by Elizabeth Carpenter, MS, L.Ac.

“There is absolutely a fundamental idea when it comes to weight & obesity - that the way you get fat is by taking in more calories than you expend. It is the gluttony & sloth hypothesis: We eat too much & exercise too little. It sounds undeniable, but this doesn’t tell us anything meaningful about why we get fat.” 

             -Stanford & Harvard University scientist-journalist, Gary Tobbs

As a health professional I first found this news shocking. And then, I looked at the research.

The good news / bad news is two-fold:
1. You absolutely can take charge of your weight, by addressing the right issue.
2. Obesity & Weight Loss Resistance and The New Millennium Diseases – cancers, autoimmune issues, Alzheimers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, the list goes on – share a root problem. Address it and you reduce your risks for all of them.

In 1990 the CDC informed us that 14% of Americans were obese, and warned us that if we didn’t change what we were doing, we would face an epidemic. 14% might not sound like a lot, until we think about 300 million people.

What did we do with that information as a nation? We did what we do best—we started selling. Suddenly lots of doctors and experts on TV appeared, telling us how to lose weight and be healthy. New books came out every month. New articles in magazines appeared weekly. New pills. Even Subway and Taco Bell came out with diets.

After millions and millions of dollars spent, 9 years later—by 1999 – the CDC told us that now 20% of Americans were obese. More diets, more pills, more experts, more books and articles. In 2008 the percentage of obese Americans leapt to 24-30%. The current projection is that by 2020, 75% of us will be obese.
75% is not a big number or even a huge number, it’s a ridiculous number. It points to a very sick nation.

So the question is, “Is our nutrition working?” Clearly, the answer is “No.”

So what is our real problem with our weight? (hint: it’s the same as with our health)

Our problem is we have bought into 3 Myths that make us fatter, not leaner, sicker, not healthier.

Myth #1: It’s About Calories IN vs. Calories OUT
It’s partially true, if you reduce your calories and exercise more, on average a woman will lose 15-20 pounds, a man 20-25. But most diet/exercise warriors will gain it back as the body adjusts to its new set point. It will require greater and greater restriction and increase in exercise to continue losing weight. It is also likely you will yo-yo the same pounds back on when uncontrollable urges hit in response to the next stressful event.

But worse, for most, the pound loss will be muscle rather than fat, because we have not taught the body to burn fat! So it burns muscle instead!

Myth #2: More exercise = More Weight Loss
But a review of research on exercise shows us there is no compelling evidence that exercise affects weight in a permanent way. Exercise is extremely important for our health—for many reasons! But it is not the crux of sustainable weight loss. To lose weight, exercise is the cherry on the top.

Myth #3: Fat Makes You Fat
Fat does not make you fat. It is the inability to burn fat that makes you fat! In fact, good fats HELP you burn fat! Fat has gotten a bad rap. We have grossly oversimplified the cholesterol issue, and thrown the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. Learning to use good fats effectively can turn us into fat-burning, lean muscle-building machines and balance our cholesterol and hormone picture for optimal health.

The unfortunate truth is, we have trained ourselves to be sugar-burners, not fat-burners. And as long as this remains true, we will not sustain our weight loss. And, we will lose our health.

Your body can only use 2 things for energy:
1. Sugar
2. Fat

Why Your Weight Issue Is Not Your “Fault”
Healthy people can burn both sugar and fat for energy. But most Americans can only burn sugar. The inability to burn fat for energy leads to uncontrollable cravings. And this undesirable situation pivots on a hormone called Leptin.

The hormone Leptin controls food cravings and fat burning instructions for your body.   The hormone Insulin controls sugar in and out of the cell.

Truth: To understand weight loss in the 21st century, you have to understand hormones. And to fix the hormone issue, you have to go deeper than hormones. To fix our weight and health problems, we must work at the cellular level.

“ Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them. “—Albert Einstein

We are throwing pills, diets, hormones, effort, information and a whole lot of money at symptoms, when the real problem lies at a deeper level – at the level of the cell. We need to understand and address the root cause, not the symptom that we see.

Obesity is a symptom. Weight Loss Resistance is a symptom. Diseases are symptoms. The pandemic / epidemic we really face is cellular inflammation.

And the cost of cellular inflammation is far greater than our appearance. Cellular inflammation drives cardiovascular disease and diabetes, cancers and other autoimmune issues, brain fog and attention issues, fatigue and sleep problems, depression, anxiety, thyroid and hormone imbalances of all kinds. In fact cellular inflammation is now understood to be the root of almost every health issue we face, as well as premature aging. It is the great plague of the 21st century. It is the heart and foundation of what we now call The New Millennium Diseases. And you can address it.

But what about people who are eating healthily and still can’t lose weight, still get sick?
Most of us who are health conscious are eating well and taking supplements. You can take the best supplements in the world. You can eat organic, vegan, raw and paleo. You can eat the Blood Type diet or take any other proven approach. But if you cannot get your nutrition into your cells, it doesn’t matter.

If your diet is good and your supplementation is good and you are still sick or overweight, you can be confident your problem is not your nutrition, it is your bionutrition. It’s about your nutrition getting into your cells. That is the purpose of food, it’s why we eat. And its how we command ourselves toward wellness or illness.

Would you like to overcome your problem with weight and reverse weight loss resistance? 

Are you ready to regain your health and solve chronic issues? 

Are you excited to stack the odds in your favor against serious illness? 

Or to slow down the aging clock?

To do so you need to: Understand, Plan, Execute.
1. Understand Your Issue – let’s test, not guess. Through important fact finding questions, and testing we’ll determine what’s wrong and what we need to address.

2. Plan – Once we know what’s going on, we’ll create a realistic plan you can follow to achieve your weight loss or health goal.

3. Execute & Empower– a combination of at-home steps, in-office care, and a support system will step you through to success.

How to Get Started: