Can Hormones Stop Me from Losing Weight Postpartum? My Story.

One of the most common things women ask me is: “Are my hormones stopping me from losing weight?”

The answer? Kinda.

Yes, hormones and weight loss have a bi-directional relationship and this matters. Yes, hormones shift after childbirth. But no, your hormones aren’t out to get you, your metabolism isn’t broken and your body isn’t the enemy.

In fact, your hormones are doing exactly what they’re designed to do in a season of stress, energy depletion, and deep recovery. When postpartum women feel like they’re doing everything “right,” but nothing is working, the real problem often isn’t just the hormones themselves but actually how your environment, nutrition, stress, and expectations are affecting those hormones.

Today’s article explores the real hormonal shifts that can make postpartum weight loss feel confusing, defeating, or downright impossible even when you’re doing everything right. You’ll hear my own story: what happened after my first and second pregnancies, what I got wrong, what I finally got right, and what I wish every postpartum woman knew earlier.

We’ll unpack the science behind hormones like estrogen, cortisol, and thyroid, how they change after birth, and how the concept of Low Energy Availability (LEA) may be the hidden piece so many women are missing when it comes to feeling better in their bodies. Keep reading to discover:

• How estrogen, progesterone, insulin, and cortisol shift after childbirth
• Signs of hormone imbalance after pregnancy
• What happened in my own body postpartum (and why the second time was different)
• What “Low Energy Availability” (LEA) means and how it sabotages results
• How to reset female hormones for weight loss using food, rest, and consistency

How Estrogen and Progesterone Shifts Influence Weight

After birth, estrogen and progesterone plummet to near-menopausal levels. This is normal and temporary but it has a real and felt effect on postpartum women. Signs of hormone imbalance after pregnancy can include fatigue, low mood, brain fog, weight fluctuations, joint pain, exhaustion, cravings, hair loss, headaches, and skin issues, especially if you’re also breastfeeding. Add to this state of sleep deprivation, and navigating new routines and you’ve got a landscape of hormonal chaos!

These symptoms often stem from your body trying to regulate under difficult circumstances, not from anything being ‘wrong’ with you.

And all at this time your body is also doing the hard work of recovering from a major physiological event. Inflammation might still be elevated as your body works to repair tissue from pregnancy and any trauma of labor and delivery. This period of a woman’s life is a classic time for nervous system dysregulation. You’re adjusting to entirely new rhythms both in your body and your life which means stress is high without a lot of time to devote to relaxation and restoration.

Hormonally, your insulin sensitivity fluctuates, particularly for those mamas who had gestational diabetes or insulin resistance during pregnancy but possibly for all women regardless of pathology. Sleepless nights, erratic eating, cravings, stress from family (or lack of support) can all play into variations in insulin sensitivity. Additionally thyroid shifts are common postpartum as well, especially in the first 6–12 months, and can significantly affect metabolism, energy, and weight regulation. So it’s clear that life affects hormones and hormones affect life.  But how does this viscous cycle impact weight loss postpartum?

How Hormones Affect Postpartum Weight Loss

Hormones can influence hunger, satiety, energy expenditure, and fat storage. For example:

• Estrogen helps regulate glucose metabolism and appetite.
• Progesterone impacts thermogenesis and water retention.
• Cortisol affects fat storage, especially visceral fat around the mid-section (when chronically elevated).
• Insulin influences how your body partitions energy and whether it’s stored or used.

But here’s what often gets missed: these hormones don’t exist in isolation. They respond to your behaviors, nutrition, sleep, and stress. When women restrict calories, cut carbs, or overtrain too early postpartum, the hormonal response is a protective one even though the thing I hear the most is “my body is betraying me and won’t respond to all the things I’m doing right. Help!”

My Own Postpartum Experience

After my first daughter was born, I was assisting a well-known physician and author on a low-carb book. I had access to all his research and low-carb recipes I created as part of my job. I lived the lifestyle I was professionally involved in to a “t.”  I lost the baby weight unbelievably quickly. In fact, postpartum I was thinner than I was pre-pregnancy.

But looks can be deceiving because in spite of how I looked, I was not well.

Low carb wasn’t inherently the problem – it just wasn’t right for my recovering body. And while low-carb isn’t inherently “bad” I would say for women in a low-hormone, high-stress state it 100% is. The reason why is because postpartum recovery is a state of high energy demand which requires carbohydrates as fuel. Thyroid function relies on healthy signaling of insulin, and nursing demands ample energy from glucose.

In my case, the high-fat, low-carb structure actually suppressed my appetite. I felt wired and depleted, not nourished. Even though I looked like I had “bounced back,” my internal health told a different story. After years of partnering with this doctor my body was screaming at me to cut ties and partner with myself.

When my second daughter was born, I did it differently. My little one was born in critical condition and I knew I needed energy not to just survive postpartum but to function at my best and thrive, for her. I focused on balanced meals with a variety of macronutrients and slowly invited more carbohydrates in. I gave myself more permission to rest and repair. I still lost the weight but this time, it happened at a healthy pace, with better thyroid labs, more stable energy, and a sense of peace I never had the first time.

That difference was so powerful, it shaped the entire foundation of Lizzy Swick Nutrition. I wanted to understand the science behind why my body responded so differently and how to help other women navigate it, too.

When “Doing Everything Right” Still Doesn’t Work

A couple years after my second postpartum experience, I noticed something was off again. I was no longer in the thick of early motherhood, but I was still in a late postpartum state running my business, working out, eating well and trying to maintain my progress.

But my usual diet and lifestyle stopped working.

My fasting insulin was climbing. My thyroid function was dropping. I felt tired even after sleep, sluggish after meals, and just… off! That’s when I learned about Low Energy Availability (LEA), and suddenly the puzzle pieces clicked.

What Is Low Energy Availability?

LEA happens when your calorie intake isn’t enough to cover your body’s needs for recovery, movement, stress, and repair. It doesn’t just affect athletes. It’s common in postpartum women who are breastfeeding, not sleeping well, eating on the go, and trying to “get back” into shape often with subconscious or overt restriction.

You might not be tracking calories, but the mismatch between what you burn and what you consume builds over time. The body sees this as a threat and responds accordingly:

• It downregulates thyroid hormones (T3 and T4).
• It increases cortisol to preserve glucose.
• It decreases reproductive hormones to conserve energy.
• It impairs muscle protein synthesis and metabolic flexibility.

Why Cortisol Levels Impact Belly Fat Retention

The postpartum body already runs on lower estrogen and progesterone. Add LEA to that mix from under-eating, skipping carbs, or ignoring hunger and you create a metabolic environment where fat loss becomes more difficult, not easier- especially if you’re experiencing what some people refer to as a hormonal belly: that stubborn postpartum midsection weight that seems resistant to everything.

That’s what happened to me. I wasn’t crash dieting, but unbeknownst to me, I wasn’t eating enough to match the demands of my unique physiological needs along with the real energy requirement from working, parenting, and moving through life. The science explained why my usual strategies were no longer effective: my body wasn’t resisting weight loss out of stubbornness – it was protecting me. Meaning, I wasn’t consciously restricting my intake but undeniably, my total calories weren’t enough to overcome the demands of late postpartum life.

Natural Ways to Support Hormone Balance Postpartum

If you’ve been wondering how to reset female hormones for weight loss, the truth is it’s less about forcing a ‘reset’ and more about removing the roadblocks that are blunting your hormones’ natural function.

So do you need a full postpartum hormonal reset diet? Yes! but not for the reasons you likely think.

Your hormones are not broken. Your metabolism isn’t stuck. You don’t need fad diets, food restrictions, cleanses, juices or any fasting. If I had to guess, you are a tired mama and you are feeling stuck, but that is different actually being stuck. I want you to shift your mindset that if your hormones are “low” functioning and it feels like you can’t trust your body anymore, I want you to understand that is an adaptive response your body is performing out of a reaction to the information it is receiving from you and your environment. Meaning, your hormones are merely messengers that respond to your inputs, including stress, food, movement, and rest. If you give it stress it will increase hormones that protect from stress and that comes with a set of symptoms. If you give your body time to recover and a healthy nutrition to fuel with, it will respond accordingly (and with outcomes you want!).

Postpartum weight loss becomes more sustainable when we stop fighting our physiology and start feeding it. That includes:

• Carbohydrates for thyroid and insulin signaling
• Adequate calories to match energy output
• Consistent meals to avoid blood sugar crashes and cortisol spikes
• Gentle exercise to support, (not punish!), the body

Your hormones aren’t blocking your progress. They’re guiding you toward a more supportive path that respects the limits it was designed for.  While your postpartum metabolism has tons of resilience, there is only so much pressure it can tolerate before it goes into “sleep mode.”

Sometimes we just need someone to hear our story and help us tease out what the truth is about how our eating is affecting our hormones versus the story we have concocted to stay safe.  In other words, if a familiar dietary pattern is hard to let go of it’s likely because your mind has come up with every logical reason to make your symptoms about anything other than what food and what amount of food feels familiar to you. But what feels safe isn’t always what’s best for you.  If you’re ready to learn how your nutrition is affecting the hormones that control weight loss, reach out to Lizzy today.

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