Does Chronic Inflammation Make it Hard to Lose Weight?
We have all been hoodwinked into believing that achieving a healthy weight boils down to a simple mathematical equation:
Eat less + Exercise more = Weight loss
You hear it from your doctor, the media or wherever diet books are sold. This expression is not only infuriating to hear, let alone apply, it’s also impossibly wrong and sets you up for another failed attempt at weight loss. Just look at the contestants on “The Biggest Loser.” They certainly cut calories and exercised more! And once the show was over and contestants went back to their normal lives, the weight piled back on – despite their herculean efforts to cut calories and exercise more. Finally, research is uncovering why you will most-likely struggle to lose or even maintain the weight you worked so hard to shed. But first, you must address this often overlooked and insidious underlying problem.
The truth is that there is a secret saboteur lurking in your body waiting to derail your efforts and scientists are discovering an almost endless number of factors affecting our ability to lose weight that have nothing to do with willpower, eating less or increasing exercise. Some of their key findings include:
- Underlying food allergies
- Chronic stress
- Gut microbiome imbalances
- Toxins
- Insomnia
What they have discovered is that all these barriers to weight loss have one thing in common: they produce low-grade chronic inflammation.
The Vicious Cycle of Inflammation
So does inflammation actually cause weight gain? Does inflammation hinder weight loss? (Hint: yes!) Inflammation and weight gain – or the inability to lose weight have a complex causal relationship with each other.
A study published in 2019 found that levels of a key inflammatory marker known as C-reactive protein (CRP) increased as weight increased. And with elevated CRP, there will most certainly be insulin resistance and leptin resistance – further complicating your ability to get to a healthy weight and maintain it. But as we dive deeper into the relationship between inflammation and weight gain it inevitably leads us back to the gut. Doesn’t it always start with the gut?
The Gut – Inflammation Connection
Groundbreaking research over the last decade has made the connection between a healthy gut microbiome and weight management. Studies have shown that the make-up of gut microbes in overweight people is hugely different from those found in people of a healthy weight. What is more noteworthy is that this imbalance in the gut microbe make-up can lead to an immune system overload, triggering an acute inflammatory response that without intervention, leads to chronic low-grade inflammation.
Contributing to this microbe imbalance is eating the standard American diet – a diet full of inflammatory foods like sugar, unhealthy fats, dairy and wheat, which will eventually lead to a damaged gut lining.
When this type of sustained, chronic low-grade inflammation is triggered by the foods we eat, this can be good news because it means we can do something about how much inflammation our bodies experience. In fact, studies estimate that close to 75% of inflammatory reactions are determined by factors within our control – specifically our diets (lifestyle) — with the remainder being determined by genetics.
The type and quality of the food we eat is such a crucial factor because what we eat sends our body signals; every single bite of food we consume can directly influence how we feel on a daily basis — and in the long-term can make the difference between sickness or health.
Ready to Find Out What Works for You?
The foods that work well for someone else may not be right for you and your unique biochemistry. It is important to find out what foods your body loves and what foods it does not to help decrease chronic low-grade inflammation.
You can start this process by trying a program like Detox & Cleanse Therapy to help determine the foods problematic for you. By removing triggering foods, you will quickly facilitate the cooling of inflammation, giving your body the opportunity to address several hidden health imbalances caused by it.
If you are struggling with achieving medically advised weight loss (e.g., Doctor advised), consider enlisting MDLifespan to assist you on your journey. We rely on professionals to help maintain things that are much less important for our future health and happiness than our own bodies, such as our cars and taxes. Doesn’t it make sense to invest at least as much in taking care of ourselves? If you are having difficulty losing or maintaining a healthy weight, listen to your gut
Schedule a call to talk to a Patient Service Advisor and start your journey!
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