Why You Can’t Lose Weight

Part I—The Hormone Connection

It is time to bring the science of weight loss out of the Dark Ages and apply a new understanding of hormones and their impact on metabolism.

In 1995, a hormone called leptin was discovered. This hormone is the one that tells your brain to burn fat for energy. If your brain is not receiving the correct message from this hormone, then your body will not be able to burn fat for energy. What does this mean? Simply put, you will not lose weight, regardless of what you eat or how much you exercise. Drug companies scrambled to develop a synthetic form of leptin in an attempt to be the first to have the solution to obesity. They figured that if leptin tells the brain to burn fat, then overweight individuals must be leptin-deficient, right? Wrong! They soon realized that obese and overweight people had elevated leptin. Why? It is analogous to type II diabetes. A diabetic has plenty of insulin, but his cells just can’t use it. This is due to the overconsumption of processed grains and sugars as well as to toxicity. The constant sugar elevation causes the body to release more and more insulin. Because insulin is constantly elevated along with sugar (glucose), the cells’ receptors for insulin become burned out. In other words, the cells cannot hear what insulin is saying—a.k.a. insulin resistance.

The same thing is happening with leptin. Leptin is produced by your fat cells to tell your brain that there is too much fat, and therefore the command is to burn it. Just like with insulin, if this system is challenged enough, it will eventually break down. The increase in leptin will eventually cause your brain not to hear the signal to burn fat. The receptors in your brain (hypothalamus) burn out—a.k.a. leptin resistance.

Once this hormone mechanism fails, it will become nearly impossible to lose weight—a.k.a. weight loss resistance.

However, there is hope – The Healing Diet. A diet that eliminates everything that turns to sugar and that is high in good fats will allow insulin and leptin receptors to heal and therefore reset the hormonal mechanisms. This means a diet that has no sugar and grains because grains turn to sugar within four seconds of entering the mouth. Once an individual’s insulin and leptin receptors have been burned out and they are in a state of insulin or leptin resistance, even whole, healthy grains such as oatmeal or whole wheat products will not be tolerated. The receptors will only regenerate if we control the elevation of sugar (glucose). Therefore fruit is not allowed on this diet, unless it is berries and used sparingly. Protein must be kept in moderation, averaging between fifteen and twenty-five grams per meal, depending on body size and activity. Protein can turn to sugar and therefore must be limited. Last, an increase in healthy fats helps control glucose and insulin and heal their receptors. The increase in healthy fats will also restore depleted hormones. As you can see, this is not a low-carb or high-protein diet. I would more accurately describe it as a high-fat, moderate-protein, and moderate-carbohydrate diet due to the increase in vegetables.

Who Needs The Healing Diet?

Besides someone who simply cannot lose weight despite diet or exercise, there are five additional factors to determine who needs this diet. Any one of the five qualifies you.

1. Triglycerides/cholesterol. If your body cannot hear the hormone leptin, it is unable to burn fat for energy, and therefore circulating blood fat in the form of triglycerides or cholesterol will eventually be elevated.
2. High blood pressure. High blood pressure is caused by a narrowing and/or hardening of the arteries initiated by oxidation of cholesterol and inflammation within the arterial wall. By eliminating glucose (sugar), you are controlling hormones such as insulin and leptin, which reduces inflammation and therefore blood pressure.
3. Elevated glucose, leptin, or insulin.
4. Genetics. Some individuals, depending on their ancestral origins, do better on certain diets than others. This is why some people do well with low-carb diets and others do better with high-carb diets. Because there is not a simple test to take for this factor, the only advice I can give you is if you are someone who has tried other diets and failed, have a family history of heart disease, diabetes, and/or obesity, then this diet is probably for you.
5. Neurotoxicity. Neurotoxins cause systemic inflammation affecting hormones, especially those dealing with weight loss. Neurotoxins such as heavy metals (mercury, lead, etc.) and biotoxins (mold, lyme, etc.) enter the body and, in the genetically susceptible, attach to fat and nerve cells. Neurotoxic individuals will not lose weight, regardless of diet (even this diet) or exercise, unless this issue is addressed; therefore this subject will be discussed further in Part II.

Part II—The Toxicity Factor

After addressing the hormones leptin and insulin with diet, only one problem potentially remains. According to Dr. Richie C. Shoemaker, “one-third of all leptin-resistance comes from the chronic biotoxic illnesses that are now spreading rapidly across America.”1 When we add in general toxicity from heavy metals, food, and our environment, the problem is epidemic. Dr. Shoemaker is the utmost respected authority on biotoxic illnesses and believes that 98 percent of those who are significantly overweight are leptin-resistant, most of which he feels is due to toxicity.

If The Healing Diet is the correct diet for you based on the five factors, the weight will come off with ease. If not, toxicity must be considered and is likely the cause of your uncontrollable cravings, diet failures, and inability to lose weight.

When toxins enter your body, they have an affinity for fat cells due to the fact that they are fat-soluble. When the toxins attach to the outer cell membrane, which is made of a lipid bilayer (two layers of fat), they cause the cell to continually release leptin. When leptin is continuously elevated, just like insulin in type II diabetes, the receptors burn out, and the message is not heard. Remember, leptin is the hormone that tells the brain to burn fat for energy; therefore weight gain that does not respond to exercise or diet is inevitably due to leptin resistance. The toxins also cause the unregulated release of chemicals, called cytokines, that damage leptin receptors in the brain (hypothalamus). Once the receptors to leptin have been damaged, weight loss resistance is only the first of many problems. Your body makes an extremely important hormone called melanocyte stimulating hormone (MSH). MSH is produced in the hypothalamus by leptin and is at the top of the hormone chain and therefore controls numerous body functions: immune system, inflammation, skin and mucus membrane defenses, endorphin and melatonin production. If your brain cannot hear leptin due to toxicity, you will eventually become MSH-deficient2.

What Does This Mean?

It means that every immune and hormone response in your body will be altered. Practically speaking, you feel horrible and cannot figure out why. You find yourself on medications, chasing symptoms on a never-ending downward spiral—the pitfall of modern medicine. The key to twenty-first-century medicine is understanding how toxins affect this hormonal cascade, causing inflammation that leads to so many new-millennium diseases such as depression, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, chronic fatigue, and fibromyalgia, just to name a few.

The solution lies in proper detoxification. This does not mean some simple colon cleanse or liver detoxification program. These neurotoxins must be chelated (detoxed) very specifically, depending on the toxin; therefore proper testing is also very important. This being the case, working alongside a doctor experienced in this kind of toxicity is of paramount importance because this is your health, and there are so many fad detoxification programs on the market today. True detoxification must occur at the cellular level.

In conclusion, the majority of Americans cannot lose weight, despite diet and excessive exercise. The amount of processed grains and sugars and the onslaught of toxicity are causing major hormonal problems, which lead to uncontrollable cravings, the inability to burn fat for energy, a decrease in metabolism, muscle wasting, and eventually, a new-millennium disease.

Following The Healing Diet and ridding your body of toxins properly will reset your entire hormonal system and bring your body back into balance. You will finally have success, even if you have had many failures in the past, because you will be getting to the cause of why you can’t lose weight.

** This article is one of 101 great articles that were published in 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health. To get complete details on “101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health”, visit http://selfgrowth.com/healthbook3.html

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