Did you know your weight struggle may not be your fault? If you’ve tried every diet, tried cutting calories and exercising, and the weight still isn’t budging, your metabolism could be super slow (meaning you're burning through a fraction of what a normal person would eat).
Why?
The top reasons we’ve discovered in our office are:
An Allergy to your Thyroid. Symptoms of this typically include both hyperactive (anxiety, nervousness, trembling, fast heart rate, insomnia) and hypoactive symptoms (sluggish thinking, foggy brain, weight gain, need lots of sleep). While sometimes medically diagnosable, more than half of the thyroid allergies I have tested in my office had not been found by any other practitioner. Technically known as auto-immune thyroid, Hashimoto's, and Graves, this is COMPLETELY FIXABLE by clearing the allergy to the thyroid itself, which is something I do all the time in my practice. Once we clear the allergy the thyroid is able to calm down and with supplemental support can finally heal. Usually the client is then able to wean off thyroid medication (if they had been on it before).
Infections in the Thyroid (often "stuck" viruses such as retroviruses)
An allergy to T4 or T3 thyroid hormones. In other words your immune system is inappropriately targeting that hormone as something to destroy, driving levels below normal. This means you could even be allergic to Synthroid or Levothyroxin (synthetic T4) if they’re taking it. Often your doctor will keep increasing the medication and you still feel no difference—continuing to feel tired and struggle with their weight. "But my bloodwork looks perfect - my thyroid tests fine." A lot of times thyroid problems do not show up on standard blood panels - you have to ask for the expanded text which includes Reverse T3 (which is where the problem will often show up). However, at Abundant Life we use our laser technology to easily reset the immune system to no longer target/destroy it. After that, feeding the thyroid with iodine while detoxing any toxins such as metals affecting it allows levels to rise to optimal!
Food Allergies—gluten, dairy, or other. Often prevents your body from switching into fat-burning mode.
Leaky Gut. I’ve found that our metabolism cannot rise above the level that we are able to absorb nutrients, understandably enough. Due to the presence of glyphosate (Roundup) in many of our foods especially genetically modified corn, use of painkillers such as Advil, and the use of antibiotics, the cells lining the digestive tract can get damaged.
Lack of sufficient diverse probiotics. This is a huge problem due to our overuse of antibiotics and most probiotics contain 4-10 strains at the most. All clients receive a blend of probiotics that cover 40 different strains, for a few days, to repopulate the digestive tract with the correct bacteria. Without the sufficient bacteria to help them break down foods, people often crave sweets or unhealthy foods, which can hinder weight loss.
Low Iodine level. Iodine is the preferred mineral to feed thyroid function, and most of us are woefully deficient in it. “But I eat Iodized salt” you might say. Yes, Americans get enough iodine in iodized salt to prevent goiter (enlargement of the thyroid) but NOT nearly enough to allow the thyroid to thrive. Besides that it has an antagonist in the American diet: Bromide, a rather toxic anticaking agent added to nearly all flour in baked goods competes for iodine on the thyroid and displaces it.
Lack of sufficient protein in the diet. Protein helps repair every cell in your body, and the more protein you eat, the better your organs can function including your thyroid. This leads to burning through more calories even at rest.
Kidney issues. I find a lot of clients have stones in the kidneys which can cause low/mid back discomfort and cause water retention -- if a person has puffy fingers, up to half of their extra weight could well be water retention, NOT fat cells.)
MTHFR Gene Mutation. This halts ability to absorb any or all of the following - B6, Folate, and B12 vitamins - all needed for proper function and metabolism. There are easy solutions for this however.
Certain medications, such as birth control or depression/anxiety medications, can cause weight gain.
It’s easy to see why 95% of people who go on a diet gain all the weight back and usually more.
They never fixed the cause of their weight gain: a slow metabolism. Restricting calories also restricts nutrient intake, which means your body starts to “starve” for nutrients, causing hunger that puts on more weight.
What if it wasn’t about the diet?
No diet can completely fix a poor metabolism; in fact many of my clients who can’t lose weight are already on super healthy diet!
So maybe we’ve got it backwards - shrink your diet to fit your metabolism, OR, increase your metabolism to fit any healthy diet, by finding and fixing the root causes slowing it down. Personally I know which option I’d choose. :)
As we listed above, there truly are SO many reasons for weight gain. At Abundant Life Nutritional Therapy we have had great success in finding and easily solving the underlying problems behind a slow metabolism, thereby allowing weight loss with a healthy diet. Using natural methods that work and long-term solutions that will not cause rebound weight gain.