Any Ladies Back To Normal After Coming Off Birth Control? My GF Is Putting On Weight Fast

[thisoldtown1978]

She’s been on contraception for about 10 years, and since coming off it 12 months ago, put on about 2 stone. It doesn’t bother me, I think she’s beautiful and I love her so much, but she’s really distressed. She’s eating sub 1000 cals a day and putting on weight still.

Since I’ve been reading Peat, I’ve been looking at it from a male perspective, but now I’d like to hear specifically from the females in the Peat community who have managed to get back to normal and hopefully give me girlfriend some solid anecdotal advice or comfort.

Thanks guys.

 

[Aymen]

Contraceptive Pill
Birth Control (BC) Pills Increase Suicide Risk By More Than 300%

 

[thisoldtown1978]

Are there really no females on here that've managed to balance their hormones after BC?

 

[Hugh Johnson]

Usually those pills make you fat while on them. However 1000 kcal a day fat gain means metabolism is dead no matter what so she needs to fix that anyway. So the pills probably caused her to run metabolism via stress hormones. Thyroid t3 and progesterone seems like the obvious first step, along with the rest of the Peat stuff.

 

[theLaw]

She’s eating sub 1000 cals a day and putting on weight still.

Since I’ve been reading Peat

I have a hard time believing both of these statements to be true.

Sub-1000 calories is a recipe for stress for nearly everyone, so it might be wise moving forward to familiarize yourself with Peat's basic ideas before trying to "help" her any further. If you somehow thought that her eating less than 1000 calories a day wasn't a major problem, then I would question your grasp of the basic ideas presented on this forum.

Ray Peat Email Exchanges - Ray Peat Forum Wiki

Best of luck!

 

[thisoldtown1978]

I have a hard time believing both of these statements to be true.

Sub-1000 calories is a recipe for stress for nearly everyone, so it might be wise moving forward to familiarize yourself with Peat's basic ideas before trying to "help" her any further. If you somehow thought that her eating less than 1000 calories a day wasn't a major problem, then I would question your grasp of the basic ideas presented on this forum.

Ray Peat Email Exchanges - Ray Peat Forum Wiki

Best of luck!

There’s a difference between “helping” and forcing a lifestyle on someone who isn’t versed in those principles. She’s taken to eating sub-1000 cals because she’s panicking about her weight-gain, despite our conversations about the principles of stress and meeting calorie requirements. I’m not going to shove food in her mouth, but we are having those conversations. If I didn’t think eating 1000cals a day was a problem, I wouldn’t have made this post.

So instead of taking another opportunity to show off how adept you are at linking to other pages on the site, take a moment to reread the specifics of the OP.

I’m asking for first hand accounts from women who have had experience correcting their hormones after birth control.

 

[Peatful]

@Dannywharton

I am a female that was on/off/on/off birth control for years.

I don’t think I have anything earth shattering to say but...

My guess is going off the birth control isn’t the issue; it was the 10 years that she was on the pill that had indeed caused this hormonal confusion - seen in weight gain.
Indeed - her metabolism has tanked.

She needs to stay off of it.
Her thyroid health is the primary focus moving forward.
All the estrogen, be it blood or tissue bound, and I’m sure she has plenty regardless of what a lab value would expose, has slowed her thyroid down.

The remedy is simple to me (although it took me 10 years to figure out):
Liver health to clear the estrogen and diet to support the thyroid.
Also important is blood sugar stabilization- because if your adrenals are working so hard at BS- they really are weak at producing progesterone.

I would personally stay away from supplements.
Her body as I said is in chaos. Too metabolicly weak to handle many supplements.

She clearly needs to eat more.
Go slowly though...
80-100 grams protein for liver health.
No PUFA.
Easy to digest nutrient dense Peaty foods.
Blood sugar stabilization. (40/30/30 C/P/F)

 

[Regina]

@Dannywharton

I am a female that was on/off/on/off birth control for years.

I don’t think I have anything earth shattering to say but...

My guess is going off the birth control isn’t the issue; it was the 10 years that she was on the pill that had indeed caused this hormonal confusion - seen in weight gain.
Indeed - her metabolism has tanked.

She needs to stay off of it.
Her thyroid health is the primary focus moving forward.
All the estrogen, be it blood or tissue bound, and I’m sure she has plenty regardless of what a lab value would expose, has slowed her thyroid down.

The remedy is simply to me (although it took me 10 years to figure out):
Liver health to clear the estrogen and diet to support the thyroid.
Also important is blood sugar stabilization- because if your adrenals are working so hard at BS- they really are weak at producing progesterone.

I would personally stay away from supplements.
Her body as I said is in chaos. Too metabolicly weak to handle many supplements.

She clearly needs to eat more.
Go slowly though...
80-100 grams protein for liver health.
No PUFA.
Easy to digest nutrient dense Peaty foods.
Blood sugar stabilization. (40/30/30 C/P/F)

This sounds spot on Peatful.
It will be worth it though.

 

[somuch4food]

I've never been on birth control pills, but I will try to help however I can.

Was she skinny before? Is she putting on mass around the abdomen or overall? She could simply be putting on weight that she needs. I remember reading somewhere that heavier people tend to live longer. She might suffer from the perception of healthy equals skinny that is so prevalent nowadays.

I lost a lot of weight going from 150 to 130 while breastfeeding, but I realize that I was losing mass. I still had fat on my abdomen and butt, but lost a lot of strength. I lost all that weight because I was following a 'healthy' diet that was lacking in calories.

Another question worth asking: Why is she worried about weight gain? Health? Appearance? Social pressure?

 

[RobertJM]

This is a fascinating subject as it can be so hard to convince somebody that eating more calories, long term, is the right thing to do. Good luck with it.

 

[Jackrabbit]

There’s a difference between “helping” and forcing a lifestyle on someone who isn’t versed in those principles. She’s taken to eating sub-1000 cals because she’s panicking about her weight-gain, despite our conversations about the principles of stress and meeting calorie requirements. I’m not going to shove food in her mouth, but we are having those conversations. If I didn’t think eating 1000cals a day was a problem, I wouldn’t have made this post.

So instead of taking another opportunity to show off how adept you are at linking to other pages on the site, take a moment to reread the specifics of the OP.

I’m asking for first hand accounts from women who have had experience correcting their hormones after birth control.

I had depo provera shots for a while and that messed me up when I came off of it. I’m still a work in progress but I would say if weight loss is her main goal, get her on some thyroid and have her go on a mostly liquid diet of low-fat milk and oj. I know that doesn’t sound super nourishing but I found when I got on the right thyroid dosage I actually wasn’t very hungry and almost the only things I could stomach were liquids. I think the body knows when it needs to start eating again but she might have some excess weight to shed that doesn’t necessarily require high caloric intake like the people on this forum who bodybuild. Assuming she’s not a die hard exerciser she will be fine with milk and oj and coffee, plus the occasional snack of fruit or something. Seriously, she won’t die. People act like eating a ton is the only way to lose weight but sometimes low caloric intake is the way to go assuming you’re getting a decent amount of protein and micronutrients.

 

[Waynish]

I've balanced girls after doing this. A combination of progesterone, timed eating, more rest, getting in sync with their periods, and basically doing the usual to reduce any period symptoms.

 

[theLaw]

I’m asking for first hand accounts from women who have had experience correcting their hormones after birth control.

My apologies. You clearly stated what type of responses you wanted, and I should have noticed that. Best of luck to you and your gf.

 

[Sheila]

Hello Mr Wharton,
Happy New Year to you and what a delightful original post, how lovely of you to care about your girlfriend so much.

In my personal and other experiences, this is a very confusing and scary state for modern women and often coming of The Pill is when they meet this body change for the first time. Maybe before then everything was easier...alas there is no free lunch.

Given that your dear lady will likely have accumulated a lot of oestrogen which will depress her metabolism, as Peatful mentioned earlier, maybe taking some low dose b-vitamins (I tend to use Bragg's yeast at 1 tsp, infuse overnight, drink water only, but there are other types - increasing the dose to 1 Tbsp over some weeks) may be a gentle starting point. It can at least get the liver firing a little better and may induce some appropriate hunger feelings and more confidence in that she is doing something which should help. Part of this is a confidence game if you like, imagine being told 'eat less, exercise more and lose weight' only to find that statement repeated everywhere is not true for many people as they get older. As usual, they just believe they are lazy or 'doing it wrong' when the whole idea is totally the antithesis of sustainable physiology.

There is a fine line here with lowered calorie intake as to what can be achieved, so simple additions, one step at a time just like all journeys start. Just telling her to 'eat more' is not going to work as I am sure you know, she has to feel safe enough - in control enough - to do things differently whilst the whole world is trying to sell her a diet programme.

If you are in colder climes, turning all foods into nutrient dense, thick soups is boring but an effective way to reduce gut conflict and less irritation/inflammation and to still have the same meals (no extra stress when confused, tired and feeling fat). It also reduces strain on the body and the body can use this to attend to other matters. It goes without saying that daily, or more, bowel motions are to be encouraged, oestrogen does such an unpleasant number on many people's gut motility and then holds hands with the other ugly sisters: Serotonin and Histamine. Bowel habit may, or may not be an approachable subject, but grated carrot is a nice sweeper if even duller than soups I suppose.

I have tended to work with low dose b vits and easier to digest foods first, because I have found there has to be a decent platform for hormonal interventions (if they are necessary, not always), otherwise they can make things worse because they 'push' the system too far and too fast - wastes stack up, misery and more weight gain ensues.

I wish you both well.
Sincerely,
Sheila

 

[Lynne]

I went the opposite way in that I gained around 10kg over 2 years of taking birth control, so I discontinued it and lost all of the weight over the next 2 years. I also got occasional migranes, only while on BC, which I didn't get afterwards. They seemed to have a histamine connection, which makes sense considering there's a histamine estrogen interaction. I had a lot of hormonal problems from after I stopped BC but I can't be sure BC is to blame for all/any of them because I was already having hormonal imbalance issues prior to going on BC.

 

[thisoldtown1978]

My apologies. You clearly stated what type of responses you wanted, and I should have noticed that. Best of luck to you and your gf.

Sorry for snapping, mate. I was having a bad day. For the record, I always find your links really helpful :p