5 Factors to Weight Loss | Why Am I Not Losing Weight?

There are 5 main factors that typically contribute to a lack of weight loss, excluding diet and exercise.

Sugar: 

The over consumption of sugar has led to severe obesity and diabetes in America. Sugar intake comes from the consumption of simple carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, rice, fruits, starchy vegetables, and pastries. When we consume too much of these carbohydrates, the body cannot use all of it for energy. It will then store this excess sugar in our fat cells. Our fat cells are like balloons. It can grow but if you overfill it, it can pop. To prevent these cells from popping, more fat cells are produced to store this excess sugar. This is how obesity occurs. To calculate if we are obese or overweight:

• Take your height in inches and multiply by your height in inches:  64 in X64 in + 4096
• Divide your weight by this number: 138 lb/ 4096 = .03369
• Multiply this number by 705 and this will be your BMI:  .003369 * 705 = 23.7
• This is your BMI:
• Normal is 18.5 – 24.9
• Overweight is 25 – 29.9
• Obese is 30 or greater

If you are in the overweight or obese BMI, we need to reduce our sugar intake so our body can use the glucose stored in our fat cells as energy.  (Through a Functional Medicine Consult, I can help determine what diet would work best for you in this scenario.)

Yeast:

Yeast is sometimes misunderstood as a yeast infection but there is something called, systemic yeast. Yeast grows and thrives in our intestinal wall due to a dark, wet environment. I always think about making bread. Yeast needs water, sugar, and a dark hot environment to grow. This is our intestines. Yeast needs sugar to grow, and the more carbohydrates and simple sugar we consume the more it feeds the yeast in our system. Good indicators of yeast issues are:

• Bloating
• Dry eyes, skin, mouth, hair
• Constipation or difficulty going to the bathroom
• Pee it has a yeasty/sweet smell
• Don’t sweat much
• After eating, your stomach gets full and bloated but once you go to the bathroom your stomach reduces size.
• Tired all the time, lack of energy
• Weight gain
• Chronic sinus infections
• Itching in the ears or skin
• Excess mucus production

There are several lab tests that can be done to determine if you have an overgrowth of yeast. I have found that once we place a person on a specific yeast cleanse diet and supplementation, the weight begins to shed,  and sleep, energy, digestion, and skin begin to improve.

Stress:

If a patient still cannot lose weight by changing their diet, exercising, and cleaning out the yeast, then we come to the conclusion that it could be stress. Stress can cause a cascade of major hormonal and glandular changes. When we are under stress, we cause our adrenal glands to overreact. Adrenal glands produce epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine, cortisol, aldosterone, and sex hormones. When the adrenals get tired it will begin to signal the thyroid to help give it some energy, as well as, ask the brain to make you hungry for simple carbs. Simple carbs = simple quick energy. The thyroid begins to work to help the adrenals, but it begins to get fatigued (Hypothyroidism).  Since the thyroid controls our metabolism, it begins to slow.

This is where weight gain begins. We start consuming more simple sugars for energy and our thyroid has slowed down our metabolism. The adrenal glands produce estrogen and is produced in both males and females but, if the adrenal glands are in overdrive, we began to produce too much estrogen.

If we begin to have an excess amount of estrogen and the body cannot use it, it begins to store it in our fat cells. During this process, normal hormone regulation begins to change, leading to hormone irregularities in females and reduction of testosterone in males.

Here are the main effects of stress when it comes to weight gain:

• Increases our hunger for simple carbohydrates
• Decreases the function of our thyroid
• Causes hormone irregularities in our body leading to sluggish metabolism and storage of fat

Just a hint, ladies, if you notice you are gaining more weight around the belly and thighs, this is a hormone issues probably due to stress.

Men, if you notice you are tired all the time, can’t lose weight, fatigued, and low libido (low testosterone with hypothyroidism), this, too, may be a hormone issue due to stress

Heavy Metals:

Most of everyone has some form of heavy metal poisoning. I personally do a heavy metal test for me and my family every two years. We are exposed to so many chemicals in today’s world, it is necessary to see what we need to reduce. Heavy metals cause so many neurological, hormonal, and metabolic dysfunctions. Today, we are going to talk about how it can cause weight gain. Heavy metals are toxic to the body. Mercury, Cadmium, Lead, and Arsenic can slow down the thyroid, they can speed up the adrenals and they can do damage to our hormone receptors. Cortisol will increase causing fat gain and impaired digestion with adrenal fatigue. 

Our body is supposed to naturally filter out these heavy metals through the liver. But, if our body is overloaded with other toxins and processes, it cannot. Therefore, these heavy metals are stored in our FAT CELLS. I personally love doing an infrared sauna to help pull out these heavy metals from the body.  Sweating is the best thing to release these toxins from your system. So, a quick tip, please do not wear antiperspirants, it is the worst thing you can do to your body. There are also several chelating herbs we can use to help trap and pull these heavy metals out of our system.

Where do heavy metals come from:

• Dental work
• Cooking with aluminum foil and aluminum pans
• Baking powder
• Antiperspirants
• Drugs and Medications
• Food (GMO)
• Pesticides
• Clothing and furniture
• Drinkware: aluminum cans
• Dryer sheets
• Cleaning supplies
• 
  

Liver:

Our Liver is the most important organ. It is a main filter for toxins and excesses in the body. It is what removes our excess hormones, our heavy metals, our waste, dead cells, and contaminants. If our liver is so full of these toxins already, new toxins in our body cannot be removed. These pollutants began to recirculate the blood system and gets stored in our fat. This is what makes our fat cells grow. These fat cells may not just store sugars, but they store all the chemicals in the body and slowly release them back into the blood waiting for the liver to expel them out of the body. I explain that no diet or exercise is going to help, unless you clean out the liver so it can expel these excess products. Do you know the only way excess estrogen gets out of your body is through the LIVER? Your liver is the only exit. If it is completely blocked up, then you will continuously have the hormone issues and weight gain issues.  Sometimes even before diet changes, I will have the patient do a liver cleanse, just to see if they lose weight. It is amazing how so many people come back with significant weight loss.

When discovering why you aren’t losing weight, don’t just assume it is calories and exercise. Yes, the amount you eat and how you burn it, is important. But don’t starve yourself to lose a few pounds; it will only come back with vengeance. It is time to think outside the box. There are several tests we can perform to determine if it is: hormonal, yeast, blood sugar, heavy metals, or an under functioning liver.  Let us help you in your journey to not only weight loss but a healthy lifestyle to keep it off. We never want to make this a diet, but a lifestyle change.

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