The Reasons for Hair Loss and Weight Gain; Thyroid Disease, Stress, Hormonal Changes, Sleep Deprivation, and Diet Drinks



The connection between hair loss and weight gain is related to the common causes of hair loss. For instance, heredity, hormonal changes, nutritional deficiency, excessive stress, and thyroid diseases can be one of them. For some of the causes, they can lead to weight gain.

Yet, there are some surprising reasons for hair loss and weight gain at the same time. For example, do you know how powerful the sleep deprivation effect is to make you experience hair loss and weight gain? You will learn how to make your life well-organized with a night of good sleep, and how to feel more energetic during the day after reading this one.

What about sugar-free diet drink products? The unexpected and surprising consequences might be hair falling and weight gain in a short time period. In order to avoid the negative effects of these products, you should control your consumption for your health.



The hair growth circle can affect your system when you experience hair loss that is a complicated process. It has a strong connection with other changes in your daily routine, which includes gaining weight by affecting the number of calories you consume every day affects the way your body use for hair growth.


Thyroid Disease-Related Hair Loss and Weight Gain


Unbalanced condition of thyroid hormones is not only hair loss but also sudden weight gain. When it is hypothyroidism you have, it is quite normal to observe a sudden weight gain. It is also known as underactive thyroid for many people. 

Although there is no certain biochemical explanation for the connection between hair loss and hypothyroidism, there are many people suffering from the same cause.

Thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) hormones circulating in your body affect your metabolism due to the interaction with fat cells, pancreas, liver, muscle, and hypothalamus

When the thyroid hormones work on the optimum level, it is supposed to break down body fat. However, when it works not properly, the liver and pancreas function might take some damage. It is same for the hypothalamus works as a regulator of thyroid hormone in the brain. The problem relating to burn off fat and metabolize result in weight gain in a short time.



How to Cope with Thyroid Disease-Related Hair Loss Resulting in Weight Gain


  • You should take some medication to balance your hormonal level since thyroid disease is a kind of problem-related to some hypothyroid symptoms.
  • It is better to increase your iron level with some nutrients rich in iron so that you can prevent iron deficiency especially for women in the premenopausal period.
  • You should also have a healthy diet rich in vitamin supplements so, you can support your immune system. 
  • For hypothyroid resulting in weight gain, coconut oil is a good solution in restoring thyroid health. You can prepare some mixture and apply it on your hair for hair growth and shiny hairs.
  • Sea Kelp and Saw Palmetto are also good homemade solutions for your problem.
  • It is necessary not to pull your hair into tight braids, buns, and ponytails. You have to be kind as much as possible not to hurt your hair.


Physical and Emotional Stress-Related Hair Loss and Weight Gain


The effect of stress might vary from person to person. While it might be a reason for losing weight, excessive stress can be hair loss and then weigh can for others. There are many individual conditions affecting this consequence. 

When you are in a stressful time period of your life, for example after university exam time or an important loss of one of your family members, you might experience this.


Ways to Cope with Stress-Related Hair Loss and Weight Gain


  • It might be hard to handle this problem yourself. The best way is to ask professional help from a psychologist. If gaining weight is a serious level for you, you also need to go to a dietitian to control your weight before it is too late.
  • Mediation and relaxation ways can work well for you. To illustrate, you can try some professional ways of deep breathing, meditation, and yoga to make feel better. 


  • Some people in your life might make you feel worse by saying bad things about the new appearance of your hair after hair loss. Apart from that, it is very annoying to hear some comments about gaining weight. It makes you more stressful for sure. You should isolate those kinds of people and the atmosphere. It is always better to spend time with positive people.
  • You should be also careful about your diet. A healthy diet including fruits and vegetables rich in multivitamin always save a life.

Hormonal Changes Related to Hair Loss and Weight Gain 


For a proper working way of your organs and systems, the hormonal system has a significant role. If it does not work delicately balanced, this situation may lead to weight gain and hair loss that are interconnected to each other. 

What are the conditions of hormonal changing? Some transition points of one’s life might result in excessive hormonal changing. To illustrate, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, menstruation, perimenopause, and menopause are all strong reasons to change your hormonal balance.



Hair Loss During Menopausal 


It is related to the level of progesterone and estrogen hormones. During menopausal period, they lose their function to help to support hair growth, which ended with the fact that you might start to enter some hair problems including hair loss since this condition and changing of your hormones are directly associated with your hair.

Not only hair falling but also you may encounter to grow hair longer time than the optimum time. That means, growing hair might take a lot longer than it used to. Unfortunately, it might tend to be thinner, both on the scalp area and also the thickness of the hair, too.

The emotional factors associated with menopausal might also have an influence on hair loss during this period. In fact, the psychological discomfort of this period has a strong connection for this result.



The Ways to Stop the Negative Effect of Hair Loss and Weight Gain During Menopause


  • You should stop using some artificial chemicals since they are dangerous for menopause time wit its effect of compromising your scalp and your hair. You should use a good nourishing hair conditioner when taking a bath to promote your hair growth and prevent to experience hair loss more. 
  •  When you avoid using some heat tools, such as hairdryers and straightening irons, you will get the best result of reducing the risk. It is also a good idea not to use some other extensions and other styling methods because they can also weaken your hair and at the end of the day it can cause early hair loss. 
  • Swimming can be a good option in order to nourish your hair. Yet, it is better to wear a swimming cap since chlorine can contribute to hair breakage. And also, the weather condition should be suitable; not too hot and not too hot. If it is sunny weather, you should use a cap or hat that you like.


  • During the menopause time, one of the first thing you should take into consideration is to maintain your body’s hydration level stable. You will need more water than the usual time since. To function and work properly of your organs and systems, it is needed to consume water instead of juices, sodas, not the products containing more sugar than your body needs. Some herbal tea options such as green tea are also good for you to restore hair growth.
  • Regular exercise is also needed. For instance, you can walk every day, you can join a gym with your best friends, and you can join a running club for regular practices and joggings so that you can decrease the risk of negative effects of menopause also support your psychological process. 
  • To combat hair loss related to the menopause process, you can try to massage away hair loss with some essential hair loss oils such as lavender, cedarwood, thyme, and rosemary. 


Hair Loss During Pregnancy


Pregnancy has much affection in women’s life. Not only the emotions but also hormonal balance system are infected a lot during the pregnancy period. It is inevitable to gain weight and have hair loss problem although there are some exceptions we face with from time to time.

The hormonal changes you have might result in increasing estrogen levels and reducing the circulation of androgens that are male hormones. As a result of this, you have less sebum than other times has the potential to make your hair feel drier. To protect yourself from this damage, you need to be sure to moisturize your hair and hydrate after it.

You can even face worse scenarios. For example, your hair scalp, like psoriasis condition, it can temporarily disappear during pregnancy. They are all temporary changing that will be normal after the pregnancy but it is still needed to have some precautions.



The degree of this negative effect on hair loss and gain weight might be related to many things such as poor nutrition since your body requires more nutrition during this time period. Lack of iron, proteins, minerals, and vitamins, as well as gestational diabetes and some occurrence of ringworm like a fungal infection, are other reasons.

Some genetics, the usage of birth control medications, and skin diseases of the scalp are the other causes of hair loss during pregnancy.

The first thing you should take into consideration is a healthy diet. If you do everything you can to make your hormones in balance, you lose only a few hairs. Also, it is effective to keep fit and not to gain too much weight during pregnancy. Your diet should include fruits and vegetables rich in minerals and Vitamins working as antioxidants.

It is good not to add any extra physical pressure to your hair or scalp, which may affect you negatively. To provide this, you can try not to pull your hair and stress it by using cornrows, hair weaves, suing pigtails, braids and tight hair rollers. 



Sleep Deprivation as a Reason for Hair Loss and Weight Gain


Although the effect of the sleepless night might be underestimated sometimes, it is an important reason for hair loss that should not be ignored. Indeed, sleeping is one of the pillars of our body to work properly on the systems and hormonal balance.

If you suffer from sleeping enough at night, or even sleeping too much and could not wake up by feeling energetic, here is a big problem. You might realize that you do not feel okay during the day, and you can not even feel like you are full enough, and always starving all day. All are related to your sleep quality that should be proper not one day but every night of the week.


Yet, there is one more effect of sleep deprivation that not everyone realizes. Hair loss and weight gain come together after sleep deprivation.

According to the experts, it is recommended to sleep between 7 and 9 hours at night for adults. Especially it is important to sleep between 12 and 3 am if it is suitable for your work hours. There are some other individual factors determining this duration, but the average can be said like this.

You should have a proper sleep to combat hair loss and weight gain related to this effect. You will see how fast your life will change after a good and proper sleep. The effect on your daily mood and psychology would make you feel to eat more day by day. It is better to take a precaution before it is too late for you.



If you can not arrange your schedule by yourself, you can consult an expert or your doctor for a piece of professional advice. By doing so, you would be able to control your life well.

Here is a product which will help you to fall asleep easily, which can be found on the Amazon website and order online.



GenCare – Nighttime Sleep Aid Pills for Adults 


If the pieces of advice do not work properly, you can try a sleeping pill. You can take 1 soft gel before you go to sleep, which is for adults and children 12 and older. It contains 180 (50 mg) soft-gel products of Diphenhydramine HCl.

By helping you sleep fast, it might help you to organize your day in a better and more proper way. Apart from that, it will help you to have a deep state of relaxation for a more relaxed mind and a more energetic body.

You can use this product sleep aid pills when you travel around. For example, it works for jet lag and changing bedtime schedules because of your work or school time changing. For those who have difficulty sleeping or relaxing on planes and even public transportation, it would be a good idea to have some sleep pills.

It is worth to try it to feel awake feeling refreshed and energized for the day ahead as a solution to common nighttime sleeping problems.

You can check the website for more detailed information:https://www.amazon.com/GenCare-Nighttime-Diphenhydramine-Softgels-Refreshed/dp/B07RPJXPVK/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=sleep+pill&qid=1567762446&s=gateway&sr=8-2



An Unexpected Reason: Diet Drinks Connected to Hair Loss and Weight Gain


Are you also one of those who drink diet drinks to stay fit? You should leave this habit as soon as possible since diet drinks have more negative effects than its positive sides.

When you consume diet products, it does not mean that you take less calorie just like you think of. On the other hand, those products include high calorie. Apart from that, diet drinks are linked to hair loss at the same time. 

Sugar-free products have an influence on those who consume a lot regularly to make them gain almost triple the abdominal fat. The connection between the ingredients and weight gain are clear, but what about hair loss connection with diet sugar-free products? 



In fact, the excessive calorie intake you take by consuming diet product might lead not only weight gain but also other serious diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and hair loss conditions.

Telogen Effluvium causing shedding, and thinning hair are the reasons for this consequence. According to the FDA, the side effects of diet products might lead to vitamin and mineral deficiencies. 

Besides the deficient of vitamin B, zinc, potassium, and other minerals that are quite important and vital for your hair growth are the reason for weakening hair follicles. As a result of this, consuming diet sugar-free products will end with the damage of the hair growth cycle, which makes hair falling so bad since this circle should work properly and perfectly not to experience any hair loss issue.

You should not limit yourself by avoiding consume diet cola. However, you should stop consuming other diet products for your health. If it is hard for you to give up all forever, you can ask for a piece of advice for which brand at least is okay to consume among sugar-free diet products.



Some Healthy Alternatives Against Diet Products


Here are some options for you to make your day healthier than a sugar-free diet product:

  • If you consume oatmeal for breakfast, it would be a good idea to replace flavored oatmeal with unsweetened oatmeal so that you can avoid the side effect of refined sugar. 
  • If you add granola to your mixture of oatmeal, you should also know that it contains extra calorie and sugar. It is better to prepare your own granola at home. Or alternatively, you can use nuts instead of granola. It might be even less cost for you in terms of the price tag.
  • Avocado is such a popular fruit nowadays. If you love jam, you can replace it with avocado by preparing a variety of different meals. For a god toast, you can mash half an avocado on top of your toast, and then drizzle with some lemon juice. It is also good if you add on the top it off with a slice of tomato for those who love its taste.


  • For coffee lovers, they should give up consuming crema on the top of your coffee. The best way of consuming coffee is black coffee and Turkish coffee without sugar (it will not be the same effect if you add sugar to your coffee). Yet, you can also consume it with half fat milk, which is healthy, too.
  • Compared to the sausage with bacon, it is much healthier. That is why it is recommended to swap your daily serving of processed cylindrical meat for a single strip of pan-fried bacon. It has only 43 calories and 3 grams of fat.
  • Chips fruits and vegetables might be seen innocence but they are not. You should always prefer the fresh version of fruits and vegetables not to take any refined sugar. Yet, consuming fruits without portion control is not okay. You should take the optimum portion that you need, which is different for each person regarding individual history.


  • Leafy greens such as spinach, arugula, romaine lettuce, and swiss chard contain virtually no fat. It is also effective to protect against certain conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
  • Other vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, turnips, cabbage are also suggested since they are low in fat and high in sulfur-containing substances, and have anti-cancer effects.
  • Beans and legumes, that are low in fat and packed with protein and fiber, is suggested to consume every day or at least three or four times within a week since it is so powerful to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as aid weight loss and blood sugar management.
  • The types of mushroom such as white button, crimini, portabella, and oyster are the ones you should consume regularly. They all contain potassium, fiber and various B vitamins and minerals, which is quite significant for your hair growth. When you add garlic in your meal besides that, it would be better.
  • For those who are addicted snacks, you must find other alternatives since the fatty ingredients of junk food give your harm in terms of hair loss and weight gain. When you craving for something to eat, you can prepare some sweet yourself with cacao and milk, for example. Banana and oatmeal mixture is also a good choice for this kind of times. You will love fruit smoothies prepared with healthy options!


Savaş Ateş

I'm a hair loss expert. The picture was taken 10 years ago :) I have been losing my hair. So I started to learn everything about hair loss and hair transplants. I contacted a lot of hair transplant doctors. We shared our experiences. I'm writing blog posts for people who have the potential of losing their hair. I give some tips about hair transplants and medical issues too.

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