The 5 Fat-Storing Hormones You Must Fix to Finally Lose Weight (And How to Fix Them)

Have you ever felt like your body is working against you? Like no matter what diet you try or how hard you exercise, the scale refuses to budge—or worse, the weight keeps creeping up?

Friend, it’s NOT your fault. Your hormones are running the show, whether you realize it or not.

Today, we’re diving deep into the five biggest hormone culprits that are keeping you in fat-storage mode—and exactly what you can do to flip the switch back to fat-burning mode.

If this is your first time reading the Thinlicious blog, here’s what you should know about me: I’m a 46-year-old woman—ALMOST 47—who struggled with my weight and health for ten long years, failing at diet after diet, until I finally decided to take a radically different approach.

Instead of starting yet another diet, I started researching. And I quickly learned that almost everything we’ve ever been told about health and weight loss, about what makes us lose weight and what makes us gain, is totally wrong. We’ve been lied to for the last 70 years. And it’s had a devastating effect on our health.

So I changed the way I ate. I stopped focusing on calories and started worrying about HORMONES. And I lost 49 pounds without dieting or Ozempic or making myself miserable, and now I’ve kept that weight off for years.

But that journey changed me. Frankly, I’m still a little pissed that I struggled for SO long when I didn’t have to, and my goal now is to help as many other women as possible find out the truth. I’m obsessed with helping women over 40—like you—ditch the crap holding you back and find real freedom through transforming your health.

And that’s what this podcast is all about: a health revolution that’s not about quick fixes or drugs, but real, lasting change.

So now you know what you’re getting yourself into, and you have a little more context for why I care so much about this topic!

Let me ask you something. Have you ever felt like you’re doing everything right but getting nowhere?

Maybe you’re counting every calorie, working out till you’re exhausted, cutting carbs like they’re poison—and still, the scale either doesn’t budge or worse, creeps up.

I know that feeling because I lived it for a decade. For ten years, I tried everything – Weight Watchers, green smoothies, cabbage soup, keto, Noom, intermittent fasting. I’d lose a little weight, then gain it all back, plus a few extra pounds for good measure.

And each time, I blamed myself. I thought I just didn’t have enough willpower. That I was weak. That I just needed to try harder.

Sound familiar?

The truth is, for women over 40 especially, traditional weight loss advice like “eat less, move more” is completely worthless. It’s not about willpower or discipline. It’s about your hormones.

When I finally figured this out—when I stopped calorie-counting and started hormone-balancing—everything changed. The weight literally started falling off. I dropped 49 pounds and have kept it off for years now.

And I’m not the only one. In our Thin Adapted System, we see women who have spent decades struggling with their weight suddenly start losing it—consistently, sustainably—once they fix their hormones.

So if you’ve been beating yourself up, thinking you just don’t have what it takes to lose weight—stop. Your hormones are running the show, and until you fix them, the deck is stacked against you.

Now, let’s dig into the science of what’s really happening in your body—because once you understand it, you’ll never look at weight loss the same way again.

There are five major hormone players that determine whether your body stores fat or burns it. When these are out of balance—which, let me tell you, they are for about 90% of women over 40—your body is essentially locked in fat-storage mode.

No amount of calorie-cutting can override that biological programming. So let’s break down each hormone and exactly what you need to do to fix it.

1. Insulin – The Fat-Storage King

First up is insulin, and this is the big one. If there’s one hormone you absolutely must get under control, it’s insulin.

Here’s why: insulin is essentially the key that unlocks your fat cells. When insulin levels are high, your body is in fat-storage mode. It’s literally impossible to burn fat when your insulin is elevated.

And guess what? The standard American diet keeps insulin levels chronically high. All those “healthy” whole grains, fruit smoothies, low-fat yogurts? They’re spiking your insulin all day long.

Dr. Benjamin Bikman, who wrote the book “Why We Get Sick,” explains that insulin has one primary job: to remove excess glucose from your bloodstream. When you eat carbs and sugar, insulin rises to clear that glucose away, storing it as fat for “later use.” The problem is, for most of us, later never comes because we keep eating in a way that keeps insulin high.

So how do you know if your insulin is out of whack? Look for these signs:

• Stubborn belly fat that won’t budge no matter what
• Constant cravings, especially for sweets or carbs
• Energy crashes after meals
• Brain fog and difficulty concentrating
• Feeling hungry soon after eating

Sound like you? I bet it does, because insulin resistance affects about 80% of American adults, according to a 2020 study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. And for women over 40, it’s even higher.

When I was first researching how to fix my own weight issues, understanding insulin was my biggest aha moment. I realized I’d been eating in a way that kept my insulin chronically elevated for decades—all those “healthy” vegetarian meals full of whole grains and fruit that I thought were good for me were actually keeping me fat.

Getting insulin under control is the foundation of hormone balance. It’s like the domino that, when fixed, helps all the other hormones fall into place. And the results can be dramatic—I lost my first 15 pounds just by focusing on controlling insulin.

2. Cortisol – The Stress Hormone That Packs on Pounds

Let’s talk about the second major hormone that’s probably keeping you stuck: cortisol.

Cortisol is your body’s primary stress hormone. It’s designed to help you in fight-or-flight situations by releasing glucose into your bloodstream for quick energy.

That’s great if you’re running from a bear. Not so great when you’re sitting in traffic, stressing about work deadlines, or lying awake at 3 AM worrying about your teenager.

The problem is, we’re living in a chronically stressed-out state. Our cortisol is elevated all the time. And when cortisol stays high, it does several things that make weight loss nearly impossible:

First, it signals your body to hold onto fat—especially around your midsection—as a protective measure. That’s why stress and belly fat go hand in hand.

Second, it increases your appetite, particularly for high-calorie comfort foods. That’s why you crave ice cream or chips after a stressful day, not salad.

Third, it interferes with sleep, and poor sleep further messes with your hunger hormones (which we’ll get to in a minute).

Fourth, it raises your blood sugar, which—you guessed it—triggers insulin to rise as well. So now you’ve got a double whammy of fat-storing hormones working against you.

According to a study published in the journal Obesity, women with higher cortisol levels gained more weight over time, even when controlling for other factors. And here’s the kicker: dieting itself can raise cortisol levels, which is one reason why restrictive diets often backfire.

So how do you know if your cortisol is out of whack? Look for these signs:

• Feeling “tired but wired”—exhausted but unable to relax
• Difficulty falling or staying asleep
• Craving salty or sweet foods, especially at night
• That stubborn “muffin top” of belly fat
• Feeling anxious or on edge much of the time

If you’re nodding along, your cortisol levels are likely too high. This was definitely a factor for me—running multiple businesses while raising teenage daughters meant I was constantly stressed. I’d find myself reaching for chocolate or wine at night just to take the edge off, and I’d wake up exhausted the next day. It was a vicious cycle.

The connection between stress and weight is one of the most overlooked aspects of weight loss. You simply cannot outwork or out-diet chronic stress—your hormones won’t allow it. Managing stress isn’t a luxury; it’s an absolute necessity for hormone balance and weight loss.

3. Estrogen – The Double-Edged Sword

Now let’s talk about the hormone that tends to cause the most confusion: estrogen.

Estrogen is a critical female hormone that regulates everything from reproductive health to bone density to fat distribution. It’s not inherently “bad” or “good”—it’s all about balance.

The problem is, most women over 40 have estrogen imbalances, either too much or too little, and both can lead to weight gain.

As we enter perimenopause (which can start as early as our late 30s), our estrogen levels start to fluctuate wildly before eventually declining. This hormonal roller coaster wreaks havoc on our metabolism and fat storage.

But here’s where it gets tricky: even as our natural estrogen production declines, many of us are exposed to xenoestrogens—estrogen-mimicking compounds found in plastics, pesticides, conventional meat, and beauty products. These fake estrogens throw our hormonal balance further out of whack.

According to research in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, both estrogen dominance and estrogen deficiency are linked to increased fat storage, particularly in the hips, thighs, and lower abdomen.

So how do you know if your estrogen is out of balance? Look for these signs:

• Weight gain primarily in the hips, thighs, and lower belly
• Mood swings, irritability, or anxiety
• PMS symptoms that seem to be getting worse
• Irregular periods or heavy bleeding
• Hot flashes or night sweats
• Breast tenderness or fibrocystic breasts

If several of these sound familiar, your estrogen levels might be contributing to your weight struggles. At 46, I’m definitely experiencing some of these fluctuations myself. What surprised me most was how much estrogen is affected by our environment—from the food we eat to the products we use to the stress we experience.

Estrogen imbalance is particularly common in women over 40, and it’s a major reason why weight loss strategies that worked in our 20s and 30s suddenly stop working. Understanding how to support healthy estrogen metabolism is a crucial piece of the weight loss puzzle that most conventional diet programs completely ignore.

4. Leptin – The “I’m Full” Hormone That’s Broken for Most Women

The fourth critical hormone in our weight loss puzzle is leptin—the hormone that’s supposed to tell your brain, “Hey, we’ve had enough food, we’re satisfied!”

Leptin is produced by your fat cells. The more fat you have, the more leptin you produce. In theory, this should mean that overweight people feel less hungry. But that’s not what happens.

Instead, most overweight individuals develop what’s called leptin resistance. Their brain stops responding to leptin’s signals, so even though there’s plenty of leptin around, the “I’m full” message never gets delivered.

It’s like having a broken fuel gauge in your car—you never know when your tank is full, so you keep filling and filling.

According to research in the American Journal of Physiology, leptin resistance is a key player in weight gain and obesity. When your brain can’t “hear” leptin, you’re constantly hungry and never satisfied, no matter how much you eat.

So how do you know if you’re leptin resistant? Look for these signs:

• Never feeling fully satisfied after meals
• Feeling hungry again soon after eating
• Nighttime cravings
• Emotional or stress eating
• Eating until you’re uncomfortably full

Any of that hit home? I know it did for me. Before I fixed my hormones, I was never satisfied. I’d finish a meal and within an hour be thinking about what I was going to eat next. I’d raid the pantry at night, especially when I was stressed. And I’d sometimes eat until I felt sick, because my brain just wasn’t getting the “stop eating” signal.

This is why willpower-based diets fail so miserably. When your leptin is broken, your brain is literally not receiving the signal that you’ve had enough food. No amount of willpower can overcome a fundamental hormonal imbalance like that.

The good news is, leptin resistance can be fixed. When I started eating in a way that supported my hormones, those constant hunger signals finally quieted down. For the first time in years, I could go hours without thinking about food. I could stop eating when I was satisfied, without feeling deprived. It felt like freedom.

5. Ghrelin – The Hunger Hormone That Makes You Overeat

The fifth and final hormone on our list is ghrelin—essentially leptin’s evil twin. While leptin is supposed to tell you when you’re full, ghrelin tells you when you’re hungry.

Ghrelin is produced primarily in your stomach, and its levels rise before meals and fall after you eat. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.

But for many of us, especially those who have a history of dieting or irregular eating patterns, ghrelin can get seriously out of whack. Your levels might stay elevated even after a big meal, leaving you feeling hungry when you should be satisfied.

Research in the New England Journal of Medicine found that people who had lost weight had higher ghrelin levels than before their weight loss, which helps explain why maintaining weight loss is so challenging—your body is literally making you hungrier.

So how do you know if your ghrelin is out of balance? Look for these signs:

• Feeling hungry all the time, even after meals
• Obsessing or thinking about food constantly
• Feeling ravenous when you wake up
• Getting “hangry” if meals are delayed
• Feeling unsatisfied no matter what you eat

This was definitely me! I was constantly thinking about food. I’d finish breakfast and immediately start planning lunch. I’d wake up in the morning feeling ravenous. And if I had to delay a meal? Watch out—I’d turn into a completely different person.

Ghrelin dysregulation is a huge reason why so many diets fail. If you’re always hungry, eventually you’re going to give in, no matter how strong your willpower is. And what’s worse, research shows that calorie restriction actually increases ghrelin levels, making you hungrier than before you started dieting. It’s a setup for failure.

Understanding ghrelin helped me completely rethink how I eat. Instead of trying to ignore or fight my hunger, I learned how to regulate it by eating in a way that naturally kept ghrelin in check. The difference was life-changing.

The 5-Step Hormone Reset Plan

Alright, now that we’ve gone through each hormone individually, let’s put it all together into a simple, actionable Hormone Reset Plan.

This isn’t theory—this is exactly what I did to lose 49 pounds after struggling for years, and it’s what we teach in our Thin Adapted System. These are the exact steps that have helped thousands of women finally break through their weight loss plateaus.

Step 1: Cut Sugar and Processed Carbs

This is non-negotiable. Sugar and refined carbs wreak havoc on all five hormones we’ve discussed:

• For insulin: Sugar directly spikes insulin, locking your body in fat-storage mode.
• For cortisol: Blood sugar spikes and crashes stress your body, raising cortisol levels.
• For estrogen: Sugar increases inflammation, which can worsen estrogen imbalances.
• For leptin: High insulin blocks leptin signals, preventing your brain from recognizing fullness.
• For ghrelin: Sugar and processed carbs don’t satisfy ghrelin, leaving you hungry despite eating.

I’m not saying you can never have a treat again, but for the first 4-6 weeks especially, you need to break the sugar addiction cycle.

Focus on eating whole, real foods—meat, fish, eggs, non-starchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats. These foods provide the nutrients your body needs to heal hormonal imbalances without spiking insulin.

And don’t be fooled by “healthy” sugars like honey, maple syrup, or coconut sugar. At the end of the day, it’s all still sugar to your body, and all still triggers these hormonal imbalances.

Step 2: Prioritize Protein and Healthy Fats

Protein and fat are absolutely crucial for hormone balance:

• For insulin: Protein has minimal impact on insulin compared to carbs.
• For cortisol: Protein and fat provide steady energy, preventing stress-inducing blood sugar crashes.
• For estrogen: Fat provides the building blocks for hormone production, including balanced estrogen.
• For leptin: Protein increases leptin sensitivity, helping your brain recognize fullness.
• For ghrelin: Protein and fat suppress ghrelin more effectively than any other nutrients.

Aim for at least 100 grams of protein daily (more if you’re active) and don’t fear fat. My typical plate is about 1/3 protein (usually meat), 1/3 non-starchy vegetables, and 1/3 healthy fats (avocado, olive oil, butter, etc.). This ratio keeps me satisfied for hours and has eliminated my cravings completely.

Step 3: Get Quality Sleep

If you take nothing else from this episode, please prioritize your sleep. Nothing—not diet, not exercise, not supplements—can override the hormonal chaos caused by poor sleep.

• For insulin: A single night of poor sleep can reduce insulin sensitivity by up to 25%, according to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
• For cortisol: Poor sleep directly increases cortisol, creating a stress response in your body.
• For estrogen: Sleep disturbances can worsen hormone fluctuations, especially during perimenopause.
• For leptin: Sleep deprivation decreases leptin levels, making you feel less satisfied by your food.
• For ghrelin: Just one night of poor sleep can increase ghrelin by up to 15%, making you hungrier the next day.

Aim for 7-8 hours of quality sleep in a cool, dark room. Establish a consistent bedtime routine and stick to it, even on weekends. If sleep is a struggle for you, consider supplements like magnesium, which helps regulate GABA, the calming neurotransmitter that allows your brain to relax.

Step 4: Manage Stress Effectively

Find stress-management techniques that work for you and practice them DAILY. This isn’t optional. Chronic stress will undermine all your other efforts.

• For insulin: Stress increases blood sugar, even if you haven’t eaten anything sugary.
• For cortisol: Obviously, stress directly increases cortisol—that’s its primary job.
• For estrogen: Stress can worsen estrogen dominance by slowing liver detoxification processes.
• For leptin: High cortisol blocks leptin receptors, making it harder for your brain to register fullness.
• For ghrelin: Stress increases ghrelin production, making you hungry even when you don’t need food.

For me, it’s a morning walk outside, reading before bed, and taking breaks throughout the day. For you, it might be meditation, yoga, deep breathing, or time in nature. The specific activity doesn’t matter as much as the consistency. Even five minutes of deep breathing can lower cortisol levels significantly.

Consider adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha, which has been shown to reduce cortisol by 23% in clinical studies. I take it every morning, and it’s made a huge difference in how I handle stress.

Step 5: Eat for Hormonal Balance

This means not just WHAT you eat, but WHEN and HOW. Consider implementing some form of intermittent fasting, even if it’s just a 12-hour overnight fast. Give your body periods of time without food so your hormones can reset.

• For insulin: Fasting periods allow insulin levels to drop, improving sensitivity over time.
• For cortisol: Regular meal timing helps stabilize your body’s stress response.
• For estrogen: Time-restricted eating gives your liver a chance to process and eliminate excess estrogens.
• For leptin: Meal spacing helps restore leptin sensitivity by giving your brain time to register fullness signals.
• For ghrelin: Regular meal patterns help regulate ghrelin production, reducing random hunger pangs.

Eat mindfully, sitting down without distractions. Chew thoroughly. Stop when you’re satisfied, not stuffed. These simple practices dramatically improve how your body processes food and regulates hunger hormones.

And finally, consider targeted supplements to support hormone balance. The ones I find most helpful for women over 40 are:

• Magnesium (for sleep, stress, and overall hormone function)
• Vitamin D (essential for hormone production)
• Omega-3s (reduces inflammation that disrupts hormone balance)
• Adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha (helps regulate cortisol)
• DIM (supports healthy estrogen metabolism)

I know this might sound like a lot to implement all at once. Start with one change at a time if you need to. Even small shifts in the right direction can start to balance your hormones and unlock weight loss.

Your Next Steps

Let’s wrap this up. Your weight loss struggle isn’t about calories or willpower or how many spin classes you take. It’s about your hormones.

When these five critical hormones—insulin, cortisol, estrogen, leptin, and ghrelin—are out of balance, your body is physiologically programmed to store fat. No amount of dieting can override that programming.

But when you support your body the right way—by cutting sugar, eating plenty of protein and healthy fat, prioritizing sleep, managing stress, and eating for hormonal balance—the weight loss that seemed impossible suddenly becomes effortless.

If you’re ready to dive deeper into this approach, I’ve created a free guide called “Flip the Switch” that outlines these steps in detail. It’s the perfect starting point if you’re ready to break free from the diet cycle and finally balance your hormones for sustainable weight loss.

You can download it HERE.

And if you’re really serious about transforming your health and fixing these hormonal imbalances once and for all, our Thin Adapted System program gives you the step-by-step plan, the community support, and the expert guidance to make it happen.

You can find out more HERE.

But whether you use our resources or do this on your own, please know this: you are not broken. Your body isn’t working against you—it’s doing exactly what it’s programmed to do based on the hormonal signals it’s receiving.

Change those signals, and you change everything.

I believe in you. I know you can do this because I’ve been where you are. I struggled for 10 years before I figured this out. You don’t have to struggle for that long.