Nutrition
Weight Loss Resistance: What Your Doc Might Not Know
I’ve been here myself. I feel your frustration. I’ve even had individuals in my office so fed up with their bodies due to weight loss resistance that they grab and shake the areas that bring them the most disdain.
I would argue that at some point in our lives we have all expressed the feeling of “Why can’t I just lose the weight?”
For most of us, we end up taking deep dives into the seas of diet culture and wellness sites praying that the answer is located somewhere within these depths only to realize that we are gasping for air as we float further away from ourselves and reality.
Did you know that there has been a ‘life raft’ within our reach since the day we were born to save us from being lost out at this turbulent sea of diet culture and wellness promises?
It’s right inside us! Don’t believe me? Take a moment to think about what a true miracle our body is with its life purpose of keeping us alive. As a newborn, you are inherently connected to what your body needs for survival – food, sleep, poop, socially connect, and repeat. Intuitive eating professionals, like myself, call this attunement or tuning into your body’s signals with 100% trust that it knows what you need. Point being somewhere along our life span, for many reasons, we started listening THEN believing what external sources were telling us.
We fell victim to their energetic pull perpetuating our own personal form of gaslighting: body criticism and weight stigma.
It could have been a loved one, social media, coach, teacher, spiritual leader, doctor or quite possibly the marketing magic of the food industry. With each pull we slowly started disconnecting from our inherent wisdom which over time nudged us out of balance.
Yes, there are underlying physiological reasons for weight loss resistance such as hypothyroidism, insulin resistance, inflammation, hormonal imbalances and metabolic adaptation. You probably have also heard that lifestyle factors – inadequate sleep, chronic stress, dietary choices, activity level – are big contenders too.
But, what if you’ve checked all the lifestyle boxes and have done everything with a significant amount of effort? Is that all she wrote? Is it time to shrug your shoulders and tap out thinking ‘I gave it the ol’ college try?’
There is hope and strength from the shining light within the lighthouse of our souls to help realign and rebalance what was once thought to be lost! However, remember the life raft that you’ve always had? It is time to grab on to that bad boy because this is an inside job and the seas will most likely get rough before they calm.
The mind, body and spirit communicate with each other every moment. If there are unprocessed or unconscious emotions, experiences and beliefs, they have the ability to play out in the physical body and create blockages. Increasing awareness, resolving and gaining new perspective surrounding unprocessed stuff from the past is a way to reconnect with our inherent wisdom and unblock what keeps us stuck to bring us home to self. But, guess what . . .
Researchers as well as Louise Hay, the author of the international bestseller Heal Your Body, and Inna Segal, author of The Secret Language of Your Body, have linked emotional blockage with weight gain and weight loss resistance. With that being said, can you relate to any of the following?
- Insecurity and/or need for protection – usually past or present trauma
- Negative food experiences when younger
- Angry on the inside
- Self-rejection
- Running away from feelings
- Forgiveness resistance
- Oversensitive
- Fulfillment seeker, positive memories of food or beliefs tied to deserving of a treat as a reward
- Anger at being denied love, support, and/or nourishment – usually from an authority figure