BY DR. ROOPA CHARI, M.D.
Dec 13th, 2015
As we head into the holidays and make our New Years Eve Resolutions, weight loss is usually on the top of the list. However weight loss is not just about diet and exercise. You don’t want to just lose weight, ultimately you want to lose fat.
Keep in mind that belly fat and excess fat storage is only a symptom. Below that symptom, there is always a root cause which should be addressed.
Weight loss and fat loss are different since fat loss is about balancing your hormones, addressing food sensitivities and digestive issues, correcting nutritional imbalances and detoxification along with along with exercising in a healthy manner. Ultimately, you don’t want to just lose weight (which could be losing water, muscle or fat), ultimately you want to lose fat.
As ironic as it may seem, it’s not just about calories in and calories out. You probably have read this many times before that depending on the number of calories in minus calories out, that decides if you lose or gain weight:
For example: Weight Loss is eat less calories than you burn. Weight Gain is eat more calories than you burn.
However remember your body is very complex, there is much more to the equation than just calories in, calories out. The action of eating foods creates a hormonal reaction in your body.
When you eat less calories because you’re “dieting”, your body reacts by slowing things down. One of the ways it does this is by telling your thyroid gland to slow down the metabolism. This is the opposite of what you want to lose weight!
This is why when you drastically reduce your calories, many people still can’t lose a pound! Your metabolism has gone into survival mode trying to conserve energy and resources.
Sooner or later, you feel frustrated and find your appetite will increase causing you to snack or overeat. Then since the metabolism has slowed down, you will gain weight faster than before.
Then we are back to square one.
In addition, losing hard to lose pounds on different parts of your body requires a different approach. Even though weight loss does happen when calories are reduced below maintenance levels, remember there is another critical (often ignored) part of this equation: your hormones.
Other issues related to weight include trouble falling asleep and/or staying asleep, digestive problems, sugar cravings (especially those night cravings), fatigue, cold hands and feet and toxins.
Beyond diet and exercise, it is very important to address how to get good quality of sleep, heal digestive issues, balance hormones, manage stress, heal unresolved emotions and detoxify.
Hormones are chemicals your body produces to manage almost all of the functions in your body. This includes your emotions such as happiness, how great it feels to fall in love or feeling sad, depressed and hopeless.
Hormones are also important for many physiological functions including breathing, your digestion, quality of sleep, blood pressure, emotions, blood sugar, immune system (fighting infections) and metabolism.
In addition, hormones are responsible for burning and storing fat. That is why it is important to address hormones but you don’t want too much or too little. When one hormone is out of balance, the others follow (like a domino effect).
Everything you eat, drink and even the thoughts you think will influence your body’s hormonal reactions.
All of these hormonal reactions also have a powerful influence over where you actually carry your body fat. The shape of your body can reveal a lot about your hormonal balance. For example, the tendency to store fat in one area versus another (i.e. belly fat versus in the arms) is a process controlled by different hormones. Great news is that many of them are under your control.
You are about to discover how you can be in control of the hormones that are determining the shape of your body. These changes will help to balance and restore your hormonal balance.
Stay tuned for Part 2!
About Dr. Roopa Chari, M.D.: "Dr. Roopa Chari is a medical doctor in Internal Medicine and her brother Deepak Chari is an Engineer and Certified Biofeedback Specialist at The Chari Center of Health, an advanced integrative medical center in Encinitas, CA. * Sign up for a FREE 15 minute holistic medical consult with Dr. Chari and/or a FREE 30 minute Stress & Anxiety Relief session with Advanced Voice Biofeedback with Deepak Chari here or call (760) 230-2711."