7 Science-Backed Ways To Lose Stubborn Body Fat
Precision medicine offers targeted solutions that can help you get rid of stubborn body fat. Read on to learn more.
Understanding Unique Modifiers That May Help Keep Stubborn Fat Away
1. Reclaim Your Metabolism
Age is not the sole dictator of health. It’s possible for a 60-year-old to be in better health than a 25-year-old young adult.
Unfortunately, age-related deterioration can happen over time, especially if there are lifestyle challenges (ex: poor sleeping habits, unhealthy diet, absence of regular exercise, or chronic stress and anxiety). For most people, metabolism and hormones will begin to decline in their 30s.
Aging into your 30’s and beyond will cause dynamic metabolic and hormonal alterations that lead to common diseases of aging (many of which involve weight gain). That’s why it’s essential to conduct a baseline health analysis in your 20s or late teens before these changes begin.
In fact, with a precision health analysis, various health conditions can be detected as early as your grade school years. Once they’re identified, precision health doctors can use physiological interventions to help you reclaim your metabolism.
When you maintain optimal metabolism function, you may reverse symptoms of aging and prevent various age-related disorders such as:
- Diabetes
- Increase in visceral fat
- A decrease in lean muscle
- Stroke
- Osteoporosis
- Cancer
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Alzheimer’s Disease
Precision health analysis often involves measuring the following variables:
- Glucose levels – the amount of sugar in your blood.
- Cholesterol levels – concentration fat-like substances in your blood.
- Hormone levels – active hormone levels in your body.
- Kidney function – determines how well the kidneys work.
- Liver function – determines how well the liver works.
- VO2 max – refers to the maximum amount of oxygen you can use during exercise
- Body composition analysis – describes how much of your body is made up of fat, protein, minerals, or water.
- Telomeres – a chromosome component which tells you how well you’re aging.
- Biomarkers – a measurable indicator of the progression of diseases.
By combining the results of multiple lab tests, a precision health analysis can help determine your biological age in relation to your chronological age.
What is your chronological age? This is your age based on your birthday. Basically, it’s the number of years you’ve lived.
What is your biological age? This is your age based on your physiology. It refers to how well your body functions in relation to your chronological age.
Tip: There might be something going on at a cellular level if you aren’t doing anything drastically different from your siblings and friends, but you keep gaining weight. Genetically driven changes may be causing your weight gain, and precision medicine can help diagnose and manage these changes.
2. Figure Out How Your Body Handles Sugar
How your body metabolizes sugar can explain why it’s hard to lose stubborn fat in critical zones (especially around your midsection). This is something that you can assess even as a child or a teenager.
Insulin is an anabolic hormone, so it helps your body store fat. If there’s an imbalance between insulin and glucose, weight gain may be inevitable—even if you’re eating a balanced diet and getting regular exercise.
So it’s important to figure out how efficiently your body processes sugar and if you’re at risk for diabetes. Precision health doctors can help determine this by administering an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) or using a Continuous Glucose Monitor (OGM).
What is an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT)? This test helps determine how quickly your body clears glucose from your blood. It involves fasting from food for a specified period.
What is a Continuous Glucose Monitor (OGM)? This is a device that measures glucose levels at regular intervals throughout the day. It helps you see the immediate effects of various foods on sugar levels.
3. Evaluate Free and Total Hormone Levels
Hormones play a vital role in weight regulation, so hormonal imbalances can contribute to weight gain. For example, low testosterone in women and men may lead to an accumulation of fat around the trunk.
Low levels of testosterone also make it more difficult to build lean muscle and increase your metabolism. That’s why it’s essential to evaluate the free and total testosterone levels.
Free hormone levels refer to the level of active hormones operating in your body, while total hormone levels refer to protein-bound, inactive hormones. Apart from testosterone, it’s also vital to examine thyroid functioning by measuring thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels, free thyroxine (T4) levels, and free triiodothyronine (T3) levels.
T3 and T4 regulate your body’s ability to store and use energy. More often than not, traditional doctors only measure the TSH level. It’s impossible to determine thyroid activity (or inactivity) without looking at the free levels as well.
4. Understand Sex and Hormonal Expression
There are also special considerations that your doctors will need to take into account if you are going through voluntary hormone therapy (ex: cross-sex hormone therapy). Read more about this here.
RELATED: Experience our Precision Health Analysis & Program
5. Factor in Your Family History
Your family history can provide your doctors with critical information that will help them understand the status of your health.
What is family history? Many aspects of your genome are never expressed. So family history is the expression of what is woven into your genetic makeup.
Detailed family history can help your doctors create a more precise health trajectory. There are a variety of medical conditions that you can inherit from your family.
Here are a few examples:
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Parkinson’s disease
- Cardiovascular disease
- Diabetes
- Cancer
- Osteoporosis
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Depression
- Bipolar disorder
- Anxiety
- Fertility issues
Sometimes, these conditions are never diagnosed, but they exist in your genetic makeup. Fortunately, your genes don’t have to be your destiny. If you catch them early enough, the reversal of potential gene expressions is possible.
Tip: To gain insight on your potential health trajectory, ask your parents what medication they’re taking. If you don’t have access to your biological parents, you have most of the data you need in your body already—all you need is a precision health doctor to decode it (more on this here).
6. Dive Into Your Genomes
Your genomes will shed light on how your metabolism functions. By diving into your genomes, your doctors can better understand how your body metabolizes certain medications and supplements.
Your genomes will also tell you if you’re at risk for diseases that make it more challenging to lose weight. For example, metabolic syndrome may be a part of your genetic makeup. Also, scientists discovered a fat mass and obesity-associated gene (FTO) that regulates appetite and can cause overeating.
7. Consider the Effects of Medications
Weight gain may be caused by a combination of certain medications and genetic predispositions. For example, a 25-year-old woman with a family history of diabetes may unknowingly stimulate the emergence of diabetes by taking testosterone-suppressing oral contraceptive pills (just like it does when you’re in your 30s).
Apart from oral contraceptive pills, certain antidepressants and sleep aids may also cause weight gain. Precision health doctors can explore these interactions to figure out if it’s causing you to keep all that stubborn body fat. They can also offer alternative solutions that will help prevent weight gain.
You don’t have to live with stubborn body fat. If dieting and exercise don’t seem to work, then maybe it’s time to dig a little deeper.
Precision medicine offers a unique and targeted approach to getting rid of stubborn body fat. If you’re interested in learning more about it, contact them today.
What remedies have worked for you? Share with us in the comments.
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