Did you make a promise to your new year’s resolution to finally lose those extra pounds? Is this your second, third, fourth, or fifth time trying to lose weight but you feel you can’t no matter how hard you try?
To help you do that, you need to overcome the cause of your weight gain, fine-tune your diet for your unique needs, and find the perfect diet for you. With this in mind, it is important to realize that losing weight is never easy.
This year, you can take back your health and that includes your weight loss journey. So, let’s get started!
Beating The Causes of Weight Gain
Are you eating a clean, anti-inflammatory diet, yet isn’t quite enough to get them to their weight loss goal? The truth is that stubborn weight gain can often be a result of an underlying health issue sabotaging your weight loss.
Quick note, if you haven’t yet adopted a clean, anti-inflammatory diet, that is step one to addressing weight issues. Let’s take a look at what underlying health issues might be and how to overcome them.
Here are the four most common causes of stubborn weight gain to look for. Ok, let’s begin!
- Underactive Thyroid
Did you know that there are approximately 30 million Americans who are living with thyroid problems? What’s more alarmingly is that up to 60% of them are completely unaware of it. Hypothyroidism is a condition of an underactive thyroid and one of the primary symptoms of hypothyroidism is unexplained weight gain or the inability to lose weight.
This is because your thyroid is responsible for regulating many of your body’s processes, including metabolism. So, if you suffer from an underactive thyroid function, the hormone deficiency leads to reduced metabolism and less calorie burning.
In addition to an inability to lose weight, hypothyroidism can lead to fatigue, mood swings, constipation, anxiety, brain fog, muscle and joint pain, and a low body temperature.
- Chronic Stress
You’ve likely heard that prolonged stress contributes to weight gain, however for most people, the first thing that comes to mind is the urge to reach for some chocolate bar or bag of chips when feeling stressed out on a long day. A study conducted by Yale University found that elevated stress hormones were correlated with extra abdominal fat.
When you experience stress, the adrenal glands release a hormone called cortisol, and that hormone cortisol rises in our blood. One unfortunate side effect of cortisol is that it can increase your appetite and ramp up the motivation to eat which leads to a weaker metabolism, weight gain, and dangerous belly fat.
This stress hormone also plays an important role in regulating your metabolism and determining where fat is stored. And, if you are having difficulty in your weight loss journey, take an honest look at your daily stress levels. You can read more about how to manage your stress in this article.
- Other Hormonal Imbalances
If you are dealing with unexplainable weight gain, brittle nails, fatigue, thinning hair, and constipation, could you be suffering from a hormone imbalance?
Our hormones are chemical messengers and play an integral role in metabolism and your body’s ability to use energy. Yet, in case the hormones are not regulated, the body cannot burn calories properly, and it becomes resistant to weight loss. In this case, it can cause you to become overweight or develop obesity.
- Toxic Overload
If you are gaining weight despite your efforts to lose weight, your body is giving you some pretty serious signals that it is not working correctly. Simply put, it needs some attention and it’s overloaded. Overloaded with what exactly? Toxins.
In today’s modern world, it is filled with dangerous chemicals, medications, heavy metals, and other toxins that can wreak havoc on our endocrine system. Toxins are all around us. Everything from our food and water supply, the products we put on our skin, the amount of stress on our lives, our lifestyle choices, and the air we breathe contributes to how many toxins are floating in our bodies every day.
Our body is designed to filter out the toxins in our body, however, the amount of toxins we are exposed to every day is alarming and WAY beyond what our body’s internal cleaning system was designed to handle. While this disruption can cause in our natural hormonal cycle the inability to lose weight.
How to Overcome Stubborn Weight Gain
- Get a Complete Thyroid Work-Up and Implement the Right Treatment Protocol
If you suspect that you may have an underactive thyroid, it’s important to get a proper diagnosis to help you find out for sure. This is because your thyroid controls many of your body’s processes, which include metabolism. So, when your thyroid is overactive, it speeds up all of these processes, which can lead to weight loss, as well as anxiety, increased sensitivity to heat, a racing heart, tremors, and hair loss.
So, make sure your doctor orders a full thyroid workup, as most conventional doctors only use one or two tests, as opposed to a full panel, and use the “normal” lab reference ranges as their guide.
- Balance Your Hormones
To keep your hormones balanced, there are some basic things you can do to boost your body’s ability to create and balance hormones:
• eat enough healthy fats
• limit the caffeine intake
• avoid harmful chemicals
• prioritize sleep
• exercise the right way
• support digestive health
• continue a hormone-balanced diet
Once you master these tips, make the changes stick by supporting your body with a portion of whole food, a hormone-friendly diet.
- Reduce Toxic Burdens
Toxins are all around us. To reduce the toxins that cause weight gain, choose organic foods (100% USDA certified), drink filtered water, opt for toxin-free body products and home cleaning products and use HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) air filters in the home and workplace.
- Adopt Stress Relief Practices that Work for YOU
Do you often feel the weight of stress on your shoulders and overwhelmed, as if you can never catch up? We know stress can negatively affect nearly all parts of the body and can even gain weight. It is an inevitable and undesirable part of life. Though you can’t make the stress go away altogether, there are helpful ways to stay ahead of the stress so that you can minimize its impact and avoid getting gain weight.
It’s about finding your ways of coping and working through them. They can help you in time of need and these simple ways or practices are highly effective through the stress that has overtaken you.
• Find Your Healthy Outlet and Use It Whenever Stress Hits
• Learn To Focus On Deep Breathing and Visualization
• Identify Your Sources of Stress and Create a Plan for Avoiding and Coping with It
• Create a Healthy Lifestyle to Offer a Natural Foundation and Ways to Cope
Optimize Your Diet More for Weight Loss
Have you adopted a clean diet that is right for your unique needs, addressed all underlying causes of weight gain, and wanted to optimize your weight loss even further? If so, let’s dig a little deeper. Here are some additional tips to help you fine-tune your diet, and find the lifestyle balance that works best for you.
- Get a Clear Picture of Calories In vs. Calories Out
You don’t have to count calories since it can create added stress and extra work for many people. Counting calories cannot help your body to make hormones that are essential to regulate appetite and metabolism. And if you notice that your daily calorie intake exceeds your recommended calorie needs, cut back or reduce your calorie intake.
Excess calories from foods can cause you to gain weight and defeat your weight loss goals. There is a calorie tracker you can download on your phone which you can track the total calorie in versus the total calorie burned or out.
- Find the Right Carb to Protein to Fat Ratio
Each of the three major macronutrients — proteins, fats, and carb — has important and distinct roles in the body when it comes to hormonal balance, immunity, weight management, development, and so on. If you’ve tracked your calories and you’re within your recommended ranges, take a look at your ratio of macronutrients.
So, when it comes to losing fat, how much you eat matters more than the amounts of carbs, fat, and protein in your food. Once you’ve figured out how many grams of protein, fat, and carbs you need daily, it’s time to start monitoring your intake.
The goal is to find the right balance for your body.
- Swap in a Meal Replacement Shake
Rushed mornings, stacked afternoon meetings, a weekend full of running errands… Meal replacement shakes are convenient and easier to make than weight loss smoothies. Just toss your favorite ingredients into a blender and press on! All you have to do is add your ingredients to the blender with whatever supplements and liquids you’d wish to include, and enjoy your delicious meal replacement shake at home or on the go!
Unlike protein shakes, meal replacement shakes are intended to provide the nutrition of a full meal. And they may help you resist the temptation to indulge in unhealthy processed foods. Most meal shakes contain 200–400 calories and a good amount of protein, fiber, and essential vitamins and minerals. For this one, meal replacement shakes are a convenient way to get a healthy, low-calorie meal on the go.
Are you ready to feel like yourself again, regain your energy, and beat your symptoms? Remember, it’s all about making a healthy, smart choices way of life. And the most important weight loss factors include adopting sustainable and healthy dietary and exercise habits you can enjoy doing in the long term.
