If you are currently trying to lose weight or have tried in the past, you know that it is not always easy. Part of the reason why losing weight AND keeping it off is so hard is that weight loss does not always mean fat loss which is really what we are looking for. If you lose a bunch of weight, but it is all muscle, you are sure to gain the weight back and more. Even if you lose fat, but do not make the lifestyle changes necessary to keep with your new exercise and eating routines, it can be easy to fall back into old habits and regain the weight. So what can we do to fight fat and keep it off for good??
Fat loss can be a complicated subject to teach because there are so many possible limiting factors in a person’s ability to lose fat. There’s the exercise part, which plays a huge role in building muscle and burning fat. There’s the diet part, which affects everything. There’s the psychology, which is often overlooked, but is crucial to staying on track. And there’s the social part, which again, is a must. Without the help of family and friends it is impossible to form new habits. BUT, what happens if you have a good exercise & eating routine, you are focused and your friends and family all back you up…and you still can’t lose fat?
Well, that’s when we start looking to your physiology. In particular, we need to examine four major physiological systems that can greatly influence fat loss:
- Your oxygen delivery system
- Your blood sugar management system
- Your adrenal system
- Your digestive system
To be clear, exercise, diet, motivation, and social support are always the first places to look if you are struggling to lose and keep fat off. Under normal physiological situations, the body has no problem giving up the fat as long as these areas are covered. However, there are some people who just cannot seem to lose the fat, regardless of how well everything else is going. What’s up with them?
Well, assuming they really are on track, they’re likely experiencing abnormal physiological situations where fat loss is quite difficult because the body isn’t functioning as it should. It’s kind of like planting a garden. Sunshine and water are requirements for a garden to grow, just like diet and exercise are necessary for fat loss. But even with all the sunshine and water in the world, your garden won’t grow if the soil is unhealthy. In other words, you can diet and exercise all you want, you can develop a strong social support circle, and you can get your head screwed on right. But if your body — your soil — is not working properly, neither will your weight loss program.
So let’s dig a little deeper and discuss the big 4 physiological situations that might be preventing you from losing fat.
Fat Loss Barrier #1: The oxygen delivery system
The cells of your body run primarily on two things: oxygen and glucose. If either one of these is deficient in any way, your body will be unable to work properly. One of the most important things your cells can do is to produce energy. They essentially take in nutrients to create energy, allowing them to perform their specific functions. To create this energy, however, one very important nutrient MUST be present: oxygen. If your cells are not receiving adequate amounts of oxygen, nothing in your body will work correctly… including weight loss.
In conventional medicine, a decrease in the ability to deliver oxygen to cells is often called anemia, a condition referring to a deficiency in red blood cells’ ability to deliver oxygen to the tissues and organs of the body. Anemia can be caused by any number of things – iron deficiency, vitamin B12/folate deficiency, excessive blood loss (i.e. heavy menses, gastrointestinal bleeding), medications, specific chronic or hereditary conditions (i.e. thalassemia), etc. The three main causes of anemia are red blood cell destruction, blood loss, or an inability to produce an adequate number of healthy red blood cells.
If you feel that you are struggling to lose weight, or that your body is just not functioning as well as it used to, you may want to have your doctor run standard blood work, and make sure the following tests are included: hemoglobin, hematocrit, red blood cells, MCV, MCH, MCHC, iron, and ferritin.
If these numbers are below the optimal reference range, and another marker called transferrin is increased above the optimal reference range, you may have low iron. If this is the case, increased dietary iron might be necessary, but first consult with a qualified medical professional.
If your hemoglobin, hematocrit, red blood cells, are decreased below the optimal reference range, but your MCV, MCHC and MCH are increased, you might be experiencing decreased oxygen deliverability due to either deficient B12, folic acid or both. If this is the case, increasing dietary B12 and/or folic acid might be necessary. Additionally, digestive function (which we will talk more about later) should be assessed as this pattern is often due to poor absorption.
If you have not had blood work done in a while, it may be a good idea to find out sooner than later if you have any deficiencies. These can have a number of negative influences, not the least of which is the inability to lose fat!
This is all I want to dive into this week as we have already gone over two important points. First, exercise, diet, psychology, and social support are all needed to lose weight (fat) and keep it off. Second, if you have all of these in place and are still struggling, your oxygen delivery system may not be working properly. Next week we will continue to look at why you may not be losing fat.
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