You’re hitting the gym, running kilometres, you’ve ditched the processed foods and reduced your calorie intake, yet still you cannot lose weight. Frustrating, right?
You’re probably wondering: what the heck is going on with my body? As a functional medicine practitioner, coach and trauma therapist, I can say that losing weight isn’t just about energy in and energy out. There can be body systems out of whack that are affecting your metabolism, as well as deeper baggage stuck in your unconscious mind.
Let me share with you key areas that impact your ability to lose weight, especially if you’re feeling stuck with exercise and dieting.
Stress hormones
Are you stressed, overwhelmed, burnt out or running ‘busy’ patterns? If you are, your adrenal glands are likely getting a hit.
Your adrenals secrete the stress hormones cortisol and DHEA. If these guys go haywire due to chronic stress, they can switch off your metabolism which can make it really hard to shift weight, regardless of how you are eating or exercising.
In addition, if you’re exercising intensely or eating a calorie deficit, this can put more stress on your adrenals, which means your eating and exercise patterns are actually causing you to hold onto fat.
Mitochondria
Another body system that can impact your ability to burn fat is the mitochondria. These are little cells that live in your muscle tissue, and are responsible for converting food into energy.
If your mitochondria have become damaged, you’ll struggle to metabolise food into energy, which means the food (even a lettuce leaf!) gets stored as fat.
Chronic stress, pathogens, environmental toxins, processed foods, alcohol and even over-exercising are common culprits for damaging the mitochondria.
Gut health
A healthy gut microbiome (your beneficial bacterial species) is connected to a healthy metabolism and body weight.
When you have nasty pathogens growing inside your gut – things like bacterial pathogens, parasites and yeast infections like candida – this can stall your ability to burn fat. You see, these pathogens are very inflammatory, which means you can hold fluid retention in your body. Some of these species also produce toxic metabolites like acetaldehyde, which is basically alcohol.
You might be eating the best diet, and even abstaining from alcohol, but you could be creating your own internal brewery inside your gut, which will make it difficult to shift weight.
Functional medicine practitioner Filipa Bellette.
Detox pathways
Did you know that fat burning also takes place in the liver? If your liver and detox pathways are sluggish or burnt out, then it can be really hard to burn fat, as the liver will always work on toxins and poisons first.
Additionally, toxins get stored in fat tissues, and your body can literally create more fat to try to keep you safe, if you aren’t able to detox these toxins effectively.
Your liver also metabolises and excretes excess sex hormones, like oestrogen. If this isn’t happening, it can lead to oestrogen dominance – a classic symptom of this is stubborn excess fat.
Test, don’t guess
If the above makes a lot of sense to you, I wouldn’t suggest running down to your local health food shop to grab some supplements just yet. A functional medicine approach is to test these body systems with lab tests that go beyond what regular GPs and medical specialists can offer.
If any of these body systems show up on lab tests as imbalanced, then you have good evidence to start therapeutically supporting your body with exactly what it needs to heal, and to then become a healthy fat-burner.
Trauma, beliefs and ways of being
When I work with clients, I don’t just look at the physical body. Why? Because we are many different bodies – a physical body, as well as a mental-emotional body, an unconscious body, a nervous system body, and a spiritual or energetic body. Just doing “physical” protocols to return your body back to full health rarely works – or at least, not long term – as all the bodies are connected.
When it comes to losing weight, I would also consider past trauma. Do you have distressing events in the past that led you to feel like it is unsafe or bad to be a healthy body weight? If so, your unconscious mind is holding onto this baggage, and it is controlling your physiology to hold onto fat as a form of protection.
Your beliefs about your worthiness or capabilities of being a healthy weight can also thwart your ability to lose it. So too can unconscious patterns that are leading you to behave in a certain way. For example, you may be thrashing your body with exercise and restricting your diet out of force and fear and self-hatred.
The body can never fully heal and stay well, because your way of being is causing more stress and trauma to your self. A better way is to learn to deeply love and connect with yourself, and a healthy weight will follow.
