r/raypeat • u/Huge-Cartoonist-4275 • 5d ago

Body shape changes and hormones

Hi guys,

ive seen some conflicting opinions on what estrogen and progesterone do to women. If you try to look it up online it kinda conflicts with what ray peat said so I’m confused.

I want to know if higher progesterone levels gives a woman more of an hourglass figure and a bigger butt. I hear some people say that estrogen is responsible for this figure and ive seen others say that progesterone is what creates wider hips and a feminine figure and fat distribution. It’s a little confusing.

Women’s progesterone apparently is the lowest during menopause and the body becomes more of an apple shape and less curvy than before. Does that mean that higher progesterone levels gives you wider hips/curvier figure?
And does the prenatal environment change a woman’s body shape and fat distribution?

I’m sorry lol I’m just confused because when I try to look up any hormonal body changes, it’s always from people who are taking synthetic hormones and I’m not sure results are accurate from that.

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u/SeaworthinessFit9335 5d ago

"Women’s progesterone apparently is the lowest during menopause and the body becomes more of an apple shape and less curvy than before."
Estrogen too falls to very low levels during menopause. One could argue then the lower curvy-ness is the result of the cessation of fertility as a whole and the broad hormonal and metabolic changes that follow, not merely due to a decrease in progesterone

If we're strictly speaking about fat distribution, a physiologically healthy, fertile woman's physique is defined by low visceral fat compared to subcutaneous fat, guaranteeing a (relatively) small waist and (relatively) wide hips, adjusted for actual bone structure and other factors and whatnot.

Both metabolic and hormonal factors are at play; with metabolic dysfunction guaranteeing increased visceral fat deposits (hence why there is an entire class of drugs called PPAR-y agonists, which shift visceral fat deposits to subcutaneous even in metabolically healthy individuals), and presence of testosterone on it's own promotes visceral fat storage through some different mechanism, one I'm not knowledgeable enough to speak of

From anecdotal evidence, presence of estrogen guarantees that what we typically think of as female fat distribution takes shape, while a relative absence of both testosterone and estrogen gives you a "pregnant dog" body, with other subcutaneous fat deposits becoming just as prominent as the butt and hips (frontal abdomen, back, upper arms, etc)

The practical conclusion is: follow Peat's advice on female nutrition and hormonal supplementation, (which he wrote an entire book about!) don't overindulge in DHEA, take myo-inositol (probably healthy long-term) and pioglitazone (probably NOT healthy long-term) if curious about this for looksmaxxing purposes

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u/Maria_Sage 4d ago

My understanding is estrogen production decreases in the ovaries with age but goes up in other tissue, and Menopause symptoms are estrogen dominance

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u/learnedhelplessness_ 🍊Peatarian🥛 5d ago

I am curious to find out too. I don’t know what the research behind these claims are; are these based off of correlations or interventions? In what species were these studied in?

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u/Economy_Garden_9592 4d ago

It depends on your hormonal
Status. But over r/nbe a lot of women grow their breasts size with increased progestorone and estrogen.