Did you know that weight loss resistance can be linked to nutrient deficiencies?
Let’s connect the dots on exactly how proteins, carbs, and fats, vitamins and mineral deficiencies can be a root cause for weight loss resistance.
In part one of this article/video series, we highlighted the top five nutrient thieves. (Part 1) Why are we seeing so much nutrient deficiency and what’s causing this? Once we know the thieves we can determine the links! (Part 2)
MACRONUTRIENTS
Water – When I first started studying nutrition, I realized how dehydrated I was. I was not drinking near the amount of water that I should be each day. Plus, I was counting tea and lemonade as water! When I learned the extreme importance and foundational healing value of water, I decided to immediately rehydrate. I do so really fast, which I do not recommend. I became very congested – My whole fluids of everything in my body were thrown off.
Here’s a better way for rehydrating.
**Increase your water by 1-2 glasses every 3 days. Don’t do that all in one day like I did. Do it over the course of about a week and a half to two weeks depending.
**With the goal of drinking half of your body weight in ounces a day with a max of 100 ounces.
**Add electrolytes by simply putting a tiny pinch of sea salt, the colored kind, Himalayan or Celtic to your water. Not every glass, not every bottle, but at least half of what you’re drinking, four or five glasses a day. Sea salt has all the trace minerals and those electrolytes are simply minerals that carry an electric charge when dissolved in water.
What’s the connection of water and weight loss?
Three Key Connections:
#1 – Water is foundational to detoxification and making sure we flush out things that shouldn’t be in our bodies.
When we lose weight and we start to shrink our fat cells, all the toxins that are stored in the fat cells need to be flushed out and not reabsorbed. When we’re not drinking enough water, a lot of times we just simply reabsorb some things that we’re trying to get rid of. In losing weight and our fat cells are shrinking, we want to make sure that we are drinking enough water so that all the excess hormones and toxins from our food and environment are getting flushed out of our system. We’re able to eliminate on a regular basis so we see the results and we feel the results of getting all of that out of the system.
#2 – We can interpret hunger for thirst.
We end up eating something sweet or something salty. We have cravings for food when really we’re actually just thirsty. If you ever have a sugar craving or crave something salty and junk food, drink a glass of water first and make sure that you’re not just thirsty.
If you’re just thirsty, then that craving will slowly fade away when you get rehydrated. So drink a glass of water, at least eight ounces of water first before you give in to the craving.
#3 – Water is the regulator for all of the metabolic processes. We’re not digesting our food well if we’re not hydrated. We’re not signaling hormones well if we’re not hydrated. We’re not using food, creating energy with our mitochondria if we’re not hydrated. Our key metabolic controls why we are not releasing the weight, all come back down to this foundational hydration and water regulates all of it.
We can stay full and cut off bad junk food cravings with water.
We can detoxify our body by drinking enough water.
We reset our metabolic processes by staying hydrated.
Protein – The second most important nutrient is proteins. Proteins break down into amino acids. If we’re not getting enough protein, if we’re nutrient deficient in the amino acid category, it’s going to definitely stall our weight loss. So water is number one, but number two right behind it is protein, getting enough protein. Amino acids have two types – non essential (ones our bodies can manufacture on our own) and essential (ones we must get from food)
What’s the connection of proteins and weight loss?
Three Key Connections:
#1 – Protein increases our metabolic rate by being the main muscle builder and the more muscle mass you have, the higher your base metabolic rate is, the more calories you burn, the faster your metabolism. Protein also has the highest thermal effect compared to carbohydrates or fats. It creates a lot of heat to break it down. The higher thermal effect of food just means more calories burned in the process!
#2 – Amino acids key for detoxification. We don’t think of eating steak for detoxification, but having an abundant pool of amino acids in the body helps us actually clear out toxins. Amino acids come alongside and they escort toxins out of the body along with water. Bone broth provides an abundance of amino acids while being super easy to digest… making it an ideal food for detoxification.
#3 – Amino acids form neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are the chemistry of emotion.
If someone has emotional eating problems, they probably are protein deficient.
If someone has stress eating, they’re probably protein deficient.
If they feel like they have cravings for sugar, especially, they’re probably protein deficient because amino acids from proteins form serotonin, form dopamine, form some of these neurotransmitters that give our bodies a signal that, we’re happy, we’re satisfied, we’re not craving sugar or other addictive foods.
We really help customize this for each client based on their needs, lab tests, goals and other factors. But if you had a goal of 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal, having protein with each meal, that’s a pretty good start.
Let’s talk carbs. Nature’s carbs (fruits, veggies, grains, legumes)
Carbohydrates – These healthy carbs are so needed in energy production and weight loss.
What’s the connection of carbohydrates and weight loss?
Three Key Connections:
#1 – Fiber & Sugar Balance
Nature’s carbs have fiber that slows the absorption of sugars. Carbs break down into sugar. Is that a problem? The real question is how fast. Nature’s carbs (complex) do not spike insulin. Insulin is our fat-storage hormone. The less spikes we have, the better our metabolic health and weight will be too!
#2 – Detoxification
And fiber helps us eliminate efficiently and feeds the healthy bacteria in our guts that are key to turning on weight loss mode through activating GLP-1, cleaning out the gut, and providing the nutrients needed to safely support the liver to detoxify the environmental toxins, food additives, medications, chemicals, excess hormones, etc.
#3 – Phytonutrients & Energy Production
Nature’s carbs have a whole list of phytonutrients like quercetin, beta carotenes, resveratrol antioxidants, and many more. Phytonutrients are so important in the whole metabolic process. Diversity.
We want to eat a bunch of different colors. Eating the rainbow is a great idea in getting the right kind of nature’s carbs in because you get a whole host of all the different spectrum of phytonutrients, polyphenols, all of that, that helps our metabolism, helps our mitochondria create energy and burn the right fuel.
Fats – If we are deficient in fatty acids (especially short chain kind made from good bacteria in our guts), then we can forget about losing any weight. With the ketogenic diet gaining in popularity – we are realizing the importance of healthy, natural fats in weight loss and other health conditions.
What’s the connection of fats and weight loss?
Three Key Connections:
#1 – Satiation
When you eat enough fat in your meal you’re going to feel full. If you don’t feel full for more than three maybe close to four hours you probably didn’t eat enough fat in that meal. So satiation is a key component to weight loss and not having cravings for sugar and junk food because we’re eating enough healthy fats.
#2 – Fats form hormones. If you feel like your weight gain is hormonal, start increasing the amount of natural fats you’re eating and make sure those fats are high quality: organic unrefined olive oil avocado oil, coconut oil, grassfed butter/ghee and more!
#3 – Metabolic flexibility. Eating more fat to burn for energy helps stop insulin resistance. Burning ketones which are the byproducts of fats being digested allows us to switch to fat burning mode instead of sugar burning mode.
Get rid of all the clear plastic container processed oils (canola, safflower, corn, sunflower, vegetable, etc.) trans fats, the partially hydrogenated, hydrogenated oils – these are super cheap but they’re horrible for our health – and replace with natural fats like butter and ghee, grass-fed if you can, organic olive oil, organic avocado oil, coconut oil, sesame oil, avocados, olives, coconut, full fat dairy.
Avoid fried foods at restaurants. Most restaurants use oils that are high heated fried for fried foods like 450, 500 degrees or more. And it’s really the high heating vs. the type of oil often times that’s the problem.
MICRO NUTRIENTS
It’s difficult to sum up vitamin and mineral deficiency impact on weight loss because there’s so many connections!
Vitamins
There are two types: water soluble and fat soluble
Vit B Complex and Vitamin C are water soluble impact weight loss by boosting immune system (one or the largest energy hogs), helping us cope with stress, create energy, and detoxify the liver.
Vit. A, D, E, K are fat soluble and work together to strengthen our hearts, build hormones, boost immune systems, lower inflammation… all key components to lose weight long term!
Clients enrolled in our Weight Loss Coaching Program have the NutriStat lab test included in their program that shows exactly which vitamins are deficient! Know exactly how to supplement by testing.
Minerals
They are the spark plugs that gets things started or gets things finished when we talk about metabolic processes in the body from detoxification of excess hormones, to cravings, to balancing blood sugar, to staying hydrated and much more! Minerals play a key role in how are mitochondria use food for fuel.
Mineral deficiencies can wreak havoc on our health and weight loss efforts, but we can replace these deficiencies quickly if we know which ones and how much. That’s why we test, don’t guess!
**Check out more information on our comprehensive nutritional testing we use in our Weight Loss Coaching Program! https://www.usbiotek.com/nutritional-testing