The Weight Of Frustration

Hands up who has ever experienced weight-gain?

Everyone? Cool. So it’s likely that in among the mixed-bag of emotions associated with gaining unwanted weight, you’ve felt frustrated.

Everyone? We thought that might resonate!

Let’s preface this discussion with - we celebrate everyone being comfortable in their own skin. Weight isn’t the focus here. What is - is unwanted weight-gain. The kind that creeps up on you; that when you start feeling sluggish and uncomfortable, trying to reverse it is like facing the base of an unconquerable peak.

The go-to cause for a shift on the scales is too many calories in, not enough calories out. We need to exercise; we need to eat less. Have we tried keto? What about intermittent fasting? 5:2? What about F45? When we reject these suggestions that feel like (and more often than not, are) “fads” - a discussion around lifestyle and making sustainable changes inevitably ensues.

Great - let’s make some lifestyle changes. But what changes are going to be effective and motivate us to continue to pursue optimal health?

THE LIVER LINK

What is often overlooked when talking about reasons behind weight gain is an unhealthy liver.

Two other key organs - the thyroid and the adrenals - should not be overlooked, however the struggle the liver faces daily is most likely at the root of weight-gain.

Liken an unhealthy liver to a human being up against unprecedented stress - it ends up operating across the board at low productivity and can only just complete the most basic of tasks, if that. The liver is an essential organ - it performs over 500 vital functions for our bodies. Two of those most important here are that it filters our blood and produces bile - which means it removes toxins that harm the body, and produces a substance critical to digestion and absorption of fats.

Think of how many toxins and pollutants we are in contact with every day. Think about the fat content in the foods we consume. Are we starting to feel sorry for over-working this amazing organ yet?

The key consideration here is that an over-burdened liver cannot function. If it cannot function, it cannot process fat as it should and it becomes congested - excess fat cells that then accumulate can lead to fatty-liver, heart disease and – drum roll - weight-gain. It also cannot retain and allow our bodies to absorb the hormones, vitamins and minerals our bodies need to operate at 100%.

These are the reasons we reject a silo focus on exercise and dieting in response to unwanted weight-gain. We should be focusing on changes that target this vital organ.

MAKE OUR LIVERS SING!

Remember that unconquerable peak? Not looking so fierce now that we know the reason behind our challenge now is it? If we know that our liver is tired – we need to let it rest.

The. Best. Way. Is. To. Detox.

We need to focus on feeding the liver more of what it needs to operate effectively and less of those things that do damage. That means less fats, alcohol and toxins – which we know isn’t always easy to maintain. What is easy, is concentrating efforts on a targeted detox – armed with the knowledge we’ve discussed today of course!

‘Is life worth living? It all depends on the liver.’ - William James, American philosopher and psychologist

Author

LA Moutsias

References Medical Medium - Unknown Cause of Weight Gain The Liver and its Functions Journal of Hepatology