep. You don't feel hungry because your stomach is physically full.

The Shintani diet is about eating "Low Calorie Density" foods (as much as you want), and keeping the stomach physically full.

So if you want to lose weight, the first thing to do is to correct the hormone imbalance by taking progesterone and avoiding xenoestrogens and phytoestrogens. After 3-6 months of getting your hormones in gear, do the Shintani, MD diet and eat "Low Calorie Density" foods.