Learn about insulin resistance, thyroid health, hormonal weight gain, fatigue, iron deficiency, metabolism, testing, and evidence-based weight management.
Weight and energy often change in midlife, even when your habits have not. Hormonal shifts, insulin resistance, stress and sleep all play a part.
These guides explain hormonal weight gain, belly fat and cortisol, insulin resistance and blood sugar, and newer medicines such as GLP-1s, with the tests to ask for and the changes that have real evidence behind them.
Stubborn belly fat in midlife is linked to falling estrogen and insulin resistance, and — to a smaller degree than marketing suggests — to cortisol.
GLP-1 medications such as semaglutide and tirzepatide have changed weight management, including for women with PCOS, insulin resistance, and menopausal weight gain.
When weight changes suddenly or won’t respond to the usual approach, hormones are often involved — from thyroid and cortisol to the shifts of coming off the pill, postpartum, and perimenopause.
Insulin resistance is a common, often-missed driver of weight gain, fatigue, sugar cravings, and PCOS — and it develops years before blood sugar shows up as abnormal on a standard test.