The Best Way To Lose Weight

The Best Way To Lose Weight

Weight loss plateaus are a very common and frustrating issue. When someone is having trouble losing weight, despite doing everything right, there are a few things to look at, to see if we can uncover why they are hitting a weight loss plateau and come up with a plan for the best way to lose weight.

Nutritional Imbalances

One of the first things to consider are nutritional imbalances. Studies show that nutritional deficiencies are more widespread than you might imagine. Over 30% of American diets are lacking in nutrients like magnesium and Vitamins C, E, and A. Over 80% of Americans have low Vitamin D levels. Nine out of 10 people are deficient in omega-3 fatty acids which help cool inflammation and control blood sugar levels.

For too long, Americans have been overfed and undernourished. Most obese children and adults are malnourished. This just proves that an abundance of calories does not necessarily deliver the nutrients that your body needs. Most of the time the opposite is true, overeating can create nutrient deficiencies.

Nutrition-based treatment can often help reset your metabolism. You can work with our Functional Medicine provider to test for your specific deficiencies and put together a plan to correct them. The good news is that there are highly effective natural supplement options to nourish your nutritional deficiencies.

At Kare Health & Wellness, we utilize extensive diagnostic testing to determine your body’s needs and then develop a plan utilizing our pharmaceutical grade supplement line from Ortho Molecular.

Gut Microbe Imbalances

We have over 1,000 species of bugs in our gut, and bacteria cells out number our own cells 10 times over. We call this the microbiome. It’s the place where all these beneficial bacteria live and work within us to maintain a healthy gut.

We know that the bacteria in our gut can have profound effects on weight and metabolism. Some bacteria extract more energy from food, leading to weight gain, while other bacteria will extract less energy from your food, leading to weight loss.

Here are some things you can do on your own to cultivate a healthy microbiome:
1. Eat whole, unprocessed, unrefined foods. One of the best ways to maintain gut health involves cutting out the sugar and refined carbs and jacking up gut-supporting fiber.
2. 75 percent of your plate should be vegetables and plant-based foods. Your gut bugs really love these high-fiber plant foods.
3. Eat good fats and get an oil change. The good fats we mentioned earlier (like omega-3 fats and monounsaturated fats, such as extra-virgin olive oil) will help with decreasing inflammation, giving healthy gut bugs a chance to flourish.
4. Supplement smartly. Studies find omega-3 fatty acids can support healthy gut flora, aside from their other numerous benefits, like reducing inflammation. You should definitely supplement with an essential fatty acids formula. Take a strong probiotic supplement as well. This helps reduce gut inflammation while cultivating health and the growth of good bacteria.
5. Studies demonstrate anti-inflammatory and weight loss benefits from adding Medium Chain Triglyceride or MCT oils. Some of my favorite fats, coconut oil and coconut butter, contains these fabulous fat-burning MCTs.
6. Remove inflammatory fats. Cut out bad, inflammatory omega-6 rich fats like vegetable oils. Replace these with healthier oils like extra-virgin olive oil and coconut oil.
7. Add fiber-rich foods. Nuts, seeds, and a special fiber called glucomannan provide prebiotics and feed our healthy bacteria.
8. Add fermented foods. Sauerkraut, kimchi, tempeh, and miso contain good amounts of probiotics so your healthy gut bugs can be fruitful and multiply.

Inflammation and Immune Function

Science now clearly identifies chronic disease and aging as a state of inflammation. And it’s not just allergies, asthma, arthritis, or autoimmunity that are the causes of inflammation. We now know that diabetes and obesity are inflammatory problems, as are heart disease, cancer, depression, autism, and dementia.

Environmental Toxins

Many doctors look down on the whole idea of detoxification. But if you were to ask them what happens when your kidneys or liver fail, or if you’re constipated for weeks on end, you’d quickly find out just how important the detoxification process really is. Detoxification is a natural process that occurs all the time in the body, though our personal ability to detoxify can become hindered for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, in our modern world, we are exposed to a huge burden of toxins from our environment and our diet.

These toxins, including plastics, pesticides, phthalates, bisphenol A, flame retardants, metals like mercury, lead, arsenic – and any one of the 80,000 chemicals introduced into our world since the industrial revolution – have been shown to interfere with metabolism and cause weight gain.

There are many ways in which toxins promote weight gain – affecting your metabolism, your hormones, and your brain function. Reducing your exposure to environmental toxins is entirely possible:

• Eat organic when you can.
• Stop eating mercury. Avoid big fish with lots of mercury – such as tuna and swordfish.
• Eat clean, organic animal products by choosing grass-fed or pasture-raised animals that haven’t been exposed to hormones or antibiotics.
• Be sure to filter your water. Use a carbon or reverse osmosis filter to get rid of hidden contaminants in your water supply.
• Eating lots of fiber helps you have a bowel movement at least once a day – this a very important part of the detoxification process.
• Add 1 to 2 cups of cruciferous vegetables daily to assist with detoxification. This includes foods like broccoli, kale, and bok choy, and lots of garlic, onions, ginger, and turmeric.
• Don’t forget to sweat – this is the body’s natural mechanism to excrete toxins.
• Take supplements that support detoxification including selenium, zinc, Vitamin C, and a Vitamin B-Complex.
• Take special glutathione boosting compounds such as n-acetyl-cysteine, alpha lipoic acid, and milk thistle, which also support your liver.

Functional Medicine assesses the root cause of the problem and treats the whole system to quiet and cool the flames of inflammation, leading to weight loss and overall good health. To begin your journey to a healthier happier you, give us a call to schedule your Functional Medicine consult.

Keri Sutton - RN, MSN, ANP-C, AGPCNP-BC

Keri is a Nurse Practitioner and founder at Kare Health & Wellness. Keri's pursuit of personal answers to her own health issues landed her in the top of Functional Medicine. As she utilized functional Medicine to get her own health and life back, she made it her life's work to bring this empowering form of healthcare to as many people as she can.

About Us

Our mission is to create a safe environment for our patients to share their story and be empowered to take control of their health.  We constantly challenge patients to think differently about their health. We never find contentment in simply being disease free. We want to help patients optimize their vitality of life so that they can strive for things that they thought were unattainable.

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