How Sympathetic Dominance Leads to Weight gain

If you follow me on social media, you know I have been doing a video series on 10 Things I Wish I Knew Sooner on My Breast Cancer Journey.” If you missed it, you can video the full series here. In this article we will be discussing #9: Sympathetic dominance impacts weight gain.

In my series, I shared that during and after treatment I gained 20+ lbs and could not lose it. And after I was told “I was just getting older,” I shared that did not sit well with me and I kept digging and uncovered I had insulin resistance. When I began researching blood sugar imbalances (aside from nutrition) I began to fully understand how important the nervous system is when it comes to regulating blood sugar.

Here is what I wish I knew sooner:

Our God designed bodies have been created with the ability to use glucose or fat for fuel. Oscillating between the two is ideal + creates the capacity to maintain a healthy body weight. However, when a woman is sympathetic dominant (or parasympathetic dominant), this can cause her body to prefer burning glucose as fuel vs fat.

This is because glucose is a quicker source of fuel and the body in it’s wisdom, thinks a woman needs a quick source of fuel to escape if it perceives she is in constant danger (perceived or physiological stress).

This can lead to an increase in blood glucose levels and as a result, the body responds by secreting insulin to help bring down blood glucose. The body, in it’s wisdom (via insulin) stores the excess glucose in the liver + muscles (in the form of glycogen), and then the rest as body fat.

A reduced capacity to store glucose as glycogen (lack of muscle, liver congestion, over consumption of nutrient poor food, etc) will lead to an increase in body fat. This can result in a vicious cycle because as fat accumulates, it is an endocrine tissue which means it can increase estrogen. Estrogen dominance will then come on board and also influence the way in which the body stores fat due to its relationship with insulin. This can lead to weight loss resistance and a tricky cycle to escape.

What can help this?

Multiple variables can be addressed here, but here are three simple tips I wish I knew sooner.

Tune into your nervous system + learn what is keeping you sympathetic dominant. Perceived stress influences your stress hormones (like cortidol) which influence blood sugar, which may impact your ability to burn fat or store it. Emotional triggers, anger, jealousy, resentment, loss of purpose, all play a role in your overall health).Tuning into is a great way to put a pause on this and change directions.

I have an entire 12 week program that helps dig into this and gives you tangible steps to begin implementing.

Prioritize weight lifting over high intensity work/cardio, intentionally build muscle, + make sure you are eating enough protein to actually build muscle. The more muscle you have, the more capacity you have to store excess glucose which results in less glucose converted to fatty acids + stored as fat. Another thing to consider is the stress hormone cortisol is catabolic which is a fancy way of saying, it can break down your muscles (which will result in more fat). If you are over 30 and highly stressed, this is even more important to take into consideration because we begin losing muscle after the age of 30.

Your liver relies on certain nutrients to function and many of us are depleted in those nutrients. In addition, hormone imbalances, glucose imbalances, and increased toxic loads can influence fatty liver which can contribute to weight loss resistance. Check out my post on liver health for more tips on caring for you liver. This is especially important when pursuing any type of weight loss because adipose tissue holds on to toxins + as you burn fat, toxins will be released. If you are constipated, struggling with a sluggish liver, or sluggish lympathic system, this will lead to those toxins recirculating+ often sabotage any weight loss efforts because the body will store those toxins as fat once again.

If you found these tips helpful and are curious to learn more about how to care for your body through a functional health lens + learn more about blood sugar balance, you can find an entire library of health topics, PDF downloads, + mini videos inside the Aligned and Renewed Collective.