Have you been swept up in the first-of-the-year battle to lose weight?
Perhaps this has been a year-long struggle for you, but post holidays you’re not only 10 pounds heavier – you’re also bloated and still suffering from indigestion, due to all your holiday indulgences.
Given this common scenario, it’s no surprise that come January 1, a lot of people jump on the weight loss bandwagon.
The media will tell you that weight gain is all about calories and exercise and I’m here to tell you that just isn’t true.
The thing is, I’d like to see you actually lose weight this year!
And also banish those tummy troubles (instead of just talking about it).
Are you up for that?
If you’ve recently vowed that this is the year you’ll finally lose those extra pounds – welcome on board!
However, if you’ve also been told that the only sure-fire way to lose weight is to stop eating gluten, let me break this down for you.
This might come as a surprise to those of you who are already gluten-free, especially if you’ve made this choice due to medical necessity.
Indeed, for if you’ve had a diagnosis for either Celiac Disease or Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) weight loss could be the furthest thing from your mind. (You could even be anxious to gain weight!)
So this whole thing about removing gluten from the diet in order to lose weight is a bit puzzling – in part because it has the unfortunate outcome of turning a serious medical condition that requires a special diet, into a fad.
Is losing weight really that simple?
Well, you can decide to go gluten-free in an effort to lose weight, and you could in fact, be quite successful.
Then again, the whole thing could backfire.
And here’s why.
It All Depends On What You’re Eating
It doesn’t matter if you follow the Atkin’s Diet or the increasingly popular Paleo Diet – both are very low in carbohydrates, and thus gluten-free by default.
In other words, a low carbohydrate diet is an effective approach to weight loss, regardless.
If you simply replace your whole grain bread, pasta, cookies and crackers with their gluten-free counterparts, losing weight will continue to be a struggle.
It’s when you eliminate those foods completely that weight loss miracles really do happen.
If You’re Celiac, You Might Even GAIN Weight
The symptoms for someone with Celiac Disease are all over the map, and that includes being either overweight, or underweight.
In fact, some people with this medical condition can look downright emaciated.
In the not-so-distant past that’s exactly what doctors were trained to look for!
Meaning, if the patient presented as relatively healthy, with no obvious outward signs of digestive distress it couldn’t possibly be Celiac Disease.
Now we know better.
The truth of the matter is this: for a person diagnosed with Celiac Disease, who is severely underweight, there’s a good chance they might gain weight once the offending foods are removed from the diet (chances are that’s exactly what they’re hoping for).
Oddly enough, the person with Celiac Disease who is overweight to begin with, will likely lose weight once the offending foods are removed the diet.
Junk Food is Junk Food
Just because a product is gluten-free doesn’t mean it is low in calories, or necessarily healthy.
The truth is, processed food is processed food, regardless.
In other words, it’s still junk food and was never meant to be part of a healthy diet.
More and more books are coming out on the subject – many written by highly acclaimed physicians – and the message is the same every time: unless you are primarily eating real, wholesome foods such as vegetables and fruits, nuts and seeds, legumes, grass-fed, organic meat and poultry, or wild-caught fish, you will never achieve optimal health.
Those sugar-laden treats are something to save for a special occasion.
Your Environment Also Plays a Role
There are other factors that come into play when it comes to weight loss, and that includes toxic substances in your environment.
In fact, we even have a name for them: obesogens.
These are chemicals that piggy-back onto many household products, and actually have the ability to hijack your hard-won efforts to lose weight.
Sobering, to be sure, but also something you have absolute control over – at least when it comes to you home.
Want to learn more?
If you’d like to know how to maintain a healthy weight year-round without resorting to diets, detoxing or the latest fad – then be sure to register for my Special online event “The Skinny On Weight Gain” on February 8th, 2016! (Details coming soon…)
I promise you’ll be hearing a side of the weight loss conversation you likely haven’t heard before.
Follow
Speak Your Mind