Why is Your Body
Refusing to Lose Weight?
By Dr. Ruby Ann B. Magpantay,
Associate Medical Director, Aegle Wellness Center
Have you ever felt like losing weight is impossible? You may have tried everything from reducing calories and sugar to increasing protein intake. You’ve cut down on processed foods, tried all sorts of diets, and hit the gym three to four times a week. If you’ve been tirelessly trying to lose weight and have not been successful, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Almost everyone hits a roadblock at some point during their weight-loss journey, but eventually, most overcome that plateau and continue losing weight. But when you stay consistently on course and yet weeks—even months—go by without the scale moving, that’s what you call weight-loss resistance.
Weight-loss resistance is a classification for an entire category of people who, due to certain physiological imbalances, are unable to lose fat through the traditional methods of healthy diet and regular exercise.
The human body involves an interplay of chemistry, and the calories-in-calories-out model is unfortunately outdated because it fails to consider the hidden dynamics that can affect fat loss.
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What other factors influence your ability to lose weight?
Certain diseases, disorders, and deficiencies can also make weight loss extremely difficult, including:
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Lipedema: Believed to affect nearly one in nine women worldwide, this condition causes a woman’s hips and legs to accumulate excess fat that is extremely difficult to lose.
Hypothyroidism: Low levels of thyroid hormones lead to a slowdown in metabolism that can impede weight-loss efforts.
Estrogen Dominance: A hormonal condition wherein the body has excess estrogen as compared to other hormones. This condition causes a lot of fat and water accumulation in the body.
Androgen Imbalance: A hormonal condition wherein the hormones testosterone and DHEA are both low, leading to loss of lean muscle and fat replacement. On the other hand, a condition called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), can cause an excess of testosterone levels.
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS): This condition is characterized by insulin resistance and hormonally driven fat accumulation in the abdomen. It’s believed to affect up to 21% of reproductive-aged women.
Insulin resistance: Insulin is a fat-storage hormone. When we eat, insulin increases, signaling our body to store some of this food energy as fat for later use. When blood glucose levels rise after a meal, your pancreas releases insulin to clear glucose from your bloodstream into your cells for immediate use, or to your liver and muscles to utilize later. However, in a state of insulin resistance, your muscles, fat, and liver don’t utilize blood sugar.
Vitamin D deficiency: Recent studies have discovered that Vitamin D deficiency is linked to abdominal obesity, specifically visceral fat accumulation in women.
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How can Aegle help you?
Each person’s body responds differently to weight loss. At Aegle Wellness Center, we can accurately measure your body’s hormonal imbalances and vitamin deficiencies with our in-house laboratory tests. Following on from this, Aegle doctors evaluate and consult with each individual regarding their weight concerns.
For individuals looking for new nutrition plans, Aegle nutritionists are readily available to answer your dietary and fitness concerns. You can learn more about the right diet plan for you with our programs under Aegle Nutrition Sciences, which is designed to deliver personalized, science-based, comprehensive, and effective methods of improving one’s health through nutrition. It focuses on the client’s macro- and micronutrient needs with consideration of current physical activities, medical history, food habits, and food preferences to achieve our clients’ personal nutrition and fitness goals. This includes fitness training sessions in The City Club’s fully equipped gym with our in-house trainers, who will help you execute a bespoke exercise regimen developed with an eye towards a holistic approach to weight loss.
While there are many potential obstacles in losing weight, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all treatment that works for all weight loss-resistant individuals. The key is to uncover your own specific chemical imbalance or physiological quirks, which Aegle accomplishes via our complete diagnostic workups, so that your doctor and nutritionist can target them with a plan tailored for you. At Aegle Wellness Center, we ensure that each individual is equipped with the right mindset and set of skills to provide optimal results.
Dr. Ruby Ann Bermudez-Magpantay
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Dr. Bermudez-Magpantay is nationally and internationally acknowledged as a “Master of Science in Preventive Medicine" having undergone the first European training towards a qualified academic degree with an international accreditation in clinical medicine. She believes that by having a holistic approach to, and a complete balance within, the body’s system, better physical and emotional well-being is truly achieved.
She became focused on intensified medical research for earlier diagnosis of age-related endemic diseases such as heart failure, arteriosclerosis, arthrosis and osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, malignant cancers, and age-related dementia by allowing early analysis of individual risk factors such as genetic predisposition, individual lifestyle, and living environment. She is also experienced in targeting modern human struggles such as weight loss, fatigue, depression, anxiety, stress resistance and management, sleeping difficulties, sexual problems, and many more.