5 Reasons You Can’t Lose Weight, Independent of Food!

Giving you additional considerations if you are frustrated and stalling in your healthy weight goals.

Large participant studies have found that for every hour loss of sleep, the average person consumes an extra 200 calories because of the increase in ghrelin and slowing down of leptin and conversely this study shows that by increasing sleep it reduce calorie consumption.

In extreme loss of sleep 4 hours or less the area of the brain responsible for reward becomes alert so this means that people often snack on sugary type foods and regularly throughout the day. Sleep is also needed for the body to rest and digest food each night and to cycle our other hormones such as insulin in the body for blood sugar control.

TRY:

• Using BluBlockers if looking at the screen before bed, this will help your brain adjust the light for for sleep
• Use Blackout blinds in bedroom to keep the room super dark
• Make sure you have your phone on Airplane Mode so that the Wifi signal to your phone doesn’t stimulate your nervous system
• Use essential oils like Lavender or Cedarwood to relax the mind
• Take an Epsom Salt bath before bed

The presence of these toxins reprograms your DNA to create more fat which can make it difficult to lose weight, especially if the detox pathways are not clear eg. sweating, regular stools. This also means that if you lose fat quickly, you want to ensure you have the ability to detox the body too.

TRY:

• Swap out your cleaning products for some super easy homemade ones, vinegar and bicarbonate or soda works well on pretty much everything.
• Use glass instead of plastic to store your food in the fridge and cupboard, avoid drinking water from cheap plastic bottles where possible because BPA or BPS leach into the water
• Use natural paints like Frenchic so you are not inhaling toxic paint fumes.

I have seen this often with clients because they are scared to feel the emotions that are arising in that moment and so they reach for the pleasure of food which temporarily numbs the emotion but leads to longer term over-eating.

TRY:

• Depending of the situation, you may need to work with a councillor, therapist or coach to help you find safe outlets to meet your emotional needs.
• Bring awareness to why you are craving a certain food and see if you can observe and watch what feeling arises in the body
• I like to use Emotional Freedom Technique in my courses to further support the emotion in the moment

Studies have shown that by transferring the bacteria Clostridia from thin mice to obese mice that the mice were able to lose weight, this highlights the plasticity of the microbiome with weight and how it changes with diet and lifestyle. Taking many courses of antibiotics, without replenishing the probiotics or fermented foods, often means that opportunistic bacteria takes hold and this in turn manages the cravings for unhealthy sugars.

TRY:

• Taking a probiotic regularly
• Eating a spoonful of fermented foods with each meal
• Eating prebiotics like garlic and onion that will help to feed the good bacteria

During this time adrenaline and cortisol surges and digestive processes are put on pause because it is not the most critical tool for survival. Long term stress also blunts insulin sensitivity leading to glucose dis-regulation, this creates inflammation and many other metabolic dysfunctions.

TRY:

• Daily meditation with an app such as headspace or one from YouTube
• Deep Breathing – 10 deep breathes helps to engage the parasympathetic nervous system
• Take a weekly yoga class
• Put the technology away and go for a walk in nature