Hormones

Why Hormones and Weight Gain Are More Connected Than You Think

A doctor's personal story — and why he stopped dismissing women's cravings.

I'll be honest. For a long time I thought the hormone argument around weight was a little overstated. Women would come in and say "it's my hormones" and I'd nod along. I understood it intellectually. But I didn't really get it.

Then I got West Nile virus. And everything changed.

The Prednisone Story

About 20 years ago I came down sick and a lung doctor here in town diagnosed me with West Nile. His solution: 100 milligrams of prednisone a day. That's a significant dose — roughly 95 milligrams more than my body was producing on its own.

Now, I've never been a big sweet eater. Desserts were never my thing. But a couple of days into that prescription, I came home and noticed a bag of chocolate chip cookies sitting on the counter.

They sounded pretty good.

I had one. Then another. Then I looked down and the bag was gone. And I remember sitting there thinking — what in the hell am I doing? And then the next thought: where are my keys? I need to go get more of these.

I was having what felt like an out-of-body experience. I couldn't explain the craving. I couldn't control it. It was like something had overridden my normal behavior entirely.

That's when it clicked.

Progesterone and Prednisone Are Practically the Same Drug

Here's the science behind it. Partway through a woman's monthly cycle, her body releases progesterone. If you take a progesterone molecule and change a couple of chemical bonds, you get prednisone. They are structurally almost identical.

And prednisone — as I found out the hard way — changes your taste buds and drives intense cravings for sweets. It doesn't whisper. It shouts.

So when a woman tells you her hormones are driving her to eat, she's not making excuses. That is a real, measurable, biological event happening in her body every single month. I sat there with an empty cookie bag and zero explanation and I finally understood.

Why the Body Does This

There's actually a logical reason for it. At the point in the cycle when progesterone rises, the body is preparing for a potential pregnancy. It's trying to store energy — building reserves in case it needs them. That's not a flaw. That's the system working exactly as designed.

When pregnancy doesn't happen, the body eventually sheds that stored energy. But in the meantime, the cravings are real, the weight gain is real, and willpower alone is not a fair match for that kind of hormonal drive.

What This All Means for Weight Management

If you're a woman and you've wondered why certain weeks feel impossible — why your discipline disappears and the cravings feel unbeatable — this is why. It's not weakness. It's biology.

Understanding that distinction matters, because it changes how you approach those weeks. You're not fighting yourself. You're managing a temporary hormonal shift — and there are strategies that help.

We factor this in. If your weight loss feels inconsistent or harder at certain points in the month, that's worth talking about.

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