First of all, we should stop saying “losing weight” or checking weight. When we stand on a weighing scale, it doesn’t show you just weight of your accumulated fat cells but also weight of your muscles, bones, and organs etc. Your brain alone carries the weight of 3 pounds. The best thing is to measure your inches. That will exactly show you how much extra fat you are carrying around your waist, belly and thighs.
We shed fat by starving those fat cells stored in our body at various places and we need to understand first that how these fat cells get stored in our body in the first place.
- Stress– The more stressed you are, you will choose food high in sugar/fat and caffeine e.g coffee, chocolate, high sugar foods etc which can cause inflammation and in turns gives you glucose intolerance. Physical stress which is a digestive stress (When your liver is constantly processing sugar ) ,Emotional stress like relationships , environment as well as mental stress like nature of job , sleeping patterns also plays a huge role in this.
- Thyroid Hormones – Hashimoto (Thyroid) disease is now v common especially in women. It is a disease where body produces antibodies that attack the thyroid gland. It pretty much controls everything that makes us feel human. Hormones are changing your brain function and metabolism minute by minute. Key here is insulin. Insulin is a fat storage hormone. It is a hunger hormone.
- Gut Health – It helps regulate metabolism and immune system. Our gut has trillions of micro biome (Bacteria in gut/colon which is imp for digestion). Imbalance of bacteria leads to diseases. Things that reduce good bacteria in your gut are Stress and sugar. Increase in sugar and highly processed food changes the micro biome in your gut which can lead to a leaky gut and inflammation. Depending on how your guts micro biota looks like you can be fat or thin because it regulates metabolism. So if you just change gut micro biome, you will be thin.
- Diet – Think of your belly fat like a sponge, it vacuums up all the fuel that you eat. If you are eating sugar and junk food, all goes there. Food is not calories. It is an information and instructions. It instructs every cell of your body what to do every minute with every single bite. You literally change your gene expression with every bite. Processed and high sugary food has become our staple food now. It is not the sugar that we add to our food but it’s the sugars that are already added to our food. Morning yogurt has more sugar than coke. Tomato ketchup has more sugar than Oreo cookies. You don’t lose weight by cutting down calories. It’s the qualities of calories that count.
- Slow Metabolism : Things that regulate your metabolism are micro biome , toxins, allergens, nutrients, hormones etc. Imbalance or issue in any of these actually slows your metabolism and makes you hungry. Voluntary control over your food isnt going to work.