Inflammation And Weight Gain

If you are low in calcium, magnesium or vitamin D, you are more likely to be overweight. To absorb and use calcium and vitamin D, you need magnesium. These micronutrients work together. Calcium and vitamin D are involved in how your body regulates and stores fat. Getting enough calcium helps you burn calories. If you don’t get enough calcium, your body becomes more efficient at storing fat. Having sufficient calcium and vitamin D may also reduce abdominal fat. Our main source of vitamin D is sunlight. If you become low in vitamin D, this may signal to your body that winter has arrived, triggering a move to a winter metabolism. A winter metabolism may cause you to gain weight, as a larger body size provides more protection against cold. Fat also provides a way to store energy, as your body is designed to expect food scarcity in winter. It does not know that, nowadays, food is readily available all year round.

See Yourself

Many people are low in vitamin D, and some researchers have suggested that obesity would be less common if we had better vitamin D levels. But having a good vitamin D and calcium intake is not enough. You need sufficient magnesium to absorb them. If you answer Yes to three or more questions in any of the questionnaires, then you may be low in that nutrient, making it harder to lose weight. Are you low in calcium? Do you suffer from joint pain or arthritis? Do you have problems with tooth decay? Do you have high blood pressure? Do you get muscle cramps? Do you have problems sleeping? Do you feel nervous or have a lot of stress in your life? Are you low in magnesium? Do you have muscle weakness or fatigue? Do you have muscle spasms or cramps? Do you have high blood pressure? Do you have an irregular heartbeat? Do you have problems sleeping? Are you often constipated? Do you suffer from depression? Are your vitamin D levels low? Do you suffer from joint pain or arthritis? Do you have muscle cramps? Do you have problems with tooth decay? Do you suffer from backache? Are you losing your hair? Is your immune system low? Do you often get bugs? Do you have dark skin? Or do you rarely go out in the sun? If you are low in any of these nutrients, you are more likely to be overweight. Calcium and vitamin D are involved in how your body regulates and stores fat. If you don’t get enough calcium, your body becomes more efficient at storing fat. Our main source of vitamin D is sunshine on our skin. If you are low in vitamin D, your body may think winter is coming and store fat. Fat provides protection against the cold and serves as an energy source if food is scarce. However, inflammation may also have contributed to your weight gain. Many people are low in omega 3 fats.

The Night Of The Long Knives

In the main, Ella followed a pretty good diet. So she didn’t understand why she wasn’t several pounds lighter. She often felt low, and at those moments she wanted to reach for biscuits to cheer herself up. For this reason, she deliberately didn’t keep them in the house. The desire wasn’t enough for her to go to the shops, but if biscuits were in the cupboard, she couldn’t resist. Her thick chestnut hair that she’d always been so proud of was dry and lacklustre, as was her skin. She put this down to long hours at the computer. When we looked at Ella’s diet, there were a lot of healthy foods. However, it was very low in omega 3 fats. About a year ago she’d become vegetarian and no longer ate oily fish. The good news was that simple changes to her diet would significantly boost her omega 3 levels. This would help reduce her dry eyes and hair and, most importantly, improve her mood! She mainly wanted biscuits when she was feeling low.

How Low You Fall

Boosting her omega 3 levels could also help her burn fat, making it easier to lose those extra pounds. Your body can’t make Omega 3 fats, so you have to get them from your diet. Yet they are not in many foods, so you may be low in these essential fats. The more overweight you are, the lower your Omega 3 levels are likely to be. Omega 3 fats may help weight loss. They potentially reduce your appetite, boost your metabolism, increase the amount of fat you burn and reduce the amount of fat you store.3 They also reduce inflammation, which is helpful, as you now know that inflammation and weight gain are linked. When you have an infection or injury, your body has an acute inflammatory response. This assists in the healing process and afterwards dies down. In contrast, the type of inflammation associated with obesity is low intensity, but chronic. And it’s throughout your body. If you have low levels of inflammation inside your body, you may not even be aware of it. Yet, the more you have, the more weight you are likely to gain. This is because the inflammation caused by your fat cells can affect your response to insulin. If you carry excess fat, your fat cells, particularly those around your belly, release more inflammatory substances. Your inflammation causes you to gain weight and your weight gain causes more inflammation. It is not just the omega 3 fats that can affect your weight. But some fats have the opposite effect. Saturated fats, in meat and dairy, can be inflammatory and reduce your sensitivity to insulin. Omega 3 fats, on the other hand, are associated with reduced belly fat. If you answer Yes to three or more questions, then low omega 3 levels may be making it harder for you to lose weight. Do you suffer from inflammatory conditions such as arthritis? Is your immune system low? Do you often get any bugs? Do you have problems sleeping? Do you have dry skin? Do you have dry hair or dandruff?