Why Can’t I Lose Weight? (Part II)

Hey everybody, it's Dr. Mark Hyman. Welcome to my weekly housecall. Your chance to ask me your questions. And today is part two of our discussion last week, which is why can't I lose weight if I'm doing everything right? Weight loss plateau. One of our readers, Mata9094, tweeted again saying, I lost 30 pounds on the blood sugar solution and I'm doing another 30 days of eat fat, get, then no sugar, no carbs, all veggies, protein, good fats. But. But my weight loss is much lower this time. Well, last week I talked about four important reasons why people might have trouble losing weight. The four key reasons are nutritional imbalances, gut problems, imbalances of the gut microbiome, inflammation and immune dysfunction, and the load of environmental toxins we're all exposed to. This week we're going to cover four more reasons. And here they are. Trouble with metabolism, meaning your metabolism might actually be slow. Hormonal imbalances, genes that predispose you to gain weight, and a breakdown in our social networks and connections. Now, this is going to be a great episode. You don't want to miss this information. First, let's talk about metabolism. Now, I've written a lot about mitochondria before, and I'll link to my full blog about mitochondria below. But here's a brief explanation. Each of us is born with trillions of little energy factories that provide the fuel to run everything in our body. Now, these energy factories are called mitochondria. Each cell in our body has hundreds to thousands of these little energy factories, and they convert oxygen you breathe and the food that you eat into energy that's used by your body to run everything. And when scientists talk about metabolism, they're talking about your mitochondria and how effective they are at burning calories and consuming oxygen. Now, if your mitochondria are very effective, they burn a lot of calories and you have fast metabolism. Conversely, if they're not that good, they're not burning calories that fast, and you have a slow metabolism. Now, there are many things that affect the number and the functioning of your mitochondria that you actually can control. The biggest damage to our energy system comes from our diet. When we eat lots of sugar, starch, processed inflammatory foods, or we have refined oils like the omega 6 vegetable oils, we can simply consume too. Or we can simply consume too much food. We're overloading our energy factories and they get damaged. Also, environmental toxins like pesticides, hidden infections, stress also harm our energy system, even your gut microbiome can be a problem if the unhealthy inflammatory bugs outweigh the good bugs. Essentially anything that causes inflammation, which then causes oxidative stress or resting, can damage the mitochondria. What most people don't realize is that aging itself and most chronic diseases are related to mitochondrial dysfunction, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and much more. So to boost your mitochondria, I recommend eating real whole foods, avoiding flour and starch and sugar, moving a lot more and moving faster. Interval training, which you go fast and slow, reducing your toxic exposure, keeping your gut healthy and taking some energy, boosting nutrients that we know can help the mitochondria. I'll put my full list of supplements and my recommendations. But now the next thing I want to talk about is hormonal imbalance. The biggest hormone that causes weight gain and disease is too much insulin. My book Eat Fat, Get Thin is all about how to naturally regulate insulin to shift from fat storage to fat burning. But there are other hormones that are all dynamically interacting every minute that affect your weight and your health. The three biggest hormones that affect your weight are thyroid cortisol, which is the stress hormone, and your sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone. So let's start with thyroid. Low thyroid function affects 1 in 5 women. That's like 20% of women and 1 in 10 men. And it's not diagnosed in over half the cases. In my ebook, the Ultra Thyroid Solution, I explain how diet, nutrient deficiencies, stress and environmental toxins all impact your thyroid. And I tell you how to address these problems. One of the most common causes of low thyroid or hypothyroidism, is gluten. It accounts for up to 30% of the autoimmune disease that attacks the thyroid called Hashimoto's. Also, pesticides and heavy metals interfere with your thyroid function. In addition, your thyroid needs specific nutrients to run optimally, including selenium, zinc, iodine and omega 3 fats. And most doctors actually don't even test your thyroid properly. Once they find it, they don't treat it effectively by optimizing thyroid through the diet, supplements and the right thyroid hormone replacement. So you want to make sure you get the right tests and get the right treatment. I'm going to put my top tips for treating thyroid imbalance right below the blog. Next, let's talk about stress. Stress causes a whole cascade of hormonal responses in the body that cause weight gain and prediabetes or insulin resistance. Cortisol is an adrenal hormone that Helps you run faster, see further, hear better, and pump fuel in your bloodstream for quick energy in the face of danger. But it also shuts down digestion and slows your metabolism so you can deal with the danger and not have to worry about running your metabolism in your stomach unchecked. Prolonged stress and high levels of cortisol cause high blood sugar, cause increased belly fat, cause high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and even muscle loss. So you want to find ways to manage your stress, such as practicing active relaxation, exercise, deep breathing, yoga, meditation. All those can help your stress response. Okay, finally, we're going to talk about sex hormones. For men and women. Sex hormone imbalances can cause huge weight issues. Too much estrogen causes weight gain in either gender. So you know how they get steer fattened up before market? They implant estrogen pellets in their ears. For women and men, too much sugar, too much refined starch, and carbs and alcohol all spike estrogen. Yes, men have estrogen now. Not enough fiber or too many antibiotics damage the gut. But that also triggers estrogen spikes in the body because it can't be properly detoxified or excreted. Environmental pesticides and toxins, also known as xenoestrogen, because they act like estrogen in the body, even at very low doses, can cause interference with hormone metabolism and lead to higher levels of estrogen. And if you're a woman, symptoms of excess estrogen are breast tenderness, fluid retention, bad premenstrual syndrome, fibroids, heavy menstrual bleeding. In men, excess estrogen will cause loss of body hair, including chest hair, arm hair, leg hair, a beer belly, and man boobs. Y' all seen that men can also be impacted by low testosterone, which, by the way, as estrogen goes up, testosterone goes down, which then causes more muscle loss, it causes low sex drive, and it causes trouble with all kinds of issues. So aging and lack of exercise, alcohol, stress, environmental toxins or diseases like diabetes or even pituitary problems all cause low levels of testosterone. And low levels of testosterone, like I said, causes men to lose muscle to gain fat and leads to sexual dysfunction. It also lowers their sex drive, it causes more fatigue and even causes brain fog and mental fogginess, even bone loss that can lead to osteoporosis. Now, if you suspect hormone imbalances, it's important to get tested for these estrogen and testosterone imbalances. But if you actually think you might have them, there's also things you can do yourself. First, eat a hormone balancing diet. Nutritional principles that I laid out and eat fat. Get thin, which is low in sugar, high in good fats and high in fiber. All help hormonal imbalances. And guess what? Where does your estrogen and testosterone come from? Comes from fat including cholesterol, which we thought was bad. Actually your testosterone, estrogen start with a building block of cholesterol. Next, bulk up on fiber ground. Flaxseeds are great for men and women and are full of fiber and lignans which help balance their hormones. About 2 tablespoons a day and you can add to your shake or salad. Also, you got to poop every day at least once. Constipation is really bad for your hormones. So if you're not going, you take magnesium citrate, vitamin C, probiotics, flaxseeds. That really helps most people. It's foolproof for most people. Now also when you consume special hormone balancing vegetables like broccoli. That whole family of cruciferous vegetables contain something called glucosinolates and sulforaphanes and carbinols that help with hormone balance and detoxification. So enjoy plenty of kale, collard greens, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, bok choy, Chinese cabbage, all kinds of stuff like that every day. Also, it's important to cut back or cut out alcohol, depending on your sensitivity. Research shows that one drink a day may be good for your health, but two drinks is definitely not so great. Finally, get moving. Exercise helps balance your hormones, it reduces estrogen levels, it helps increase testosterone, which helps you lose fat and build muscle. Alright, so we talked about metabolism, about hormonal imbalance. Let's move on to genes. Can our genes make us fat? Well, we like to blame our genes, but it's usually not our genes. But sometimes they're an issue. There are definitely genes that cause obesity, but only in a few very rare conditions like Prader Willi syndrome. Most of us however, do have the genes that might predispose us to obesity and type 2 diabetes. It doesn't predestine us, but it predisposes us. So if you have a family history of obesity or type 2 diabetes, or you are of a certain ethnic descent, like Asian, East Indian, Native American, Pacific Islander, Latino, Middle Eastern heritage, you're much more likely to be carbohydrate intolerant. A little bit of sugar or starch will cause you to make way too much insulin compared to the average person. This starts on a vicious cycle of weight gain, hunger, fatigue. But the good news is that by eating well and exercising, you can completely prevent obesity. Or type 2 diabetes. Now, there are also other genes that play a role in weight gain loss. Brain, for example, has genes that code for receptors for dopamine, a pleasure producing neurotransmitter. Now, some of these genes cause the dopamine receptors to not be as responsive to the pleasure signals provided by dopamine. Many drugs of abuse, like cocaine, heroin, also trigger dopamine receptors. The most abundant abuse of drugs are drugs that are actually available freely and over the counter. Now these drugs also trigger dopamine response. And you know what these drugs are called? Sugar, starch, refined flour. When your dopamine receptors need more stimulation to feel the pleasure, then it predisposes you to craving an addiction. So you need more and more sugar to actually stimulate the pleasure receptor to get any pleasure level out of it. We know that sugar acts just like cocaine and drives food addiction and causes overeating. I describe all the research in my book called the blood sugar solution 10 day detox diet. I encourage you to read about it if you're interested. And also it provides a clear plan to break the sugar and carb addiction. Sometimes you gotta go completely cold turkey. Other genetic factors also play a role. Just as different people have varying responses to carbs, they also have different responses to fats. This is new and emerging research and more is being discovered every day. But some people do better with more omega 3 fats, while some people do better with more saturated fat and others do better with more omega 6 fats. Different people need different levels of fats for balance. Now, there can be a big difference in how your body responds to different fats and how they affect your blood sugar, cholesterol, and and even your gut bacteria. The best consultant in the house is your very own body. Listen to that wise inner voice who gives you direct and immediate feedback about what works and what doesn't. You listen to your body. It's the best doctor in the house. What works will make you feel better and lose weight. What doesn't work will make you feel bad and gain weight. The last thing I want to talk about is the importance of our social connections. Now, statistics show that we're 171% more likely to be overweight if our friends are overweight, but only 40% more likely to be overweight if our parents or siblings are overweight. How is that? Simply put, our social connections are much more important than our genetic connections in determining the health of our bodies because they influence our behavior. And it's the power of peer pressure that drives our behavior, either for good or for bad. Now the way in which our environment and our social connections influence our health is what I call sociogenomics. And with Rick Warren, Pastor Rick Warren and Dr. Daniel Amen, I created the Daniel Plan, which was named after Daniel from the Bible who basically gave up the king's rich food and determined that he was healthier for it. And it's a faith based wellness program that we helped 15,000 people from Rick Warren's Saddleback church lose a quarter of a million pounds in 10 months by doing it together. Rick Warren says also everybody needs a buddy. And I agree. So together we wrote this number one best selling book, the Daniel Plan that details a practical plan to get health together. Because we found that getting healthy is actually a team sport. Using the power of peer pressure, positive peer pressure for good can make it easier to do the right thing. Even if I didn't say a word, when people eat out with me, they choose healthier food because they know it matters to me. Even if I don't care what they eat, I don't say a word, their internal compass shifts and they change what they eat. They might not order dessert, they might eat the bread basket. So it's important to surround yourself with healthy people if possible or join a community of healthy, open minded people. So it's important to surround yourself with healthy people if possible or join a community of healthy like minded people. It's much easier to be healthy if your friends are drinking green juice and doing yoga than if they're eating beer and hot dogs every day. So these are my top tips for addressing weight loss plateau. There's always something you can do. We can always dig a little deeper. And if you feel like you're doing everything right and still not losing weight, I highly encourage you to work with a functional medicine practitioner like one of my practitioners at the Ultra Wellness center in Lenox, Massachusetts. We run tests that look deep and they dig into the cause of what's going on and we want to know how your body is responding or not. And then we help you solve it. Alright, if you like this video, be sure to share it with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter and tweet me your questions and maybe next week I'll make a house call to you.