6 things to consider for better weight management
February is a tough month. Still cold and dark, Christmas and New Year are long forgotten, and it’s often the time of abandoned resolutions. It’s easy to lose faith. I try to think of it as ‘pre-spring’, although admittedly with varying degrees of success. Anyway, if you’re feeling a bit disillusioned about how the weight loss is going, here are a few tips that should help.
I’m not a big one for ‘dieting’ and my approach to weight loss has always been from a health point of view (there is no doubt that carrying a lot of excessive weight is not healthy) rather than aesthetic. But, recently I’ve been working with a few clients for whom weight loss has been an important part of their plan, and it’s struck me how confused people are about weight management because they’ve been pumped with so much mixed information by a very profitable diet industry for their entire lives.
There are lots of ways you can manage your weight but some are much easier than others, some are more sustainable and some are healthier. If you do it the right way, it will be easy to maintain a good healthy weight for the long term without lots of counting or restriction. Here are 6 things to think about.
Eat real foods
If you’re eating real whole foods, mostly plants, in as close to their natural state as possible, you really can’t go wrong.
Avoid processed and refined foods and don’t go near anything that says ‘diet’ or ‘light’. These foods, particularly those that contain artificial sweeteners disrupt your body’s natural signalling mechanisms which are designed to keep your body at the right weight. Whole plant foods, contain lots of fibre which is crucial for good, steady digestion and keeping your blood sugars balanced. Fibre also provides your microbiome with its food (more on this later).
2. Balance your blood sugars
Good blood sugar balance, no spikes and crashes, means you won’t feel hungry which makes everything so much easier because it stops you having food cravings.
Level blood sugars also means that your insulin will work optimally, allowing your glucose to get into your cells and be utilised properly (rather than stored as fat) and signallers such as leptin (our satiety hormone) to function properly. Balancing blood sugars means getting enough protein, so some with each meal, and avoiding refined sugars, simple carbohydrates (white carbohydrates)as well as stimulants such as caffeine.
3. Salt, Fat and Sugar = Dopamine Hit
Clients often feel as though they have lost control of their eating, they just can’t stop.
This is because they experience a dopamine hit when they consume salt, fat and and sugar in the right quantities. We are hardwired to respond to these foods in the same way an addict would to their substance of choice because for our ancestors they were a rare occurrence but very beneficial. However, not only are they readily available to us modern western humans, but the food companies have figured this out and use it to get us hooked on their foods, encouraging us to overeat. That’s why once you pop you really can’t stop and why ultra processed foods are so harmful.
4. The role of the microbiome
Your gut microbiome has food cravings (yes, those guys are telling you what to eat), and if your microbiome is used to certain ‘less healthy’ foods that is what it will crave.
This makes people feel as though they have no control. But, when you change the way you eat to more whole plants, the make up of your microbiome will also change and what you/they crave changes with it. So be patient and don’t feel like you have poor willpower, it’s your microbiome, not you, who is running the show.
5. Think about your alcohol consumption
For a lot of people their alcohol consumption represents a pretty hefty amount of empty calories. On top of this it contains a lot of toxins making them feel sluggish, lacking in energy and unlikely to exercise.
If you are having a couple of glasses of wine a night and you’re finding it difficult to lose weight then this is a no brainer. Cutting down, or cutting it out completely can be an easy weight loss win.
6. Check out your hormones
There are lots of ways in which changes in hormones can affect our weight.
These include thyroid deficiency, declining oestrogen (often due to menopause), and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). If you are having difficulty shifting weight in a way you haven’t in the past then checking out your hormone levels, and speaking to a health professional in order to understand how you can better balance them could make all the difference.
So, be smart when it comes to managing your weight. All calories are not made equal. Slow and steady really does win the race. Don’t believe the diet industry, they are making a fortune out of people’s insecurities. You can’t outsmart your body, it will always come back to bite you. Work with it and not against it.
