I used to work as a very tired personal trainer (I was one of the ones who didn't use stimulants), I trained pretty much every day splitting it up so as to theoretically get rest. So, I'm in a pretty good position to recognise fatigue as I've been there, done that, and even used to wear a T-Shirt that said 'Personal Trainer' on it despite being fit to drop. Luckily for all my clients I became a smart ass. While this put me out of favor with the gym I worked at, it allowed me to learn what YOU really need to meet your health and fitness targets.
I used to regularly see gym members burning themselves out getting no results year in year out. I still see it via Facebook and Twitter, they do cardio and strength train every other day, often more, so why won't it work? Often they are gym staff! Despite all this they still don't lose weight. What more can they do?
Are they eating too much? Rarely! The most usual person I'd see would be middle aged women who do all the classes every morning and then break for a coffee and piece of cake (often sat with the class instructor) Often these women are on hormone replacement therapy. If your on HRT its a sign that we need to sit down and re-evaluate things, not engage in mindless exercise.
When it comes to (over) draining, Adrenal Fatigue comes with the territory. In the Textbook of Functional Medicine, Thomas Sult (Chapter 24) states that overtraining can actually decrease sIgA in the gut, which is our first line of defense against foreign invaders. Without it our immune system is weakened, this create an environment for bacteria, parasites and fungus. This stresses the adrenal glands leading to hormones imbalances.
Most peoples mind set is that doing more results in weight loss. This is not the case, gym members would be having massive success all over the country otherwise. When you overtrain or have too much stress your adrenal glands become overworked. You can end up in one of three stages of adrenal fatigue. Remember overtraining doesn't just mean your doing some Rocky killer program. If your not eating enough energy for your normal day, your not eating enough to train. Therefore your overtraining, or as I call it, draining!
When stressed (this includes dehydration, over training, under nourishment, low calorie, low carb etc), we over produce hormones from the adrenal glands to reduce inflammation and in order for us to handle the stress. When the adrenals over produce cortisol, all hell breaks lose in your body and a cycle of continual stress perpetuates. To cut a long story short this has the potential to causes estrogen dominance and a lack of progesterone to counter it.
The problem with being estrogen dominant is that estrogen inhibits T4 to T3 conversion (thyroid hormones), which overloads your liver, increases water retention, and is produced and stored in fat cells. So the more dominant you are, i.e too much estrogen and not enough progesterone to counter it means the body potentially converts more cholesterol (we've already covered in a previous post that this is the good guy) and pregnenolone to cortisol, than to progesterone. If your confused then to put it simply this is less than ideal.
Key signs such as excess weight around the midsection and gluteal area. The more you have or the more dominant you are with estrogen, the harder it is to loose fat.
So, what do you do now??
Get tested by me and do as I suggest.
Find a practitioner, such as myself, that can help you balance your hormones naturally. Sadly attempting to use bio-identicals hormones frequently has little effect. Remove the problem rather than supplementing.
Get specific help with your exercise and health program. Remember I see lots of trainers and coaches who are confused about their failing efforts (credit to them for seeking advice though and not just lumbering on). If they don't know how would you know?
I used to regularly see gym members burning themselves out getting no results year in year out. I still see it via Facebook and Twitter, they do cardio and strength train every other day, often more, so why won't it work? Often they are gym staff! Despite all this they still don't lose weight. What more can they do?
Are they eating too much? Rarely! The most usual person I'd see would be middle aged women who do all the classes every morning and then break for a coffee and piece of cake (often sat with the class instructor) Often these women are on hormone replacement therapy. If your on HRT its a sign that we need to sit down and re-evaluate things, not engage in mindless exercise.
When it comes to (over) draining, Adrenal Fatigue comes with the territory. In the Textbook of Functional Medicine, Thomas Sult (Chapter 24) states that overtraining can actually decrease sIgA in the gut, which is our first line of defense against foreign invaders. Without it our immune system is weakened, this create an environment for bacteria, parasites and fungus. This stresses the adrenal glands leading to hormones imbalances.
Most peoples mind set is that doing more results in weight loss. This is not the case, gym members would be having massive success all over the country otherwise. When you overtrain or have too much stress your adrenal glands become overworked. You can end up in one of three stages of adrenal fatigue. Remember overtraining doesn't just mean your doing some Rocky killer program. If your not eating enough energy for your normal day, your not eating enough to train. Therefore your overtraining, or as I call it, draining!
When stressed (this includes dehydration, over training, under nourishment, low calorie, low carb etc), we over produce hormones from the adrenal glands to reduce inflammation and in order for us to handle the stress. When the adrenals over produce cortisol, all hell breaks lose in your body and a cycle of continual stress perpetuates. To cut a long story short this has the potential to causes estrogen dominance and a lack of progesterone to counter it.
The problem with being estrogen dominant is that estrogen inhibits T4 to T3 conversion (thyroid hormones), which overloads your liver, increases water retention, and is produced and stored in fat cells. So the more dominant you are, i.e too much estrogen and not enough progesterone to counter it means the body potentially converts more cholesterol (we've already covered in a previous post that this is the good guy) and pregnenolone to cortisol, than to progesterone. If your confused then to put it simply this is less than ideal.
Key signs such as excess weight around the midsection and gluteal area. The more you have or the more dominant you are with estrogen, the harder it is to loose fat.
So, what do you do now??
Get tested by me and do as I suggest.
Find a practitioner, such as myself, that can help you balance your hormones naturally. Sadly attempting to use bio-identicals hormones frequently has little effect. Remove the problem rather than supplementing.
Get specific help with your exercise and health program. Remember I see lots of trainers and coaches who are confused about their failing efforts (credit to them for seeking advice though and not just lumbering on). If they don't know how would you know?
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