Hormonal Fat Loss: 3 Things Holding You Back When the Scale Won t Budge!

Hormonal Fat Loss: 3 Things Holding You Back When the Scale Won t Budge!

Being a woman is fabulous...we are full of strength and caring and tenacity. As great as it is, being a woman also comes with a lot of unique health challenges. So we set out on a path to right the wrongs...try eating more nutritious foods, add a little exercise...and yet, the sleepless nights become longer, the weight just keeps going up, and why did no one tell us how bad hot flashes could be? Our digestion has become more erratic and the occasional bloating has found a permanent daily home. We continue to play it down, telling ourselves (and others!), hey, I'm strong. I've got this. Almost from the time we get up, we feel the fatigue setting in and now we're ready to go to bed right after dinner, exhausted, just to sleep for two hours and then be wide awake for another round of "A Day In My Life". We have a hard time admitting to ourselves that the problem has become bigger than us. When that happens, as a woman, we feel like this is a reflection of our power, our strength, as in "If I were stronger, I could handle this". We push through so that we can pretend we are still in control. So we head off to our health care professional for a 10 minute reading into our symptoms and maybe a pill to appease us, because surely, most of this is in our heads or we are just pushing ourselves too hard. Sorry, sisters, after 10 years I had to get off this ride and step away from the condescension! There is a wonderful freedom in understanding my health and the basic needs of my body. The most important thing I changed was admitting that I wanted to feel better instead of constantly thinking I had to suck it up and charge ahead...and that is all YOU need to do in order to take the first step and start moving forward to better health. What I am offering is a way to take back your control over your own health based on the needs of YOUR body. What Do I Hear About Most? Of all the things that my clients want to discuss, weight loss has to be at the top of the list. The most common complaint I get from my client is that she cannot lose weight. These are not women who merely tried once and gave up. These are women who have tried for years to lose weight. They have tried fasting, they have counted calories, they have tried eating right and they have tried supplements. They can tell you the principle of every diet book on the market. Many of them feel as if there is nothing left to try. Each year, their weight continues to creep up on the scale, yet there is not one thing that they can pinpoint that will help them lose the weight. Our lack of control over our weight can make us crazy. The fear that starts that first time you try to lose a couple pounds, and instead, the scale shows you gained a pound or two. Then, you Page 2

try eating healthy and the weight just steadily increases. What? How can that happen? Then we women try to outsmart our bodies so we basically stop eating. This is what we have been taught our whole life that, if we just reduce our calories each day, we will lose weight. Nope, didn t work. In fact, not eating enough causes much more stress in your body which has a direct effect on your digestion and can flat stop that scale from moving. It is devastating to have your self-esteem battered to the point that you fear there is no hope. Let me be the first to say, there is hope. I have spent years studying the science of weight loss because that happens to be a symptom of dysfunction in our bodies. I don t have to tell you how pervasive obesity is in our culture today. We are bombarded with infomercials, magazine ads and headlines telling us how out of control this syndrome is becoming. I knew that if I could nail down the underlying causes of weight gain in women who were not experiencing weight loss under optimum conditions, then not only would I be able to help them with fat loss, but on a much bigger and better scale, I would be helping them become healthier on the inside. Along the way I learned some very powerful truths. These are the truths that I want to share with you today. On the next page, we will start discussing the three things holding you back when the scale won t budge. While there are additional concepts to consider when looking into weight loss issues, these are the three things that I always share first with my new clients. Why are they so important to me? Because they help my clients start building up a solid foundation of understanding their needs and these are tools they can use for the rest of their lives. My goal is to be able to provide you those same tools that you can utilize right now to hopefully see improvements in your own fat loss goals. Page 3

Understanding Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss One of the biggest misconceptions I have come to understand is the difference between weight loss vs. fat loss. Actual weight loss contains very little fat and is made up mostly of water and muscle. We can see the best example of this in a woman who has lost weight but not fat. The scale may show a loss in weight and she may be smaller, but more than likely she will retain her same shape and still show fat in her waist, hips, thighs and buttocks. It is easy to believe that if you eat too much and gain fat that you should be able to eat less and lose fat. Our bodies work a little different than that. If the food we eat is not utilized for fuel, it is stored as fat. In order to burn fat three things must happen: the fat must be released, the fat must travel to an area to be burned and then the fat must be burned as fuel. In many cases, hormonal dysfunction can prevent one or more of these events from happening. Adopting fat loss instead of weight loss as your goal will alter your path in a good way, such as not relying so heavily on the scale. Yes, the scale does give us a measurement of losing and knowing that we are losing fat can encourage us to continue our journey. But what if, even though our clothes are looser, we don t see the fat loss result on the scale? Would that discourage you? Instead of relying strictly on a scale for encouragement, I teach my clients to also take their measurements and, if possible, utilize a fat loss measurement scale. Both ideas allow my clients to measure fat loss even if the number on the scale is not moving for a few days. Ultimately, as you begin to lose fat, you will see it in all areas the scale, your clothes, your measurements. Understanding Healthy Eating vs. Eating For Fat Loss By the time most of my clients get to me, they have tried many different ways of healthy eating to achieve their fat loss goal. That right there is the source of their frustration: the fact that they have been eating healthy and yet they re still gaining weight. So let s take a look at healthy eating vs. eating for fat loss. What do you think of when you think of healthy eating? I think of vegetables, meats, dairy, nuts and fruits. I think most people would agree that donuts, pizza and cheesecake do not make up the total sum of a healthy diet. I had one client that, while discussing her food diary for the month, broke down into tears. She felt that she had been eating so well and healthy that surely she would see a drop on the scale. To her disbelief, she had not lost weight, she had not lost fat and her clothes were no looser than before. My heart truly went out to her. She WAS eating healthy. She WAS NOT eating for fat loss. With some minor tweaks to her diet based on cravings, hunger and energy, she was finally able to start losing fat, not muscle, and within a few months, was able to realize her fat loss goal. Page 4

So eating a healthy diet may include eating healthy foods but are they the right foods to eat for fat loss? A fat loss diet is a hormonally balancing diet. It is less about calories and more about understanding your cravings, hunger and energy. These three things are hormonal indicators that will immediately help you identify what your best fat loss foods may be. Eating for fat loss will never include donuts (I know, I was sad too ) but it will ALWAYS be a healthy diet. Calories In Calories Out Any woman who has attempted to lose weight has certainly tried to reduce her calories at least once during that effort. After all, that is what we have been taught our entire lives to do in order to lose weight. We have been told that eating too many calories per day makes us gain weight and eating fewer calories per day will help us lose weight. While that is not a lie, it certainly does not include all the truth. It can also make us feel like a failure when we ve reduced our calories and don t lose the weight. Please understand that reducing calories per day can cause weight loss for some women. For the women who have reduced calories and lost some weight, their biggest complaint to me is that their shape didn t change, they just got a little smaller. Not exactly the breakthrough for which they were searching. For most of my clients, though, calorie reduction has not been the answer. I have found that fat loss comes to a halt when you restrict the body from calories and ignore the signs it is giving you for what it needs. You may have not thought about this before, but your body is actually telling you what you need to do to lose fat. That is why the hormonal balancing of your cravings, hunger and energy are so important. Who wants to go through life starving themselves? That is NOT a sustainable solution. I love food! I want to be able to go out, visit with friends and enjoy a nice meal without being consumed with fears that I won t find anything on the menu to fit into my fat loss goal of eating. So if I don t count calories, you may ask, what should be my next step? When I work with a client in one of my 3 month or 6 month programs, my client and I work on macronutrient strategy. What are macros? They are the basis of ANY diet and they are categorized as proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Every food on earth is one of these three macros and the percentage of each one in a daily meal plan can really tell the tale about whether that woman is just eating healthy, or if she is eating for fat loss. The best formula for fat loss using macros will be based on each woman as an individual and how her hormones, such as insulin and cortisol, respond to protein vs. carbs vs. fat. Everybody has a unique formula I work with each of my clients to find that formula and once they have it, and all the other tools I provide to them for fat loss, they have a lifelong way to eat, sustain fat loss and enjoy their lives better. Page 5

Your next step, your macro strategy, is based on how the foods you eat make you feel. This will tell you a lot about what to eat and when to eat it. Remember, cravings, hunger and energy levels are all hormonal indicators and your goal is to balance them AND experience fat loss. First, make a food diary over the course of three days and record everything you are eating and drinking for each meal. (I have included a blank food diary page at the end of this booklet, so that you can print three copies to use.) If you have a snack, record that as well. If you do not have a snack, just leave that area blank. In the spaces out to the side of each meal and snack you will record: How did I feel after that meal? Did it sustain me to the next meal? Did I experience cravings or hunger? How was my energy level? Now, go back and start looking over your diary after you have completed the entries for the three days. You will look for things to change that will help balance your cravings, hunger and energy, such as, if you eat breakfast and need a snack in order to make it to lunch time, you may want to increase your protein for your breakfast meal. If you are having wild cravings after dinner, it could be that you need a bit more carb at lunchtime, such as some rice or a sweet potato. What if you are sleepy after lunch? You may have had too much carb. Within a short time, you should better understand the impact that food has on your body throughout the day. That is a good thing as you are becoming more aware and mindful of how you feel. I hope that after reading this booklet, you know that you are not alone. Women everywhere are experiencing the challenge of losing fat, especially when they think they are doing everything right. Please know that this is about so much more than fat loss. Eating the foods that best support your body and help with fat loss are also the foods that help heal other dysfunction in the body. Seeing fat loss is seeing healing take place in more than just that one area. Do you want to find out more about how I work? Click Here to visit my programs page If you want more tips for health, visit with me on my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/savagelyhealthy and I would love a like! Be well and be healthy Jennifer Savage, Savagely Healthy Page 6

My Food Diary Day # Breakfast Snack Lunch Snack Dinner Snack Page 7