THE SOLUTION TO A SIMPLE, MEANINGFUL, WELL-DESIGNED LIFE /
THE F Ê T E / LIF E PROJECT NO.
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PHOTOGRAPH / JENAH PIWANSKI STORY / DR LIBBY WEAVER
W H Y C A N’T I LO S E W E I G H T? T H R E E U N D E R LY I N G FAC TO R S YO U M AY N O T H AV E C O N S I D E R E D We’ve been taught to believe that if we restrict our calorie consumption to ensure that it stays below our energy utilisation that weight loss will be inevitable. It’s this theory that drives us to go on a diet yet for far too many people, calorie restriction doesn’t lead to sustained weight loss. For many people, women in particular, losing weight has been a yo-yo cycle that swings between strict deprivation and a free-for-all with food. It’s a cycle that breeds shame, despair and hopelessness as they feel as though there must be something wrong with them if their diet doesn’t work or if they don’t have the ‘self-restraint’ or ‘willpower’ to stick to the strict guidelines.
Even though we live in a modern world where we are not necessarily faced with constant physical threats, our subconscious mind still drives our biochemical reactions into a chronic stress response the same as it did historically. Today, chronic stress, hence cortisol production, tends to come from long-term psychological worries about relationships, finances, health issues, the health issues of a loved one, or body shape, size and The thing is, if people try to lose weight weight. We regularly worry about what by starving and depriving themselves, body others think of us. We have forgotten how fat loss is not a given. More often than not, essential it is to every aspect of our health, they simply end up unhealthy and deprived. including our body size, to just switch off, Statistics tell us that the majority of people rest and activate vital restorative processes. who go on ‘diets', end up regaining any weight they lose plus more. Eighty-three We also tend to make cortisol when we percent in fact. It has even been reported ‘starve' ourselves. If you suddenly go from that up to fifty percent of women in the overeating food to not eating very much Western world are on a diet at any food at all, your body tends to make given time. cortisol because it doesn’t understand that you have just embarked on a diet. It links So, if diets don’t work, why do so many this to no being food left in the world, so of us believe it’s the only way we can lose it has no choice but to try to save your life weight? In part, because collectively we’ve and to do this, it slows your metabolism not been taught to consider mechanisms right down. Then when you stop dieting beyond the calorie equation. Sustainable and you return to the way you used to eat, weight loss is about so much more than which is highly likely unless you truly just food. In our Western world of plenty, explore what is at the heart of your matter, you actually have to be healthy to lose you will not just return to the size you weight – not the other way around as once were, you will naturally grow most people will tell you. Let’s take a look beyond that as your metabolic rate has at a few of the key reasons you may be been altered. struggling to lose weight. If excess cortisol production is the cause STRESS HORMONES of body fat storage, the fat tends to sit There is a stress hormone called cortisol around our middle (front and back)—it’s produced by our adrenal glands. In the designed to protect our organs. If stress right amounts it’s a wonderful hormone hormone production is constant and but when we make too much or too little relentless, it’s going to send so many other of it, it can be problematic. Excess amounts important biochemical processes off kilter of cortisol are linked to long-term stress. as well since our body prioritises the Historically, the only time this occurred production of stress hormones as they’re was during times of chronic, physical stress considered essential for keeping us alive. when food was scarce, such as floods, famines and wars. People with the highest levels of body fat tended to survive these times so cortisol acted to slow down metabolic rate and promote fat storage.
SEX HORMONES
One of the flow-on effects from constant and relentless stress hormone production can be an imbalance in our sex hormones. A portion of our estrogen and progesterone are made in our adrenal glands and since stress hormones are considered more important biologically to keep us alive, our sex hormone production can be downregulated. To your body, it makes sense since it wouldn’t want you to fall pregnant during a potentially life-threatening time (remember historically excessive cortisol meant famine, floods or wars). A common hormone imbalance is one where estrogen levels are excessive— sometimes related to an overwhelmed liver which I’ll touch on soon – and sometimes simply because the body is not making enough progesterone. From a reproductive perspective, estrogen’s role in the female body is to lay down the lining of the uterus, and it does this between days one and 14 of a typical 28-day reproductive cycle, with day one of the cycle being the first day of menstruation. Estrogen lays the lining of the uterus down over these first 14 days to prepare the female body for a conception, if it were to take place. Estrogen wants a menstruating female to fall pregnant every month of her life — whether that is on her agenda or not! Remember, our bodies are completely geared for survival and the perpetuation of the human species is a significant aspect of that survival process. As a result of this biological imperative to conceive each month, estrogen ensures that there is adequate body fat, as most females do not immediately know when they have conceived. Without adequate body fat, it is possible that a brand-new foetus may not survive. To prevent this, estrogen signals for fat to be laid down in typically female areas, giving women a pear-like shape to better serve the childbirth process. So if you find you have a tendency for body fat to lay down around your hips, thighs and buttocks, it could be that it’s driven by estrogen dominance.
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NERVOUS SYSTEM
As we’ve already discussed, too many people these days are churning out relentless amounts of stress hormones. Stress hormones and your nervous system are intimately linked but the focus in this instance is how the activation of a particular arm of your nervous system can influence what your body prefers to burn as a fuel for energy. For your body, there are only two energy sources – glucose (or I could say sugar) and fat. The body uses a combination of the two but many people, due to chronic sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activation, have reduced their ability to utilise body fat efficiently as a fuel. Coming back to your body being wired for survival, there are two arms of your nervous system that are attuned to pick up messages from your body regarding your safety – or a lack of it. Without unpacking this concept entirely, your SNS is activated when your body perceives danger (which for many people today is perceived rather than real danger) while your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is the arm linked to calm, rest and repair. If your body perceives danger – real or perceived – it wants you to have immediate access to energy so you are able to quickly get out of the situation or stay and fight. Can you guess which of the two – between fat and glucose – is the faster burning fuel? Glucose of course. And so if, through the persistent output of stress hormones or the overconsumption of caffeine (as it drives adrenaline production), you’re stuck in sympathetic nervous system dominance, you’re unlikely to be able to effectively burn body fat as a fuel.
So, in a world of plenty, rich in highly refined carbs – which can increase blood glucose levels rapidly – because insulin does its job, we gain weight. But regardless of size, if insulin levels are high, another hormone called leptin is supposed to kick in and tell your brain that you have sufficient energy stores. Leptin is produced by fat cells, and circulates through the blood, binding to receptors in the hypothalamus, the area of the brain that controls energy balance. Leptin is supposed to turn off the desire to eat. Through research that involved suppressing insulin with a drug, it has been shown that insulin interferes with leptin’s ability to signal the brain to stop eating. However, studies in which leptin was given to obese people under the hypothesis that it would shut off appetite have usually found that it is not the miracle pill it was anticipated to be. It appears that insulin stops your brain from being able to ‘see' leptin, which leaves leptin lousy at down-regulating appetite. The key here is that insulin must first come down for appetite to decrease, especially the desire for carbohydrates and for weight loss to be sustained.
M E TA B O L I C R AT E A S WE L L A S YO U R TEMPERATURE REGUL ATION. THE THYROID GLAND CAN BECOME O V E R-A C T I V E O R U N D E R-A C T I V E AND IT IS THE L AT TER SCENARIO THAT CAN LEAD TO WEIGHT GAIN T H AT I S I N C R E D I B LY D I F F I C U LT TO SHIFT UNTIL THIS ISSUE IS ADDRESSED. SIMPLE SWAPS / CONSIDER WHETHER YOU ARE USING CAFFEINE TO AMP YOURSELF UP AND WINE TO WIND DOWN. SWAP COFFEE FOR GREEN TEA AND WINE FOR SPARKLING WATER TO GIVE YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM A BREAK, WHICH CAN INFLUENCE FAT BURNING AND APPETITE. RESISTANCE EXERCISE / MUSCLE MASS PROMOTES A H I G H E R M E TA B O L I C R AT E, NOT TO MENTION KEEPING YOUR BODY STRONG AND FUNCTIONAL. EXERCISE ALSO MAKES YOUR MUSCLES MORE INSULIN SENSITIVE. WHEN THIS HAPPENS, YOUR PANCREAS CAN MAKE LESS INSULIN, SO YOUR LEVELS
DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING / STRESS HORMONES AFFECT OUR BREATHING. THEY MAKE IT RAPID, S H O R T A N D S H A L LO W. W H E R E A S DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING IS LINKED TO THE CALMING PNS. Y O U C A N A C T U A L LY A C T I VAT E YOUR PNS BY CHANGING THE WAY YO U B R E AT H E TO B E L O N G E R, SLOWER AND MORE EXPANSIVE ACROSS YOUR LOWER ABDOMEN. I D E A L LY Y O U WA N T T O B E B R E AT H I N G L I K E T H I S A L L D AY B U T Y O U W I L L L I K E LY N E E D T O T R A I N YOURSELF TO DO THIS OVER TIME IF YOU NOTICE YOUR BREATHING T E N D S TO S TAY U P H I G H I N YO U R
ADDITIONAL TIPS FOR SUSTAINABLE WEIGHT LOSS /
C H E S T. A D A I LY B R E AT H I N G E X E R C I S E C A N T R U LY M A K E AN INCREDIBLE DIFFERENCE TO HOW YOU FEEL, FUNCTION, YOUR OUTLOOK AND YOUR
ADDRESS YOUR OVER
BODY’S ABILIT Y TO USE FAT
CONSUMPTION OF FOOD /
M O R E E F F I C I E N T LY A S A F U E L .
I F Y O U R E G U L A R LY O V E R E AT E V E N THOUGH YOU KNOW YOU WOULD BE BET TER OFF NOT DOING SO, THEN GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF WHY YOU DO THIS COULD C H A N G E YO U R L I F E. S TA RT BY ASKING YOURSELF WHAT FOOD MEANS TO YOU. IF YOUR ANSWER I S E M OT I O N A L (E.G. LO V E, F U N, CO M F O RT, P L E A S U R E), E X P LO R I N G YOUR REL ATIONSHIP WITH FOOD B E N E F I C I A L T H A N S I M P LY T R Y I N G TO R E S T R I C T I T.
FETEPRESS.COM.AU / ISSUE NO.30
I T M A K E S H O R M O N E S T H AT P L AY AN ENORMOUS ROLE IN YOUR
STORAGE) WILL DECREASE.
IS GOING TO BE MUCH MORE
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B U T T E R F LY S H A P E D G L A N D T H AT SITS IN YOUR THROAT AREA.
OF INSULIN (WHICH SIGNAL FAT
INSULIN
Insulin, a fat storage hormone, is released in response to an elevation in your blood glucose levels, as it is needed to move the glucose from the blood into your cells where it can be used for energy or stored. What leads to elevated blood glucose levels? Overconsumption of carbohydrates, usually from highly processed foods that contain refined flours and sugars, and excessive stress hormone production. When our blood glucose levels are like a rollercoaster with many peaks and troughs, we tend to experience intense hunger and sugar cravings when our blood glucose levels drop low, to top them back up again. This then leads them to peak and then subsequently drop, perpetuating the cycle.
CHECK YOUR THYROID / THE THYROID GLAND IS A LITTLE
Dr Libby Weaver is a nutritional biochemist, best-selling author and speaker. DRLIBBY.COM