Reasons Why You’re not Losing Weight | How to Lose Weight Fast
Weight Loss Programs are not working for you. Here’s why.
It is no surprise that the phrase “how to lose weight fast” is searched and average of 246 thousand times on Google at the time this was written.
Our weight impacts how we feel about ourselves. It makes us feel inadequate, unappealing, and unhealthy and causes us to worry about how we are going to show up for others.
As a holistic nutritionist, I am not an advocate for weight loss programs as a measure of health.
But as a sufferer of disordered eating behaviors and body dysmorphia, I can relate to the negative feelings that often come with weight gain.
HERE’S HOW IT OFTEN LOOKS:
You gain some weight, you put in the legwork, you track the calories, and you hit the gym 5 days a week. And for a while, it works! You lose unwanted pounds!
It feels good!
And then out of nowhere, it stops. The weight stops shedding, and you’re wondering why the work you’re doing isn’t paying off anymore.
You think:
what am I doing wrong?
what’s wrong with me?
this happens every time
____ can eat anything they want and stay thin - why do I have to try so hard?
What if I told you that calorie tracking was making it harder for you to lose weight?
What if I told you there is viable research to show that calorie restriction actually slows your metabolism over time?
I’m about to share with you the top four reasons you are struggling to lose weight. These are the first things I look for in clients who come to me with weight loss goals.
FOUR Reasons You Struggle to Lose Weight
We will get into the details of how to lose weight fast. But in short, the top four reasons you are not losing weight, are:
Chronic Stress
Constipation and digestive issues
Unaddressed gut pathogens
“Obesogens”
Your organs, systems, and hormones do not operate independently. They work together with other factors, nutrients, neurotransmitters, other hormones, and organs.
We need to look at weight gain as a symptom, and then figure out what factors are causing that symptom.
If calorie-tracking and exercise were enough to help you lose weight and keep it off, you wouldn’t be here. And you wouldn’t be adding “lose weight” to your New Year’s goals every year.
Dieting is not the answer to weight loss. It never has been.
Let’s talk about it.
1. Chronic STRESS
Before you bail, I’m not here to tell you to stop having stress. Let’s begin with a vocabulary lesson:
What do I mean by “stress”?
I define stress as any factor, whether internal or external, physical or emotional, that the brain views as a threat, and so triggers the cascade of biochemical and physiological events known as the stress response.
As humans, we experience both acute stress and chronic stress.
ACUTE STRESS CAN INCLUDE THINGS LIKE:
a car accident
injury
a single conflict
being physically or verbally assaulted (by yourself or others)
a scary movie
low blood sugar
death of a loved one
CHRONIC STRESS CAN INCLUDE THINGS LIKE:
unaddressed gut pathogens like overgrown bacteria in the intestines, parasites, or candida overgrowth
other types of chronic infections
toxic burden - environmental toxins from air and water, toxins from processed foods, endotoxins from bacteria or other pathogens, medications, recreational drugs, caffeine, alcohol, chemicals, fillers, and colorings in skin products - all of these will add to your body’s toxic burden
chronic constipation - many toxins are eliminated through your feces. When toxins cannot be eliminated, they are reabsorbed into your body
caregiving
disability
discrimination
overexercising
poor sleep
burnout factors - people-pleasing behaviors, regularly working more than 40 hours/week, overcommitting, high-stress job, lack of boundaries
insulin resistance
emotional stress from relationships or trauma
All stress types, acute and chronic, activate the sympathetic nervous system, also known as the “fight or flight” response.
In acute stress, this system activates, responds, and deactivates, based on a feedback loop.
In other words, your body is doing what it is supposed to do, but it is meant to stop once the stressor is dealt with, or has gone.
The problem is, that in chronic stress, the stressor doesn’t dissipate; as long as it remains present, it continuously activates the stress response.
And because our bodies have not yet evolved to know the difference between the stress of being chased by a tiger, and the stress of a work deadline, our body reacts the same to both types of stress.
WHEN ACTIVATED, THE SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM:
tells the adrenal glands to release epinephrine and cortisol to pull stores of glucose into the blood for energy to deal with the stressor
increases blood flow to large muscles, lungs, and heart, to help fight or flee the danger
inhibits non-essential processes to preserve energy for fighting or fleeing danger, such as digestive processes
increases insulin activity - more glucose means more insulin is needed to shuttle glucose into cells for energy production
In cases of chronic stress, the sympathetic nervous system is continuously activated, and thus continuously does all of the things listed above.
This is commonly known as “survival mode” - your body is literally trying to flee a tiger… all the time.
The only way to deactivate the sympathetic nervous system response is to deal with the stressor (fight the pathogen, decrease toxicity, leave the relationship, leave the job, etc.).
There are resources for ways to temporarily deactivate the stress response that can help with sleep, mood, and digestion. Those processes take time to learn and are helpful tools to have in your back pocket. But it’s important to remember that as long as the stressor still exists, the stress response will continue to reactivate regularly.
Referring to the list above, let’s talk about cortisol.
EFFECTS OF CHRONIC CORTISOL RELEASE
supresses immune response (1)
disrupts hormones (2)
causes weight gain (3) by way of insulin resistance
increases inflammation (4) - cortisol in and of itself is anti-inflammatory. But its consistent presence during chronic stress regularly activates inflammation pathways to deal with the stressors, thus leading to systemic and chronic inflammation. INCREASED INFLAMMATION LEADS TO INCREASED CORTISOL RESPONSE
glucose pulled from muscle tissue in a stress response does not return to muscle - it turns to fat
reduces T3 (active thyroid hormone) - READ THIS WITH CAUTION: Low T3 when a chronic stressor is present, is typically not a thyroid issue. In chronic stress, cells will deactivate T3 on site, in order to preserve energy to deal with the stressor. Although your doctor will try to put you on thyroid medication, it’s important to remember that low T3 in a chronic stress situation is often not a thyroid issue - it is a stress issue.
reduces the activity of leptin (a hormone that tells us when full), and increases ghrelin (a hormone that tells us to eat) - increases appetite
decreases digestive activity
affects sleep - heightened cortisol keeps you awake and alert, making it difficult to sleep.
2. CONSTIPATION AND DIGESTIVE ISSUES
DIGESTION HAS TWO MAIN PURPOSES:
breaks down whole foods into nutrients that are needed for the body to function well
finds and eliminates toxins
The intestines are a large piece of your immune system. So when digestion is not working well, tissues become damaged, immune health becomes compromised, and toxins are not effectively eliminated from your body.
SYMPTOMS OF DIGESTIVE DYSFUNCTION
chronic constipation or diarrhea
heartburn/acid reflux
bloat after meals
excess belching or farting
excess hunger
chronic sinus congestion or stuffy head
DIGESTION WORKS FROM NORTH TO SOUTH
If something is not going well on the north end (brain, mouth, digestive enzymes, stomach acid), it will have an effect southward (bloat, bowel movements, gas).
These symptoms are important to listen to. Left unaddressed (or more commonly, the symptom is addressed without looking at what’s causing it), these symptoms lead to:
intestinal hyperpermeability (AKA “leaky gut”), which leads to increased inflammation and heightened chronic stress response
damage to the intestinal tissues increases susceptibility to pathogens like parasites, bacteria, and yeast
overactive immune activity (frequently getting sick)
suppressed immune activity (never getting sick)
skin conditions like eczema and acne
inflammatory conditions like autoimmune disease and asthma
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT DIGESTION AND HOW YOU CAN TROUBLESHOOT YOUR SYMPTOMS
The three main factors within your digestive system that find and keep out pathogens and toxins are:
your liver
the tissue of your intestines
your feces and urine
The liver, when functioning properly, acts as a filter to prepare toxins for elimination. I cover more about liver detoxification here.
Intestinal tissue acts as a physical barrier to between the food and microbiota inside your intestines, and your blood stream. You can learn more about intestinal health here.
Additionally, toxins that have been prepared for elimination by the liver, must actually find a way out of your body. When toxins are not eliminated, they are reabsorbed and continue to add to your body’s toxic burden.
Many of those toxins are removed through urine and feces. Additionally, toxins have a high affinity for fat, meaning, they are stored in fat tissue, and if there is not enough fat tissue, your body will make more fat tissue to store the toxins. For this reason, chronic constipation is adding to your weight loss woes.
3. UNADDRESSED GUT PATHOGENS
When a client comes to me struggling with their weight loss program, the first three things I look into are adrenal health, liver health, and gut pathogens.
I’ve briefly touched on gut pathogens when it comes to weight loss programs, but let’s look at it a bit closer.
There’s a wide variety of pathogens that can infiltrate your body and cause problems, but when it comes to nutrition, the three most common pathogens I come across that are preventing you from losing weight, are:
candida (yeast)
bacteria in the small intestine
parasites
Often when we can find these pathogens and address them, clients can lose weight fast.
You’ve probably gathered from previous discussions that pathogens cause a stress response. They trigger our immune system and adrenal glands to step up and do what they are supposed to.
One important thing to remember about any pathogen is that all pathogens are living things. They, like us, are working to survive in whatever environment they are in, and they, like us, need food and produce waste. If your body is their environment, they will leech your nutrients, and produce waste that becomes toxic and harmful to your body.
They can live in balance with your body, and should to some extent. The problems occur when the pathogen becomes overgrown and undetected.
This is why you are not losing weight. Calorie restriction and workouts are not going to kill off overgrown pathogens. In fact they will stress your body more.
CANDIDA
Candida is a type of yeast or fungus. Your body contains a small amount of candida as part of the natural order of things. But if you’re familiar with wine making, bread making, or beer brewing, you know that yeast is a fungus that grows rapidly and ferments when it is fed sugar or starch.
Candida itself is trying to thrive in your gut, and so it depends heavily on making sure you eat the things it needs. It leeches your nutrients and releases waste that increases toxic burden and increases your stress activation.
SYMPTOMS OF CANDIDA OVERGROWTH CAN INCLUDE:
excess hunger
cravings for sweets or carb-heavy foods
wanting to snack often
poor blood sugar regulation - “hangry” before meals, feel ill if meals are delayed, feel hyper or jittery after coffee or carbohydrate-rich foods
weight around belly, hips, and thighs that is difficult to lose
poor energy
brain fog
chronic fungal infections - fingernails, toenails, genitals, skin, mouth
Candida, like other pathogens, including “good bacteria”, will build a sticky film in the lining of your gut called biofilm. This biofilm helps pathogens to evade the immune system (and testing), and helps it to gather food in order to thrive, as well as live synergistically with other pathogens.
It’s sneaky.
Because yeast is a type of fungus, it has a lot of similar characteristics and symptoms as mold toxicity. Both types of pathogens are worth getting tested for when determining pathogen overgrowth.
BACTERIA IN THE SMALL INTESTINE
Bacteria are an important factor in immune health. “Good” bacteria live in your large intestine and feed off of dietary fiber in order to produce and maintain a strong mucosal barrier in your colon that prevents unwanted pathogens from getting into your bloodstream.
When bacteria get into your small intestine and begin reproducing and thriving there, it causes fermentation and tissue damage that leads to long-term health issues like intestinal hyperpermeability, food sensitivities, and uncomfortable bloating.
Your body is not meant to have bacteria that live in the small intestine. In fact, it has mechanisms in place to keep bacteria out of the small intestine. READ MORE ABOUT THESE MECHANISMS HERE.
Similar to candida, bacteria will create biofilm where they live off of the food you eat, produce waste, and hide from the immune system.
SYMPTOMS OF SMALL INTESTINAL BACTERIA OVERGROWTH CAN INCLUDE:
excess hunger
cravings for carbohydrate-rich foods
bloating within 1-2 hours after eating
excess foul-smelling gas
excess belching after meals
inflammatory conditions such as autoimmune disease or asthma
skin conditions such as eczema or acne
chronic constipation and/or diarrhea
chronic congestion or stuffy head
fatigue, especially after meals
PARASITES
You might think our modern technology prevents things like parasites from infiltrating your body, but we actually are exposed to parasites in new ways, despite modern technology.
To begin, a parasite is an organism that relies on another organism for its survival and at its expense. Parasites are commonly shaped like a flat or round worm and can be microscopic, or many feet long (even the ones that find their way into your body)!
Like other pathogens we’ve discussed, parasites will hide in biofilm, feed off your nutrients, and produce waste that increases toxic burden and heightened immune response.
WAYS YOU MIGHT BE EXPOSED TO PARASITES:
unfiltered water, from any source
swimming in lakes or rivers
handling pet waste
having your face licked by a pet
contaminated food
bug bites
undercooked meats, especially fish
It’s important to remember that animals are commonly affected differently by pathogens and toxins than humans. A great example of this is fish.
There are some parasites that can live in a fish’s guts without affecting the health of the host. In former days, fishermen would catch fish and immediately gut it before transporting it, preventing the parasites from moving into the meat of the fish. In modern fishing techniques, it’s common to catch the fish and store it prior to gutting it. This allows time for the parasite to make its way into the meat of the fish, leaving us exposed to them more commonly than we used to be.
SYMPTOMS OF PARASITE INFECTION CAN INCLUDE:
fatigue
fever
digestive symptoms (bloat, poor bowel movements, abdominal cramping, etc.)
skin rashes, acne, or eczema
excess hunger
sleep issues
diagnosed nutrient deficiencies, such as iron and B vitamins
frequent colds or cold symptoms
This is how unaddressed pathogens are keeping you from losing weight like you want. Eradications of these pathogens require strategy and are heavily personalized to the person’s nutrition needs.
Want to lose weight fast? Find an experienced and qualified holistic practitioner who can provide effective testing and can create a personalized and strategic plan for getting rid of them for good.
4. “OBESOGens”
This section will be short, as it is entirely too complex to go into every “obesogen” out there.
It’s much easier to say, the reason you are not losing weight is due to chemicals, preservatives, and other additives in foods, skincare products, and supplements, that are known as hormone disrupters.
The reason these additives are effectively known as obesogens is that weight is heavily regulated by hormones (not calories!). First, let’s talk about what a hormone is.
A hormone is a substance that exists in and travels through tissue fluids throughout your body, that regulate certain body functions. A few examples of hormones are:
ghrelin - tells you when your body needs food/fuel for energy production
leptin - tells you when to stop eating
estrogen (5) - affects tissue growth and maturation, such as egg follicles in the ovaries
cortisol - regulates sleep/wake cycles and regulates fat, protein, and sugar metabolism in cells
thyroid hormones - known as T3, T4, rT3, and rT4, these hormones regulate cellular metabolism and energy production
oxytocin - regulates contraction of the uterus during menstruation and birth
Regular consumption of additives that disrupt these hormones, or confuse their ability to activate, deactivate, or communicate, causes a wild cascade of events that can create imbalance and general dysfunction.
For example, you can imagine if ghrelin is produced, stimulating hunger, but leptin is not produced when you are full, this causes a pattern of overeating.
Another example would be chronic stress which causes a consistent stream of cortisol to be produced, stimulating the release of stored sugars to be converted to energy. Glucose not used during this process will be converted to fat tissue.
One last important note on hormone imbalance is hormone excess. Balance is relative to other hormones in the body, and so when hormones are out of balance, there has to be an excess of one over the other (depending on which hormones we are discussing).
This excess of hormone is treated as a toxin that must be processed through the liver and eliminated. Remember what happens to toxins that are not properly eliminated? They are reabsorbed into the body, and stored in fat tissue. This is a common reason for people who struggle with weight loss.
HOW TO AVOID OBESOGENS
Simply put, it is choosing more whole foods, choosing cleaner skin care products, choosing better cookware and storage, and choosing quality water and air filters for your home.
For most, this is not a process that happens overnight. It involves educating yourself and gradually replacing foods one grocery trip at a time. Replacing cookware one pan at a time. Learning what skin care products are clean, and gradually replacing those.
Take your time with it. Small changes are BIG in the long run. They create new habits that over time, will help you maintain better health and a more sustainable weight.
HERE IS THE BEST RESOURCE FOR LEARNING HOW TO CHOOSE CLEANER PRODUCTS
TAKEAWAYS
If you want to lose weight fast, consider having your gut health evaluated by a qualified practitioner
Digestive symptoms, sleep issues, and energy levels are common symptoms of pathogenic overgrowth that are preventing you from losing weight
Obesogens are additives in products we use every day and will disrupt hormone balance and function, which is a big driver of weight
I’ve written more on the subject here.
Want personalized support to help you lose weight? I can help you figure it out.
Did You Learn Something?
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BLOG REFERENCES
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Ranabir, S., & Reetu, K. (2011). Stress and hormones. Indian journal of endocrinology and metabolism, 15(1), 18–22. https://doi.org/10.4103/2230-8210.77573
Kahn, B. B., & Flier, J. S. (2000). Obesity and insulin resistance. The Journal of clinical investigation, 106(4), 473–481. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI10842
Hannibal, K. E., & Bishop, M. D. (2014). Chronic stress, cortisol dysfunction, and pain: a psychoneuroendocrine rationale for stress management in pain rehabilitation. Physical therapy, 94(12), 1816–1825. https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20130597
Mair, K. M., Gaw, R., & MacLean, M. R. (2020). Obesity, estrogens and adipose tissue dysfunction - implications for pulmonary arterial hypertension. Pulmonary circulation, 10(3), 2045894020952019. https://doi.org/10.1177/2045894020952023
