Thoughts on Weight

with training

By training I mean I am writing this while on a train to NYC. What did you think I meant by “training”?

Weather today looks good to be outside and walk a bit. So for the 80 minute ride to NYC, I decided to write a Common Sense Health and Wellness post.

Hope you enjoy!

Achieving a healthy weight is crucial for overall well-being and happiness. Most of us understand that maintaining a healthy weight leads to better health and fewer medical issues. If you’re not convinced, keep reading to understand why.

Optimal health involves balancing various systems in our body. Macro systems include metabolism, nutrition, immune/inflammatory response, hormonal balance, and gut health. Between macro and micro systems, let’s call that “middle” could be organs like the heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys. Micro systems involve balancing individual molecular chemistry in the body, such as hormones or neurotransmitters.

Throughout my career, I’ve seen various methods for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, some successful but few lasting. Unless individuals understand how to establish and maintain the ever-evolving balance between macro, middle, and micro systems, long-term success is challenging.

So, let’s discuss the initial steps for overweight individuals to achieve and maintain a healthier optimal weight.

1. Hormonal balance is essential. Excess fat gain often occurs when the body’s diet signals it to produce excess insulin. Insulin is a growth hormone that stores excess dietary carbohydrates as fat for future use, especially in times of food scarcity or famine. While we may not experience famine in modern times, our genes have evolved to store energy for future use. Consequently, our genes are programmed to fatten us up, just in case.

So, if you’re overweight, it’s likely due to chronic elevated insulin levels caused by excessive dietary carbohydrate intake. To lose weight, we need to lower our chronically elevated insulin levels. In other words, we need to reduce our carb intake.

Hey there, folks! And guess what? There’s always a butt in Common Sense Health and Wellness posts, right? So, what if you’re overweight with normal insulin levels? That’s the topic of today’s post.

Now, here’s the thing: we need to eat less and burn more energy. That’s the old saying, “eat less, move more,” and it works for most people. It’s how people who follow a lower carbohydrate diet break through plateaus and start losing weight.

So, eating less usually means skipping meals, practicing intermittent fasting, or even longer fasts. But here’s the catch: if your insulin levels aren’t elevated, you shouldn’t be gaining weight. But most people eventually find a balance where they burn the same amount of energy as they store from their diet. So, to change this balance, we need to eat less food.

In my own experience, lower carbohydrate diets are great for getting rid of excess weight. But like most people, I love food. So, even when my insulin levels are low and well-controlled, if I eat too much, I either maintain my weight or gain weight.

Said another way, even when I’m insulin-sensitive, if I eat too much or too often, I have trouble keeping my weight down.

So, what do I do? Here are my top 5 hacks:

1. I keep my dietary carbs low.

2. I stick to no more than 2 meals a day, and these meals are within a 6-8 hour eating window.

3. I skip meals and try a 24-hour fast a few days a week. Yes, skipping meals and not eating actually helps keep weight down.

4. I make sure I get enough sleep because it reduces other stress hormones that mess up weight balance.

5. I exercise to maintain and build muscle. The more muscle you have, the more energy you burn, which keeps weight down by adjusting the balance of fuel burned vs. stored.

So, there you have it! Those are some things to think about if your weight is higher than you want it to be.

What did I miss? Let me know in the comments below!