Why Can't I Lose Weight?

FEEL like you've done everything and .... you're still UNABLE to lose stubborn weight, especially around the middle?

PLEASE put away the scale and stop counting calories. There are so many additional things to consider. It is about your food choices, yet so much more.

Are you open to learning some new things to consider? Society has programmed women to believe that it's all about two things, exercise more and eat less. I wish this was the complete truth and it was that simple. If you're reading this and you've been stuck in this mindset, I want to share some insights from a functional wellness approach to weight.

The past 6 months I have worked with at least 3 women who have successfully been able to lose over 20 pounds. Am I a weight loss coach? No. I help women with gut and autoimmune issues mostly, however, every body system is connected and I follow the approach to address the body as a whole.

How did these women lose weight working with me? Better question, how can you lose weight, right?

This is important to understand, your body will not release weight when it's inflammed. If you have chronic inflammation, it's important to discover the root causes.

One main thing to consider is hormone balance. 90% of the time it IS a culprit, whether it's your insulin, thyroid, cortisol or sex hormones ... they are involved.

1. You'll want to Eat for blood sugar balance and address blood sugar dysregulation which can be found on labs. Conventional Doctors just look at your glucose and tell you it's fine. You're then led to believe how you're eating is fine and continue on your way. But, did you know you can NOT base your blood sugar on glucose alone and the range used by conventional Doctors is a higher reference range. It's best to look at HA1C and get a 3 month average to know what your blood sugar is doing and requesting a fasting insulin, this is the one you really want to see! Plus, glucose can be altered by sleep/stress thus the need for full panel with insulin.

In Functional Medicine an optimal glucose range is between 75 and 86. Yes, you read that right, your Doctor may have said your glucose at 96 is fine, in fact up to 99 on a consistent basis (need that HA1C to know) is considered normal in conventional reference ranges. Guess what, you still need your insulin status to get a true an accurate picture. I don't want to make this post about labs too much, rather suggest to request a full blood sugar panel that includes glucose, HA1C and fasting insulin to be taken during a fasting state, best first thing in the morning.

2. Want to lose that stubborn weight, your must be getting adequate amounts of sleep. Did you know that poor sleep can contribute to blood sugar regulation and weight issues? Our body needs at least 7 hours each night. If you're not waking rested, work with someone to find out why. I have helped many women reverse years of insomnia issues.

3. Reducing stress and your perception of what is stress. Your adrenal glands produce the stress hormone cortisol. when it gets too high it can cause weight gain, and this particular hormone is associated with belly fat and sleep problems. Cortisol is involved in the sleep/wake cycle. We want levels to be highest in the morning and decrease throughout the day, being lowest at night for sleep. The problem is for some, cortisol levels remain high thru the night. Stress can be emotional, physical, biochemical, physiological, therefore it's important to address any underlying sources of stress/stressors. Our body is designed to only handle acute stress for short periods of time. It's possible that you're living in a constant fight or flight/sympathetic state which over time has negative impact on our overall health.

4. Check the Thyroid. It's the most common misdiagnosed hormone imbalance overlooked by Doctors in women today. Running thyroid labs means more than just the standard TSH the Doctors run. A full thyroid panel includes TSH, free T3, free T4, T3, RT3, and TPO antibodies and TBG. Without a full panel there is no way of knowing how your thyroid is converting the inactive thyroid hormone T4 to the active hormone T3 (think gas pedal) and without checking your antibodies there is no way of knowing if you may have an autoimmune dynamic. I have seen this with 2 clients lately. they were reacting to gluten and toxins along with their gut concerns.

These are TIPS and things to consider to stretch your thinking further than food and exercise. I can't forget to address your GUT health. Your hormones are connected to your gut, your digestion, and certain gut bugs can be behind your stubborn weight.

If you found this helpful and are ready to dig deeper into your health puzzle and you'd like to book a consultation, I'd love to talk with you!