The 2 most common complaints we hear in our clinical practice are…
1) Fatigue / Low Energy… I don’t have the energy I want. This may feel like running out of gas after lunch. Lacking energy to work out even though you know you need to. Feeling like you can’t keep up with your kids. Feeling “Foggy” and out of gas.
2) I can’t lose weight! Despite Eating less and/or exercising more, the pounds won’t budge. I hear this all the time. Sometimes it is a simple equation of what you are eating and how you are moving, but many times there is more to the story.
If you are feeling like that, there is hope! How can you get your energy back and lose the weight?
In our office, we specialize in custom health care. Meaning that we want to tailor the solution for you, specifically. There are a lot of well-meaning and quite frankly, good, programs out there. They are based on sound information of eating a healthy diet and exercising. And they work GREAT if you are healthy and things are working like they should! The issue is that they don’t work if you have some underlying issues.
The problem is that many people are not metabolically healthy. The mitochondrial system is what is responsible for energy production. Quite frankly, this whole system is struggling in many people. This is why some people fail to see results even if they are doing all the things that should work… Eating a healthy diet, exercising, etc. If we have a situation where the energy production powerhouses, or Mitochondria, are not getting what they need, the end result is feeling tired and struggling to lose weight.
So, how do you tell if you have this issue and what do you do about it? The best test to assess the health of the mitochondria is something called an Organic Acids Test. It is a urine test that you can do at home that looks at certain markers that tell us whether your mitochondria are healthy or not. I will almost always combine this test with a Micronutrient test. A Micronutrient test is a blood test that looks at the nutrients that are necessary for Mitochondrial health. This way, if we find that there are issues, we can look specifically at what nutrients are missing and address those deficiencies. Here is a link to one of my favorite tests that I use in practice every day. I think everyone should have this test done!
If we see that Mitochondria function is poor and that the nutrients required to fix this are deficient, we can craft a strategy to replenish these nutrients and help repair the damage. Mitochondria can become damaged by things like toxic substances, mold, oxidative damage and many other factors. A low reserve of antioxidants like Glutathione, Alpha Lipoic Acid and Coq10 make this issue worse because they feed the energy production cycle and help reduce the oxidative damage that is continually happening as our body performs all the chemical reactions required to keep us alive and healthy.
Amino acid status is also super important. Certain amino acids, like carnitine help drive fat into the cells to be turned into energy. That is how we are supposed to create energy the majority of the time. If you are out running a 5K, the energy source changes, but for most of the day, your body is designed to convert fat into energy. If you don’t have enough carnitine or other co-factors in this conversion process, your body does not effectively burn fat. This is another big reason that we gain weight and lack energy. We aren’t converting the fat to energy and it’s not burning, so it gets packed on, mostly around the middle like a spare tire.
If all of this sounds super scientific, it’s because it is! It’s biochemistry at work in our bodies. When things are healthy and functioning properly, you don’t even think of it because it just works. It even keeps working for a bit while it’s broken. But, eventually it catches up to us. This is why the breakdown is usually noticed in adulthood. The breakdown has been happening for years, but as the lifestyle factors like sitting too much, not exercising, eating processed foods, skimping vegetables and exposure to toxins catch up to us, we start to see and feel the changes. We begin to struggle with fatigue and we can’t lose weight.
So, where do we begin if we are feeling like we lack energy and struggle to lose weight? When I work with clients in my Functional Medicine Practice, here is how I go about helping with this… I ask if the person has tried the things they know they need to do. This is a great starting point. I’m talking about exercise, a reasonably healthy diet full of whole, real foods. Drinking plenty of water. You don’t have to be perfect, but you shouldn’t be eating fast food multiple times per week and eating processed junk food every day. If you haven’t done these things, start there. Most of the clients who reach out to me have tried all of this. Many of them are hardly eating anything and gaining weight. They often don’t feel good enough to exercise, or they have tried it and not lost any weight, so they quit.
If you have done those things and don’t feel like they worked like you expected them to, it’s time to dig in with some testing. The Micronutrient and Organic Acids testing is a great way to look at Mitochondrial health and important nutrients that are lacking in your diet. Then we can find the root cause of the issue. More dieting, more exercise will not necessarily help if the energy production machine needs help getting started again. We begin by adding in the missing nutrients and gradually improving the diet. Then, when you feel better, we start to add back in exercise and it’s like a switch flipped. All of changes you are making start to work and you see progress… More Energy. Weight Loss. Less pain and inflammation.
If you are struggling with low energy and feeling like you are not losing weight the way you think you should, you would probably benefit from an analysis of your nutrient status and mitochondrial health. We work with people all of the US and have seen great results when nothing has seemed to work for them. The application of biochemistry and the functional lab tests to assess exactly what is going on in your body makes the difference. Like we said above, there are foundational things that are just plain good advice and will work when nutrient levels are adequate and mitochondria are healthy, but they lose their effectiveness when we have nutrient deficiencies and damaged or inadequate mitochondria.
If we can help you on this journey, feel free to schedule a Free phone consult with our team to talk about what’s going on so we can see if we can help. We are here to help!
