Something is dogging your health. Every afternoon, this evil force is fogging your brain, stimulating your sweet tooth, and zapping your energy. Yet you fight on—refusing to let these pesky behaviors steer you away from nightly trips to the gym, or put a hex on your discipline (you are not going home with that chocolate bar in your purse!). But the thing that’s dogging you fights back. And it’s set on making sure you don’t lose a pound or gain muscle, no matter how much willpower you apply.

If you’re eating tons of broccoli and doing all your pushups, but still losing the fight to lose weight, something deeper might be sabotaging your efforts. Very likely, it’s a metabolism disorder.

5 Metabolism Disorders that Can Be Sabotaging You

Metabolism is a powerhouse, constantly working behind the scenes to convert the food you eat into the energy needed to do everything from thinking to moving and growing. Along the way, it also influences how easily you gain or lose weight. So, slim people have a higher metabolism and overweight people have a slower metabolism, right? Not so much.

This incredibly intricate chemical process engages multiple bodily systems. If one of them misfires, your metabolism can take a hit. Any one (or a combination) of the following five metabolism disorders might stand in the way of your weight-loss goals.

1. Low thyroid

Low thyroid can make you feel cold all the time. (Photo: Teddy Kelley on Unsplash)

When your body’s thyroid hormone levels plummet, you don’t burn as much fat—and it packs on the pounds. Whether it’s because of the more harrowing Hashimoto’s disease, which causes hypothyroidism, or the less commonly identified subclinical hypothyroid, thyroid dysfunction can discount your weight loss efforts.
Signs to look out for:

• Loss of outer-third of eyebrows
• Dry skin
• Feeling cold
• Low energy
• Brain fog
• Weight gain

How it’s diagnosed: Blood testing. For the most accurate results, get the full panel with nine blood tests vs. the more common three-test panel.

2. PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome)

What causes ovarian cysts to form is still a bit of a mystery, but it’s clear that when they do, weight gain will soon follow. These evil invaders cause your body to produce extra testosterone, and then they team up to create insulin resistance. And since insulin is the body’s primary fat-storage hormone, you put on pounds when it’s not used correctly.
Signs to look out for:

• Weight gain around the belly
• Extra hair growth in women
• Acne
• Irregular menstrual cycles and, in severe cases, infertility

How it’s diagnosed: Blood testing to identify if you have extra testosterone, and/or ultrasound of the ovaries.

3. Adrenal fatigue

When your adrenal glands get stressed, they overproduce or, more commonly, underproduce cortisol and DHEA. When the levels are too high, you’ll see a big gain in belly fat. Too low, and other non-essential hormones and body processes get “turned down,” causing metabolic adaptation.

Signs to look out for:  

• Fatigue
• Low stamina to make it through the day
• Puffy appearance
• Water retention
• Salt cravings

Adrenal fatigue can make you crave salt often. (Photo: Photo by Artem Beliaikin via Pexels)

How it’s diagnosed: Saliva testing, with multiple samples taken throughout one day to obtain overall cortisol level and rhythm.

4. Sex-hormone imbalances

When you’re dealing with low testosterone (in both aging men and over-stressed women) or estrogen dominance, your weight loss and muscle gains are going to suffer. Low testosterone causes weight gain by prohibiting metabolism-boosting muscle gains and fat burning. High estrogen levels damage your overall thyroid function, which as we saw above, can lead to weight gain.
Signs to look out for:

• Lower-body fat deposition
• Fat increase in chest (men)
• Moodiness
• Abnormal menstrual cycles

How it’s diagnosed: Blood or saliva testing.

5. Prediabetes

You’re not quite a diabetic, but you’re well on your way if you have abnormal blood sugar. That’s because an increase of blood sugar causes an increase of insulin, which causes an increase in body fat.
Signs to look out for:

• Cravings for sweets
• “Crashing” energy after afternoon meals
• Being thirsty and urinating frequently

How it’s diagnosed:  Blood testing.

Don’t Guess, Diagnose

You may feel any or all of these symptoms from time to time, or you may experience none at all. But if you haven’t seen progress with your weight loss and you’re fed up, it’s time to take action by getting some testing.

Ready to find out what’s sabotaging your weight loss? We’re ready to help. Get in touch.