Understand Weight Loss & Your Body
For some of us, it can feel like we gain weight from a cookie just by looking at it. Why is it that some people struggle to lose weight while others don’t seem to gain weight at all? For many people who struggle with weight gain and obesity, there may be more to it than diet and exercise.
At Regain Functional Medicine + Aesthetics, the providers at our weight loss clinic in Lawrence understand the myriad factors that can contribute to weight gain. Our weight loss program considers the deeper-than-skin-level reasons behind why it’s so much harder for some people to lose weight.
If you have struggled with being overweight for a while, there might be a couple of things you haven’t thought of that are getting in your way.
Childhood Influences
It’s easy to pin things on your parents. If it’s not one thing, it’s your mother! But in the case of weight management, you could be right. Studies have shown that the habits we develop in childhood around eating and exercise can influence us for the rest of our lives.
A couple of questions you can ask yourself:
- What types of food were available in your house when you were growing up?
- What was your go-to snack?
- Did your parents regulate the amount of sugary foods you ate?
- What did you do in the afternoons and evenings when you came home from school?
- What kinds of activities did you do on the weekends as a kid?
As you consider your answers, think about your habits as they relate to food and exercise now. What foods do you gravitate toward? Are you active in your free time?
Whether we acknowledge them or not, the habits we cultivated in childhood influence so much of our adult relationships with food and exercise. These habits influence the types of food we like to eat, how much time we spend outside, if we have an active lifestyle, and how we react to pain and stress.
Our weight loss clinic in Lawrence can help you shift your habits around eating and exercise to promote a healthier lifestyle.
Genetics
When you are working on weight loss, something that is often left out is how your genes come into play. For some people, genetics doesn’t account much for their weight. For others, genetics can contribute 70–80% of a predisposition to obesity.
If you have been overweight for most of your life, or if several of your family members struggle with weight gain, your genetics might be partially to blame.
Believe it or not, these genes were actually meant to help you out. Science suggests that a certain percentage of the human population possesses “thrifty” genes. Once an evolutionary asset, it’s believed that these genes are now a major cause of obesity.
The hypothesis states that before agriculture was developed (over 10,000 years ago), a portion of the population genetically evolved to store calories more efficiently. In a time before food was cultivated and preserved, the human genome adapted so that, in the inevitable cycle of feast and famine, famine would not wipe out the entire species.
Whether or not you choose to praise your genes or shake your fist at them, understanding how your body processes calories is essential to understanding what’s causing you to gain weight. Our practitioners at Regain, our weight loss clinic in Lawrence, can help you combat the genetic pressures that don’t want you to let that fat go.
Find the Treatment That Works for You
At Regain Functional Medicine + Aesthetics, we create a customized weight loss plan for each of our clients. When creating your customized wellness plan, we take into account all of the possible factors that may be contributing to your weight gain. Our weight loss clinic in Lawrence takes care of the full you, helping you to regain function, mobility, and good health inside and out.
