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10 Reasons Why You Can't Lose Weight
This may come as a surprise but I'm not going to mention exercise or portion control in this list. No, this goes much deeper into the root cause of weight gain based on the nutrition or lack thereof in your body. Weight gain beyond what is normal for growth is actually a symptom of disease and can be avoided with a healthy diet full of nutrient dense food and enough sleep for the body to recover every day.
10 Reasons Why You Can't Lose Weight
1. Digestive distress
Whether you're properly digesting your food has a tremendous impact on whether that food becomes 1. nutrition for your cells, 2. waste that leaves the body, or 3. the contents of a fat cell. What fills the fat cells are toxins such as GMO chemicals, processed foods, refined sugars, artificial sweeteners, trans fatty acids and other foods not recognized by the body or consumed in quantities too high to manage.
2. Food sensitivities and allergies
If your gut lining has been compromised by large undigested food particles, those particles may be able to break through the lining, aka "leaky gut." The immune system will attack these particles causing you to experience symptoms known as allergies: hives, rashes, sneezing, coughing, swelling, and acid reflux. When the immune system is busy protecting your body from the "leaky gut", the body can't filter out the toxins we need to eliminate for weight loss.
3. Dehydration
Our bodies need to consume half of our body weight in ounces of water every day in order to flush toxins, carry nutrients to our cells, and lubricate joints, tissues and organs. Many times we reach for food when we're not actually hungry. Next time try drinking 8 ounces of water first and then see if you were just thirsty. Check out this article for early signs of dehydration.
4. Blood sugar imbalance
I think we all know we eat too much sugar. The problem is sugar reacts in the body like a drug; we're addicted and it's killing Americans with obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. When we eat sugar, our body reacts to it as if it were a stressor. The normal production of hormones, neurotransmitters, and digestive enzymes ceases, the liver stops filtering toxins, and the body starts storing the excess sugar or glucose into fat cells. We thought eating too much fat made us gain weight, but it's actually eating too much sugar.
5. Essential fatty acid deficiencies
The media often changes its mind on which fats are good or bad. The truth is they're all good as long as they are in balance. We need saturated fat such as animal fats and tropical oils, monounsaturated fats like olives and pork lard, and polyunsaturated fats in expeller pressed nut and seed oils to inflame tissues when there is an infection and then to "uninflame" without the interference of medication.
We need essential fats to satiate us so we don't overeat and to escort toxins out of the body. Unfortunately, we eat way too many fried and processed vegetable oils and hydrogenated oils which are all trans fatty acids and cannot be used in the body; ultimately they are stored in fat cells. Never heat your polyunsaturated fats and avoid all canola, corn, and vegetable oils.
6. Stress: adrenal fatigue
When the body experiences stress from job related issues, family disputes, high sugar consumption, or processed foods, the adrenals produce cortisol in reaction to the stress. American adrenals are the most overworked and underpaid of the organs. Cortisol is produced as the highest ranking priority hormone bringing digestive hormone production to a halt, female and male hormones are robbed for components to make more cortisol, and liver detoxification is put on hold. Cortisol causes the body to react like a state of emergency and store all fats and toxins for later use. Is your stress load making you fat?
7. Toxin overload
The liver has about 450 jobs, one of which is to eliminate toxins through detoxification pathways. If you drink 1 glass of wine, the liver can process that in 8 hours. If however, the liver is congested with an overload of sugar, GMO foreign chemicals, pesticides, hormones or antibiotics in the food, processed foods, and pharmaceuticals, there is simply not enough time to process the load and maintain proper function. As a solution, the liver will begin to store all toxins in fat cells to deal with them later.
8. Hormonal imbalances
The endocrine system is like an orchestra sending hormones throughout the body to a rhythm that is unique to each individual. Many factors can interrupt this beautiful symphony such as soy, a phytoestrogen that acts like estrogen but renders the orchestra completely out of tune. Contraceptives that use synthetic versions of estrogen and progesterone, steroids and other hormone related drugs can also upset the orchestra and jump in like a player out of tune. When the symphony's out of tune, the body receives a distress signal and produces cortisol. Cortisol sends the body into a sympathetic, reactive mode and all digestion and proper toxin elimination ceases.
9. Bad bugs: yeasts and fungals
We're made up of 10 times more bacteria than cells and it's a balancing act to keep the beneficial bacteria outnumbering the bad bacteria. Maintaining a balance of beneficial bacteria is not an easy task. Sugar, artificial sweeteners, excess fruit, processed foods, yeasts, and simple carbs feed the bad bacteria and help them overcome our delicate intestinal flora. If the flora develops an overgrowth of yeasts or fungals, digestion will not occur properly and weight loss will be nearly impossible.
10. Brain neurotransmitter deficiencies
The pituitary, a tiny organ in the brain is the conductor for the orchestra of hormones in the body. The brain needs adequate nutrients to build neurotransmitters which signal to the pituitary how to conduct the symphony. Inadequate nutrition will result in a lack of building materials to make neurotransmitters and thus poor communication of making and sending hormones. This will cause both a hormonal imbalance and digestive distress.
Most people take a pharmaceutical to overcome the mental health distress which causes more weight gain by upsetting proper digestion. This further decreases the necessary nutrients for neurotransmitter production and creates a toxin overload for the liver.
As you can see, there are so many factors to consider when you're experiencing weight gain as a symptom. If you investigate these 10 areas, you'll most likely find the culprit.
The next step is to work on healing within that category. Finally, we need to have a healthy emotional outlook with plenty of fresh air, exercise, and sleep. These things don't cause weight loss immediately but they allow the body to remove stress and toxins and restart our metabolism every day.
You should enjoy your personal journey in weight loss not despise the process. I see too many people pick up a diet they end up hating, because it's too restrictive.
Here are Real Stories from Real People who have decided to work on these 10 issues through the Food Foundation Detox and have loved the process, have felt empowered to continue, and have lost weight without punishing themselves, counting calories, or skipping meals. I encourage you to find a supportive group to detox with and join us. It's all about eating real food that you love and learning how to thrive in a supportive community.