Acupuncture & Weight Loss: There's more to it than counting calories!

Have you been having trouble losing weight? Many people begin a diet and exercise program, but then lose their motivation or willpower when they plateau. If you feel like you need help achieving your weight loss goals, or you just can’t get through your plateau, Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine could provide the assistance you need.

Stress Hormones and Belly Fat
These days, it seems everyone is under chronic stress. Chronic stress can easily cause hormonal imbalances, which can make it very difficult to lose weight. For example, Cortisol is a stress hormone that causes the body to store fat around the midsection. Diet and exercise are a great strategy, but the underlying stress and hormonal imbalances must be addressed as well. Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs have proven very effective for this problem.

Chronic stress can also cause emotional eating. When life gets overwhelming, we can easily turn to food to make us feel good.

Cravings and the Five Flavors
Where do cravings come from? Chinese Medicine recognizes many relationships throughout nature in general, and especially throughout the body. One perspective that helps us understand health is the idea of the Five Elements.

The Chinese Five Elements are: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood.

Each of the Chinese Five Elements has a corresponding flavor associated with it. When an element is out of balance, we tend to crave the associated flavor.

Sometimes, we crave exactly what we need. Other times we crave the worst thing possible, usually the thing we are addicted to. How can anyone tell the difference? Think about the foods you are craving. Are they heavily processed, or full of sugar? Most likely these foods are not in your body’s highest good. Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs can help bring your body’s systems back into balance, reducing those junk cravings.

There are different kinds of exercise.
Everyone knows exercise is crucial to losing weight, but did you know that there are two distinct types of exercise? One type of exercise is Sympathetic exercise, which is exercise that stresses the body and engages the sympathetic nervous system. This type of exercise generally comes with some discomfort as the body is pushed to its limits in an effort to grow. Sympathetic exercise is a “Feel the burn” or “No pain, no gain” type of exercise.

Chinese Medicine tends to favor the second type of exercise, Parasympathetic exercise. This is exercise that allows the body to relax, and come out of stress mode. Think of Tai Chi, Qi Gong, and some Yoga practices, as well as simply walking and breathing. Parasympathetic exercise is especially important for those of us with chronic stress.

If stress has caused a hormone imbalance that has made you gain weight, it is most important to ease yourself into relaxation mode, and you can relax and exercise at the same time! Talk to your acupuncturist, or find a class near you.

Is Chinese Medicine Safe for Weight Loss?
Chinese medicine is a very safe medicine, with few if any side effects. There has been controversy around certain herbs, such as Ephedra. This controversy is due to a few irresponsible individuals misusing extracts from the herbs. A trained and responsible Herbalist will always give appropriate doses of herbs, and monitor your progress to create the best herbal plan for you. You should make sure your Chinese Herbalist is NCCAOM certified.

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