What's the point? Lisa's struggle with fat loss and hormones

I can't get fat off my arms. My weight won't shift and my hormones are screwed so what's the point of training or even try to compete??!!!

I have been an unhappy camper for the past week. These thoughts have been going through my head since my visit to the doctor after he told me the results of my recent blood tests. I had been working with my doc to work on getting my adrenal fatigue, thyroid and cortisol levels down for a while and I guess positives

that has come out of my result is that all the forementioned results are great and I'm finally in the norm. My iron, liver function and glucose sensity is good too so hooray for me.

But the most important question is how is my testosterone and estrogen doc?

All my life (and its been a long time lol) I've had trouble getting lean and losing weight, even when I competed a few years ago I never got into super lean condition despite all the effort into it. But this year I wanted to give it another go and have been training and dieting for the past 8-10 weeks as I'd had the NZIFBB Counties Manukau comp in mind.

But once again same story my weight is not shifting. Sure it moves a little and I'm getting lean in some areas but certainly the changes do not reflect the time and effort I'm putting into the regime which I find disheartening.

I will say its tough being 'Lisa @ Go Figure'. From the outside I know there's a level of expectation of how I should look. Believe me, I know how I want to look and no one puts more expectations on me than I do!

As a Personal Trainer, I've got many athletes into great shape and helped many people lose weight. There is nothing I don't apply to myself that I don't apply to my clients which is why I'm even more down on myself for not achieving what I want to.

So I was hoping my revisit to the doctor would give me some good news about how my testosterone and estrogen levels are and if they were function normally again. Because as you know without a well function hormone system, nothing's going to happen despite how hard you train or diet.

But alas, surprisingly the doc tells me my testosterone has actually dropped below normal level and my estrogen has gone up! The possible explanation for this is that the testestorone that I have managed to create is turning into estrogen and if there's too much estrogen in the body, the body stores this as fat which is why I can't lose weight. This is a simplified explanation but you get the jist.

Which is why I've had one of those 'what's the point of it all' moments this week.

Me and my fat arms. Can never get my delts and arms lean!!

He was surprised with this result as he thought considering how much strength I was gaining and how good my diet was, I'd be well into above average category.

So its quite interesting that I have managed to have the mass that I have considering how low testosterone I have. Geez imagine if I had normal testosterone levels I could be a beast like Johanna Mountfort!

	I think one of the reasons I've been able to gain mass - or perhaps keep what I have - is because of my nutrition. I generally eat low carb and higher protein along with good nutritionious unprocessed food/vegetables all year round and I have great supplements to keep me in good nitrogen balance.
I could not live without the basics of BSN protein powder and Aminos, Optimum Nutrition multivitamins, ZMA and glutamine. So thanks to Topmark Nutrition for keeping me fuelled up!

What now? This week I did train but not to the normal intensity I would and took time out to catch up with my BFF Sam to clear my mind and reassess my goals.

For the next couple of weeks I'll have a mini rest and let my body and mind rest from the intense training I've put in the last couple months by pulling back my cardio a little bit and increase my calories.

The doc's prescription. Since the cause of my problem seems to be that the mechanism which turns testosterone to estrogen is too efficient, one way to fix it is to turn it off. But since estrogen plays many vital roles in the body we don't want to turn it off totally, he's given me super low doses of an anti estrogen medication.

The same medication given to people who potential could get breast cancer.

I know, scary! Considering I do have a family history of breast cancer this is probably timely in the help in prevention of breast cancer for me.

So I guess there was a silver lining out of all this.

However I seriously did consider what's the point of it all and I really did want to go and eat a burger. But in the end I know I love training and eating well and it is and has been my lifestyle for over 20 years. So I tell myself to get over it and get training Lisa!

The big advice I'd like to give to anyway having trouble with their fat loss is to go to the doctor for blood tests. You know how much effort you put into training and diet, you know how committed you are to your plan and if things aren't happening for you after 8-10 weeks then it might be that your hormones are out of psych. Don't give up until you explore all avenues!!!

I do still want to compete but not quite sure when as depends when this old body wants to finally click and function as best I hope to.

Until then I'll be working away as best I can.

Happy training everyone!

Lisa, Go Figure
March 2014

What's the point? Lisa's struggle with fat loss and hormones

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