By Jacqueline Tourville, WHN Managing Editor
For many women, weight gain feels like a mystery. You eat well, move your body, and stay disciplined — yet the scale barely budges or the weight rebounds as soon as you stop the costly drug.
This frustrating cycle isn’t about willpower. It’s about biology. Your body’s systems are designed to maintain a state of balance, or homeostasis, in which good health and healthy weight regulation occur naturally. But internal and external factors – think chronic stress, hormonal shifts, processed foods, blood sugar imbalances, and other underlying issues – can all too easily disrupt this balance. Once homeostasis is lost, your body adapts to a new “set of rules,” making it easier to store fat than burn it.
That’s why lasting weight loss isn’t about another restrictive diet or a drug. It’s about restoring the balance your body has lost. This is the foundation of our new Women’s Health Network Weight BioType approach, developed by our doctors to give you the tools to repair and support pathways to natural weight loss, personalized to your unique biology.
What is your Weight BioType?
Take our quiz & learn the unique set of underlying health factors affecting your weight.
Your Weight BioType is rooted in your weight story
The first step to uncovering your Weight BioType is to pinpoint the circumstances around why you started gaining weight in the first place. Most women’s weight gain follows one of a few common patterns:
Overweight since childhood
This pattern often runs in families, influenced by both genetics and shared habits around food and activity.
Turning-point weight gain
Many women can pinpoint when the pounds first appeared:
- Puberty and menarche (your first period)
- The “freshman 15” of early adulthood
- Pregnancy and postpartum changes
- Perimenopause or menopause, sometimes beginning in the mid-30s
- Life stressors such as divorce, grief, or depression
Progressive weight gain
A slow, steady increase year after year, often tied to prioritizing family, work, or other responsibilities over your own self care. Gaining 2–3 pounds annually, especially around the holidays, may not seem like much until it adds up over time.
Your weight story matters because it reveals when your body’s natural balance – your hormones, metabolism, and blood sugar – first began to shift.
What’s blocking your weight loss? Exploring the 6 BioTypes
Your biology is a major factor in how your body stores fat and responds to food. Research shows that key drivers of women’s weight gain include thyroid imbalances, chronic stress and elevated cortisol, disruptions in GLP-1 (a hormone that regulates appetite), hormonal shifts during menopause, metabolic slowdowns, and blood sugar imbalances. You may have already been experiencing one or more of these imbalances when your weight gain began – or the weight gain itself may have triggered these disruptions.
The 6 BioTypes that block weight loss are:
- Impaired GLP-1 – Stress, diet, and lifestyle can suppress this gut hormone, which regulates appetite and fullness. Without it, overeating becomes more likely.
- High cortisol – Chronic stress drives excess cortisol, signaling the body to store belly fat and fueling cravings for sugar and carbs.
- Thyroid dysfunction – When thyroid hormones are out of sync, metabolism slows, and even healthy habits may not yield results.
- Perimenopause/menopause shifts – Changes in estrogen and progesterone affect fat distribution, energy use, and sleep quality.
- Blood sugar imbalance – Insulin resistance and unstable blood sugar turn meals into triggers for fat storage.
- Metabolic imbalance – Years of weight gain can slow metabolism, triggering constant fatigue, sugar cravings, and slow digestion, making weight loss harder until balance is restored.
The good news? Your body is capable of returning to balance. By identifying your Weight BioType and addressing the underlying imbalances, you can restore healthy homeostasis. Instead of forcing weight loss with crash diets or medications, you’ll support your body in finding its natural rhythm — making sustainable weight loss a byproduct of healing, not a constant struggle.
Take the first step on your journey. Discover your Weight BioType with our quiz and uncover the personalized path your body needs to naturally achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
