How Functional Medicine Can Support Weight Loss

Functional medicine is a holistic approach to health that can have the added benefit of safe, natural, long-term weight management. It’s about finding the root cause behind your challenges to maintain a healthy weight beyond calories and exercise.

While conventional approaches often emphasize short-term results through restrictive diets, functional medicine looks at things like hormonal imbalances, inflammation, and gut health. The end goal is overall well-being to eliminate underlying health problems and barriers to weight loss.

1. Healing Your Gut

Dysbiosis, a condition that describes an imbalance in your gut’s microbiome, can cause inflammation, altered nutrient absorption, and metabolic dysfunction. (1) Any of these unwanted side effects can answer why you can’t seem to lose weight.

There is also a connection between leaky gut and weight loss resistance. (2) Leaky gut can lead to inflammation and disrupt hormonal balance, affecting metabolism and weight regulation. This can lead to cravings and make it harder for your body to get the nutrition it needs.

Healing the gut can make weight loss easier by promoting digestion and regulating hormones like insulin and ghrelin, your hunger hormone. (3)

Foods rich in fiber, fermented foods like yogurt and kimchi, and anti-inflammatory foods like leafy greens and berries can help restore gut health. For persistent gut issues, a probiotic supplement can also bring your gut back into balance.

Long-term weight loss isn’t a quick fix, but there are ways to make it feel less impossible. The Metabolic Recharge identifies roadblocks hindering your progress to maintain weight loss for good. Join now. 

2. Decreasing Stress Levels

Chronic stress triggers the release of cortisol, your body’s stress hormone. Elevated cortisol levels disrupt hormone balance and influence insulin resistance and leptin levels, another hormone that regulates hunger and satiety. (4)

When leptin imbalance occurs, your brain turns on all the hunger signals it can to make up for a falsely perceived food deficit. Everything you eat goes straight into fat storage instead of being used for energy. It’s a big reason why elevated cortisol triggers fat storage, especially in the belly.

Functional medicine solutions like yoga, guided meditation, and grounding can reduce stress and, as a result, rebalance your hormones. It’s also good for overall health. Too much stress puts pressure on your heart, raises your blood pressure, and affects your gut health.

Supplements can support stress management. The Brain-Adrenal Balancer supports healthy cortisol levels for reduced stress, better sleep, and a cognitive boost.

3. Detoxing Your Body

Excessive exposure to toxins like pesticides, heavy metals, and pollutants can disrupt your endocrine system and inhibit a healthy metabolism. (5) Without proper detoxification, these toxins can accumulate in your fat cells, hindering their ability to function optimally.

Minimize exposure to toxins as much as possible and support your body’s natural detox pathways by switching to non-toxic products and eating a diet rich in superfoods. Consider supplements that support optimal liver function, your body’s best defense against harmful toxins.

Protect is my response to trendy detox strategies that do little for long-term wellness. It’s formulated with ingredients that enhance your body’s detoxification processes and mitigate your risk of exposure.

4. Rebalancing Hormones

Imbalances in sex hormones like progesterone and estrogen are one of the most common causes of weight gain and excess body fat. (6) Estrogen promotes storing energy as fat in certain parts of your body; progesterone supports the metabolism of stored fat so that you burn it off.

Your thyroid is also responsible for producing hormones that regulate metabolism. Certain medical conditions like hypothyroidism, where your thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough hormones, can lead to a sluggish metabolism, weight gain, and difficulty losing weight. (7)

Functional medicine labs, such as full thyroid panels that include TSH, T3, and T4, and hormone-level testing, can help identify imbalances holding you back from sustainable weight loss.

LISTEN: Top Thyroid Myths & Truths: Surprising Symptoms, Labs, Supplements, Foods & More

5. Dietary And Lifestyle Changes

Your diet is the most important piece in a holistic treatment plan for overall wellness. As you address underlying causes of difficulty losing weight, consider the role your diet plays in helping you meet your goals. Here are a few pointers:

• Eat whole foods. This seems like a no-brainer, but a healthy diet plan can be so much tougher than it sounds. The prevalence of sugar, processed carbohydrates, and unhealthy fats in the standard American diet can mess with your gut microbiome.
• Identify food triggers. Food sensitivities often go undetected. In addition to the uncomfortable symptoms they cause, they can also cause chronic inflammation that can hinder weight loss efforts.
• Try intermittent fasting. This is one of my favorite ways to detox on a regular basis, with the added bonus of reduced inflammation. Limiting your food intake for stretches of time can improve your blood sugar and glucose levels and encourage fat-burning. (8)
• When in doubt, get tested. An elimination diet can help you identify foods that are keeping you from feeling your best, but your healthcare provider should be able to do some testing for more extra clarity. IgG or IgE testing is common for food allergies.

On top of your food intake, there are a few additional lifestyle modifications that play an important role in long-term weight management:

• Exercise is important. Regular physical is essential to weight management, better type 2 diabetes outcomes, and improved cardiovascular health. If you don’t already have a routine, start slow with walking or swimming before embracing aerobic exercise. (9)
• Get good rest. Poor sleep disrupts hormones like cortisol and ghrelin, which can lead to overeating, cravings, and weight gain. (10) Set a sleep routine and stick to it. That may mean improving sleep hygiene and putting smartphones away a few hours before bed.

Stay hydrated. Drinking plenty of water helps control hunger, supports digestion, and boosts metabolism. It’s basically a metabolism hack. Shoot for 8 cups of water per day for solid hydration.