Weight Loss

“Carbs make you fat!”

“No, fat makes you fat!”

“Sugar makes you fat!”

We have probably all heard one of these at some time in our lives. With all of the diet fads out there and conflicting research coming out all of the time, it can be difficult trying to navigate the waters of a diet program, specifically one that will work for you.

I want to shed some light on some of the reasons why people gain weight, and what you can do to develop a lifestyle of losing it and keeping it off, not just some lose weight quick approach. I am no doctor, so do your due diligence on anything I say, but it can all be found easily with some research.

There is no one reason to why people gain weight. Our physiology, habits, and lifestyles will all play a factor in our weight and metabolism. You may be trying to eat healthy and still struggling to even lose a pound. Hopefully these points will better able you to gauge on where you need to focus on your weight loss goals.

1. Sugar

Sugar is one of the most important things to cut out if you want to lose weight. It is high in calories, highly inflammatory, has a negative impact on your organs, raises insulin, and is one of the worst things you can put in your body. Sugar is found in many foods from soda to pasta sauce to “healthy” granola bars. Sugar takes on many names like pure can sugar, high fructose corn syrup, “honey”, evaporated cane syrup and many, many, more.

It is important to recognize these names because you want to get sugar out of your diet as much as possible. Start reading labels on your food and you will realize just how much sugar you are consuming on a daily basis. You will not only start to lose weight without so much sugar in your diet but you will have more energy as well.

Consider doing a sugar detox for a few days. It will be difficult as your body adjusts and detox’s all of the stored sugar but it will be worth it. It sounds hard but when you adjust to eating real, living foods, you begin to lose the taste for sugar. I can’t stand eating it anymore, that’s how long I’ve been doing this.

    2.  Hormones

Hormones can have a big impact on your weight and metabolism. Your entire endocrine system works together to produce hormones from different glands and organs to make sure your body functions properly. If any of these hormones are off, it can lead to major disruptions in your body.

Getting your hormones checked can be a great approach to losing weight. Working with your doctor to isolate which hormones are out of balance and correcting them can make a great impact on your weight goals.

    3.  Carbs/Fat

Why did you put carbs and fat together? Don’t carbs make you fat? Doesn’t fat make you fat? The answer is yes.

There has been a lot of research coming out lately that shows that an unhealthy balance of fat and carbs will make you fat. That is why both low fat and low carb diets will work to lose weight.

I am not a scientist, but to break it down simply we will look at some of the popular foods we eat here in America.

Pizza- Pizza is made of dough, sauce, cheese, and any number of toppings your mind can think of. The dough and the sauce are high in carbs, and the cheese is very high in fat. Put them together and you have a recipe for massive fat gain. Trust me, this was a daily meal for me as a teenager and I had the extra weight to prove it.

Hamburgers- Hamburgers start with a nice juice piece of ground beef, placed atop a steamy but and garnished with ketchup, mustard, or any other of your preferred condiments. Take you bun and ketchup and you have a hefty serving of carbs, followed by the beef and maybe even some cheese, and there is your fat. Put it all together and you can be sure that those are going to stick around your waist for a while.

Fries- Potatoes-carbs. Oil-fat. Sensing a pattern?

Ice cream- No, don’t you touch my beloved ice cream! This is probably the #1 food I would tell you to avoid if you are serious about losing weight. How easy is it to sit down for the evening with a nice sized bowl of ice cream and binge watch some Netflix? Not only do you have way to many calories right there, but also lots of sugar (carbs) and fat to boot. I would recommend staying away from all dairy anyway. The way its processed has made it very unhealthy, it’s better being unpasteurized.

I might as throw donuts in there as well. If you can get a handle on your intake of these foods, you should be on your way to losing weight in no time.

    4.  Sedentary Lifestyle

Movement is such a crucial part of a healthy life. Many of us sit at desks all day only to come home and sit in front of the tv all night. If that is your routine, I don’t blame you. We are overworked, over-stressed, and usually make some bad health decisions to cope, so no wonder we don’t have the energy to exercise.

I know exercise sounds just dreadful, but it doesn’t have to be all that bad. Research shows that walking for 30 minutes at a moderate pace will not only burn calories, but also stimulate your basal metabolic rate for hours after. Exercise reduces stress, inflammation, and even helps the colon with elimination. So why not skip the dessert and finish dinner with a brisk walk around the block. What a great way to end the day!

    5.  Gluten

I wasn’t going to put this one on here, but more the more I thought about it, the more I realized just how much of a problem it is. Gluten in and of itself is not bad, unless you have celiac disease. There is also a condition called non-celiac gluten sensitivity that is affecting many people that don’t even know it; I was one of them.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat. It is not necessarily bad, but our modern wheat has been hybridized so many times that most wheat has way more gluten than it used to. For many people, their digestion system has a hard time breaking it down, leading to inflammation and conditions like leaky gut, skin issues and so forth.

Gluten can be a serious cause of weight gain. Our society is so addicted to wheat; it is hard to go to a restaurant and getting anything without it. It would be advantageous for you to try going without wheat for 30 days. See how your body responds once it’s out of your system. I end up eating a lot of rice bowls if I go out to eat somewhere; those are a staple on a gluten free diet.

So those are some of my best tips for weight loss. I could offer more, and maybe I will in other posts, but I think these will be some good starting points for you on your journey to health. Remember that health, especially weight loss, is all a mindset. If you will meditate on all of these principles, and form habits with them in your mind, they will become more than just a diet but a lifestyle. Ultimately that is what you want, a lifestyle that will bring longevity to your health goals, not just a quick fix.

Best of luck to you on your journey!

Adam Zink