Weight loss according to the “gurus” is easy.
According to these broccoli and chicken breast eating know-it-all’s the key to losing weight is to eat less and exercise more.
Try telling that to an experienced dieter; someone who has repeatedly tried to lose weight over the years over and over again.
Personally I find it offensive that such a “know it all” would try to push their opinion on people.
Why?
Because it shows a complete lack of understanding about nutrition and the physiology of the body.
Not only that but it is also insulting the overweight person’s intelligence.
I mean, most people who want to lose weight have at some point tried the whole eat less and exercise more thing and it hasn’t worked.
At least not in the long term.
If It’s Not About Calories Then What Is It About?
Losing weight in theory is simple.
If you get the steps right your body will drop pounds effortlessly.
Restricting food though is the WORST thing you can do.
There are so many factors we need to consider, all of which will take too long to go into right now.
And I don’t want to make this too long so it will be in a future post.
So… Your Weight Loss Resistance Could Be Because Of Your Thyroid
Let’s get right into it and not waste any more time.
Your Thyroid is a very important gland that sits at the front of your throat and looks a bit like a butterfly.
Your thyroid is your body’s master controller of metabolism.
An under-active thyroid will cause a slow metabolism and result in weight gain and cause you difficulty losing weight.
An over-active thyroid will cause a fast metabolism and result in weight loss and a difficulty gaining weight.
So… If your thyroid gland is not functioning properly you will find it hard to lose weight no matter how much you try to diet.
A Little About How Your Thyroid Works
As I mentioned earlier, your thyroid is a small gland that sits at the front of your neck.
When it is stimulated from signals coming from glands in your brain, the thyroid releases thyroid hormones.
Thyroid hormones act on nearly all cells within your body and are responsible for many functions including growth and development of cells and metabolism of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
Those hormones are known as T3 (Triiodothyronine) and T4 (Thyroxine).
T3 is the only one that is active and has an effect around the body.
About 7% of all thyroid hormone released is in the T3 form.
The other 93% is released in the inactive form T4. T4 cannot be used by the body in this state and needs to be converted into T3 in order to be used.
Going From Inactive To Active
In order for the inactive thyroid hormone T4 to become active T3 it needs to undergo conversion.
Around 60% of this conversion happens in the Liver, assuming the liver is functioning optimally.
Unfortunately many of the people I see and run tests for don’t have optimally functioning livers as a result of years of toxin build up from the environment and other man made chemicals.
A further 20% of T4 is converted in the gut, and again, many people don’t have very good gut function.
The last 20% is converted into something called Reverse T3 (rT3) which absolutely cannot be used at all.
So as you can see, in order for your body to convert T4 into T3 you need a healthy gut and a healthy liver.
Heal Your Gut, Fix Your Liver, Lose Weight
Earlier I mentioned that losing weight was not just as simple as restricting calories.
Just now we touched on the tip of the Thyroid iceberg to highlight that in order to lose weight you need thyroid hormones.
But in order to have sufficient amount of thyroid hormone you need to be able to process the inactive form in the liver and the gut to convert it into the active form.
So weight loss really is about improving your body’s health.
It is about investigating what isn’t working.
Do you have a gut bacteria imbalance?
Do you have insufficient stomach acid?
Is your liver or gallbladder not functioning properly?
Contact Me To Get Your Health Back On Track
If you are struggling with weight loss, or you have thyroid, gut or liver issues then get in touch.
Email me at ashley@precisionwellbeing.co.uk
Or call 0203 356 7060.