Why You’re Not Losing Weight.
Over 40, Tried Every Diet Imaginable?
Feel like you’re doing everything right, but still can’t seem to lose weight? Perhaps you even initially lose weight only to pile it back on a few months later!
There are many reasons that you might be finding it impossible to shift excess weight, so let’s dive in and discuss.
Diet
I meet many women who are doing all the right things with their diet, however, there are many ways in which we might think we are doing the right thing, when maybe it’s not quite right for us.
Sugars and carbohydrates sneak into our diets in all kinds of ways, and I’m not just talking about the obvious processed foods, cakes, and sugary treats.
There are many foods claiming to be healthy, or are healthy, but maybe they’re only meant to be eaten in small amounts. We certainly can overdo the good things, like for example nut butters, or fruit. Nut butters are incredibly delicious, so much so it’s easy to eat a whole jar…do you know how many almonds go into a little jar of almond butter…. lots!?
Equally, we are all told fruit is super healthy, and many tend to eat more fruit than vegetables as their 5 a day. However, fruit is chock full of natural sugars and these natural sugars will have the same effect as plain sugar on the body when it comes to weight. The average banana has the equivalent of about 6 teaspoons of sugar! So if you’re making smoothies in the morning with loads of fruit, you may want to look at what kind and how much fruit. Berries have the lowest sugar. Also, there are far healthier ways to start your day, than a smoothie.
Additionally, you really must become savvy when buying packaged goods (most things with a label), as sugar is added to almost everything, and isn’t always labelled as sugar. I always go by the nutritional breakdown and look at sugar and carb content. Every 5g of sugar on the label is a teaspoon’s worth, and don’t be fooled by ‘no added sugar’ and ‘sugar-free’ either, this often just means it’s not regular sugar!
Overall, the modern diet tends to be far higher in carbohydrates than is necessary, and that’s why we have such a problem with obesity and Type 2 diabetes. For many people just reducing bread, pasta, rice, and other grains, along with excess fruit (also fruit juice) and being a food label ninja, can make a massive difference in weight.
Hormones and a Broken Metabolism
If you have read some of my other blog posts you’ll know that when I say hormones, we aren’t just talking sex hormones, we have many other hormones in the body!
Hormones and broken metabolism are intertwined, so that’s why we are talking about them together. When your metabolism is broken, you can end up with hormone ‘misfires’ resulting in you storing fat no matter how you choose to eat.
Most women have done some form of dieting in their lives, some are even always dieting, and let me tell you right now, dieting and being overly restrictive in your calories and foods does not work. In fact, overly restrictive diets are stressful and even traumatic to the body, resulting in a broken metabolism that put the body into trauma mode or famine mode where it will hold onto every fat cell for dear life!
The solution to this is to reset your hormone and metabolism by eating a nutrient-dense, whole foods diet that doesn’t restrict calories, and once you have done this your hormones and metabolism will start working properly and you’ll start to shed excess weight.
Let’s go a little deeper…
How to reset your hormones for healthy weight.
Hormones govern nearly all aspects of fat, including fat storage, cravings, appetite, gut bacteria, food addictions. Let’s talk about the key hormones affecting your weight and how you can reset them.
Testosterone, yep you heard me, this isn’t just a male hormone, us ladies need it too, albeit in far smaller amounts. Among other things, we need it for muscle growth, and if we don’t have enough our muscles are flaccid. Muscle is a very active tissue, it burns a lot of energy, and so the more muscle tone we have, the more energy we burn, the faster our metabolism.
The easiest way to reset your testosterone is to do weight-bearing or resistance training you don’t have to lift heavy weights if that’s not your thing, anything that strengthens and tones your muscles, at least 3 times per week. You also need adequate nutrients in your diet like zinc to make testosterone. Sometimes there are other underlying reasons why testosterone is out of balance, which you can find out through testing and working with an experienced practitioner.
Cortisol and Adrenalin. Your main stress hormones Adrenalin is more of an acute response, and cortisol is a longer-lasting response, when chronically elevated can cause all kinds of problems like depression, food addiction, and craving high-sugar foods, so you can see how stress can make you fat.
I think this is one of the most common causes of weight loss resistance I see in my clinic. Remember stress come in all shapes and sizes, it’s not just about having a stressful life, it can be poor sleep, poor diet, too little or too much exercise.
It’s practically impossible to escape the stressors of modern life, and we all must make a special effort in our lives to maintain mental and physical calmness.
Leptin and Ghrelin. These hormones control appetite and can become out of balance with things such as poor sleep and being overweight. Leptin is a natural appetite suppressant, it signals to your brain that you are full and so you stop eating, but the more stored fat you have the more leptin you produce from your fat cells which overwhelms the system and then your brain stops getting the I’m full’ signal ending in a vicious cycle of overeating and never feeling full. On the opposite end you have ghrelin the is the ‘hunger’ hormone (always makes me think of gremlins), and the more of this you have the hungrier you are. On top of this, this hormone works by activating your brains’ reward response to highly addictive sweet and fatty foods, so if this is elevated, it can make it almost impossible to resist the do noughts and cake and other process foods them even with the strongest of willpower. Did you know the only place high unhealthy fat and high sugar exist together is in processed foods? These foods are irresistible, and they ruin your health.
One of the biggest things that increase ghrelin is sleep deprivation, so if you’re not sleeping 7-9 hours a night that is the first thing you can start doing today.
If you want to support healthy leptin balance, then reduce fructose in your diet (fruit, fruit juice, many processed foods), and eat more zinc-rich foods beans, meat, poultry, oysters, and cashews.
Do you chew your food thoroughly? Many people don’t, they eat too fast or mindlessly whilst multi-tasking. Your body needs time to respond to food and release leptin, so by chewing thoroughly and being mindful it will help you eat less.
Oestrogen. Too much oestrogen in the body is associated with higher BMI (body mass index) …wait, but I’m perimenopausal so that doesn’t concern me…. Actually, contrary to what you might have been told, in perimenopause oestrogen levels are high and fluctuating, so if you have weight issues and in perimenopause, this may be why. Additionally, this will also relate to oestrogen and progesterone balance in the body, you can read more on that topic in my article on oestrogen dominance.
There are a few very simple ways to address this. Eat lots of vegetables, the fibre in vegetables will help bind to and eliminate excess oestrogen in the body. Make sure you’re getting a good mix of colours, and both fibrous and non-fibrous veggies.
Avoid xenoestrogens, these are toxins that come from the environment that can mimic oestrogen in the body, so replacing plastic in your life (Tupperware, cling film, plastic bottles etc) and minimising contact with thermal receipts and eating organic where possible.
Thyroid Hormones. These hormones control your metabolism, and it’s very common to have an underactive thyroid over 40. It also often isn’t detected by mainstream medicine as they mostly only test TSH and T4 looking for frank thyroid disease. However, even a marginally underactive thyroid d can affect weight, energy, focus and more. Ask us if you wish to get a full thyroid panel.
Insulin. Its primary role is blood-sugar metabolism, and due to life and diet the body can become resistant to it, eventually leading to Type 2 diabetes. Weight around the middle is a string sign you should consider insulin resistance, and you can go ask to be tested. Luckily, it’s easy enough to address through diet and lifestyle, proving you address it sooner rather than later.
Food Intolerances
This may be a surprise to many, but I’ve seen this first-hand in my clinic, identify a hidden food intolerance/sensitivity, and remove that food and the person loses weight! When we are reacting to foods, it causes inflammation in the body, resulting in bloating, weight gain and sometimes other systems you may not even think are related to food. I wrote an article on bloating you may wish to read where I talk about how to identify food intolerances and what you can do,
Emotional Eating Patterns
Do you notice yourself reaching for unhealthy foods, when stressed, upset or anxious? There are learned behaviours, sometimes rooted way back in childhood, especially if your caregiver gave you nice things to eat to soothe you. You may not even have thought about this until now that I have mentioned it. You can defiantly undo this wiring in your brain, either on your own or with a qualified coach/practitioner/therapist. We all have habits formed in our earlier years that no longer serve us well, but that we continue to act upon in autopilot mode. Sometimes all you need is someone to help you see it and see that it doesn’t serve you anymore to initiate change. Next time you find yourself going to grab something unhealthy stop and be curious with yourself and your feelings, don’t be harsh with yourself, just gently ask about your feelings and why you want that food, do you really need it? Might a nice walk, or a cuddle from a loved one or pet, or some music also do the job?
Snacking
Most of us do not need to snack between meals. You may have been told you need to do this to keep your energy up or keep blood sugar in balance, but the root cause of low energy and blood sugar imbalance is not a snacking deficiency! 2-3 well balances nutrient-dense meals per day, and you shouldn’t even want to snack. If you do, there is an underlying cause, like emotional eating, nutrient defences, sleep deprivation or other imbalance in the body.
Depending on how you feel, try Leaving 4-6 hours between meals or give Time Restricted Feeding a go. This isn’t restricting calories, this is just narrowing your eating window to 8-12 hours, which can help the body burn those fat stores for energy. It’s more natural for us to eat in a narrower window than eating all through out our waking hours. Some studies even show a decrease in cancer risk if your eating window is 11 hours.
Obesogens
Obeso-whats?? Did you know there is a group of environmental toxins that cause weight loss resistance? That’s what Obesogens are. These toxins affect your mitochondrial health (the powerhouse/batteries of your cells) weakening your metabolism, they impact insulin sensitivity making you more prone to store fat, and mess with your thyroid, really slowing down your metabolism making weight loss difficult.
Not the Right Kind of Exercise
Forgot what you’ve been told about cardio, cardio, cardio to lose weight, in fact the opposite can happen. If you’re doing cardio every day and not shifting weight, it’s because you are switching on your stress response and remember when that happens you store fat, rather than burn.
You need to exercise smarter.
That means finding the right balance for you that isn’t too much or too little. The biggest take-home I learn when I studied sports nutrition, is that overtraining isn’t about excising too much, but too much for what a person body is already dealing with. If a person is eating poorly (stress), sleeping poorly (stress), working long hours without downtime (stress), the last thing they need to do is spend 2 hours in the gym every night, overtraining is about the cumulative stress on the body. If a person wants to train every day then they need to dial down the stress in another part of their lives, or they will do more harm than good.
If you’re really struggling to lose weight despite doing all the right things and would like our help to identify your root cause and how to address it get in touch
