Weight Loss-Gut Connection: Gut Health Experts Guide to Losing Weight the Right Way

The gut is the central regulator of so many aspects of our health! Our skin, immune system, digestion, sure! But what about weight??

Having a healthy gut actually supports healthy weight loss in a few different ways.

Focusing on weight loss from a functional medicine standpoint can help you take a new approach to losing weight. Follow these tips to focus on losing weight the right way!

Boost Metabolism

Metabolism is like a little fire burning in your body. You have to feed the fire with the sticks, logs, and sometimes paper to keep it burning! 

To get your metabolism burning the best it can, you can optimize your intake!

How to focus on fueling your metabolism: make sure you’re eating enough AND try to provide a balance of “sticks, logs, and paper.”

Making sure you’re eating enough might sound like weird advice for weight loss. HOWEVER, cutting your calories too much puts your body into survival mode and can actually lower your metabolism. 

Lowering your metabolism is one of the ways that your body tries to preserve its resources when in survival mode.

To prevent this, focus on getting in enough of the right foods! 

The “logs” in this instance are the foods that sustain your metabolism, like protein! 

While all macros are important in a balanced diet, focusing on protein when you’re looking to lose fat might be the most helpful!

Getting in lean protein gets your metabolism working and supports muscle growth. Protein also takes longer for your body to digest, which helps you feel full longer! Focus on foods like fish, legumes (chickpeas, black beans), and chicken!

The “sticks” in our metaphor are whole grains and other more complex carbohydrates. 

Providing enough hardy carbohydrate sources feeds your metabolism to keep it burning and frees up that protein to be used for muscle building and other functions in your body! 

Carbs are your body’s FAV energy source, so making sure to include some of these in every meal keeps your energy levels up! Try to focus on more complex carbs to make sure you’re optimizing your nutrient intake. 

For complex carbs, focus on fruits, vegetables, and whole grains like oatmeal, brown rice, and popcorn!

Last but not least, the “paper” for quick burns of energy! This can be simple carbs or foods that are higher in sugar. They’re not really necessary to keep your metabolism working, BUT sometimes you need a quick energy boost! 

When you’re looking to lose weight, this category is the most important to be mindful of. 

Don’t deny yourself a treat if you’re craving one, but definitely find balance here since these foods tend to be higher in calories without adding much else.

Stop Unnecessary Inflammation

Inflammation and weight loss are practically enemies. 

When trying to lose weight, inflammation in your body can prevent this by telling your body it needs to hold onto excess fat in any way it can!

If you think you might be dealing with inflammation, a great place to start is in your gut! Your gut regulates the inflammation in your body through a balance of bacteria called your gut microbiome. 

This balance is made up of friendly little guys (who LOVE to absorb the good stuff from your food AND remove inflammation in your gut) and not-so-friendly ones (who like to cause inflammation, bloating, and more.)

Having an imbalance in your microbiome, or more bad bacteria than good, causes your gut to push inflammation to the rest of your body rather than getting rid of it!

When you’re dealing with this, your body won’t want to let go of fat!

You might also deal with painful and annoying symptoms of inflammation and bad gut health that are making it even harder to reach your weight loss goal.

Feeling bloated, gassy, exhausted, having diarrhea or constipation, even skin issues! Not only are these symptoms uncomfortable, they can definitely make it so much harder to get motivated to start and continue your health journey. 

Heal Your Gut

Bad gut health makes your body work super hard to try and absorb the nutrients and energy from your food. Not only is this causing unnecessary stress, you can be eating all the right things and not get the benefits if your gut is unhealthy! 

Healing your gut should be super personalized to address YOUR unique needs and symptoms. 

GutPersonal was started for people who are looking for natural, effective ways to heal their gut and get rid of the never-ending list of symptoms of an unhappy gut!

 

Take a Probiotic 

If you’re looking to start a gut healing journey, a great starting point is a personalized probiotic. 

Probiotics are seriously LIFE-CHANGING!! 

One of our favorites is The Booster, which is great for boosting good gut bacteria and getting rid of bad bacteria to get your microbiome balanced!

Variety and Diversity of Whole Foods

Another incredible way to help your gut get in tip-top shape is to focus on your fruit, veggie, and water intake!

Fruits and vegetables give your body essential nutrients that it needs to do literally everything. They’re incredible sources of fiber also, which feed the friendly bacteria in your gut to make sure they stick around!

Getting in enough water helps your digestive system work smoothly and is necessary to keep everything balanced and functioning!

If you have trouble getting in your fruits and veggies, try a greens or reds powder! 

Our Gut Greens + Reds actually have both so you get your fruits and veggies in one product AND the reds give it a sweet, fruity taste instead of the yucky taste of some other greens powders!

Talk to the Experts

Be confident that you’re making the best choices for YOU with the support from a functional medicine registered dietitian! Registered dietitians are trained to figure out the best diet and supplement plan for YOU only based on gut testing lab results.

That means reliable info that will give you real results as quickly as possible!

There is so much information out there on the best diets for weight loss, but working with a dietitian will give you personalized advice that really works! NO more guessing games!

We would love to work with you at GutPersonal and can’t wait to help you see amazing results!! Reach out to us to get started today to see which gut health program is right for you!