New Perspectives on Shedding Pounds and Diet
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While this basic rule is true, it only tells part of the story. Sometimes you gain weight even if you don’t eat much. This shows that relying solely on this principle is not enough for successful weight loss. There are many other factors that can affect weight loss. Understanding these factors can make weight loss not only more effective but also much easier — helping you avoid frustrations like the yo-yo effect and allowing you to feel noticeably better in everyday life.
Even if you are significantly overweight or have type 2 diabetes, adopting certain new habits can help you avoid chronic health problems in the long term and stay fit well into old age.
Why does weight gain happen in the first place? What role does weight loss play in your health, and what methods and habits can help you achieve your ideal weight? On this page, we offer you comprehensive insights and valuable tips—some of which you may not have heard before—to help you successfully embark on your journey to a healthier, lighter life.
What Causes Obesity?
The three key factors that determine whether you can lose weight and maintain it are your hormones, diet, and physical activity. The good news is that all three can be actively influenced!
Once you understand where your specific challenges lie, managing your weight becomes easier. This allows you to tackle the root causes effectively and finally reach your goal with focus.
Although several factors can contribute to obesity, the primary cause is the storage of excess calories as fat in the body. But what leads to excess calorie storage? It’s sometimes more than just what you eat.
Certain medical conditions, such as hypothyroidism, can also lead to weight gain. That’s why it’s important to have a doctor diagnose the underlying causes of your weight gain. However, in most cases, unhealthy habits are the primary cause — habits that you have the power to change.
Hormonal Imbalances
Hormonal imbalances can lead to weight gain, as hormones play a key role in regulating both metabolism and appetite. This is why weight loss medications are often prescribed to target hormones, reduce appetite, and boost metabolism.
Many might not know that the foods you eat can also affect your hormone levels. Different foods activate different digestive hormones, and these hormones impact how sugar is processed in the body — whether it’s excreted through the kidneys or if it’s stored as fat and how much of it.
Timing matters, too. The time of day you eat sugary foods, and whether you eat them before or after a meal, can influence your body’s response. By eating the right foods at the right times, you can effectively manage your hormone levels. This helps control which hormones are active and whether you feel more or less hungry. You are not powerless over your hunger! or more in-depth information, we offer insights in our free newsletter.
Calorie-Rich or Nutrient-Poor Diets
A diet high in calories can lead to weight gain because your body stores excess calories as fat. This is common knowledge. While fat in food is calorie-dense, we can—and should—still consume it, as it can actually help with weight loss more effectively than avoiding it altogether. Healthy fats, such as Omega-3, are essential for maintaining a balanced and healthy hormone system. Therefore, when it comes to losing weight, it’s not just about eating foods that are low in calories. It’s about eating the right foods and focusing on nutrient-rich options: think minerals, vitamins, fats, and proteins. Your body needs these to ensure all processes run smoothly and that you feel healthy and energized. The guiding principle is to “eat the rainbow!”
Lack of Physical Activity
Even if it’s annoying to hear it again and again: A common factor that contributes to obesity is a lack of exercise. This is well known, and yet it often fails to motivate us to finally get our act together.
That’s why we want to share a few little-known but scientifically proven facts on this website that will give you significantly more motivation to get more exercise.
Physical activity is essential for staying healthy well into old age for a variety of reasons. However, exercise alone rarely leads to significant weight loss if we’re not also considering our hormones and eating the right foods.
Exercise, just like the right foods, influences our hormones. How this happens is particularly exciting:
Because our mitochondria even regulate the hormone activity of many hormones within the cells. – – And thus control our weight loss success.
They also control stress hormones and many others. Exercise increases our mitochondrial count and also their performance. Too few mitochondria and too much stress literally leach out our mitochondria, leaving us deeply exhausted, literally at cellular level, which makes us move even less. If our mitochondria no longer work properly, they not only provide us with less energy, but also no longer regulate our other hormones properly – which in turn can lead to increased weight. And also to mental illness and many other physical ailments.
And so either a vicious circle develops that leads us to more and more exhaustion, stress, tiredness, faster ageing and obesity. Or it creates a virtuous cycle of wonderfully supportive functions that not only make us feel more alert, energised and younger, but also ensure that we feel happier and more purposeful and that we can lose weight more easily and maintain our weight better.
Why is physical activity absolutely necessary when taking weight loss medications?
– The risk of muscle loss due to weight loss medications.
Weight loss medications put your body into a state of calorie deficit without making you feel hungry. Since you’re now eating less than your body needs, it will break down not only fat but also valuable muscle tissue. You might think, You might think, “As long as I’m getting slimmer, it doesn’t matter—I’ll deal with the rest later. Nothing bad will happen to me.” This kind of thinking is common, but it overlooks a critical point: your heart is also a muscle. Unfortunately, these medications can cause muscle loss throughout the entire body—and often at a fast pace—not just in the areas where you might want to slim down. This includes the muscles in your heart, which can lead to serious health problems.
That’s why it’s crucial to engage in regular exercise and keep your heart active every day, to ensure your heart muscle stays strong and doesn’t deteriorate.
Genetic Factors
The common belief in medical circles has long been that genetics can play a role in weight gain. Genetic factors can influence how your body stores fat and processes food.
However, this genetic predisposition to obesity has existed for centuries, yet 20–30 years ago, the majority of people were still slim. Obesity was the exception until shortly. Additionally, many people who don’t have a genetic predisposition are now becoming obese. Therefore, this widespread increase in overweight and obesity must be due to something other than genetics.
Recent scientific studies have shown that our bodies can switch certain genes on and off. This means that even if you have a genetic predisposition to weight gain, you can still lose weight. Often, the issue isn’t genes, but rather eating habits and even the sense of belonging when you eat the same way as your relatives. When you suddenly want to eat something different or less than before, you may be met with disapproving looks from family members, which can create tremendous pressure!
The good news is: once you recognize that it’s family habits, not your genes, that are contributing to your weight gain, you can break free and start losing weight more easily.
Once you identify the true causes of your weight gain, you can develop effective strategies to be content with your weight in the long term.
Why Is Weight Loss Important for Overweight Individuals, With or Without Diabetes?
If you want to lead a healthier life and reduce the risk of chronic diseases, maintaining a healthy weight is a must. While it’s understandable that reaching this goal can be difficult, avoiding excess weight can help prevent or mitigate both physical and mental health issues early on — or even stop them from developing in the first place.
The Link Between Diabetes and Overweight:
According to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), 90% of people with type 2 diabetes are either overweight or obese. This is particularly concerning because excess weight can raise blood sugar levels and increase the risk of serious complications. However, type 2 diabetes can often be reversed. It isn’t something you’re born with, nor does it develop overnight—it happens gradually over time. As a result, many people aren’t aware of the connection between overweight and diabetes. In most cases, the key to improving your health and managing diabetes is through weight loss.
In simple terms, we can explain it like this:
Type 2 diabetes develops when a person chronically (over a long period of time) has elevated blood sugar levels because the body is no longer producing enough insulin. The body then struggles to transport sugar from the blood into the cells, where it is converted into energy. This energy is usually available for us to move, digest, repair cells, think, and perform other vital functions. Insulin plays a major role in transporting sugar from the blood into the cells, thus lowering blood sugar levels. In diabetes, the pancreas produces less insulin than the body needs.
There is also the possibility that the body is producing enough insulin, but the cells “reject” it. This condition is called insulin resistance. Fat accumulation, particularly around the abdomen, can make cells less responsive to insulin. Fat cells release certain substances that block or weaken the effects of insulin.
When too much sugar (glucose) remains in the blood due to insulin resistance and the cells don’t immediately use it all, the body tries to convert the excess sugar into glycogen or fat for storage, or expels it through urine. This is why we gain weight or feel the need to drink and urinate frequently. If more food is consumed than is used up, there is always too much sugar in the blood. This excess sugar can damage nerves, blood vessels, and organs, such as the eyes, kidneys, and heart. In severe cases, it can even lead to blindness or the amputation of feet (diabetic foot).
To prevent insulin resistance from developing, or to reverse it, it’s important not to accumulate too much body fat. This means, we can take steps to address insulin resistance, which is great news. It can be effectively managed through weight loss, a balanced diet, regular exercise, and, in some cases, medication or insulin therapy.
Weight loss medications are now prescribed not only for those with fully developed diabetes but also for individuals diagnosed with prediabetes.
Prediabetes is a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be classified as type 2 diabetes. It serves as an early warning sign that a person is at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
In prediabetes, the cells in the body already respond poorly to insulin (insulin resistance), and the pancreas struggles to produce enough insulin to keep blood sugar levels within the normal range. This means that after eating, blood sugar levels remain elevated for longer, but they have not yet reached the level seen in diabetes.
Effective Weight Loss Strategies
Whether or not you have diabetes, some fundamental principles can always help with weight loss. The following strategies work best when combined:
- Balanced diet
- Adopting new, healthier habits
- Regular physical activity
- Weight loss medications
Balanced, Protein-Rich Diet:
The most important thing is a protein-rich diet, in which we consume around 2 grams of protein per kg of body weight every day. A protein-rich diet means we are less likely to feel hungry. Proteins provide many building blocks that our body urgently needs for smooth brain and organ function. Eating protein instead of sweets makes us feel more stable and optimistic throughout the day.
Instead of eating proteins, often feelings of hunger pangs or cravings for something sweet or fatty lead to fast and unhealthy calorie intake. But why do we experience these cravings in the first place? After all, it’s not true hunger, yet it feels like a powerful, physical sensation that seeks release. Even though we know that fatty or sugary foods and sweet drinks aren’t good for us, we find them hard to resist.
This is the key question we need to ask ourselves when trying to lose weight: are we hungry or is the body sending us a signal in the form of cravings that we are missing something else?
- Cravings are often the body’s way of signaling that it needs specific nutrients (for example, craving chocolate could be a sign of magnesium deficiency).
- However, cravings can also be driven by habit, such as always having dessert after a meal. Out of routine or convenience, we end up eating sugary or fatty foods, even when we’re not truly hungry.
- Negative emotions, like unresolved fear or stress, can also trigger cravings. This is known as “emotional eating,” as food can offer comfort and relief. To avoid giving in to cravings, it’s essential to recognize the emotional needs behind them and address those needs directly, rather than trying to soothe them with food or drink.
- Hunger can also follow spikes in blood sugar levels, which are caused by eating too many carbohydrates. This explains why you may feel hungry soon after a meal. To combat this, it’s important to incorporate plenty of fiber into your diet whenever you consume carbohydrates. Fiber, found in whole grains like bread and pasta, as well as vegetables, helps keep blood sugar levels stable.
- Hunger arises even when we are actually thirsty and should simply drink water.
We therefore need to clarify every time we feel the urge to eat whether it is really hunger or whether it is one of the 5 signals mentioned above. And only then should we decide whether and what to eat.
If we decide to eat, a balanced, protein-rich diet is the most effective strategy for reducing calories and losing weight. While simply eating less can help reduce calorie intake, without a nutrient-rich diet, it can pose risks to your health.
For anyone aiming to lose weight, regular, low-carbohydrate meals and foods with a low glycemic index can help prevent blood sugar spikes and support weight loss.
Behavioral Change Through New Habits
You can successfully manage type 2 diabetes and your weight by making intentional lifestyle changes. By adjusting your habits, such as reducing sugar intake and choosing more nutritious foods, you can lose weight and regulate your blood sugar levels without feeling weak or constantly hungry. With the right food combinations, you’ll find that cravings for sweets or snacks diminish, helping you stay on track for hours.
Shifting from a mostly sedentary lifestyle to a more active one is another valuable method for weight loss. You can do this by reducing the time you spend sitting and finding ways to move more throughout the day. Make it a fun challenge for yourself! For example, always take the stairs instead of the elevator. It might feel exhausting at first, but it gets easier quickly.
This will boost your metabolism and even improve your mood!
We can harness the power of our brain to permanently change behaviors and establish new habits. This process is scientifically known as neuroplasticity. It refers to the brain’s ability to create new connections and cells in order to reinforce new behavioral patterns.
Once a new habit is internalized, it no longer requires effort to maintain that lifestyle—it becomes second nature, without the need for conscious thought or forcing yourself to do it.
In our newsletter, you’ll find practical steps and ideas on how to leverage this process for your benefit.
Regular Exercise:
Learn more here about why exercise is essential for preventing muscle loss in your heart during weight loss.
While a low-calorie diet alone is not enough to achieve lasting weight loss, neither is exercise by itself. However, regular physical activity is irreplaceable when it comes to maintaining overall health in the long run.
Regular exercise is a key component of weight loss and has a significant impact on your mental well-being. You will feel fantastic when you’re fit and naturally think less about food. This is another way that exercise supports weight loss.
All medications or supplements that assist with weight loss work best when combined with a balanced diet and regular exercise.
Physical activity strengthens your muscles and boosts your metabolism. This means your body burns more calories, both at rest and during exercise. An increased metabolism makes it easier to reach the calorie deficit needed for weight loss.
Different types of exercise can support your weight loss journey, including:
- Cardiovascular training
- Strength training
- High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
- Flexibility and balance exercises
Incorporating these exercises into your routine helps you maintain a healthy balance between the calories you consume and those you burn.
Weight Loss Medications:
The use of weight loss medications is rapidly growing worldwide. These medications are often also prescribed to help manage blood sugar levels. Their rising popularity shows they are viewed as an effective and straightforward way to support weight loss. By thoroughly understanding how to use them—along with their effectiveness, dosage, and possible side effects—you can maximize their benefits, always in consultation with your doctor.
This website is not meant to provide medical advice, diagnosis, or provide treatment. It is for informational and educational purposes only. We encourage you to seek your primary care provider for medical concerns. The information provided on this website is not meant to be a substitute for a visit with a healthcare provider. Any comments made about specific products, medicines, or treatment plans are not meant to diagnose, cure, or prevent disease.