Could THIS Be Sabotaging Your Weight Loss Efforts?

Hey there, it's Dr Angela!

I wanted to talk to you today about something that may surprise you. I see this happen all the time. People come into my weight loss clinic and they've been doing great. They've been planning their meals, preparing ahead, taking food with them. They're on focus, they're on track, they're exercising regularly and yet we don't see any fat loss and they're wondering what's going on here?

Why am I not losing weight?

And I found something that is oftentimes the cause of this that you might not think about. And that's what I want to talk to you about today.

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If you don't know me, I'm a medical weight loss specialist practicing in Olympia, Washington and I am the creator and founder of Journey Beyond Weight Loss, an online program designed to help people lose weight and keep it off.

So what is it that can cause problems with weight loss without you recognizing it? And that is alcohol! Alcohol, not just wine, but any kind of alcohol!

And I'm going to tell you the science behind this. I just learned this a few years ago in an obesity medicine conference. We had a lecture by a guy who was teaching about fat cell physiology and he told us that every molecule of alcohol that you drink goes straight to your liver and gets turned into triglyceride fat. And so you can do really, really well all week long eating, very consistently planning meals, preparing, had all of that good stuff that is necessary and then go out for happy hour on Friday night, have two or three glasses of wine or a beer or something like that. And you can replace the fat that you have lost all week just with that little bit of alcohol.

Frankly, I was really surprised when I heard that. And yet at the same time, it made perfect sense to me because I have noticed that in my patients who drink alcohol regularly, weight loss is slow. And that has to be one of the reasons. So when I discovered that - that really curtailed my wine drinking quite a bit.

You know, we have been told for decades now that drinking alcohol, drinking red wine is good for you, that red wine has resveratrol in it. That it's not there in white wine, but it's there in red wine. And so I was consistently drinking a glass of red wine every night thinking that it was good for me. And it turns out that that alcohol is just replacing fat that you would otherwise have lost. So that's one thing to know about alcohol intake.

The other thing to know about alcohol is that it can really dampen the executive part of your brain. Your food decisions are made by different parts of the brain. What's most often in charge for most people is the caveman brain. That's the primitive brain, the brain that is in charge of making sure that you don't starve to death. And because up until only very recently in evolutionary history, has there ever been anything other than a lack of food? Your caveman brain is all about getting the food when they see it and going for it. And so that part of your brain - you're always kind of trying to temper that.

You have another part of your brain here, the prefrontal cortex, that is the seat of the executive functions of the brain. Those are the functions of the brain that are involved in value based decisions, longterm thinking, that sort of thing. And so what alcohol does is it puts the executive brain to sleep. So then the caveman is in charge! So you end up eating a lot more than you were planning to if you're drinking alcohol.

I want you to just be aware of that. I'm not saying don't drink alcohol. I'm saying be cautious when you drink alcohol. What I do is if I'm going to have a glass of wine, I'll have A glass of wine. And usually what I will do is order a club soda with lime and a little splash of cranberry. That's a really pretty drink. And and it can make it feel special. Sometimes I'll order just a decaf coffee or some herbal tea, that sort of thing, if I'm out. I've gotten much less used to drinking wine regularly. And when I do drink wine, I make sure it's a good quality wine, and I pay attention and I really enjoy it.

One thing to know there are people, many people who really struggle to stop at a glass - at one glass of wine. And if you're somebody who you find that you drink a little bit and then it's really hard to stop, there might be a dependency going on. And what I want you to know about that is with alcohol dependency, there's genetics involved there. Don't be ashamed about it at all. It's not something that is a willpower problem at all. Alcohol dependence is real and the brain craves it and needs it. And so if you find that the idea of only having one glass of wine or maybe not drinking except on special occasions, if you find that that's a difficult thought for you, there could be a dependence going on. And so I would suggest you can email me, you can send me a Facebook message or something like that. Just let me know if you're having any problems like that and I will get you the help you need. Again, no shame at all.

You do want to make sure that we stay healthy and that we eat the right amounts of food at the right times. And you want to make sure that you're not replacing lost fat with alcohol. Okay? So that's what you're going to do to really help to keep that weight off, keep yourself healthy.

Also, I have a a document that I created called "Five Dirty Little Secrets of the Food Industry." We are now entering the sugar season, I call it. And so if you're struggling with sugar and you want to know what the five dirty secrets of the food industry are, just click the link below. Once you know what the food industry is up to, it makes it a lot easier to kind of stay away from their stuff!

So that's all for today. I will see you again next week and I'll talk to you soon.

Bye. Bye.
To Your Health, Dr. Angela

journeybeyondweightloss.com

Download your copy of Five Dirty Little Secrets the Food Industry Doesn’t Want You To Know