Are You Healthy Enough To Lose Weight?
Obesity rates in the US have had some staggering numbers in the last 10 – 15 years and the US actually captured the title of ‘the most obese country in the world’ back in 2007 (recently surpassed only by Australia)! These facts and ‘awards’ are nothing to be proud of but they do point toward the epidemic of obesity and prevalence of weight related health issues in the US.
While it is obvious that we are eating too much as a Nation and too much of the wrong foods as well, there is ample data showing that people are also signing up to try and lose weight. It’s also safe to say that the US has a plethora of weight loss methodologies, programs, professionals and opinions about the subject. Just go to www.worldometer.info and plug in ‘money spent on weight loss programs in the USA today’ and watch the dollar counter steadily and rapidly rise in front of your eyes–I had to stop watching at the ‘65 million dollars spent mark’ just so I could get on with my day, but the dollar counter continued to soar swiftly upward without hesitation and didn’t seem to have a plan for stopping any time soon.
Even though you may not be obese, defined as Body Mass Index at 30 or greater, you might relate to being overweight, having 10, 15 or 20+ pounds to lose. You may also relate to having tried very hard a number of times to lose weight. Maybe you’ve signed up for various programs or have even been supervised medically or established a weight loss group among your friends. And even with all of that, the extra weight just doesn’t stay off let alone come off at all for some of you. The question we all need to be asking is WHY?
Has anyone explained to you that in order to lose extra weight, that weight that really isn’t you, your body and its chemistry has to be functioning optimally. In other words, you have to be healthy first in order to successfully lose weight! There are so many reasons for one’s inability to lose weight despite diligent effort: from insulin resistance and leptin resistance to undiscovered food intolerances, mounting toxic burdens or intestinal infections. Maybe your genetics is tipping the scales in the wrong direction for you starting with a bias in your taste system or maybe your liver enzyme chemistry isn’t as efficient as your neighbor’s. There are many reasons why your valiant attempts to lose weight are experienced as futile and it’s not because you aren’t trying. If you know that you have tried and your weight isn’t budging then you need to work with someone who will search among the many reasons for your weight loss resistance and find what is limiting you.
As a Certified Nutritionist I work to find ‘weight loss limiters’ and the greatest success with weight loss resistance occurs when a client realizes that getting their body’s chemistry healthy first is key to achieving their weight loss goals.
Is Your Fatigue From Anemia But No One is Finding It?
Fatigue is one of the more common complaints that brings people to see their
Primary Care Provider and even accounts for a loss of productive work days. As most people know, fatigue can stem from so many different sources including food allergies, insomnia, thyroid problems, Lyme Disease , chronic pain, adrenal dysfunction and so much more. Another very common cause of fatigue is anemia, typically defined as a deficiency of the oxygen carrying components of the blood, either the red blood cells themselves or the amount of hemoglobin within the red blood cell. Anemia itself has a multitude of possible sources and is beyond the scope of this article, however, important to note is that the presence of anemia can be foundational to other unresolved health issues. That’s why it is so important to discover if anemia is present as well as to understand how its presence can be hidden on a routine blood test if you are dehydrated at the time of your blood draw.
As a Physical Therapist, I am suspicious of anemia when someone is trying to follow through with a prescribed rehab program but can’t due to fatigue, light headedness, disproportional shortness of breath, extended heart rate recovery time, or even increased breath rate, heart rate, weakness or pallor at rest. Additionally, as a Nutritionist, I am on alert when someone is on an anemia prone diet like vegan or vegetarian or when I see food diaries that are low in leafy greens, veggies, and legumes. I am highly suspicious of anemia when someone shows evidence of a malabsorption condition such as Gluten Intolerance. I ask about stool color and consistency and look for paleness in the lower eyelids, nail beds and palmer creases. Just as Xray, MRI and surgical reports provide me with all of the orthopedic data I need when treating someone as a Physical Therapist, knowing the results from blood work, glucose studies and GI workups that a physician has ordered also round out the patient’s total picture when I am working with someone on Nutritional Therapy.
Your Primary care Provider will test for anemia usually by ordering a standard blood panel called a Complete Blood Count (CBC). It is looking for the anemia markers I first mentioned about red blood cells and hemoglobin. Red blood cells are a solid particle in the blood and are quantified in relation to the liquid portion of the blood sample. If you happen to be dehydrated (lacking adequate fluid) at the time of your blood draw, then the proportion of solid particles (cells) to the liquid portion of your blood will be skewed and it will look like you have more red blood cells than you actually do. Your blood values can look normal and if you really are anemic, it may have been missed! That’s why it is imperative that you hydrate sufficiently the day before your blood draw and even drink a glass of water upon waking the morning of your blood test.
On your last blood draw for your annual physical were you told to be adequately hydrated? These are simple instructions that could make the difference of finding a possible cause of your chronic fatigue or not!
