How to break through a fat loss stall...

hormones weight loss Jan 21, 2020

Fat loss stalled?

You were all excited to start your "weight loss" program and you jumped right in. You probably started off good, started to see some of the weight dropping off and then a week or so into your program - STALL! This can be very very very frustrating, especially if you've been struggling with your weight for so long. In this blog post, you'll learn what's going on in your body, why you're stalling, and what you're going to break the stall.

What your body is doing when it stalls

Firstly you have to understand why your body gains weight at all. When we as humans lived out in the wilderness, high caloric foods were scarce. Our diets mainly consisted of plants and then, on occasion, an animal would come strolling by and that became lunch. We became accustomed to "feast & famine." Therefore our bodies developed mechanisms to store energy during times of "feast" so that we would be able to function in times of "famine."

FEAST Mode - Store Energy

FAMINE Mode - Burn Energy

Fast forward to modern-day and we see that every day is a feast, but our bodies are still programmed to store for times of famine. This becomes a big problem because we rarely encounter times of famine. So we store and store and store.

Now, you begin a "weight loss" program with the intention to decrease all the energy you stored up for this time of famine. But your body hasn't been exposed to famine before, only feast. So it's used to only storing. Many weight loss programs focus on decreasing caloric intake and replacing high caloric/low nutrient foods with low caloric/high nutrient foods. But as you begin to make this switch your highly intelligent body begins to adapt. This is when famine mode kicks in.

During the famine mode, a whole cascade of hormones will kick in. Basically the goal during this time will be to utilize stored energy (i.e. body fat) and store calories. But in our day and age, we see a huge disparity for the caloric intake of the "Standard American Diet" therefore we experience a paradox reaction of the famine mode - you continue to store energy.

Let's back up a bit though...we have to take a look at what got you to being overweight in the first place. Here are the main reasons:

  1. Too much high calorie/low nutrient "food" intake
  2. Too little caloric expenditure (i.e. exercise)
  3. Blocking of normal hormonal function by environmental toxins & other stressors

As you step into your weight loss program you bring with you faulty biochemistry. It's like having a house where the lights aren't turning on correctly when you flip the light switch on, but you only focus on changing the light bulbs. The majority of the time, the wiring is all off! So you can change light bulbs till the cows come home and it still won't work properly.

Why you're stalling - The 4 H's

Reason #1: Hormonal imbalance

Reason #2: Hydration

Reason #3: Healing damaged tissues

Reason #4: Hidden sugars in your food

Breaking out of the stall

Step 1: Stop beating yourself up. You have to remember why & how your body got into the state that it's in. It takes time to "re-wire" your house. I know you want the "lights to go on" now. When you constantly get frustrated as you look at the scale and not see the numbers dropping it only adds more stress which further pushes your biochemistry out of balance. Remember that it took some time for your body to get out of balance and it will take some time to get it back in to balance.

Step 2: Shift your focus from "losing" weight to "gaining" health. As you start to get your internal wiring straightened out your body will start to repair itself (remember the 3 steps to healing). This repair will be focused on those faulty biochemical pathways.

Step 3: Address the reasons why you're stalling. If you see, the first two steps begins with your mindset. Your mindset will affect everything.

If you're really struggling with fat loss and want to get a deeper understanding of how to gain control over your body, check out my webinar on "The most common mistakes people make when trying to lose weight"

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