Losing weight can be really challenging, particularly without some help, so let’s start with some truths about weight.
We don’t choose to be overweight, and eating is more often than not an automatic action that is hardwired into our brains. Making great choices 100% of the time is not realistic and certainly not sustainable.
It often feels like we are in battle between the two sides, our brains which are telling us the ‘right’ foods to eat and our environment which gives us easy-to-access cheaper foods that are making us overweight.
Our genes play an important role in a whole host of different factors relating to our body and our weight – our metabolic rate, how much we fidget, how much energy we use to control our posture, and how we respond to different diets.
Hormones are critical in regulating both metabolism and hunger, acting like a thermostat – except we have little control over the setting. In this way, the body ‘remembers’ what its Basal metabolic rate ‘should be.’ This ‘metabolic memory’ may even start before we are born and explains why our body wants to ‘be’ at a certain weight and will fight to stay that weight.
Get in touch with My Weight Loss Clinic to learn more about how we can overcome genetics and use evidence based medicine to help you reach your goals.
The metabolic rate for those who have lost a lot of weight will be up to 400 calories lower than the baseline of someone of the same weight.
Our fat cells send the hormone ‘Leptin’ to the brain. Leptin increases energy expenditure and inhibits hunger. Weight Loss results in lower leptin levels which reduces our metabolic rate. Let’s check out the really important gut hormones that also send messages to the hypothalamus in the base of the brain:
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