Functional Medicine Approach to Weight Loss

 

You’ve decided to make the commitment to yourself to prioritize your health in this new year… once again. But just like last time (and the time before that), it seems that nothing works. You try to exercise daily, you watch your calorie intake, and avoid those sweet desserts sitting on your kitchen counter. 

 

Yet, you wonder, “Why can’t I lose weight no matter what I do? There has to be some medical reason why I can’t lose weight”.

 

You’re right. There may be a medical reason why you aren’t losing weight. The functional medicine approach to weight loss may be what you are looking for this time around.

 

Let’s figure out why your body isn’t shedding the pounds with all the hard work you are putting in like people say it should!

 

What Causes Weight Loss Resistance?

Even if you are eating clean foods and exercising, your body may be facing challenges on a cellular level that is causing a halt in your metabolism. The issue with excess weight and obesity is that it’s not a result of one individual factor. Multiple factors disrupt biological processes that regulate weight and metabolism.

 

Factors contributing to weight loss resistance:

  • inflammation
  • mitochondrial dysfunction
  • oxidative stress
  • neuro-endocrine-immune dysfunction
  • hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
  • nutrient deficiencies

 

Let’s dive into how these contributing factors are connected to underlying stressors our body is dealing with. Remember, many of these issues are interconnected. There’s not just one cause for why you aren’t losing weight.

 

Toxins

Environmental toxins are found in your beauty supplies, household cleaners, even in your water and food sources! These toxins can circulate in your body, causing damage to your cells and even mitochondria. Since your entire body (tissues, organs, etc.) is made up of cells, if they are injured, they won’t be able to communicate and function properly.

 

If the toxins you are exposed to on a daily basis build up, they can even harm your mitochondria. These are the powerhouses of your cells that make energy. Mitochondrial damage can lead to chronic fatigue, making it even hard to have the motivation to get movement in for the day.

 

Toxins can increase inflammation and cause your stress response to overwork. When your stress response is signaled, your detox pathways and digestion are halted, and your blood sugar rises to give your brain and muscles energy. 

 

This constant elevated blood sugar can promote insulin resistance. Insulin resistance can interfere with your hypothalamic appetite-control system, making you feel more hungry and contributing to your weight gain.

 

Food Sensitivities

Many people are unaware that they even have a food sensitivity. Unlike allergies, where you may have an immediate reaction to a certain food, food sensitivity symptoms could show up hours or even days later. 

 

While food sensitivity may express itself as brain fog, bloating, headaches/migraines, and even anxiety, deeper consequences can occur within the body as well. These include inflammation, leaky gut, nutrient deficiencies, oxidative stress, and can even mess up your hormones- all of which could contribute to weight gain.

 

While the elimination functional medicine diet could be an option to find out which foods you are sensitive to, you can also take a food sensitivity test to know for sure instead of guessing. 

 

Imbalanced Hormones

Hormones play a huge role in weight management and weight control mechanisms. If you have an underlying hormone imbalance, it could be making it difficult to lose those extra pounds you’ve been trying so hard to shed.

 

Environmental toxins and high levels of constant stress can even affect many of the major weight-control hormones. These include thyroid, estrogens, testosterone, cortisol, insulin, growth hormone, and leptin. If any of these hormones become imbalanced, you could experience weight gain that doesn’t seem to want to come off.

 

Stress, in particular, can increase cortisol levels, which activate your “fight or flight” response. This causes your metabolism to get put on hold while your body puts energy into responding to your non-life-threatening stress.

 

Oxidative stress caused by internal and external factors can influence weight through gene transcription mechanisms that control insulin resistance and inflammation. Like stated earlier, insulin resistance leads to increased levels of insulin hormone, which causes increased hunger.

 

Leptin Resistance 

Leptin plays a role in reducing hunger and regulating your appetite. However, it’s impaired by toxins and inflammation, leading to leptin resistance and increased hunger. Increased leptin levels then create higher oxidative stress, which creates more inflammation! It’s really just a positive feedback loop that keeps propelling your health into an unhealthy state.

 

Functional Medicine Approach to Weight Loss

The functional medicine approach to weight loss focuses on lifestyle behaviors and getting to the root cause of metabolism dysfunction. 

 

Consume Organic Whole Foods

You’ll want to eliminate processed foods from your diet. Yes, even those healthy gluten-free snacks and the “healthy” granola bars. These include preservatives, pesticides, and extra sugars that will inhibit weight loss and contribute to metabolism dysfunction. 

 

Instead, consume an abundance of organic fruits and vegetables that are anti-inflammatory and antioxidant-rich. Include a variety of cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, collards, kale, brussels sprouts since these are known to have hormone balance properties. 

 

Read my previous blog on why you should choose organic.

 

Leave the Stress Behind

Most of us deal with stress on a daily basis, whether it be financial stress, relationship stress, family issues, work overload, or just sitting in traffic! However, we can’t let our body continue in a state of stress, triggering our sympathetic nervous system and activating our fight or flight response… leading to weight gain.

 

You need to activate your parasympathetic nervous system (aka your “rest and digest” state) to allow your body to spend its energy on metabolism, digestion, detoxification, and hormone production. 

 

Ways to do this include:

  • Yoga
  • Meditation
  • Breathing exercises
  • Journaling
  • Spending time in nature
  • Getting your feet on the earth/ground

 

Advanced Functional Testing For Weight Loss

Advanced functional testing can tell what imbalances and deficiencies are going on in your body so that you can address them and get your body functioning optimally again. This way your body won’t be holding onto that extra weight anymore!

 

Functional Testing could include:

  • Heavy Metal Testing
  • Hormone Testing
  • Genetic Testing
  • Immunology Profiles
  • Oxidative Stress Profiles
  • Intestinal Permeability Assessment
  • Adrenal Stress Index
  • Comprehensive Stool Analysis
  • Micronutrient Testing
  • Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth Testing

 

Contact Annapolis Functional Medicine Doctor, Dr. Skye Stewart.

 

Want to learn more about the functional medicine approach to weight loss? Book your FREE consultation call with Dr. Stewart. She uses state-of-the-art lab testing and analysis and lifestyle approaches as the first approach in tackling the underlying cause of your health issues.