[g_podcast id="8250611"]
In this episode I talk about:
If that were really the case, then not so many people would be overweight and more people would lose weight. I'll explain a few things to you later, because the reality is that I constantly get messages from women and men who write to me:
'Julia, I eat healthily and I try very hard. I really exercise a lot, I do sport regularly. And yet I'm not losing weight, how can that be?'
There are people who write to me to say that they are actually gaining weight by eating healthily! Maybe you feel the same way.
Then this episode is definitely for YOU! But maybe you're also thinking 'Do people really eat as healthily as they claim? Maybe they're just cheating and that's why it doesn't work? Even then, this episode is for you, because I'm going to explain a few things about how the gut relates to body weight.
That's why this episode is relevant for you if you're not overweight and just want to optimize your digestion and gut. I've been a bit reluctant to do an episode about losing weight, so cliché '
Being overweight can have a lot of consequences that have nothing to do with appearance, such as joint pain, or shortness of breath, or having to bend over. If you're thinking 'Well, it's not that bad. Then I'll just have a bit of knee pain, or maybe I can't necessarily run to the next bus when it's almost in front of me'. Of course you can come to terms with it.
The question is simply: what might happen in two or three years' time?
Imagine if you don't do anything about being overweight - and typically it gets a little more every year - what will you be like in two to three years' time? It's quite possible (it's all happened before) that being overweight will prevent you from doing your job properly because you might not be able to stand for long. Or you may not be able to look after your children 100% as you would like to because you are simply too tired or immobile to play with them.
Many people report that they are becoming more and more withdrawn, losing self-esteem and appearance, and this can even lead to isolation. I would definitely not want that for you.
Even if you only have a few kilos too much: it' s better to tackle it now than wait until it gets worse and worse.
No one can claim that 100 calories of broccoli has the same effect on the body as 100 calories of chocolate.
Any child can understand that it's not the same. The fact is that the amount of broccoli you have to eat to reach 100 calories is much higher than the amount of chocolate. This means that satiety will be completely different. Or there are foods that promote inflammation, for example, or that increase sugar levels. This is an important mechanism that I would like to explain.
Whenever you eat foods that increase your sugar levels, your body releases insulin. When the sugar level is very high, more insulin is released and insulin prevents fat loss and promotes fat storage. So insulin can convert sugar into fat. This means that if you want to lose weight and only pay attention to calories, but there are lots of low-calorie foods that keep your sugar levels constantly high, you won't be able to lose weight even though you eat low-calorie foods.
You can't do that, insulin prevents it.
That's why I'm not a big fan of eating all the time and still eating in between, because that always raises your insulin levels. If you now want to know which foods have a particular effect on sugar levels, these are mainly fast carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates ultimately always consist of sugar, even if they don't taste sweet. For example, pasta, bread (all white flour products), white rice, rice cakes - things that people like to eat when they want to lose weight have a very high impact on sugar levels. I haven't mentioned sweets and alcohol because I think it goes without saying that they contain a lot of sugar.
Fruit also contains a relatively high amount of sugar. Not all fruit contains the same amount, but a banana has quite a lot of sugar. This means that even if you eat a 'healthy' banana, you won't be able to lose weight because you'll push your sugar levels so high that your insulin will also be high for a longer period of time. That's what I mean by food having an effect on the body.
There are also certain foods that have a high histamine content. Histamine is a messenger substance that in turn causes stress in the metabolism. If there is stress in the metabolism, I can't lose weight. Blaming everything on calories is fundamentally wrong. Now I'd like to get to the connection between the gut and losing weight, because that's often the crux of the matter.
The question is: What does fine mean? Can you actually go to the toilet without any problems? Do you have no flatulence? Don't you have diarrhea? All these things.
There are people who have this and still think their digestion is fine because it has always been like this. Heartburn is another example. Or burping, where many people no longer realize that they are constantly burping and when you ask them about it they are completely astonished and say that it's not a problem. they haven't even noticed yet. You can often have unconscious intestinal problems!
In addition, many symptoms that many people do not associate with the intestines, such as allergies (hay fever, asthma) and skin problems (neurodermatitis), are also related to the intestines. These things almost always have to do with the gut. Everything that has to do with the immune system (autoimmune diseases) as well as thyroid problems and hormone problems have to do with the gut, which many people are not aware of.
I already made an episode about this, called 10 signs that something is wrong with your gut. . Here you can read about the signs by which you can recognize whether you have a bowel problem at all.
As I explained at the beginning, this then leads to insulin levels that are constantly too high.
If you eat a lot of things that are easy to digest (rice, white bread, etc.), it may well mean that you are unable to lose weight, even if the white bread is not particularly high in calories.
The gut also influences our hormone balance - it is a chemical factory, so to speak. Components of hormones are produced there and if the gut has a problem, certain hormones (e.g. the stress hormone cortisol) go up. If there is an imbalance, the body cannot lose weight.
The next point is that there is often inflammation in the gut that you don't necessarily feel. The nerve endings do not reach the outermost layer of the intestine, which is why you may have inflammation there that spreads to other parts of the body without you realizing it. Such a system that is under stress or inflammation cannot lose weight. The body will prioritize this inflammation - it will be more important to get it under control than to lose weight. This inflammation in the gut can also lead to a permeable gut( calledleaky gut ), so that the gut lining gets small holes and food particles that don't belong there can get into the bloodstream.
The body then also forms an inflammation, which leads to water retention, which means that you don't lose weight. Inflammation in the bowel can definitely prevent you from losing weight.
What can also happen is that if you are constipated, this means that the stool stays in your body longer than it should. There are toxins in the stool because they need to be removed and excreted and if the stool stays longer than it should, these toxins can be reabsorbed (transported back into the body). The more toxins are floating around in your body, the more difficult it will be for you to lose weight. This may well be a reason, because there are more people are more constipated than you think.
If the intestinal flora or the pH value are not right, it can also happen that food is not broken down properly and therefore the nutrients that are supposed to boost your metabolism do not arrive at all. This in turn means that you can't lose weight properly.
Another point is that certain conditions in the gut can also cause you to be constantly very hungry and therefore eat too much. For example, a fungal disease (e.g. Candida fungus) can certainly cause you to crave something sweet. And sweets in turn lead to high insulin levels, etc.
And then there are also intestinal bacteria that can produce energy from dietary fiber themselves. Fiber is not actually digested in the body, but these bacteria can break down the fiber and produce sugar from it. This means that you get more out of your food (i.e. you are a good food utilizer), but also that although you eat little, you can gain weight from it.
It is therefore definitely worth eating in a gut-friendly way. This will result in you losing weight at the same time - many participants in my online course Darmglück have already confirmed this.
It was not the primary goal to lose weight, but some participants were so enthusiastic that they lost a few kilos anyway. One participant even lost 10 kilos just by eating a healthy diet for her gut. Without counting calories, without weighing the quantities etc. And she even infected her family with it and they lost weight too. I thought that was really, really great!
Point 1 (you've probably heard this from me quite often if you've been following me for a while):
You should really eat real natural food and no industrial products, no convenience products; no products that contain hydrogenated fats, colorants, preservatives, etc., because these mess up the body's signals and the intestinal flora. Even if it says on the label that it contains no calories or similar, it won't help you to get your metabolism going.
Point 2 is:
You should eat foods that keep your sugar levels low. That's why half of your plate should consist of vegetables. Vegetables are also carbohydrates, but they contain a lot of water and little sugar. They help fill you up, provide nutrients and give your gut good fiber. I highly recommend that if you want to lose weight, half of your plate should consist of vegetables. Then add a good source of protein and high-quality, good fats.
Because the fats help you to feel full and help to boost fat burning. I would really reduce starch products (rice, potatoes, pasta, etc.) to a minimum, or even give them up completely for the time being.
If you say you've tried to lose weight many times and it hasn't worked, then try leaving these starch products out for a while. It's not forever! We want to find out how you can lose weight, even though you've already done a lot. have tried. It is often the case that you may have done things along the lines, but never really consistently. It helps to simply cut out starch products for 14 days, for example. Sugar anyway (that goes without saying).
Incidentally, alcohol also interrupts the fat-burning process. Not only because of the sugar, but alcohol is considered a poison by the body. The next tip is: you should eat three meals a day if you want to lose weight. Because (as already mentioned) if you eat more often during the day, you keep stimulating your insulin levels and you can't lose weight if your insulin levels are high.
I recommend that you take a 4-5 hour break between meals. There are people who don't eat at all in the morning - that can work too! But I think it works quite well if you eat three times a day, then you don't get hungry. The three meals a day are very beneficial for the intestines because they need time to recover. Your digestive organs also need time to recover and so it's quite beneficial for the whole system. If you're thinking 'Oh then I'll always be hungry' - if you put together your diet as I've told you (lots of vegetables, good protein, good fats, no fast carbohydrates) then you won't get hungry. I can pretty much guarantee that!
Next point is:
if you really have persistent weight problems (I'm not talking to people who have never changed their diet, but to those who eat very healthily and still don't lose weight), then I would recommend that you cut out dairy products completely for 4 weeks. Even the milk in your coffee! A small sip of milk a day can trigger a problem - it doesn't have to, but it can.
If you've already tried everything anyway, it won't hurt you to try this too. I would leave out milk completely and wheat. I told you to leave out starch products anyway, but especially wheat.
Next point:
Drink water. It is very beneficial if you want to lose weight. Rule of thumb: 30ml per kg body weight. For example, if you weigh 60 kilos, you should drink 1.8 liters per day. I would really recommend that you drink water. No zero drinks, or apple spritzer, and not necessarily tea either. When losing weight, it is really important that you drink enough water. This water transports nutrients to where they need to go and it also removes toxins. You won't believe it, but I've actually had clients who have lost weight by drinking water alone!
These are immensely important points that need to be considered. I've already done podcast episodes on this. One (last episode) was about self-worth and what that has to do with losing weight and in the episode before that I talked about Setting goals and targets. These things definitely have a huge impact on losing weight! It's also about motivation and making lasting changes.
This is not directly related to the gut, but ultimately, in my opinion, almost everything has something to do with the gut, because emotions also have a connection with the gut.
I hope I was able to give you a little inspiration with these points to make sure that you eat a gut-friendly diet. Not only because of intestinal problems, but also because of weight problems or inflammation. There are so many reasons why a beneficial diet for the gut is so important. F
f you don't know exactly how to start, or you would like some support, take a look at our online course 'Gut Happiness' - the next round starts in a few weeks. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode next week of the Darmglück podcast! See you then!
Now I recommend you subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you like what you hear, I'd really appreciate a review on iTunes or Apple Podcast. Because these reviews also help other people find the podcast so we can spread the knowledge about gut and health more.
In this episode I talk about:
- Why losing weight is not primarily a purely aesthetic issue
- Why calorie counting doesn't work
- What sugar levels and insulin secretion have to do with body fat
- How the gut is linked to weight loss
- And: what your gut-friendly diet could look like so that you also lose weight
Counting calories doesn't workToday's
topic is weight loss. I would like to look at it from a different angle than is often conveyed. Most people today still think that it's all about calories. The main thing is to eat less than you consume and you will automatically lose weight. That's what many people say.If that were really the case, then not so many people would be overweight and more people would lose weight. I'll explain a few things to you later, because the reality is that I constantly get messages from women and men who write to me:
'Julia, I eat healthily and I try very hard. I really exercise a lot, I do sport regularly. And yet I'm not losing weight, how can that be?'
There are people who write to me to say that they are actually gaining weight by eating healthily! Maybe you feel the same way.
Then this episode is definitely for YOU! But maybe you're also thinking 'Do people really eat as healthily as they claim? Maybe they're just cheating and that's why it doesn't work? Even then, this episode is for you, because I'm going to explain a few things about how the gut relates to body weight.
That's why this episode is relevant for you if you're not overweight and just want to optimize your digestion and gut. I've been a bit reluctant to do an episode about losing weight, so cliché '
Losing weight is about much more than just looking goodIn
January everyone talks about losing weight' and losing weight often has a superficial feel to it, but I think losing weight is really about more than just looking good.Being overweight can have a lot of consequences that have nothing to do with appearance, such as joint pain, or shortness of breath, or having to bend over. If you're thinking 'Well, it's not that bad. Then I'll just have a bit of knee pain, or maybe I can't necessarily run to the next bus when it's almost in front of me'. Of course you can come to terms with it.
The question is simply: what might happen in two or three years' time?
Imagine if you don't do anything about being overweight - and typically it gets a little more every year - what will you be like in two to three years' time? It's quite possible (it's all happened before) that being overweight will prevent you from doing your job properly because you might not be able to stand for long. Or you may not be able to look after your children 100% as you would like to because you are simply too tired or immobile to play with them.
Many people report that they are becoming more and more withdrawn, losing self-esteem and appearance, and this can even lead to isolation. I would definitely not want that for you.
Even if you only have a few kilos too much: it' s better to tackle it now than wait until it gets worse and worse.
Foods have an effect on the body.
It is still very often claimed that calories are the only measure of all things, that you simply have to eat less than you consume and then you will automatically lose weight. People completely forget that food has an effect on the body.No one can claim that 100 calories of broccoli has the same effect on the body as 100 calories of chocolate.
Any child can understand that it's not the same. The fact is that the amount of broccoli you have to eat to reach 100 calories is much higher than the amount of chocolate. This means that satiety will be completely different. Or there are foods that promote inflammation, for example, or that increase sugar levels. This is an important mechanism that I would like to explain.
Whenever you eat foods that increase your sugar levels, your body releases insulin. When the sugar level is very high, more insulin is released and insulin prevents fat loss and promotes fat storage. So insulin can convert sugar into fat. This means that if you want to lose weight and only pay attention to calories, but there are lots of low-calorie foods that keep your sugar levels constantly high, you won't be able to lose weight even though you eat low-calorie foods.
You can't do that, insulin prevents it.
That's why I'm not a big fan of eating all the time and still eating in between, because that always raises your insulin levels. If you now want to know which foods have a particular effect on sugar levels, these are mainly fast carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates ultimately always consist of sugar, even if they don't taste sweet. For example, pasta, bread (all white flour products), white rice, rice cakes - things that people like to eat when they want to lose weight have a very high impact on sugar levels. I haven't mentioned sweets and alcohol because I think it goes without saying that they contain a lot of sugar.
Fruit also contains a relatively high amount of sugar. Not all fruit contains the same amount, but a banana has quite a lot of sugar. This means that even if you eat a 'healthy' banana, you won't be able to lose weight because you'll push your sugar levels so high that your insulin will also be high for a longer period of time. That's what I mean by food having an effect on the body.
There are also certain foods that have a high histamine content. Histamine is a messenger substance that in turn causes stress in the metabolism. If there is stress in the metabolism, I can't lose weight. Blaming everything on calories is fundamentally wrong. Now I'd like to get to the connection between the gut and losing weight, because that's often the crux of the matter.
If you can't lose weight, you should think about your gut!
People who say 'I eat healthily. I've tried a lot of things and I'm still not losing weight' should definitely look at how their gut and digestion work. The spontaneous answer is usually 'Everything is fine with me'.The question is: What does fine mean? Can you actually go to the toilet without any problems? Do you have no flatulence? Don't you have diarrhea? All these things.
There are people who have this and still think their digestion is fine because it has always been like this. Heartburn is another example. Or burping, where many people no longer realize that they are constantly burping and when you ask them about it they are completely astonished and say that it's not a problem. they haven't even noticed yet. You can often have unconscious intestinal problems!
In addition, many symptoms that many people do not associate with the intestines, such as allergies (hay fever, asthma) and skin problems (neurodermatitis), are also related to the intestines. These things almost always have to do with the gut. Everything that has to do with the immune system (autoimmune diseases) as well as thyroid problems and hormone problems have to do with the gut, which many people are not aware of.
I already made an episode about this, called 10 signs that something is wrong with your gut. . Here you can read about the signs by which you can recognize whether you have a bowel problem at all.
What are the connections between the bowel and losing weight
? There are many people who have some kind of irritable bowel syndrome or actual irritable bowel syndrome and/or digestive problems and cannot tolerate many foods and get bloating, or abdominal/stomach pain from them. It is often the case that exactly what would actually be healthy and what you should eat more of if you want to lose weight is very poorly tolerated - namely fruit and vegetables. It is then very easy to reach for easily digestible starch products.As I explained at the beginning, this then leads to insulin levels that are constantly too high.
If you eat a lot of things that are easy to digest (rice, white bread, etc.), it may well mean that you are unable to lose weight, even if the white bread is not particularly high in calories.
The gut also influences our hormone balance - it is a chemical factory, so to speak. Components of hormones are produced there and if the gut has a problem, certain hormones (e.g. the stress hormone cortisol) go up. If there is an imbalance, the body cannot lose weight.
The next point is that there is often inflammation in the gut that you don't necessarily feel. The nerve endings do not reach the outermost layer of the intestine, which is why you may have inflammation there that spreads to other parts of the body without you realizing it. Such a system that is under stress or inflammation cannot lose weight. The body will prioritize this inflammation - it will be more important to get it under control than to lose weight. This inflammation in the gut can also lead to a permeable gut( calledleaky gut ), so that the gut lining gets small holes and food particles that don't belong there can get into the bloodstream.
The body then also forms an inflammation, which leads to water retention, which means that you don't lose weight. Inflammation in the bowel can definitely prevent you from losing weight.
What can also happen is that if you are constipated, this means that the stool stays in your body longer than it should. There are toxins in the stool because they need to be removed and excreted and if the stool stays longer than it should, these toxins can be reabsorbed (transported back into the body). The more toxins are floating around in your body, the more difficult it will be for you to lose weight. This may well be a reason, because there are more people are more constipated than you think.
If the intestinal flora or the pH value are not right, it can also happen that food is not broken down properly and therefore the nutrients that are supposed to boost your metabolism do not arrive at all. This in turn means that you can't lose weight properly.
Another point is that certain conditions in the gut can also cause you to be constantly very hungry and therefore eat too much. For example, a fungal disease (e.g. Candida fungus) can certainly cause you to crave something sweet. And sweets in turn lead to high insulin levels, etc.
And then there are also intestinal bacteria that can produce energy from dietary fiber themselves. Fiber is not actually digested in the body, but these bacteria can break down the fiber and produce sugar from it. This means that you get more out of your food (i.e. you are a good food utilizer), but also that although you eat little, you can gain weight from it.
It is therefore definitely worth eating in a gut-friendly way. This will result in you losing weight at the same time - many participants in my online course Darmglück have already confirmed this.
It was not the primary goal to lose weight, but some participants were so enthusiastic that they lost a few kilos anyway. One participant even lost 10 kilos just by eating a healthy diet for her gut. Without counting calories, without weighing the quantities etc. And she even infected her family with it and they lost weight too. I thought that was really, really great!
How you can eat a gut-friendly dietNow
you're probably asking yourself 'What does a gut-friendly diet look like? What can I do if I really want to lose weight? I have put together the most important tips (from my point of view) that will help you lose weight on the one hand, but are also good for your gut on the other.Point 1 (you've probably heard this from me quite often if you've been following me for a while):
You should really eat real natural food and no industrial products, no convenience products; no products that contain hydrogenated fats, colorants, preservatives, etc., because these mess up the body's signals and the intestinal flora. Even if it says on the label that it contains no calories or similar, it won't help you to get your metabolism going.
Point 2 is:
You should eat foods that keep your sugar levels low. That's why half of your plate should consist of vegetables. Vegetables are also carbohydrates, but they contain a lot of water and little sugar. They help fill you up, provide nutrients and give your gut good fiber. I highly recommend that if you want to lose weight, half of your plate should consist of vegetables. Then add a good source of protein and high-quality, good fats.
Because the fats help you to feel full and help to boost fat burning. I would really reduce starch products (rice, potatoes, pasta, etc.) to a minimum, or even give them up completely for the time being.
If you say you've tried to lose weight many times and it hasn't worked, then try leaving these starch products out for a while. It's not forever! We want to find out how you can lose weight, even though you've already done a lot. have tried. It is often the case that you may have done things along the lines, but never really consistently. It helps to simply cut out starch products for 14 days, for example. Sugar anyway (that goes without saying).
Incidentally, alcohol also interrupts the fat-burning process. Not only because of the sugar, but alcohol is considered a poison by the body. The next tip is: you should eat three meals a day if you want to lose weight. Because (as already mentioned) if you eat more often during the day, you keep stimulating your insulin levels and you can't lose weight if your insulin levels are high.
I recommend that you take a 4-5 hour break between meals. There are people who don't eat at all in the morning - that can work too! But I think it works quite well if you eat three times a day, then you don't get hungry. The three meals a day are very beneficial for the intestines because they need time to recover. Your digestive organs also need time to recover and so it's quite beneficial for the whole system. If you're thinking 'Oh then I'll always be hungry' - if you put together your diet as I've told you (lots of vegetables, good protein, good fats, no fast carbohydrates) then you won't get hungry. I can pretty much guarantee that!
Next point is:
if you really have persistent weight problems (I'm not talking to people who have never changed their diet, but to those who eat very healthily and still don't lose weight), then I would recommend that you cut out dairy products completely for 4 weeks. Even the milk in your coffee! A small sip of milk a day can trigger a problem - it doesn't have to, but it can.
If you've already tried everything anyway, it won't hurt you to try this too. I would leave out milk completely and wheat. I told you to leave out starch products anyway, but especially wheat.
Next point:
Drink water. It is very beneficial if you want to lose weight. Rule of thumb: 30ml per kg body weight. For example, if you weigh 60 kilos, you should drink 1.8 liters per day. I would really recommend that you drink water. No zero drinks, or apple spritzer, and not necessarily tea either. When losing weight, it is really important that you drink enough water. This water transports nutrients to where they need to go and it also removes toxins. You won't believe it, but I've actually had clients who have lost weight by drinking water alone!
As well as food, attitude is also importantThere
is one last important point you should look at when it comes to 'sluggish weight loss'. It's your attitude, your lifestyle, your beliefs - these things can prevent you from losing weight because you are constantly under tension and stress. Stress at work, excessive demands, whatever, comes from wrong mechanisms that we have trained ourselves to use and very often also have to do with our thinking or our ability to set boundaries, say no, etc.These are immensely important points that need to be considered. I've already done podcast episodes on this. One (last episode) was about self-worth and what that has to do with losing weight and in the episode before that I talked about Setting goals and targets. These things definitely have a huge impact on losing weight! It's also about motivation and making lasting changes.
This is not directly related to the gut, but ultimately, in my opinion, almost everything has something to do with the gut, because emotions also have a connection with the gut.
I hope I was able to give you a little inspiration with these points to make sure that you eat a gut-friendly diet. Not only because of intestinal problems, but also because of weight problems or inflammation. There are so many reasons why a beneficial diet for the gut is so important. F
f you don't know exactly how to start, or you would like some support, take a look at our online course 'Gut Happiness' - the next round starts in a few weeks. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode next week of the Darmglück podcast! See you then!
Now I recommend you subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you like what you hear, I'd really appreciate a review on iTunes or Apple Podcast. Because these reviews also help other people find the podcast so we can spread the knowledge about gut and health more.
