NeoWeight – a new approach to weight loss

When individuals try to lose weight they are often successful… at least initially. The usual “diet and exercise” approach involves eating less and exercising more, and when people do this, they often begin dropping the pounds. Many individuals will lose 5, 10, or even 20 or more pounds when they make a few simple changes to their lifestyles… However, then something happens: they hit that dreaded weight loss “plateau”. They’re still trying to eat less and exercise, but for some reason, what was working before, begins to stop working. They get tired, lose motivation, and eventually give back in to their old habits. They gain the weight back, and even add more. So the question is, why do people often hit these weight loss plateaus?

The answer to this lies in our genetics, in how we evolved. When one reduces caloric intake, he or she will initially lose weight, but at some point the body  may go into a sort of “starvation mode”. In the past, when humans often had trouble finding their next meal, this bodily response allowed the individual to save energy and survive longer. Food was often sparse, and when the body received less food, it developed this starvation response of saving energy and storing more energy as fat. So, when you are eating less, your body can decide that it is “starving”, and it will use less energy and will stop burning off the fat that you want to lose! A recent study showed how reducing caloric intake alone would often lead to this bodily response of reducing physical activity (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-04/ohs-daw041310.php ).

The study concluded that diet alone cannot lead to weight loss, but exercise is also necessary. However, this fails to address a key problem, if you are eating less, and your body begins saving energy, you will therefore have less energy… when you’re dead tired, it isn’t going to be easy to exercise! Who wants to go to the gym when they’re exhausted? Unless you have exceptional will and determination, its almost impossible, and in any case, its not going to be fun.  That’s why I think people hit this weight loss plateau: they’re body goes into a “starvation mode”, they don’t have a lot of energy, and so they stop exercising and lose motivation! Additionally, the small amount of food the “dieter” does consume is stored as body fat, which makes weight loss almost impossible!

It must be acknowledged that not every body is the same. Some people may have bodies that do not exert this “starvation response”, and that may be why some people are able to lose weight through simply eating less and exercising more. However, what’s the solution for those of us who have failed with eating less and exercising more because of our body’s “starvation response”?

I think that the solution is twofold.

1. Focus more on eating healthy, and less on eating less. When you are changing your diet to lose weight, I think that you should focus less on eating less, and more on eating more healthy foods. Avoid things like sodas, chips, and other processed foods. Focus on getting a of all natural, unprocessed, chemical free foods such as lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, etc. If you focus on eating healthy food, eating less will come naturally. Healthy foods are generally less calorie dense than processed foods and you will therefore become full from less food. Another thing to remember is that to lose weight you don’t need to avoid fat. Focus on healthy fats such as nuts and olive oil. I will be adding more posts in the near future related to the specifics of diet, and you can browse the past posts on this site for other healthy eating tips.

2. Things other than diet… If you are overweight, you’re body is in a state of functioning poorly. A healthy body digests food in such a way that it extracts the vitamins and nutrients and converts the energy into muscle and not body fat. A body that is overweight stores the calories as fat, instead of burning them or converting them to muscle, and probably has trouble extracting the nutrients and vitamins efficiently. Here are a few things, that in addition to eating healthy, can be key for making the body work as it should. By improving overall bodily health, weight loss can be a natural byproduct.

• Probiotics. New research shows that the bacteria in your gut (which extract all the vitamins, nutrients, etc. from food) are directly correlated to one’s body fat. Studies show that daily supplementation of a probiotic, which helps reestablish healthy gut bacteria, often leads to weight loss (http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Probiotics-may-help-fat-and-weight-loss-Study). I recommend going to a Whole Foods, Vitamin Shoppe, or other health store and asking the employee for a high quality probiotic that he or she recommends.
• Cinnamon. Spices such as cinnamon can speed up the metabolism which is very important for weight loss. Take a look about this post about cinnamon and this post about herbs and spices
• Vitamin D. New studies show that healthy vitamin D levels are necessary for weight loss (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/153669.php) . More and more studies are showing how most people are vitamin D deficient. Vitamin D deficiency results in many, sometimes unnoticeable, health problems. Even if you think you spend a lot of time in the sun, I really recommend you get the simple blood test done to test your vitamin d levels! This last summer I was spending a lot of time in the hot California sun, I though that surely my Vitamin D levels were healthy, but I decided to get tested anyway. The results… my levels were very very low! Now that I am supplementing with Vitamin D, I have a lot more energy and I have not gotten sick since (Vitamin D is very important for immune system health). If you want to learn more about vitamin d, i recommend going to Mercola.com, there is a lot of high quality information there.
• Good nights sleep. Sleeping well, and sleeping enough is very important for healthy hormone levels, which directly affect hunger cravings. To learn more, take a look at this previous post: sleep and weight loss.
• Relax. Stress can alter your hormones levels in a way that leads to weight gain. Although stress often leads to a temporarily reduced appetite, it can still induce weight gain (http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/can-stress-cause-weight-gain )

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To conclude, the weight loss plateau can be overcome, but one must focus more on improving bodily function and eating healthy, rather than just eating less.