How to Overcome Physiological and Psychological Barriers to Weight Loss?
Excess body weight is the most important nutritional issue of our times, with two out of every three adults in Ireland currently classified as overweight or obese.
Diet isn’t a one size fits all approach. A lot of my patients tried at least several diets to lose weight and the weight keeps coming back. Have you ever asked yourself: “Why do I want to lose weight? Am I willing to change eating habits?”
If you want to increase your success of losing weight, involve others as it is a powerful motivator and can increase weight-loss success.
Physiological Barriers to Lose Weight.
Thyroid Function:
Your thyroid gland makes two hormones: thyroxine (also called T4) and triiodothyronine (also called T3). Together, these hormones regulate all of your body's growth and metabolism and also your body’s temperature. Your metabolism determines how quickly your body burns energy and how quickly metabolic reactions in your body happen. It affects lots of things, including how much you weigh, your memory, your mood and how much you sleep.
Adrenal Function:
High levels of the stress hormone called cortisol to maintain the fight-or-flight response, increasing levels of fat and glucose in the bloodstream. Long term, most of that extra energy is stored as abdominal fat particularly in women. This can be difficult to get rid of as tummy fat starts acting like a hormone-secreting organ with a mind of its own thereby keeping the cortisol/fat cycle going. In the next month blog article, I will describe exactly How Stress Can Cause Weight Gain and the Role of Cortisol in the Body.
Pancreas and Blood Sugar Dysfunction:
Different foods affect our blood sugar levels differently. Carbohydrates ( from bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, vegetables, fruit, sugar, yoghurt, and milk) are turned into glucose, which is the fuel that drives all body processes. When you eat more protein than your body needs to repair and function, excess protein is turned into glucose and burned as energy. In the protein metabolism pathway, the complex protein particles are divided into amino acids in the intestinal tract.
This glucose transfers into the blood for distribution around the cells of the body. The levels of glucose in the blood need to be very strictly managed and to do this, the body secretes the hormone insulin from the pancreas. After a meal, insulin works to lower blood sugar by increasing the rate that cells take it up and store it. Conversely, if blood sugar levels fall too low, due to food deprivation or exercise, the body will quickly produce the hormone glucagon, which releases stored glucose from cells. Due to stress, highly refined diets, lack of exercise and sleep this mechanism of blood sugar control can begin to malfunction. As a result weight gain may occur and this may be difficult to lose unless the underlying issues are resolved.
Are you suffering from blood sugar dysregulations and insulin resistance? Try out some of my Healthy Recipes.
Digestion:
Many researchers now believe that supporting intestinal health will be one of the most vital goals of medicine in the 21st century. If your digestion is not working well then you could experience health problems - even if you are eating healthily. Undigested food particles can cause potential allergies, intolerances, fluid retention and bloat among other symptoms, which can all affect weight gain. Keeping your digestion well-tuned is one of the foundations when losing weight particularly around the middle.
Immunity:
Individuals present to different healthcare professions on a daily basis with digestive issues, heart conditions, weight problems etc. Whilst these are individually named problems, there is often a common link between all these issues – immune system dysfunction. A healthy balanced immune system is key to good well-being and longevity. If this system is not working optimally it may negatively affect key systems in the body. Eating well, exercising, keeping stress levels low and good quality sleep can all positively affect immune health.
Psychological Barriers to Weight Loss.
For many people, losing weight will be one of life's most demanding trials. Don't be disheartened if you've tried losing weight in the past and you weren't able to or you lost weight but gained it all back. Following the guidelines set out by your Nutritional Therapist will give you a better chance of staying on the healthy path.
Follow These Proven Strategies to Reduce Your Weight and Boost Your Health.
Think of losing weight as an optimistic experience, not a negative one. Approaching weight loss with a confident approach will help you be successful as a negative mental attitude can make you stressed and losing weight will be very difficult if not impossible.
Don’t be hard on yourself and focus more on changing your behaviours and habits instead of focusing on numbers on a scale and weight changes.
Take a piece of paper and write down what prevented you to lose weigh in the past. Talk about your previous attempts and obstacles with your Nutritional Therapist and come up with strategies for dealing with them.
No one has reached the ideal weight within a week, so make small, not radical, changes to your lifestyle and dietary habits.
Changes that are too intense or forceful can make you too stress and cause you to give up very quickly. Accept the fact that you'll have obstacles, but keep doing and believe in yourself. Instead of giving up entirely, simply start fresh the next day and always, seek help.
How does it sound?
Sometimes your most intense desires for food occur right when you're at your weakest emotional points. Many people turn to food for comfort consciously or unconsciously, when they're dealing with difficult problems or looking for something to distract their minds.
How To Help Yourself?
To help keep food out of your mind, try these suggestions:
Try to disturb yourself from eating by calling a friend or going for a walk. When you can focus your mind on something else, the food cravings quickly go away.
Don't keep comfort foods in the house. If you turn to processed foods whenever you're upset or miserable, make an effort to get rid of them.
Recognise your mood. When you feel depressed, make an attempt to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. For example, write down all of the positive thoughts about yourself and what you plan to achieve by losing weight.
There's nothing inherently wrong with eating while watching TV or a movie, but when you're distracted, you tend to eat mindlessly which can lead you into eating more than you intended to eat. If you're unable to break this habit, at least make sure you're munching on something healthy like cucumber or carrot.
What are the 5 ways you can eat healthier when eating out?
If you're at a cinema, order a small bag of popcorn with no butter and eat slowly.
Eat something healthy before you leave home so that you're not extremely hungry when you arrive.
Bring your own healthy snacks with you like a healthy protein bar, a handful of nuts and seeds.
Drink water instead of fizzy drinks.
Try to reduce the amount of time that you spend watching television each day as studies show that watching TV and eating at the same time, can contribute to weight gain.
In most social situations where food is involved, the key is to treat yourself to a few of your favourite foods in moderation. If you try to resist the food, your craving will only get stronger and harder to control. By following a few simple strategies, you can enjoy yourself without overeating.
Next time you step up to a party food table, try these strategies:
Make only one trip and be selective. Decide ahead of time how much you'll eat and choose foods you really want.
Treat yourself to one or two samples of high-calorie or fatty foods. Fill up on vegetables, salads and fruits, if you can.
Take only small portions. A taste may be all that you need to satisfy your craving.
Nibble. If you eat slowly, you'll likely eat less however don't nibble all night long!
Don't stand next to or sit near the food table. Remember “out of sight, out of mind”
Eat something healthy before you arrive. If you arrive at hungrily, you'll be more prone to overeat.
If you find that you have lapsed from your eating plan and are finding it hard to get back on the track here are some strategies that may help:
Lapses happen and it is normal particularly at the beginning of a programme. Many times a slight slip, a hectic day when you couldn't find the time to eat right or get exercise leads to more slips. That doesn't mean that you've failed and all is lost. Instead of beating yourself up to accept that you're going to experience bumps along the way and put the incident behind you.
Everyone has a difficult time. Think back to the original steps you took when you first began your weight program and put them to use again to help you get back on track with the encouragement and support of your nutritional therapist or therapist.
Here are some tips of avoiding slip suggestions to prevent a lapse from turning into a full-blown collapse:
Convince yourself that lapses happen and that every day is a fresh opportunity to start over again.
Guilt from the initial lapse often leads to more lapses. Being prepared for them and having a plan to deal with them is important to your success.
Research shows that if you see your lapse as a mistake and as a result of an external trigger, rather than as an individual failure, you will have a much better chance of return on a healthy track quicker.
Slowly and steadily add more healthy changes until you're back on track. Open up your protocol and recommendation given to you by your therapist and review them frequently. This may have a positive effect and re-charge your batteries. Use the menu plan and recipes to help get you back to a healthy eating routine.