Why Do We Have Trouble Losing Weight?
Why Do We
Have Trouble
Losing Weight?
Not Eating Breakfast
By not eating a healthy breakfast in the morning, means metabolism is sluggish throughout the day until lunch and by then we are famished and overeat throughout the rest of the day to catch up on calories. One solution is to prep our breakfast for the week with healthy options like high protein smoothies, hard boiled eggs, apple slices and nut butter, and paleo friendly bars.
Overeating Healthy Foods
We are eating almonds, avocados, fruit, salads, but they all still have calories. Make sure you are eating an actual healthy portion of your healthy snack and not eating the whole bag of trail mix in one setting. Be aware of the sneaky hidden sugars in foods. Hidden calories – hidden sugars are everywhere – salad dressings, cereals, peanut butter, granola bars, ketchup, mayo, fruit juices, flavored waters, most sauces and condiments. All these “hidden’ calories add up in a day and studies have shown that sugar is more damaging to your body than big sugar binges!
Underactive Thyroid (Hypothyroidism)
The Thyroid controls your metabolism and contributes to most of your biochemistry. Did you know that 20-30% of people are walking around with undiagnosed thyroid disorders? Maybe that’s why we are cold all of the time, can’t lose weight, feel puffy, and bloated. When was the last time you had a full thyroid panel? (that is your TSH, Free T3, Free T4, and Reverse T3 levels).
Portion Sizes
Are you aware that slowly over the past few decades the American serving size has nearly doubled, if not tripled, in comparison to our counterparts in Europe and Latin America. We are being served larger and larger portions in restaurants and it is changing our perception of what an actual “normal” size of food should be on your plate. For more information go to - https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/eat-right/distortion.htm
Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes
When eating a diet high in carbs (bread, pasta, sweets) our body will overproduce insulin to try and keep our blood sugar normalized. Overtime bodies becomes resistant to their own insulin, blood sugar goes up, and fat synthesis increases. Many patients are screened for insulin resistance which can occur up to a decade before any overt signs of diabetes. Luckily insulin resistance is reversible and treatable.
Hormonal Imbalance
When hormones are out of whack, it’s harder for to lose weight and easier to gain weight. In premenopausal women, too much estrogen (or estrogen dominance) causes adipose or fat gain, water retention, and bloating, along with a long list of other health issues. In men, loss of testosterone also leads to weight gain.
Chronic Sleep Deprivation
When we are tired we are less physically active and more apt to eat high carb foods that give us temporary energy. However recent studies have also shown that chronic sleep deprivation can actually mess up hormones that help with weight metabolism. www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evidence-based-living/201611/the-link-between-sleep-deprivation-and-weight-gain
Stress and Adrenal Imbalance
One of the most common causes of not being able to lose weight is due to the fight-or-flight stress hormone cortisol. “Over time, high cortisol, when sustained, is linking to high blood pressure, diabetes, increased belly fat, brain changes… depression, insomnia, and poor wound healing. In fact, fat cells in the belly have four times more cortisol receptors compared to fat cells elsewhere, which just keep reinforcing the muffin top as cortisol climbs and stays high. It’s not pretty.” http://www.saragottfriedmd.com/cortisol-switcharoo/
Medications
Did you know many medicines are known to have weight gain associated with them? Antidepressants, diabetes medications, antipsychotics, epilepsy drugs, and certain blood pressure medications. If you need to take medications, you may have choices that do not cause so much weight gain.
Vitamin Deficiencies
Low levels of vitamin D, B vitamins, amino acids, minerals, and other nutrients cause a slow cellular metabolism. Unfortunately, most people do not realize that they aren’t getting enough optimal levels of vitamins from their foods. Most Americans are known to have vitamin deficiencies.
