Weight Loss Resistance

Hi, I'm Marcel Pick, best selling author and women's health expert. Are you someone that's been struggling to lose weight? Are you someone that can't motivate yourself because you try it and you're doing all the right things and you still can't lose weight? Or you have those cravings that just get you every single time and then you fall off the wagon? Well, more importantly, are you trying to figure out, why do I have this belly? I never had this before. I haven't changed my diet. I haven't done anything different. And I'm 46, but I never knew it was going to happen like this. Or are you someone that's been told over and over again as you get older, you're just going to gain £5 every year? Well, I'm here to tell you none of that has to be true. But we might need to help you figure out what the problem is. I'm going to be talking today about something called what I call weight loss resistance. No matter what you do, no matter what you try, the weight won't go away. And your body's resistant to getting rid of those calories and getting rid of that weight. So let me tell you a little bit of a story about me. When I was in high school, I started to gain a little weight. I was eating one meal a day and trying to be so careful. But then I went away to college and I gained the dreaded 15. I went to a program that was well recognized and I was weighing every single week. And I was so excited because I was weighing and measuring all my food and I was losing about a quarter of a pound a week, maybe not even that. And people behind me are in the line saying, oh my gosh, I cheated so much and I lost two pounds. And I remember thinking then if I could figure out what the solution was, then I'm going to write a book about it. And that's exactly what happened. But fast forward many years and I wrote a book called A Core Balanced Diet in which I talk about what keeps your body from losing that weight. There's actually several different categories, and I really did figure it out for myself. So as I got older, I was able to maintain my weight, have tons of energy, be very excited about life, and not have to worry about calories in, calories out. Because one of the biggest, most important things I'm going to tell you today is it's not about what quality or it's actually about the quality of the food that you're eating. It's not calories in, calories out. Now, don't get me wrong. If you're going to eat 4,000 calories a day, you're going to gain weight, of course. But if you start paying attention to the kind of food that you eat, which I talk about all the time, it's going to make a difference. But within that, there's still some other things we have to talk about. So one of the things that can block you from losing weight is to have digestive issues. Now, we're starting to understand a little bit more about that. We've got a long way to go in research, but we're starting to notice that if we change the microbiome of the gut, people actually start losing weight. Oh, my gosh, who knew? Well, our body is made up a lot of bacteria, believe it or not. And we have thousands and thousands of different kinds of bacteria in our gut. Some of the names we don't even have. So if you're someone that's suffering from bloating, or you have a lot of gas, or you're noticing that you just feel uncomfortable after you're eating, you may have a digestive problem. It may be a problem in which you're not absorbing nutrients properly. It may be a problem that's really sabotaging your health in some ways. And that's one of the things that you might need to address to figure out what's going on with your system that's preventing you from losing that weight. Sometimes you might have an overgrowth of bacteria that you shouldn't have. You might not have enough good bacteria. All of these things help you digest your foods properly and also ultimately may be the blocking agent for your weight loss. We also have things that are related to our hormones. You hear me talk about that all the time. If you have a hormonal imbalance that can absolutely cause that additional weight. And my patients that are perimenopausal, they'll get weight around their middle and their thighs, and they're just so frustrated. But what I say to many of them, look, it will be a time of transition, but as we start to become more mindful of the quality, remember, quality of the food that you're eating. Healthy fats in your diet, lots of color on your plate. You can go to one of my other Facebook lives in which I show you what do you want to have in your kitchen that really helps you learn about food? But know that without transition, our hormones can become very disrupted. And when we have increased amounts of fat, we have more estrogen in our system, and that can cause an imbalance as well. And I've talked so many times about the adrenals. Well, the adrenals because of all the stress we have in our culture and for many of us, which I'm going to do a Facebook live on as well, we have a lot of stress from our childhood that we carry into adulthood. That causes a lot of cortisol to be released or we might not have enough cortisol. And that in and of itself can cause a lot of health issues. For example, it can cause the hormones to become so disrupted. It can cause your immune system to not work as well. It can cause you not to digest your foods properly. It can cause thyroid abnormalities. So understanding. And also it causes problems with your blood sugar. So understanding that our stress actually has physical manifestations that may contribute then also to hormones being imbalanced. So then we have two issues. Our hormones are imbalanced, and we have adrenal issues. And that can cause us to not lose weight. Even though you ramp up your exercise and you cut back on your calories, we still can't get that additional weight off. So you might have those two things being blockers for that weight loss. In addition to that, we also have inflammation. You hear me talk about that all the time. And if we have inflammation in our system, we can have many, many things that happen. And one of the things that happens is our body becomes protective, and it also causes us to have sometimes what we call insulin resistance. And then we see that no matter what we do for calories, it doesn't make a difference until we cut back on carbohydrates and we get some of those foods out of our diet that we're reacting. That can be a big, big shift for you with regards to your weight. I have several patients in which I just stopped eggs because they were reacting to the eggs or that they were having problems with dairy. I had them stop those things. And, wow, 15 pounds came off very quickly. So when your body's in an inflammatory state, what happens then is it becomes very resistant, no matter what you're doing for exercise and what you're doing for the kinds of calories you're taking in. Until we change what kind of food you're e body starts reacting because it's not having that inflammation response anymore. So that's another thing that can cause problems. So in addition to that, we might have a problem with our neurotransmitters. Who knew? So what goes on with our brain function? What goes on with our Neurotransmitters, I call it your issues, maybe in your tissues, certainly may affect your compulsive behavior around food. Maybe you're someone that just loves to have sugar in your diet and you just can't stop having sugar on a regular basis. That might be one of the triggers for you that you start to notice that you're eating way too much sugar. Now remember, sugar turns on the receptors in the brain similar to those that are addicted to cocaine or heroin. For some people, about 20% of the population, having one bite of sugar sets them down this road of, oh my gosh, I can't stop. So that would certainly be one of the things for you that I would suggest that you stop, because that can be a block for weight loss as well. So knowing that about yourself is important. We also starting to understand a little bit more about people's different body types. And some people have leptin resistance in which they actually don't have a stop valve. So they start to eat and eat and eat, and they're not like other people, they don't know when to stop. If that's true for you, you might need to know about that for yourself and understand that you need to have a very specific plate that you use on a regular basis. Half of it would be colorful, colorful vegetables. Half of it might be a quarter might be protein, good quality fats, and then some carbohydrates so that you know about that for yourself, that you really don't have that stop valve. And then start using different kinds of foods too, that are so helpful. For example, good quality carbohydrates. What about beautiful yellow sweet potatoes? What about using some spaghetti squash? What about using some quinoa? Those are not foods that tend to cause insulin to go up very quickly. And those might be things that really help you feel fuller. Lots of vegetables will do that too, so that then you start to notice, I am full, I am comfortable, I don't have a hangover after what I'm eating, because sugar can certainly do that over the holidays. One of the things I say to myself all the time is, do I really want to have a food hangover? And the answer many times is no. Sometimes it's yes. And the next day I'll say to myself, what did I do that for? Because I really don't feel very well. But it's very seductive over the holidays. And that's something else to remember, is that so many people go into the holidays unprepared. We're going to be talking much more about that as the year starts to come. But, you know, we have parties and then we start at Thanksgiving. We don't stop till New Year's Day. That's a very long time to be eating lots of those kinds of things. So hopefully by then you'll have an idea about what's your personality type, what are your neurotransmitters, what are they doing for your hunger? Now, that gets us to something else, and that is that many of the times I will actually test my patients to see if they have food sensitivities. That's very different than a food allergy. But they might have a sensitivity to food which may cause inflammation, may cause digestive issues. So that's again, something that can block that weight loss from happening as well. So this is an idea for you about some of the things that cause problems. And there's one more thing, and that is if you're somebody that may have a huge amount of toxicity in your system. And I know this sounds like a new age concept, and we really don't talk about that in medicine, but I'm telling you, it's very true for some people. If, for example, we start to notice that they have high lead levels, their body becomes what we call inflamed and they may not be able to lose weight very well or they have high mercury levels. All of these people oftentimes have what we call weight loss resistance. No matter what they do, they can't get those inches off. They exercise more, they change their diet and they still can't. So be aware that having issues with regards to toxicity may be another problem. Now, it's true. We have patients in my clinic in particular that are much more sensitive. They're the ones that say to me, oh my gosh, I can't stand perfumes and I go to Home Depot and I'm really having problems. They are the ones that are going to pay more attention to do I need to notice about toxicity for them and really do some wonderful kinds of detox. And I don't mean a fast of water. That's not how you're going to be able to detox. So here today, I've given you an example of seven different issues that cause you perhaps to have trouble losing weight. So don't think for a moment that you just don't have motivation and you're not somebody that's got great willpower. It might be that something's going on with regards to your biochemistry that's preventing you from losing that weight. So please don't get discouraged. Start to understand yourself. And if you're interested in this particular information, pass it on to other friends because I'm sure your girlfriends have this issue like this Facebook Live. And if you want more information marcelpig.com.