Weight loss can be a sensitive topic. Losing weight can be frustrating and sometimes seem hopeless. My hope is to shine a light on ways to have a healthier and easier weight loss experience in this article.

In order to understand how to lose weight, you first need to understand how we gain weight. The food we eat is broken down by our bodies into nutrients; fats, proteins, carbs, vitamins, and minerals. The body will use these nutrients as it needs them. When the body doesn’t need these nutrients it will eliminate them. That is the natural process the body should perform under a healthy diet. If you are eating a healthy balanced diet, you will have a healthy body. You truly are what you eat!

Now let's talk about what happens if you don’t have a healthy or balanced diet. If there are too many carbs or too much protein in your diet, the body will convert these into fat. If your body is functioning at 100%, you can still eliminate these fats. However, our body doesn’t know what to do with things like preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, and pesticides that can be found in our food. The body will store these things as fat so it can figure out what to do with it later.

Your body does not grow more fat cells as you gain weight. What  actually happens is the fat cells are stretching to allow as much fat into them as the body wants to store. When you do lose weight, the body will start to eliminate fat from the body. The fat is flushed out of the fat cell and eliminated from the body usually through the colon. (That is why it is important to have a healthy digestive system in order to eliminate your fat.) The fat cell itself stays the same size it was stretched out to, making it easier to fill up with fat again. This is the frustrating part of losing weight. Those fat cells are just sitting there, waiting for you to fill them up again.

Now let’s look at how to lose weight. Unfortunately fad diets aren’t the answer.  Sustainable lifestyle changes are.  The best weight loss is slow and steady and becomes a normal part of daily living. A healthy weight loss amount is 1-2 pounds per week. Weight loss is roughly 80% diet and 20% exercise. You cannot out-exercise a poor diet!!

Three underappreciated factors in weight loss are:  Stress reduction, sleep, and hydration.  Under stress, your body will store fat because it thinks you might need the energy from the food later. Stress alone can make you gain weight. Find ways to help you decrease your stress such as exercising, knitting, or fishing. Sleep is important because it helps reduce stress on the body. You heal when you sleep. Aim for 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night. Drinking water (not coffee,soda,or juice) is important to the overall function of your body. You should be drinking around 8 cups of water per day. This helps the body function in order to flush fat out of the body.

When trying to lose weight, never go by the numbers on the scale... especially if you are exercising. Muscle weighs more than fat so it will look like you are gaining more weight when really you are just gaining muscle. The best way to determine if you’re losing weight is to go by how your clothes are fitting. If you need new clothes, you are losing weight.

If you have made lifestyle changes to your diet and are exercising, but still finding it hard to lose weight, you may want to visit your general practitioner. Thyroid problems, diabetes, and reproductive problems can make it harder for your body to lose weight until those problems are addressed.

Another reason you might be having a harder time losing weight is due to toxin overload in the body. Toxins that enter the body from our environment should be filtered in the liver and eliminated from the body. However, if there are too many toxins for the liver to handle or the liver is already under too much stress, it will store these toxins in our fat. The body will not release fat from these toxic fat cells because it will also release the toxin which will make the body sick. It’s easy to think of toxins in our air, but we also are exposed through our water supply, food supply, cosmetics, and household cleaners. That is a lot of toxins to be exposed to on a daily basis.

This is why our office runs the Standard Process Detoxification Program multiple times a year. There is a 28 day detox option and a 10 day detox option. The more toxins you have in your body, the longer you should detox. If you have been struggling to lose weight, this could be a good first step. You may need to also detox multiple times a year depending on how many toxins you are constantly exposed to. In the program we go into more detail about how to decrease your toxin exposure and how to make those healthy lifestyle changes to be a healthier version of yourself. While this is not a weight loss program, it prepares your body to flush fat and the classes will teach you a lot about dietary changes to support a healthier lifestyle.

Don’t give up on losing weight. There are so many benefits to weight loss such as more energy, less achy joints, and the ability to be more active. There are many factors that can affect weight loss. Pick one and start taking small steps towards a healthier lifestyle. If it is time to take a different approach to managing your weight, give our office a call to jumpstart your weight loss journey. Your health is more than just a number.