A hormonal imbalance may help explain why the pounds dieters work so hard to lose come back so easily.

A new study suggests that our bodies have a hard time adjusting to weight loss and may activate internal systems to restore lost fat.

Body weight is regulated by a complex network of hormonal and metabolic systems. After weight loss, researchers say the body may interpret a newly svelte physique as deficient in the hormone leptin and jump-start processes to restore the body to its previous weight.

Leptin is a hormone commonly associated with obesity that plays a role in regulating weight and appetite.

Leptin May Keep Pounds From Coming Back

In the study, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers examined the effects of leptin injections in people who recently lost weight and were trying to maintain their weight loss.

The results showed that most of the metabolic and hormonal changes that normally work against keeping the pounds off were reversed once leptin levels were restored to the levels before weight loss.

Researchers say those internal changes may help explain why more than 85 percent of obese people who lose weight eventually gain it back.

If further studies confirm these effects, researchers say the results suggest that targeting leptin may help people who have lost weight keep it off.

I am a 29 year old female, and have been exeriencing some changes to my body in the past 9 months. It all pretty much started when I got a birth control shot (Depo Provera). About a month and a half later I started experiencing a strange rash on my body.

It came in different forms in many different areas. Sometimes it looked like a small bug bite, and some looked like hives. Sometimes if something rubbed against my body it became red and protruded. I noticed the hive looking rash on my thighs, at first, when I woke in the morning.  I thought it was just from sweating. It would go away after a few hours after waking.  After a couple of weeks the hives were not going away, and were getting bigger in size and spread throughout my body. The rash seemed to come and go around the same time each month.

Of course I stopped taking the shot. However, my rash came back, but is not going away again, and my hair is falling out more. I have also had a slight weight gain. It all seemed to lead towards the shot. I figured some kind of hormonal imbalace. 

I hope I have explained my problem enough for you to possibly give me some insight. I am desperate for some kind of answer.

Dr. Roby Answers
When this type of symptom happens, it is because of the combined effect of an allergic reaction to one or more of your hormones, and an increasing amount of adrenaline.  The adrenal glands, located just above the kidneys, produce both cortisol and adrenaline.  Because our bodies don’t make enough cortisol for the busy lives we lead, once the allotment for the day is gone we are forced to utilize adrenalin. Adrenalin causes stress, stress causes the pain, itch, rash, which causes more adrenalin production, which causes more symptoms. I know thatyou can see where this is going.  Anytime your body perceives that you are in an emergency situation, this same thing will happen. You switch into emergency overdrive and end up fatigued, in pain, anxious and depressed. 

We can make some non-medical suggestions which, if followed, will certainly make you feel a lot better. The protocols used by Roby Institute include traditional methods, diet modification, movement, complementary and alternative treatment, and spirituality. Your spirituality, not ours. What we suggest is as follows:
Low fat/low carb diet. We especially like the South Beach and Weight Watchers plans, but it really is about what works the best for you, the patient.  

Looong, slooow distance walking, preferably indoors, on a treadmill. We suggest that you begin with whatever time you can handle, increasing to at least, 1 hour per day, before bedtime. If you do a cardio workout, you could do that in the morning hours and save the walking for late in the afternoon. You do not want to work up a sweat, or have a shortness of breath. If either of those two things happens, you are going too fast.  This part of the protocol is strictly about getting rid of the excess adrenalin. You will be able to sleep better, and will start to relax and repair youself.