Finding your healthy weight

by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP

As much as my patients know they should eat well, the concern that looms largest for many is their weight. Whatever their age and station, most women care deeply about what they look like. As a consequence, they battle with their weight, adopting any number of extreme unhealthy patterns over the course of their lifetimes to keep things “in check.”

The truth is that when your weight changes dramatically from what’s normal for you, or when it’s continually moving up or down no matter what you do to try to change it, it’s often a signal that something isn’t working right. It can be a red flag telling you you’re under physical or emotional stress of some kind — stress you might not even recognize! It could be something as simple as having too little time to eat regular meals, or it could be years of small imbalances piling up in your body until some added stress puts you over the top — it’s different for everyone.

From my point of view, whether a woman is overweight or underweight, the first thing she can do for herself is befriend her body. Women are often too critical of the weight level that their bodies find most comfortable. Whether you look in the mirror and see yourself as “too much” or “too little,” obsessing about the extra curves (or the lack of them) is a major obstacle to finding your healthy weight.

The next hurdle to overcome is the “calories-in, calories-out” myth. Women who struggle with issues of unexpected weight change (whether it’s gain or loss) may intuitively know that something is out of balance in their bodies, but may not “hear” what her body is telling her over the social messages we get all the time. These messages tell us, If you’re gaining weight, it’s because you’re not trying hard enough to control yourself or If you’re that thin, you must have some kind of eating disorder (even as women who are every bit as thin are celebrated for their beauty on magazine covers).

For some women, stress and imbalance mean weight gain. Our bodies often hold extra weight when something is wrong — it’s a built-in protection that we evolved to ensure survival. Among our ancient ancestors, long-term stress was often related to scarcity of good food, so the body’s response of storing energy as fat could be life-saving. In the modern world, survival isn’t usually the issue, but our bodies still react as if it is. Ironically, this “life preserver” can, over the long run, threaten our health — we’ve all heard the long litany of diseases related to excess weight.

On the other end of the spectrum are the women whose core imbalance doesn’t show up in excess weight but in an unhealthy level of thinness. The body does whatever it needs to in order to maintain homeostasis, and these women are often carrying such high levels of stress, worry, and adrenal overload that they burn up everything they take in. Overly thin women struggle to provide their bodies enough nutritional support to build muscle, keep their bones strong and healthy, and fight off infections. It’s sad but true that these women are just as unhealthy, or even more unhealthy, than women carrying too much weight.

We can hold extra weight — or be unable to gain weight — during periods of hormonal imbalance, adrenal fatigue, digestive disorders, neurotransmitter imbalances, toxicity, and inflammation, just to name a few. Weight gain or loss can also be related to imbalance in our life choices. Exercising too much or too little, over — or under — emphasizing specific food groups so that we don’t have a balanced diet — even imbalances in our relationships or emotional lives can affect our weight!

Whether your goal is to lose weight or gain it, a key starting point is to recognize where your life and health are out of balance. Once you find and heal your core imbalance, your body weight will stabilize at the level that is comfortable for your body.

The happy news for many women is that achieving a natural and healthy weight is not about restricting yourself or testing your willpower. It’s about addressing any imbalances and giving your body what it needs: fresh, whole foods, plenty of restorative exercise and rest, and the foundational support of quality vitamins and minerals. Our patients and Personal Program Members tell us this approach beats any weight loss program or weight loss plan they’ve tried in the past.

Take a look at the information we have on achieving your healthy weight, naturally. We hope your perspective on “dieting” — and eating in general — changes for the better.

Our most popular resources on weight loss

To access an article, just choose from the list of excerpts below. To find more articles, use the search function below. Don’t see a topic that’s important to you? Let us know.

• Core Balance Diet
  Many women who struggle with excess weight wonder why they can’t seem to lose it. Marcelle Pick talks about the reasons for toxic weight gain and how to heal core imbalances so you can lose weight.
• Natural weight loss
  If you want your weight loss to last, you have to shed those unwanted pounds “from the inside out.” Here is our effective holistic approach — including the vital emotional piece.
• Emotional eating
  Understand the emotional underpinnings that lie at the foundation of our eating patterns — both healthy and unhealthy. Learn the signs of emotional eating and take the first step to address and reverse its adverse effects.
• Essential nutrition for healthy weight
  Women to Women explains how deficiencies in some essential nutrients can contribute to weight gain.
• The trouble with fad diets
  We live in a diet culture, where countless numbers of all ages devote themselves to the latest craze. But weight loss is different for women than it is for men, and depending upon your age, fad diets rarely work — and can even significantly harm you. Let’s talk about why, then look at how you can lose weight in a healthy way — and keep it off.
• The set point
  Your optimal weight range was pre-programmed in utero. That’s right — you did not actually choose this figure! But how did the set point evolve and why... and did you know you can fine-tune yours?
• The truth about cholesterol and fat
  When it comes to human nutrition, we say fat is a good word.  From our heart to our brain, our reproductive organs to our skin, we depend on fat to grease the wheels. Read up here on the best fat you can eat, and where can you get it.
• Sugar substitutes and the danger of Splenda
  As humans we are biologically programmed to love sugar, leading us to seek out sweets in any form we can find them. Unfortunately, too much of it knocks our hormones off-balance. Find out how you can put sugar back in its proper place and in the process regain your health.
• Diet soda — how healthy is it?
  With the peculiar evolution and convergence of the soft drink and diet industries, consumption rates of soda pop and diet soda have soared in recent years. But a healthy weight and a healthy body come from supporting your body’s natural balance, and the chemicals in soda compromise that balance. Here is a guide to making informed choices about soda for you and your family.
• High-fructose corn syrup
  Recent studies indicate that there are differences in the way our bodies respond to different forms of sugar. With high-fructose corn syrup and other corn sweeteners overtaking regular sugar on mainstream grocery shelves, this could be contributing to the rapid rise in obesity rates. Here’s some information that will help you prevent HFCS from troubling your sweet tooth.
• Body Mass Index (BMI)
  A quick look at the BMI, bioimpedence, and waist-to-hip ratio models for determining your optimal weight.
• Inside the Core Balance Diet — an interview with author Marcelle Pick
  Many women find themselves unable to lose weight or keep weight off because of hidden health problems. Learn about the Core Balance Diet in this Women to Women interview with Marcelle Pick.

Our Personal Program for Core Balance is a great place to start

The Personal Program for Core Balance helps rebalance your body to promote natural and lasting weight loss. At the heart of our Program is The Core Balance Diet, an eating plan designed to provide the body with the foundation it needs to lose pounds along with the digestive and nutritional support needed to maintain a healthy weight.

• To learn more about the Program, go to How the Program works.
• To learn if the weight loss approach in the Personal Program for Core Balance will work for you, take our on-line Weight Loss Profile.
• To start taking control of your weight today, sign-up for a risk-free trial.
• If you have questions, don’t hesitate to call us toll-free at 1-800-798-7902. We’re here to listen and to help.

 

Original Publication Date: 11/14/2005
Last Modified: 08/17/2009
Principal Author: Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP