Have you heard? If you eat less and move more you will probably lose weight. Sure you have. It is not new information that an all-around healthy lifestyle will better prepare you for the weight loss results you are striving for. Yet, if we all know these mantras, then why is it so much easier to say than do?
Granted there is a lot of varying opinions in what foods and diets to follow. However, it seems the bigger problem many people have is sticking to a plan. This could very well point to a potential mental health issue. While this does not mean you need to check yourself into a mental hospital. It does, however, mean that your choices are being short circuited internally. Sometimes this can be remedied with some simple planning . Planning makes you less likely to make the wrong choices. However, other cases may require a more detailed look at the chemical balance in your brain and body.
Southwest Integrative Medicine is built on a holistic approach to your health. We find it prudent to first weigh in on healthy mental states - why you might be suffering from a poor mental state, how a healthy one affects your lifestyle, and what you can do to achieve one. With this in mind we will be looking at the question of weight loss from the perspective of what cause the plan to not work. There are also nuggets of information on the question of diet vs. exercise. Enjoy!
The point here is not to ask yourself; do I have a mental health problem? Instead ask yourself if motivation is an obstacle getting in the way of your weight loss goals? Even motivation can be a narrow view of the real problem, mood sabotage. Low motivation, overwhelm, affective disorders, and other subtle mood issues can lead to, overeating, lethargy, poor sleep, etc. All these play counterproductive roles in a quest for our plans for a health lifestyle. By starting with your mental health your plans for weight loss and health will get you further in the long run.
The Mood Sabotage
Being happy, sad, indifferent, frustration are all part of the spectrum of normal human emotion. Sometimes emotions are influenced by events that are seemingly out of your control. However, more often than not the events that occur on a daily basis are neutral. It is our reaction to these events that creates emotion. This reaction is based on expectations. Gaining more understanding into your expectations and what makes these emotions come about can give you immense insight into why your weight loss goals have been thwarted. This is where setting realistic expectations with a profession that knows the whole story comes into play.
Your brain chemistry and response to your expectations is also something to look at. Optimizing brain chemistry can help smooth out the ups and downs (anxiety and depression). This involves more than an evaluation for an antidepressant medicatin.
You can think of anxiety and depression as being part of a spectrum of mental health with anxiety on one end and depression on the other end. In the middle is a mood that is normal and even. Before anxiety on the spectrum would be stress, then high stress, then mild anxiety, etc. On the depression side it would also be stress, then low mood, then mild depression etc. These emotions, while influenced by expectations, are also greatly influenced by things like genetics, the types of foods you eat, hormones, and many other things. These things can change the levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, and others.
For instance hormones can act to reduce anxiety as they act as stabilizers to the nervous system in the brain. Some females experience this during menstruation as PMS in mild cases or PMDD in more severe cases. Males too can experience changes in emotional states as testosterone declines with age. This is know as Andropause. These imbalances in both men and women can lead to anxious and high stress moods or low mood and depression.
Sometimes your emotional ups and downs are based on how your body makes and breaks down your neurotransmitters. One example of a problem with creating neurotransmitters is MTHFR. This genetic defect creates a roadblock in some neurotransmitter production. There can also be a roadblock on the side of neurotransmitter breakdown which may lead to anxiety or more stress.
Integrative Medicine For Weight loss
If you are someone who has struggled with weight loss it may be time to look at the bigger picture, not just diet and exercise. The mind and your mental state plays a huge role in how your body performs but it is not just a matter of having the will power. Leaving your weight loss success up to will power alone is a fools game. Things will come up and you will miss workouts, eat the wrong foods etc. Knowing this, you should plan for what your going to do in these times.
One thing that makes sense is to prepare or semi-prepare your healthy meals in advanced. If you run short on time or you are super hungry your meal is practically ready for you. This also removes the mental burden of "deciding" what you should have for a meal. This is often times the biggest obstacle. Most of the time the default and quick meals we go to are often the least health for us. You can take this a step further and create a meal plan for the week and a list of back up meals and restaurants. This way you don’t have to constantly worry about and think about what you are going to eat.
Balancing emotions and mood will help you balance the scales in your favor too. Getting the brain chemistry balanced is a great place to start. How do we know what and where the chemicals are imbalanced? Genetics can give us tremendous insight into where the neurotransmitter imbalance lies. Nutrigenomics is the practice of using nutrition to optimize the bodies function based on your genetics. You can think of it like improving the ability of your body to manufacture and use different biochemicals. The example above we looked at how an MTHFR defect could decrease certain neurotransmitter production. A person with this can improve the function of their body and brain by supplementing with L methylfolate foods or directly with this supplement.
Balancing hormones and using nutrigenomics can put you in clear and motivated mindset. However, even with a clean, motivated mindset, poor habits can make new routines hard to implement. Be sure to put parameters in place that will set you up for easy success in the beginning.
What About Diet and Exercise?
Did you say diet is more important than exercise? Yes both diet and exercise are important. However in the context of gaining momentum most people will have more success with diet initially. This is important because you want to use momentum to your favor. Take the low hanging fruit to bolster your long-term goals. Momentum and motivation go hand in hand. When things get hard and your weight loss stagnates, negative thinking and psychology come in. Some studies even show that a healthy diet is more effective for weight loss than exercise alone. Plus exercise takes more time.
For instance, if a 200 lbs man wants to lose a pound a week without altering his diet, he would need to run over 3 miles a day. However, if he cuts 500 calories out of his daily caloric intake for a week (check the calorie counts at Starbucks when you go for your morning latte to gain a sense of what that looks like), his results would be about the same. This does not mean you should not exercise but choose the exercise programs that are going to give you the most results (see this link for specifics) for the effort. For instance muscle burns more calories than fat, so having more muscle on your body will aid in calorie burn throughout the day. This happens even if you are sitting all day.
What about diet plans? Can those be effective without cutting calories?
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, after a recent study of 59 individuals on various fad diets, no diet came out as a clear leader. Being able to follow the diet changes you set is critical. Whether it is simple caloric restriction, eliminating certain types of foods, etc being able to follow the plan is probably more important that the plan itself (at least initially).
The reality of weight loss is that it takes several different variables including the right mental state - free from stress, anxiety, depression, and negative thinking. To be successful you need a long term plan that incorporates the right mental state, the right eating and exercise habits. Here at Southwest Integrative Medicine, we offer this kind of physician-guided holistic weight loss to help you reach your weight loss goals. If you are interested in learning how we can help, don’t hesitate to reach out for a free consultation, today!
