Is weight gain evidence something deeper is going on?

Dawn (00:00):

Hello and welcome to the Gastric Health Show. My name is Dawn Boxell. This week we are talking about weight gain and the title.. “Is weight gain evidence something deeper is going on.” And I’m really just wanting you to see that weight gain is a symptom of something deeper going on. Now weight gain has traditionally been thought to be the result of consuming too many calories and not exercising enough.

Dawn (01:00):

And now I think we would all agree that eating every meal out and snacking on ultra process foods while being a couch potato is likely going to produce the picture of health you’re striving for. But at the same time, there are individuals who only consume ultra processed foods and they never work out and they’re not overweight or obese. However, not being overweight or obese does not mean that you are healthy. So just because someone isn’t experiencing weight issues and they don’t have weight gain problems doesn’t mean that they’re healthy.

Dawn (01:26):

So I think we’ve, as a culture, we have gone down this path of weight. The outward signs of your weight is an ultimate determinant of your health and it is just not true. I know plenty of people who have awful health and they are not overweight or obese. So again, I think we’re looking in the wrong areas. Sometimes we’re monitoring <laugh> certain indicators as our guide and I think that’s where you have to be careful.

The five deeper issues that can cause weight gain?

Dawn (02:10):

And I mean don’t get me wrong, there is a valid connection with diet and an exercise, but not everyone’s weight gain is because they are eating too much and not exercising. That is just not the facts. And you know, can weave in the genetic piece in this and that’s why some people are thin but are super unhealthy.

Dawn (02:44):

The big picture is your body is always seeking balance and when imbalances occur, weight gain is one indicator that something deeper is going on. So if you start noticing that, hey, I am putting on pounds, then it should be a red flag or just a reminder that hey, something else is happening, what is occurring? What has changed? And maybe I should look a little bit deeper into what has happened in the last 3, 6, 9 or 12 months. And that can really help guide you in making decisions about your health. So what are those deeper issues that can cause weight gain?

Dawn (03:10):

One is inflammation, two is blood sugar and insulin dysregulation. Three, your genetics, four gut imbalances and five hormone dysfunction. So I’m really wanting you to step back and just look at the big picture. It has been well established that the connection of weight gain and all five of these deeper issues, inflammation, blood sugar and insulin issues, genetics, gut imbalances, hormone dysfunction, all of those have been connected with weight gain.

Diet culture has ingrained in you that if you are experiencing weight gain ?

Dawn (04:21):

So I want you to step out of what diet culture has ingrained in you that if you are experiencing weight gain, that it is truly because the only reason is is you’re eating too much and not exercising enough. And I want you to get out of that mindset because it is just not true. There is so much more going on when you are experiencing weight gain. We know that any one of these deeper issues one of them or a combination of them can lead to weight gain. So is weight gain really the issue or is it your gut being imbalanced that’s causing weight gain?

Dawn (05:00):

Is it a chronic low grade inflammation, poor insulin sensitivity, high blood sugars a genetic SNP that’s been turned back on or your cortisol is elevated or thyroid issues or menopause? All of these things contribute to what is happening with your metabolism. So I mean you can really see that weight gain is the symptom of something deeper going on. It is time that when you are noticing that your clothes are fitting tighter and you are noticing that you have just a combination of symptoms with weight gain being one of them

Dawn (05:57):

This is when you’ve got to get a practitioner that can be a good investigator and really kind of dig into what’s going on. And I would say that’s what I’d love to do. I’d love to be a good detective and just go through what has been happening and what you are experiencing and really kind of dig into, hey, what is driving this? Why did you already start gaining weight? And let me preface this that there’s always a test you can do, but I’m also very conservative and I really try to not go test crazy.

So is weight gain really the issue? 

Dawn (06:30):

So sometimes we need just some basic panels and it can really provide a lot of guidance but sometimes we need additional tests. If you’re having some extreme digestive issues I may not be able to correct it without some testing. Genetics, I think we can do a lot without them, but we can really personalize it and kind of hone in and be very, very specific with it.

Dawn (07:18):

But then there’s also just the basic blood panels that really can provide some good information. So I’m always, as a practitioner, I’m always conscious of the costs of the tests. I’m always conscious of what this means for you and what you are going to have to financially contribute. So that’s why I said I’m conservative in those aspects and I don’t try to jump right into testing although the practitioner in me does love that data and that information cuz I feel like it really speeds things up.

Dawn (07:50):

But I also appreciate the fact that not everybody can do those. They can’t always do testing. So I think weight gain is the symptom. And once you kind of work with a practitioner like myself who can really help you dial in the area that you should focus on that’s when it gets easier. So my hopes are to get you to think about a different approach.

Optimization of all five areas after anatomy with bariatric surgery

Dawn (08:29):

You’ve already surgically altered your anatomy with bariatric surgery, the volume of food you consume, it has significantly decreased so you don’t need less food. What if you took a different approach, an approach with optimizing all five of these areas and you may even find don’t even have to optimize all five, you might have to optimize one or two and all five are corrected. And you’ll kind of see that as we go through here that these five areas are usually good places to start, but sometimes I can even dial it into just two areas and it corrects the other three.

Dawn (09:10):

So it’s very individual, it’s very personal of what you need because we’re all different. But there are some general things that you can apply that all of you can apply that can be very effective, especially when it comes to weight gain. I mean that is something that yes, it is individual and the reason why you are having issues with weight gain is different than the next person.

Dawn (09:47):

But I think we can apply these areas and really focus on just optimizing them and really trying to think about, okay, is my cortisol elevated all the time? Is my thyroid okay? But could it be optimized and maybe perform a little bit better? And that would help nudge the weight and really help improve some of these other indicators. So again, I think it’s taking a step back and looking at it differently. And if we fix our health then weight gain issues are completely different. You don’t struggle with those same issues when you have dialed all these core areas and these foundational areas in your hormones function better.

Blood sugar & insulin dysregulation

Dawn (10:30):

Your blood sugar regulation is so much tighter and not big fluctuations and your genetics are just performing better and supporting you better by dialing in a few areas. So eating less is not the solution. I think if you look at taking a different approach and optimizing these five areas like reducing or eliminating inflammation, increasing your insulin sensitivity lowering those blood sugar levels, turning on protective genetic snips or turning off disease causing genetic SNPs correct gut dysbiosis, improve thyroid function regulate better cortisol function and improve your estrogen metabolism.

Dawn (11:40):

All those things can really get you far in helping you solve the issue of weight gain. And hopefully you can see where I’m going. So when you look at weight gain as a symptom of something deeper going on, it offers you more tools in your toolbox in addressing weight gain. So when you stop putting the pressure on you being perfect with your diet and your exercise and really kind of taking a 30,000 foot view observation where you’re looking at, okay.

Dawn (12:00):

Let’s see what are all my symptoms besides weight gain, what else am I experiencing? Am I having a lot of digestive issues? Then we might want to hone in on your gut health and really optimizing that. First are you having a lot of hormone symptoms? I would probably still begin with your gut because that is where all your hormones are derived out of and kind of manipulated is through your gut.

Inflammation issues that can cause weight gain

Dawn (12:56):

So again, there’s a few areas that we can really focus to get more bang for your buck so it’s not just eating less and exercising more. Let’s kind of dig into these five areas and how they are connected to weight gain inflammation. So inflammation is really protective by design but can become destructive if left unchecked. So long term chronic inflammation can eventually lead to conditions like arthritis, eczema, irritable bowel syndrome, autoimmune conditions and several diseases including obesity. Not to mention that inflammation is really interwoven in the other four areas as well.

Dawn (13:30):

Gut dysbiosis, elevated blood sugars, low estrogen, poor methylation, genetic SNPs can affect your inflammatory response. For example, a study published in 2021 the title was obesity Associated Inflammation Does curcumin exert a beneficial role And curcumin is the compound that is in turmeric. So they found in the study that curcumin supplementation clearly shows significant decreases in inflammatory cytokine production and increases in atec and level in the plasma of obese and overweight subjects.

Dawn (14:26):

And then additionally, a double blind placebo controlled, randomized controlled trial was carried out on post-menopausal diabetic women in order to examine the effects of flavonoids on cardiovascular risk factors. We know that when you go through menopause and that estrogen level drops that your risk for cardiovascular disease goes up. So additionally they were including insulin resistance, so they looked at cardiovascular risk factors and insulin resistance.

A significant reduction in insulin resistance

Dawn (14:50):

And the nutritional intervention consisted of an intake of 13.5 grams of flavonoid enriched chocolate twice daily and providing a hundred milligrams of isoflavones and 850 milligrams of total flavonols. After the 12 months of this study, a significant reduction in insulin resistance was found in the intervention group when compared to the placebo. So just focusing on, you can see that certain seasons of life like menopause we know that there are certain things that occur and I’ve talked about this in or maybe is just on one of my stories on Instagram and Facebook.

Dawn (15:53):

I talked about how even myself, I was noticing a rise in my blood glucose, my fasting blood glucose my A1C is still normal but it did take an uptick by I think a point. But my fasting blood glucose was elevated back to back on two, even on the third draw. So I have labs drawn every three months for my hormones and that third test was showing a third fasting blood glucose of elevation and it is connected to the menopause that I am working through.

Dawn (16:40):

So again, I think understanding or working with a practitioner like myself who knows these timing of things and has more tools in my toolbox that I can utilize for menopause and helping you approach that in a different way. So once you can get out of denial like myself the first time that I noticed it, I really thought nothing of it.

Blood sugars and your insulin that whole regulation is altered

Dawn (17:06):

The second time I was like, oh, and I mentioned it to my doctor and she’s a functional trained doctor and I was like, oh. And she’s like, it’ll be right. And then the third time I was like, oh now this I don’t like. So I had to evaluate, evaluate my behaviors and what I was doing regularly that could be contributing to that. And so I’ve made changes. So I’m excited to see what my next draw will be and be able to hopefully see some improvements in that with the changes and shifts that I have made.

Dawn (17:30):

So I’ll update you when that occurs. The next one is blood sugar and insulin dysregulation. And again this is one that occurs and changes in menopause but high blood glucose is often associated with weight gain and diabetes and menopause. We know that during menopause that your blood sugars and your insulin that whole regulation is altered.

Dawn (18:14):

So we also know that chronically elevated blood sugars also have other effects such as accelerated aging and chronic inflammation. If you struggle with your blood sugar being elevated all the time, you will likely see more wrinkles and changes in your skin and hair and nails and joints and all kinds of just aches and pains that maybe you weren’t experiencing. Correcting that elevated blood sugar is one way to slow that down and alter that communication that’s happening.

Blood sugar and insulin dysregulation is underlie every major chronic illness

Dawn (19:00):

And we also know that blood sugar and insulin dysregulation is really underlie every major chronic illness and it even influences your hormones. So when those are off even prior to menopause you are going to have issues with your hormones, then you throw menopause on top of that and bam you are not gonna feel great at all. You are going to have issues where that blood sugar is really going to be elevated and your pancreas is really going to need to produce lots of insulin.

Dawn (19:48):

So now additionally, insulin is manufactured in the body and is used to regulate glucose levels and the way that insulin and glucose do their job is determined by certain genes as well as by other factors such as your weight, diet and lifestyle choices. Insulin is an important piece to monitor and I would say that’s where conventional medicine misses they’re not paying attention to that. So I really do encourage you to ask your providers for a fasting insulin.

Dawn (20:30):

And we know that maintaining an insulin, a fasting insulin between two and five really sets you up to having more balance in your blood sugars at all times. And that’s kind of the key. It’s not just occasionally it is you want it to be dialed in all the time and a study that you’ll have the links to they found in diabetes polyphenols were found to play an important role in suppressing blood glucose levels enhancing the antioxidant status in pancreatic cells and increasing the activation of P P A R Y And these the PPARy, these regulate the expression of genes.

Hemoglobin and fasting insulin

Dawn (21:19):

So it’s important to one, make sure that you are yes checking your fasting blood glucose, your hemoglobin A1C that your doctor is probably doing every year that you go to see them. If you do not see your doctor every year, please start doing that. That is step one. I don’t know what other programs do but we never did any of the A1C and lipid panels and stuff. We did not manage that at a bariatric center that was deferred to a family physician.

Dawn (21:40):

So make sure your family physician is checking that lipid panel and is checking that hemoglobin a1c but additionally ask them to check your fasting insulin and that way you can stay on top of that. And they know that once it gets above seven that you’ve al you’re already creating an environment that’s making it more difficult to regulate your blood sugar. And then again, you’re gonna have issues with hormones, you’re gonna have issues with inflammation, aging again, blood sugar balance is step one in my book.

Dawn (22:37):

The next one is genetics. And at no surprise kind of genetics is your personal story of how your body manages cellular processes. And as you can see, genetics influence glucose and insulin regulation, your inflammatory response but it can also influence your hormone metabolism and all of these influence weight gain. So they’re all connected to weight gain. And again, step back and the word optimize should be something you should always consider and always asking your practitioners.

Signs of hypothyroidism

Dawn (23:20):

Yes I understand that you’re saying that these levels are normal but what I am feeling physically is that I still have some work to do. So for example, say you have thyroid disease and you’re still constipated and your hair is still falling out and you’re just struggling with your energy and you know, still have signs of hypothyroidism and your doctor’s like nope, pure levels look great. I don’t know, maybe it’s just getting older.

Dawn (24:01):

Don’t accept that there is nothing wrong with asking your doctor to optimize it and get, you have a range, you have reference ranges, tighter reference ranges they can use that can provide you with feeling better. So personally for me, I have hypothyroidism and if I don’t keep my thyroid numbers on the higher end of normal, I do not feel good. I do not feel like myself. So we as a doctor team.

Dawn (24:40):

I have partnered with my doctor and we have figured out that that’s where I need to stay to maintain a health at a level that I physically feel good. And that’s most important, you have to physically feel good so don’t be afraid to ask your doctor to optimize it. Could we optimize it? And I had to do this for my mom she has dementia and I went with my sister to the nursing home and I was able to evaluate some of her blood work.

Constipation issues

Dawn (25:12):

We met with the nurse practitioner and I was able to see that her TSH was elevated. They of course did not do a full thyroid panel but her TSH was elevated and I just advocated for her, is there any way that we could optimize this level? Cause had I not brought it up, she was not going to do anything about it cuz it was just barely elevated at just barely over the top end of what they considered a TSH to be abnormal.

Dawn (26:00):

So I just advocated, can we optimize this? And she agreed that yeah let’s put her on some thyroid medicine. And what it did help, cuz my mom was having constipation issues and she quit having constipation issues. So again, it’s not being afraid to ask for that support. You are hiring those practitioners and you want someone who that you can team up with that that will listen to you and hear what you’re saying about your health symptoms and what you need to move forward.

Dawn (26:27):

And then you just have to be ready as a health participant that you, you’re going to actually do the work to put in to make the changes. Your doctor can up medication and support you in that way. But again, if they’re asking you, Hey, we really need you to get some pounds off then, or if you’re having weight gain issues or your health, you’ve got some, maybe your blood sugar is dysregulated, Hey I really need you to get your blood sugars down.

Individual variability in your physical ability to lose gain

Dawn (27:00):

That doesn’t necessarily mean that your diet has to change a hundred percent, but it might mean that you have to make some diet changes and figuring out what’s not serving you and really honing in and making a choice, okay, am I willing to make this change as my blood sugars were showing a high fasting level I had to make a choice.

Dawn (27:31):

What am I going to do about this because it’s my body and what do I want to do to prevent it from further incline which was really driven a lot by the season of life I’m in. But it’s also there are things I can do to support myself and to help put the odds in the favor that gets brought back down. Because just because you’re in menopause does not mean that you have to have an elevated blood sugar and insulin level.

Dawn (28:00):

No, there are things you can do to reverse that and have no issues which is what I am hoping to see the next time. If it’s not the next visit blood draw, it will be the following one. So I’m working my way through changes in kind of honing in on things that I can do to support myself better. So we know that genetics influence your glucose, your insulin inflammatory response, your hormones and weight gain and there is a considerable individual variability in your physical ability to lose gain and maintain a healthy weight.

Genetics weight gain evidence something deeper is going on 

Dawn (28:50):

So we know that certain gene variations affect how we regulate the energy or the calories and makes us more genetically prone to weight gain and slow weight loss. And hopefully you’re seeing that there is no one size fits all model when it comes to weight gain. So I think again, I think if you focus in these areas and you take the focus off of calories and macronutrients and you really focus on nutrient dense foods and colors and really optimizing those genetics and your blood sugar regulation.

Dawn (29:00):

What are all the tips and tricks to really get that blood sugar back in line and. What can I do to improve my gut imbalances. And fixing those and just really dialing it in for yourself by. By applying some of these general group type things. But you are even being more diligent about dialing it in for yourself.

Dawn (29:58):

So the next one is gotten balances. We already know that bariatric surgery only partially rescues gut dysbiosis. And as published in one of the studies they. We know that obese patients going into surgery all have gut dysbiosis. So you have gut imbalances because you are obese. That is a connection we know exists. So dysbiosis is going to still be an issue. After gastric leaving gastric bypass surgeries because it bariatric surgery doesn’t fully correct this.

Gut imbalances weight gain evidence something deeper is going on

Dawn (30:35):

So to me, anybody who’s been obese needs to correct their gut dysbiosis. Whether you do it before you have bariatric surgery or you do it after, it does not matter. It’d be awesome if you would work on it prior to it but regardless. Surgery is going to shift it and. Help put the odds in your favor for that to be improved more quickly. So either way, you still have work to do after bariatric surgery.

Dawn (31:17):

Now also one study has shown that weight loss is associated in a dose response manner. With increases in gut microbiota diversity and reductions in intestinal permeability. And intestinal permeability is really known to, I would say most people as leaky gut. So any time you have an increase in intestinal permeability, that means you have a leaky gut. And we know that obese individuals have very low gut bacteria diversity. Meaning they don’t have many different strains and species of bacteria. So they are lacking a variety of bacteria in their gut, which again contributes to weight gain.

Dawn (32:00):

So this is an important piece. So correcting gut dysbiosis, improving that intestinal permeability and growing that variety or diversity of gut bacteria. Adding in more species is a powerful way to reverse weight gain. That alone by correcting these is a great way to shift the way your body is dealing with your metabolism. The next one is hormone dysfunction. And this is really a broad area because you know have to consider thyroid hormones.

Hormone dysfunction weight gain evidence something deeper is going on

Dawn (32:30):

Your stress hormones your sex hormones, any appetite and craving hormones they all influence weight gain. So they’re all part of that hormone piece. And anytime you have hormone dysregulation, weight gain is likely inevitable, kind of like the thyroid disease. 

Dawn (33:28):

And I would say if that’s its hypothyroidism, not hyperthyroidism, usually if it’s hyper you’re going to be losing weight. But when it comes to weight gain, if your thyroid does not optimize. That may be why you are having weight gain because your thyroid is not optimal for what your body needs. So that I think a lot of people understand and.

Dawn (34:10):

I think a lot of the bariatric population are females in that perimenopause to menopause age. That when you really evaluate the age range of and the gender of bariatric patients. It dials it right into perimenopause and menopausal females are the majority of all bariatric surgery patients. So I think that’s interesting. So if you have never explored hormones definitely consider this. And for me what I do to help with hormones is we focus on gut health and. We focus on gut health and we focus on blood sugar.

Importance of hormone regulation 

Dawn (34:50):

Those two areas are really super important to hormone regulation. So optimizing your estrogen metabolism and. Then considering safe hormone therapy can be a great way to address weight gain issues. So some people, if we fix your gut imbalances and we fix your blood sugar regulation and. You are still having estrogen issues or symptoms of menopausal symptoms. We’ll say, then you would want to consider some type of hormone therapy.

Dawn (35:00):

It is safe when you do it in combination estrogen with progesterone. And there are safe options out there to consider. So I just want to put that out there that. You have options and don’t disregard them because a lot of the cancer things. But the key I will say is it needs to be a combination of progesterone and estrogens.

Dawn (36:17):

So I think that’s where you’ve got to do your own research, but then also have conversations with your practitioners. On how you can really dial this into helping you feel your best. Cause again, as a female myself going through this season of life. I just refuse to not feel my best during this phase as well. And don’t get me wrong, there are going to be rough patches. Where it seems like it takes forever to feel good. But once you can sort through your symptoms .

That weight gain is just the symptom of one of these issues of these five areas

Dawn (37:00):

And sort through what’s happening, it things get so much better when you, one. You have the genetics to back it . And you can really dial that in and. There are just so many options to help support you. During the season of life that I can help you do. Then I would love to help share with you. What your options are so that you can still feel your best.

Dawn (37:24):

So I hope let’s try to wrap this up now. But I really hope that you can see that weight gain can be evidence that something deeper is going on. That weight gain is just the symptom of one of these issues, one of these five areas. And I want to challenge you in thinking of doing a different approach. Taking a different approach and optimizing inflammation and your blood sugar and your insulin.

Dawn (37:40):

Your gut bacteria, your hormones and utilizing just different tools or adding more tools to your toolbox to help address. Weight gain and stop putting the pressure on it has to be all food and exercise driven. Yeah, I get it. When you have a lot of cravings and appetite regulation issues because of your blood sugar being out of balance. And your insulin or your gut bacteria, cuz all of those can impact your cravings.

Conclusion

Dawn (38:34):

Yeah, I’m guessing you probably aren’t eating your best. But we can shift those so that those cravings are in a better place. So that you don’t have to struggle and continually find yourself in making poor choices when it comes to food. This is why I created the gastric health membership because you need a time. A space and a place to connect with other people.  And improving the odds with dealing with weight gain, weight loss resistance and hormone dysregulation.

Dawn (39:10):

Blood sugar imbalances, inflammation, gut imbalances, all of those things that influence your success after bariatric surgery. This is the place where you get to work through those protocols and those strategies because they work. And when you start applying some of these principles and really have the space and. The time to mess up and try one thing and it not work. So we develop another plan and we try it a different way.

Dawn (39:56):

Now don’t get me wrong, I can’t make you do anything. So I can give you a new protocol every month for a whole year but. I can’t do it for you. So it involves active participation. A gastric health membership involves active participation in the aspect of you implementing them. I can’t implement them for you. All I can do is provide the information and the support the motivation in the aspect of cheering you on. And be a shoulder to lean on when it’s just hard and. You just don’t feel like doing it and be here to tell you it’s okay if you didn’t do it.

Dawn (40:30):

And know that you have the time and the space to get it right and that’s what the membership is for. So that you have that opportunity to work through. What you really need to get the results that you’re hoping for. So I hope this has helped and I hope you can see that there are things you can do for weight gain. And it is definitely more than just eating less and exercising more. So you guys have a great week and we will see you next time. Bye-bye.

Listen, Learn, Enjoy…

1. Gastric Health Membership