The Ins and Outs of Weight

Forever we’ve heard doctors, nurses, dietitians and personal trainers tell us to “eat less, move more” and weight loss will ensue. But how come for some, it doesn’t? All too often I find myself across the desk from a patient who claims to eat the right foods, in the right portions, at the right time of day and exercises daily, to boot! If this is all true, shouldn’t weight just be melting off?

Energy balance, the delicate relationship between calories consumed versus energy expended, is not as simple as “calories in, calories out.” There are so many factors that contribute to how much energy (calories) our body uses at rest and during activity. Depending on those factors and what is coming “in,” we can either be conservative or quite liberal with our energy stores.

Listed below are seven major elements to the weight-loss equation to help those struggling with weight to gain a better understanding of their energy balance.

1) BMR, or basal metabolic rate, is the energy required to maintain the body’s basic metabolic functioning such as respiration, body temperature regulation and digestion. This number is based on your height, weight, sex and age. Knowing this number gives you a baseline to work off of.

2) Activity Factor – Based on how active you are in your daily life and what your exercise regimen is, multiplying your BMR times an activity factor is what gives you a resting metabolic rate — the amount of calories you need to sustain your lifestyle. The best way to figure this out is go to morekale.com and enter your information.

3) Body Composition – We all know muscle weighs more than fat, but we don’t realize it burns triple the calories! Women with 30 percent or less and men with 20 percent or less body fat need more energy.

4) Sleep – This may seem somewhat irrelevant to weight, but our bodies do a LOT while we’re counting sheep. Fat cells turn into muscle, we repair tissues and hormones return to a balanced set point. Make it a top priority to get at least seven hours of sound sleep per night.

5) Hormones – Speaking of hormones… Whether it’s sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone or testosterone, the stress hormone cortisol or hunger and satiety hormones like leptin and ghrelin, if any are out of balance, weight is likely an issue. This is one that is commonly overlooked but can be the biggest game changer.

6) Stress – A wrecking ball all it’s own! Stress contributes to imbalances in hormones, poor quality of sleep, cravings for sugar, fat and salt, and clouds our judgment to make healthy lifestyle decisions. Eliminating stress from your life is nearly impossible, so be armed with at least two (healthy) stress-coping strategies.

7) History of Dieting – If you have been on every diet since the invention of spandex, your metabolism is likely smoldering. Your body believes there is only feast or famine and treats every morsel of food like the last (ie: storing it for later use as fat). This is a more complicated hurdle to leap – it involves analyzing your liver function, detoxification pathways and micronutrient capacity. Seeking a knowledgeable healthcare practitioner is highly recommended.

#health