By Derek Henry, Holistic Health Coach for Healing the Body
There is a myriad of reasons that we fail to lose weight. Most people chalk it up to consuming too many calories, and not burning enough. Although that thought has some merit, it’s not quite that simple. Find out 5 key reasons why you haven’t been able to lose weight, that have nothing to do with hitting the gym.
Calorie Counting
I understand that you have been taught to count calories or points by lots of different weight loss systems (like Weight Watchers), and that some people have noted results in the weight loss category.
However, most of these program do not create lasting results as they don’t teach people what they need to know about calories and how the very act of counting them is a fools errand.
Your body needs calories to live, and when given food that is nourishing to the body, it naturally governs your caloric intake by creating a satisfied signal that makes you want to stop eating. So when you consume foods that are not providing adequate nourishment, your body cries for more calories in hopes it can receive some kind of nourishment, and as a result you overeat these foods which leads to digestion complications, that in the end, creates more fat storage.
So really, when you decide to start counting calories, it’s really code for wanting to be able to still eat junk foods that are processed or otherwise denatured and full of empty calories. That’s your choice, but it isn’t one that will result in any type of lasting weight loss success.
So when you decide you really want to lose weight, and for good, a mind shift needs to take place where you transition to healthy foods that don’t require a calculator. Then, once you get your body functioning properly and efficiently, you know it will burn right through that delicious brownie.
Toxin Load
Studies indicate that 70% of people are overweight, and 20% are obese. There are also a variety of reasons for that shocking number, but one point to consider is our toxin load.
In case you missed it, we are eating, drinking, and breathing toxic substances every single day. That may seem ridiculous to you, but once you consider your food source, water and drink, and air quality, it is a stark reality for the majority of us.
Our increasing toxin load does many things, including slowing down our metabolism, digestion, and making our body sequester them in fat to avoid damage to our internal organs. So when you continue to take toxins in faster than you get them out, your fat burning metabolism slows right down, your digestion becomes more sluggish that leads to more toxins, and your body goes into survival mode by isolating them in fat so they don’t overload your primary organs.
This is why cleansing systems became popular, and they had a point. However, it is only one piece of an intricate puzzle that is weight loss.
Hormonal Imbalance
Have you been a victim of pregnancy weight that never left? Do you use your kids as an excuse for why you are not as thin as you once used to be?
Well, that weight often doesn’t come off due to a hormonal imbalance caused by hormonal disruptions through pregnancy, plastics, and other factors that create bad estrogens. Men are not off the hook either, as items such as plastic can also create bad estrogens that need to be flushed in order for proper hormonal function, and a healthy weight.
How to balance your hormones is one of the biggest mysteries on the planet, but fortunately, this health program solves it.
Improper Food Combining
We like to blame certain foods for our weight, and many of our other health challenges. However, what many people fail to consider is the combining of foods and how that causes weight gain.
For example, did you know that animal protein and starches such as potatoes should not be eaten in the same meal? Were you aware that eating dessert last, especially when you have eaten animal protein and carbohydrates, is a really bad idea? It all has to do with proper assimilation of your food by your digestive tract, the time frame it takes to do that, and how they interact to either digest effectively or not well at all.
When you put your digestive system in this quagmire, it has increasing difficulty in digestion to the point that it leaves undigested food particles that are essentially left to rot creating gases and toxins that only the local sewer should be capable of producing.
Stress
This is one of the more difficult factors to control. We all deal with varying levels of stress, and it knocks the health right out of us one way or another.
When the body feels stress, it’s immediate reaction is to ‘hold’ weight and put more on in anticipation of tougher times ahead. This goes back to periods where food was more scarce, and fat storage was needed for survival.
However, food scarcity is not the same issue today, and to add insult to injury, many people go to food (and often junk food) when they become stressed which further exacerbates the issue.
If you want to start losing weight, you need to be happy with where you are at, so you can lose the stress and ultimately that extra tire.
Time for a Different Mind Set
We are a society fixated upon calorie counting and fad diets that create short term weight loss, and often at the detriment of your general health. We also seem to think that excessive exercise is the answer (and exercise does help play a part, when done appropriately), but without a proper diet, the stubborn last 20 pounds will often stay on.
It’s time to realize that calories are not the culprit in and of themselves, but the types and combinations of calories and the unbalanced lives we live that encourages weight gain and not weight loss.
This very intricate and complicated set of factors leaves most people struggling with their weight for the majority of their lives. It doesn’t have to be that way, especially when you begin to understand how fundamental nutrition and high quality supplementation can permanently end this dilemma.
*Image of “weight scale“ via Shutterstock
