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Weight Loss

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Weight Loss

Is your protective brain keeping you from your weight loss goals? Schedule a free discovery session to learn how working with a coach can help you.





Transcript:

Welcome back to another episode of the Esoteric Wellness Blog. I am your host, Coach Kyle.

So today I want to talk about something that we probably all attempted once, if not multiple times in our lives. And here after the holidays are done and over, we've all indulged in comfort foods and kind of hibernated away in the winter months. We'll all be thinking about, and that's weight loss.

So, first of all, I want to acknowledge that there's a tremendous amount of information out there about weight loss. What's the right diet, what's the right approach? What's the right workout routine? And I'm not gonna get into the what works and what doesn't, because the reality of the situation is that what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for anyone else. We were all different people with different bodies, different sets of genetics, living within different sets of circumstances, facing different sets of challenges. So just because this diet worked for someone else does not mean it's going to work for you.

But I want to simplify weight loss overall as being simple thermodynamics. All that has to be achieved to lose weight is consistently reducing our calorie intake, our energy input,to be lower than our energy output. And if that's achieved, our body starts burning excess storage as a fat, as energy, and we lose weight. It's as simple as that. It's really not complicated. There's no secret food or secret pill or secret movement or exercise that magically burns fat. Anything that helps us lose weight is going to happen through this process. It's that simple. Not that achieving that is simple, necessarily, but any weight loss program, any weight loss approach, it's all working if it works for anybody in this way. There's no mystery to it, there's no secret to it, simple thermodynamics.

Now, we've probably all approached weight loss in a way in which we get super motivated for whatever reason. We're like, yeah, I'm going to lose a bunch of weight. I'm going to make all these changes in my life. And we upend our entire lives in a single day. We're like, we take all the junk food in the pantry, we throw it out, we get a gym membership. We make all these plans and commitments and a week into it, we're really frustrated. We're like, this is awful. I feel like crap. I'm tired. I hate this. I don't want to do it anymore. And at some point it becomes too hard and we go, that's it, I can't do this. I give up.

And I'm sure most of us can relate to this experience because we've gone through it. And maybe it was something else other than weight loss. We just tried to make wide sweeping changes in our lives and had the same kind of experience.

Now I want to talk about this through a perspective of neuroscience, which we take so often on this show, and really explain that weight loss to our brain, to the parts of our brain that. Its job is to keep us alive, protect us. Weight loss is always going to be seen as a threat. There's no way around it. If we're in a state of losing weight, that's not sustainable long term. At some point, we will lose too much weight and we will die. So our brain's not seeing a state of weight loss as ideal for long-term survival. It's It's thinking. We must be in a time of food scarcity and famine. Um Something's not right, and we have to get out of this situation.

So just going into this process of weight loss with that understanding at the get-go, our brain is going to fight us in this process of losing weight. It's not going to be happy about it, and it's gonna try every tool in its toolbox to get us to stop it. And this is really why weight loss, and this is why change in general is hard, because our brains don't like it. It doesn't know what to make of change. It doesn't like losing weight. So it does what it can to make it hard for us so that we give up, so we stop that behavior.

So when we approach weight loss in a way that upends our lives suddenly and make it,We create all this additional stress, all this additional discomfort beyond just the weight loss itself. So we're really amplifying the level of danger that our brain sees and it freaks out. It's like, holy shit what is going on? We must be in a ton of danger right now. We need to stop this right now. And that's what happens. It makes it so hard that we give up. We stop it.

So when I work with people through weight loss, what I'm really helping people seek out is an approach to achieving that thermodynamic goal, but doing so in a way that's going to minimize the extra stress, the extra discomfort that's not needed to lose weight, that's only gonna scare our brain further and make it harder to achieve our goal. And again, this depends on every individual's circumstances and the challenges they're facing in their life and what resources they have. But this often looks like a much slower, gentler approach, where we're not changing everything at once. We're starting with one thing at a time. And it might be we're starting with eliminating one high-calorie foodfrom the diet and starting there. It might look like we're adding one activity to increase energy expenditure.

And these small, more subtle changes, you know, if they do lead to losing weight, our brain's not gonna like it. We can't get around that, but we're not gonna be super stressed out about it. So our brain's gonna see a lower level of danger, a lower level of threat and its response is gonna be less intense, less severe as a result. So we're more likely going to be able to stick with it, to keep going with that.

So these intense kind of approaches to weight loss, fasting, elimination diets, really restrictive or strict diets, yeah, they they can work. Absolutely, they can help us lose weight, but it might be too overwhelming for your brain that you're not going to be able to stick with it. And this is where you kind of got to gauge what level of stress am I already under? Am I already living a high stress life? You know, if you don't have much stress in your life, everything's, you know, the way you want it already, you just want to lose a few pounds and that you might be able to take on some of those more extreme diet approaches and be okay. But if that's not you, you're already suffering from high stress, anxiety, things like this. These more extreme approaches to weight loss probably are not going to work out for you, 'cause your brain already is seeing threat in the world.

And also, I often will help people seek out additional ways, additional things they can do at the same time to help the brain feel safer. So we can bring in additional tools and practices like soothing of our nervous system, meditation, doing things we enjoy, social connection. I mean, all these things will help our brain feel safer. while it's seeing this threat of weight loss or whatever other changes you've made. And that's just going to help counterbalance the ways in which your brain is protecting you.

As well as, you know, what we talked about in our last episode, having a beginner's mindset. Like, be gentle with yourself. You don't have to achieve the results as quickly as, you know, these strange people we see on the internet and television thatLet's be honest. They're let's be honest. They're not living the life you're living. They're they're outliers. They're not normal in that sense. We can't all spend 4 hours in the gym every day. We're busy. We have things to do. We have kids to take care of. We have families to take care of. We have jobs to go to. So be gentle with yourself. You don't have to achieve those results in that. amount of time, you'll get there. But if you make this so hard that your brain protects you to such a an extreme amount that you are unable to continue, that you give up, you'll get nowhere. So be gentle with yourself, have that beginner's mindset.

So essentially seeking out ways in which you can achieve that thermodynamic goal of lowering calorie intake,to lessen your energy expenditure by decreasing intake, increasing expenditure, some combination thereof. But finding that method that's going to be less stressful for you. What feels achievable? What feels approachable? Don't go for that hardest thing right away. You're only gonna set yourself up for failure. Work with your brain, not against it, because it's gonna work against you in the process of weight loss, no matter how you go about it. So any way you can help it feel better about the process, it's gonna help you stick with it longer. So that's all I'll say on weight loss today.

Thanks everyone for listening, thanks for tuning in. You are beautiful, you are loved, until next time.

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ADAPT Certified Funcional Health Coach (A-CFHC)

Disclaimer:

I am not a licensed medical physician. As a coach I am not providing health care, medical, or therapy services or attempting to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any physical, mental, or emotional issue. 

The information provided on this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek advice from your physician or other qualified healthcare provider before undertaking a new health regimen.

Do not disregard medical advice or delay seeking medical advice because of information you read on this website. Do not start or stop any medications without speaking to your medical or mental health provider.

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