The Three Phases of Losing Weight by Dr. Alicia Armitstead
"Weight loss can be a tricky thing for a lot of women because it is very hormonal-based. Men do not have as much difficulty losing weight. If you want to lose weight, there are three phases to doing it in a healthy way."
- Dr. Alicia Armitstead
Elizabeth was a 65-year-old woman who had wanted to lose weight for years but felt too tired to exercise. She would start eating healthy but would give up after two weeks because the scale would not budge. After muscle testing her to identify what nutrients she was missing that were making her tired and what foods to stay away from to lose weight, she was able to lose 16 pounds in 3 months. Even better was that she was able to maintain it off and was healthier than ever.
Now, three months can seem like a long time for some people, and the new weight loss trick is a medication called Ozempic. Ozempic is getting great results with weight loss. I have seen people lose 5-12 pounds a month, but it comes at a cost. The cost of health. It has ruined people’s health so much that Ozempic has given me new patients. Every woman I have seen says that they have lost weight being on it, but some women have had crazy hair loss, losing up to 75% of their hair. Other women could not sleep. Once they stopped Ozempic, some women were able to maintain their weight off except for a few pounds that came back, while other women have gained it all back. Unfortunately, there is no safe, natural shortcut to weight loss.
If there was one herb that could mimic what Ozempic does to help lose weight, it is Berberine. It is safe and effective without the side effects, but you won’t lose weight as fast. Berberine also only costs $55 compared to Ozempic’s expensive price tag of $1000 or more a month, depending on if your insurance will cover it.
Just like Ozempic, Berberine helps curb appetite. Instead of side effects, berberine has health effects and helps balance your blood sugar. I love the results when people muscle test for it that have diabetes and pre-diabetes.
Berberine also helps lower cholesterol naturally. I helped one patient with a total cholesterol of 330 go to a normal level of 185 by taking berberine. As if lowering blood sugar and cholesterol were not enough, berberine is also good at lowering high blood pressure. Berberine really is a super herb, but only for people who muscle test for it.
Weight loss can be a tricky thing for a lot of women because it is very hormonal-based. Men do not have as much difficulty losing weight. If you want to lose weight, there are 3 phases to doing it in a healthy way.
- The first phase is the transition to restore metabolism.
- Once that is established, the second phase is when the body starts losing weight.
- The third and final step is to maintain optimal health and keep the weight off.
During the first phase, the transition, one’s hormones will change in response to the nutrition and lifestyle changes that you make and this allows the body to heal. However, balanced hormones will not happen immediately - there are sequential steps of healing that everyone must take. When a patient starts their transition process to better metabolism by improving their habits, their body will begin to rebalance hormones. Their body will also rebuild at the cellular level with nutrients that were not available during previous poor habits. The more damaged the current metabolism, the longer it will take for this process to be completed. Once someone has healed their metabolism, only then they are primed to lose fat and move on to phase two.
Regaining metabolism is always the hardest phase and takes time. Regaining metabolism is about correcting hormones and supporting the thyroid. Berberine comes into play here because the hormone insulin is important to keep balanced for weight loss. With balanced insulin, excess estrogen can lower. This excess estrogen is a reason the body holds onto fat.
Supporting the thyroid is also important for better metabolism. Sometimes, the thyroid is not optimal due to a lack of calcium or a need for flax oil. Other times, it needs support like Standard Process’s Symplex F.
Whatever the reason for low metabolism, muscle testing can get the biofeedback from the body to design a personalized program for weight loss and get your metabolism back on track.
Some patients take longer than others to lose weight. Those that take the longest are said to be weight loss resistant. In weight loss resistance, the body has underlying inflammation that needs to be addressed before the body can let go of the fat. This inflammation comes from a combination of too much stress on the body, heavy metals, heavy chemicals, bad gut flora, bacteria, viruses, candida, mold, and poor food choices. We identify those that are weight loss resistant and the root cause with muscle testing.
Having inflammation in the body creates more stress on the body, especially on the blood-brain barrier. The barrier is there to let good things from the blood go into the brain and keep bad things out. The blood pumping through your body right now has nutrients in it. It has oxygen in it. And often it has toxins and bad bacteria too. That’s why we have a blood-brain barrier, and it works really well unless you’re inflamed. This is because inflammation breaks down the blood-brain barrier slightly, allowing tiny holes in the barrier. This is how inflammation causes a toxic brain.
Toxicity in the brain can affect the hypothalamus gland. The hypothalamus gland is a gland in the brain that secretes hormones to the thyroid, adrenals, uterus, ovaries, or prostate. The hypothalamus connects the brain with the hormone system by sending out hormone signals that control a variety of metabolic functions like energy output and nutrient metabolism. But when your hypothalamus is inflamed, it doesn’t work so well.
When it misfires, it doesn’t get the signals from the body about how much leptin the body has, which is the cause of weight loss resistance. Leptin is a hormone inside every one of our fat cells. The more fat cells we have, the more leptin we have. As we gain weight, our fat cells get bigger. And the bigger our fat cells, the more leptin we produce then, too. So not only do we have to fix the metabolism, but we have to fix the hypothalamus gland in weight loss-resistant patients.
Leptin is supposed to signal your brain to put the brakes on your food intake. It’s the hormone that’s supposed to drive us to maintain a healthy weight. Except, as you’ve just read, when the hypothalamus is inflamed, this pathway malfunctions. So how do we get the inflammation down to heal the hypothalamus gland, blood-brain barrier, and hormones? We heal this by getting rid of the inflammation. There are a lot of reasons for inflammation in the body. It could be our diet. The most inflammatory foods are white refined sugar, coffee, and alcohol. It could be
heavy metals or chemicals that our body is having trouble detoxing. It could be immune stressors in the body that the immune system can’t handle, like bad bacteria, old viruses, fungi, mold, or
parasites. This is why we muscle test for these stressors in the office and what supplements can help.
Detoxing the Body with the Right Nutrition
The whole point of health in the office is to detox the body, and with the right nutrition, the body can heal. So besides getting checked for what toxins you have, what is the right nutrition?
It varies from patient to patient, but I do see that often turmeric, a probiotic, and MCT oil can help reduce inflammation and help not only with weight loss but also other health concerns in the body where inflammation is a factor, such as joint pain, headaches, and digestive issues.
Turmeric Forte is a proven powerful anti-inflammatory. Turmeric Forte contains a bioavailable form of Turmeric rhizome and Fenugreek seed to support a healthy inflammatory response
The right probiotic is important when trying to lose weight. We have five different probiotics in the office to see which one you specifically need. A lot of times, people will need to rotate through a few of them in order to build healthy gut flora. Our most common probiotic people test for is Prosynbiotic. I think it tests the most frequently because it has prebiotics in it, too. Prebiotics are the fiber that is needed for good bacteria to grow and reproduce. Without the fiber, the good bacteria don’t stay in the gut and colonize.
Also, to help reduce inflammation, drinking MCT oil in your smoothie or coffee can help. MCT oil is made up of ketones, and ketones are food for cells, especially the brain cells and blood-brain barrier. Giving energy at the cellular level is how it reduces inflammation. The brain loves fats, especially ketones. Ketones also help heal the blood-brain barrier. Because MCTs are the easiest type of fatty acid that your body can burn for calories. They get absorbed directly from the gut and are used for energy instead of being stored as fat. In this way, MCT oil helps you burn more calories, and it also affects your hormones, including appetite-controlling hormones, helping you feel full.
To lose weight, it is important to do it naturally in a healthy way; get the body healthy, and the weight will come off. Some people need better lifestyles and food choices, while others are missing nutrients. People who are doing everything right and still aren’t losing weight must get their inflammation down by first detoxing and supporting their hypothalamus gland. No matter what category you fall into, muscle testing can identify the root causes of your weight concerns and help.
Dr. Alicia Armitstead
Healing Arts NYC
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