Hello,
15 years Carol tried to get herself together.
She was struggling with her…
- mood
- weight
- motivation
- energy
- periods
- relationship with her partner
- relationship with her children
Everything felt very overwhelming and she felt like she had tried everything.
Deep inside, she felt like something wasn’t right, and everyone was saying to her, “if you just lose the weight, you’ll feel heaps better.”
She was over 100kgs, so doctors, personal trainers, family – everyone thought that was the logical solution.
But Carol barely ate anything.
And she’d been working with a personal trainer for two years with little weight loss.
She was feeling so defeated.
She happened upon our information, and started treatment, as her last hope before weight loss surgery.
Carol was not just struggling on the outside with weight, but she also had some significant digestive issues.
What many of our patients fail to connect is the link to digestive issues.
The crazy thing to Carol was that all of her blood work was within healthy ranges.
So we looked further and found, Carol had…
- insulin resistance (though not bad enough to require metformin or a pre-diabetes diagnosis)
- sluggish thyroid function
- oestrogen dominance
- H-pylori bacteria
- Negative Deficit “Fat Burning bacteria”
- high levels of bacteria that causes bloating
We did an article back in 2020, on an Olympic athlete that had a faecal transplant from an overweight cousin. She gained a whopping 15kgs after the transplant, despite maintaining a healthy diet and a regimented exercise routine.
The only link that was made was the athlete’s transplant. Her medical team decided to test her bacteria levels, like what we do at the clinic, and found similar references to what we found with Carol.
One of the most fascinating things is the incredible impact that bacteria makes on our hormones, our metabolism, and our brain.
For Carol, her mood was all over the place, and being overweight made her feel much worse.
Carol’s digestive issues, whilst most think that wasn’t a cause for concern, were actually the most important issue at hand that we needed to deal with.
By dealing with the bacteria, we were able to significantly improve her mental health, her weight, and an array of other symptoms she had simply downplayed because the weight had encapsulated her mind.
Hundreds of women just assume that if they can deal with the weight, they’ll be all right.
We hear it all the time.
“If I could just lose the weight, everything else would be better.”
But the real question I encourage you to ask is – What is causing the weight gain or inability to lose weight to begin with?
Is it really you?
Or is there a reason you are holding on to the weight?
For Carol, she lost 18kilos within four months of treatment with us.
But she gained herself back.
She felt clear headed, sure-footed mentally, and got her motivation back.
Up until she started working with us, her family had been on a thin line and she felt like she was on the verge of completely losing herself.
She felt like the only option was weight loss surgery because everybody that she hired to help her told her that if she just lost the weight, she’d be better…
I mention Carol’s story today, because over the last two weeks, I’ve heard from so many women that have done the hard thing and lost weight by fasting, skipping meals, or hard line diets. They’d lost the weight, but then they hadn’t gained the mental or physical outcomes that they’d hoped for.
Carol, she needed more than just the weight loss, she needed to address the bacterial inflammation and hormones at the same time…
- Yesterday, I spoke to a woman who thought that losing seven kilos would give her energy and brain function back. She has Hashimoto’s, but is still so foggy after three months of intermittent fasting and dietary changes – is still feeling so tired.
- Last week, we had a patient come in that lost 20 kilos and needed to stop losing now. She was reintroducing foods and getting violently sick. She has bacterial overgrowth that wasn’t addressed by the diet.
- Three days ago, I spoke with a patient riddled with endometriosis, PCOS, and IBS. She eats so clean, avoids dairy, gluten, and processed foods. She has lost a total of 15 kilos doing hard core keto and intermittent fasting. But at 38, she is experiencing the most intense period symptoms and can’t make sense of it, especially because she has done the hard thing and lost the weight.
Weight loss is good in so many ways, but dealing with the underlying cause of the weight, is really an important thing to do.
Because it’s not always the only thing.
Especially for women during hormonal changes.
If insulin resistance is coming up, it’s normally because your body is trying to protect you from something.
Insulin resistance causes weight gain (fat storage) and typically looks like:
- hair growth on the face,
- high levels or irritability and anger,
- darker shade of skin in the groin, or under the arms, or on the neck,
- skin tags,
- heavy weight around the centre,
- fluid retention, especially around the centre,
- increased inflammation pain, like joint pain and arthritis, OR
- skin rashes, like eczema, psoriasis, and/or dandruff.
Carol, was experiencing so many insulin resistance symptoms, but she hadn’t been boxed into the diabetic category yet.
The Olympic athlete was suffering from high levels of insulin resistance. She had a great out come dealing with a gastrointestinal issue, but replaced that issue with a negative metabolic impact in her microbiome (causing insulin resistant symptoms).
What I’m trying to help you unpack today is that weight gain, when presented with other issues like bloating, fatigue, low motivation, heart burn, constipation, pain, mood changes, or skin issues like I mentioned above, can mean on a lot more than just needing to lose weight.
We unpack hormones and bacteria in our webinar on Peri/Post Menopause & Bacteria Inflammation. If you are over the age of 35, this is a really good webinar to watch if you haven’t already. You can watch that here:
I hope I’ve inspired you to become your own personal detective and look deeper into your weight or other symptoms today!
Having experienced weight gain that my mum personally took me from doctor, to naturopaths, to nutritionists, and to dieticians for, I personally experienced the “weight loss must be the solution”.
Everyone kept saying to us, “she’s totally healthy and normal”, only to realise that I actually had Hashimoto’s.
I really encourage you to ask why.
I hope that I’ve helped you navigate the questioning today!
If you’d like to just get support today and want to start getting answers, we’d love to support you!
We open our calendars for a free introductory consultation.
If you’d like to do that, you can organise a time here:
I look forward to connecting again with you soon.
Warmest regards,
Tiaan
