Trying to lose weight can be an incredibly frustrating and difficult process when you’re not getting results.
You’re eating right and exercising regularly but still struggle with stubborn belly fat. You’re doing all the right things. Being strict and careful. Yet the scale never seems to move. Your motivation and determination begins to spiral into confusion and defeat. What’s the deal?
Many of our patients have had similar experiences on their weight loss journey. They’ve tried diets and workout plans. They’ve hired personal trainers and bought special shakes. But until you address the underlying causes to your weight loss resistance, your goals will feel as heavy as that extra weight you’re trying to take off.
The good news is that through Functional Medicine, testing for and identifying imbalances and deficiencies can be the key to providing real solutions for how to lose weight for optimal health.
Most Common Causes of Weight Loss Resistance
Hormonal Imbalance
As early as 35-years-old, women’s estrogen and progesterone levels can begin to fluctuate. In an effort to preserve and prolong fertility for as long as possible, their bodies begin to store extra fat. The belly is the most common area because belly fat can make estrogen.
For senior adults, weight loss and insulin resistance can develop for maturing women during perimenopause and menopause. As estrogen drops off, it becomes harder for your body to manage blood glucose levels because estrogen was formerly in charge of insulin sensitivity.
In the absence of estrogen, insulin is no longer working at its best resulting in a prolonged buildup of glucose in your bloodstream, causing inflammation, weight gain, fatigue, and brain fog.
Thyroid Imbalance
When thyroid hormones are low, important chemical messengers like serotonin, beta endorphin and leptin become confused and disrupt our eating behavior. These changes can increase cravings, inhibit the sensation of fullness, significantly decrease energy levels, and lead to weight gain.
Adrenal Imbalance
During times of stress, the adrenal glands release cortisol and adrenaline to trigger the “fight or flight” response. But everyday stress doesn’t require us to actually physically fight or flee, so these hormones are stored as fat. Chronic stress can cause your body to hang on to every calorie possible to prepare for such a needed response.
How To Break Through The Resistance
It’s important to understand that weight loss is a gradual process and the process looks different for every person. A functional medicine provider can help uncover and understand the hormones involved to create the right plan for how to lose weight so you can reach your weight loss goals.
It All Starts With Lab Testing
By understanding what roadblocks are causing your weight loss to stall, you’ll know what areas need to be addressed. Some of the important hormones involved with weight include cortisol, insulin, thyroid, leptin and ghrelin. Through a simple lab draw, you’ll have the information needed to make necessary changes.
Overcoming Hormonal Imbalance
Since your hormones play a significant role in your weight loss journey, overcoming hormonal imbalances becomes a priority for progress. Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is a proven effective method for treating common symptoms that both men and women experience with hormone decline.
Bioidentical hormones are unique in that they are identical in molecular structure and function to the hormones produced in the human body, which can make them easier to metabolize and correct imbalances.
Prioritize Thyroid Function
Your metabolism depends heavily on the functionality of your thyroid. When the thyroid gland is not producing enough hormones, it can slow down the metabolism and make it more difficult to lose weight.
The thyroid gland produces three hormones: Thyroxine (T4), Triiodothyronine (T3) and Calcitonin. T4 and T3 are what most people think of as “thyroid hormones.”
These hormones play a significant role in your metabolism and in energy regulation in the body. While traditional medicine relies heavily on TSH to determine thyroid health, the functional medicine approach looks at the thyroid as a whole and considers its role in multiple body functions.
Use Natural Resources To Reach Your Goals
There are so many options to help patients get to the next level of their weight loss journey. Peptides have been incredibly effective to help breakthrough the plateau.
Semaglutide is a peptide, which is analogous to glucagon-like peptide 1 synthesized by the intestinal epithelial cells. It is primarily given to patients diagnosed with any chronic weight-related condition such as Diabetes Mellitus Type 2, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, etc.
It acts as a receptor agonist for glucagon-like peptide 1 and manages blood sugar levels in an individual. Semaglutide works by regulating hormones such as insulin, which is ultimately responsible for keeping blood sugars level low. It also downregulates the secretion of glucagon, thus preventing any conversion of glycogen to glucose.
Because of its effectiveness, Semaglutide is a great option for people aiming at weight loss in organic ways.
AOD 9604 is a modified form of amino acids that stimulate the pituitary gland, which in turn can speed up your metabolism and burn body fat. This peptide targets areas of the body where there are abnormally high levels of fat.
You can experience a higher caloric burn by exercising and consuming a lower calorie diet while taking AOD 9604. Peptide AOD 9604 regulates how your body metabolizes fat by stimulating lipolysis, or the breakdown of fats and lipids and inhibiting lipogenesis.
The amino acids contained in AOD 9604 are the same as those found in a naturally occurring hormone associated with growth. These are involved in fat reduction and do not seem to affect growth or insulin resistance when administered alone. Therefore, it does not have any adverse effects on human growth or on blood sugar levels.
Consider pushing the reset button on your weight loss journey with intermittent fasting. Fasting allows us to look at the relationship we have with food and how we are affected by it on more than a physical level.
Fasting encourages us to be mindful of our choices, not only around the food we put into our bodies (when, what and why we’re eating), but also with the energy we give and receive, the ideas and feelings we give weight to, what we choose to hold on to and what we’re willing to release.
Fasting Benefits:
- Boost cognitive performance
- Reduce inflammation
- Improve overall fitness
- Support weight loss
- Decrease the risk of metabolic diseases
Losing weight can be an incredibly frustrating and difficult process for many people. Often the reasons for our struggles with weight loss are not as simple as just eating less and exercising more.
Our integrative weight loss approach begins with a thorough history and physical with one of our medical providers. Our advanced diagnostic testing will provide information as to how your body is processing hormones, vitamins and nutrients.
Our team will walk through each step of this process until you break down barriers, reach a healthy weight and meet your goals.
We are dedicated to providing a balanced, integrative plan for how to lose weight that eliminates toxins, reduces inflammation and restores balance. If you’re ready to take control of your weight, connect with our team.
