PCOS or Hypothyroidism are NOT the root causes of your weight gain
- Namrata Manyal Agicha
- 9 hours ago
- 4 min read
In your early teenage years, you suddenly start seeing some weight gain or changes in your periods, so you visit a doctor.
Some tests werr done, or maybe they aren’t and you’re given a diagnosis.
A diagnosis that you carry for the rest of your life, thinking that the reason you’re bloated, tired, losing hair or struggling with your weight is because of that diagnosis.
On the outside, you keep going with your daily life. But on the inside, you keep feeling confused.
Somehow, your body feels out of your control. You don’t understand what to eat or why your body is responding the way it is.
And somewhere along the way, you start thinking:
“Maybe I’m just lazy.”
“Maybe I’m not disciplined enough.”
“Maybe something is wrong with me.”
Then you see a post or consult someone, and they tell you it’s a “lifestyle disorder.”
So you blame it on your stress, your food, your sleep, your lack of exercise.
But here’s the thing:
These may be contributing factors, but they’re not necessarily the root of the problem.
First, your body is not against you. It isn’t trying to sabotage you. It doesn’t want to “just survive.”
Your body is constantly trying to adapt, protect you, heal and bring you back towards balance.
So the signs you see, the weight gain, fatigue, hair fall, bloating, changes in your periods aren’t your body trying to annoy you.
They are signals.
They are showing you where you need to focus and what may be happening on the inside.
And secondly, what we call “lifestyle factors” often have a story underneath them too.
Maybe you’re not eating enough. But perhaps that comes from the belief that eating less = losing weight.
Maybe you’re stress eating. But perhaps food has become one of the few things that gives you immediate comfort when you feel overwhelmed.
Maybe you overthink everything because creating every possible scenario in your head makes you feel like you have some control over what happens next.
Over time, these stop feeling like conscious choices. They become patterns.
Patterns in the way you eat, the way you respond to stress, the way you move sleep & think about yourself.
These patterns can influence your physiology too.
Your hormones don’t suddenly become “imbalanced” in isolation. Your food habits don’t appear out of nowhere.
There is usually a much bigger picture.
For example, maybe growing up, you felt that you weren’t getting enough attention because both your parents were working.
You took that lack of attention as lack of love.
And perhaps, without even realising it, you started looking for that feeling of love, validation or safety elsewhere.
In relationships, in food, in achievement, in being needed.
And over time, that emotional baggage can start affecting how you eat, how you cope with stress, how you sleep and how much you move.
You may overeat to numb yourself, avoid movement because your body already feels exhausted. Stay up late because that’s the only time you feel you have for yourself, keep pushing through stress because slowing down feels unsafe & busy feels ‘useful’.
And your body keeps adapting to these patterns.
Because it is responding to the environment you have repeatedly given it.
And when these patterns continue for years, they can contribute to metabolic, hormonal and physiological changes.
Eventually, you get a diagnosis.
PCOS or Hypothyroidism.
And then the diagnosis becomes the explanation for everything.
You carry it for life and start believing:
“This is my root cause.”
But what if the diagnosis is actually telling you what is happening, rather than fully explaining why it is happening?
This is why so many women keep spiralling in the same symptoms for years.
Because they keep forcing food changes, Restricting.
Starting strength training & stopping it.
Trying another diet, trying harder.
And then eventually returning to the same patterns.
Because they’re trying to change the behaviour without understanding what keeps driving the behaviour.
And this is where true healing becomes much more than just “eat better and exercise.”
You have to understand the relationship between your physiology, nutrition, emotions, stress response and learned patterns.
Because your body is not a collection of isolated symptoms.
It is one interconnected system.
And that is why bringing your body back towards balance is rarely a linear process.
Your diagnosis & symptoms are important. But they are not the whole story.
The deeper work is understanding what is beneath them: physically, emotionally and behaviourally and helping your body create a different response over time.
Hey!
I am Namrata Manyal Agicha, a Registered Dietician & Clinical Nutritionist. I coach women to help them attain food freedom, heal their gut & hormones through mindful eating, gentle nutrition & emotional release.
If you are done with diets & want to feel your best without any diet rules, I offer a 6 months 1:1 coaching program. If this feels like the right fit, send me mail/message to schedule a consult call.
E-mail: namratamanyalagicha@gmail.com
Instagram ID: @undietwithnamrata
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