How to Use Metabolic Cycle for Weight Loss
By William Lovett, M.D.
As we mentioned in part one, metabolism is a dynamic state that is unique to everyone. Think of it like your energy fingerprint – everyone has them, but they are all one-of-a-kind. Unlike fingerprints, however, your metabolism is very complex and evolves every minute of the day to keep your body up and running.
When it comes to weight loss, most people base their success or failure on their metabolism. How often have you heard someone trying to lose weight say “I have a poor metabolism” or someone skinny saying “I have a great metabolism”? It’s common to hear, but let’s break down why it works that way.
Weight Loss Diets vs. Ketogenic Diets
Metabolism has a lot to do with how much fat is stored and how much is burned. A lot of fad diets using the term “weight loss” focus on the total weight lost, not necessarily how much of your fat mass you’ve reduced. While they may guarantee weight loss, they often sacrifice water weight and muscle mass, which in turn actually decreases your overall metabolism.
Our providers, on the other hand, turn to a Ketogenic Diet – one that uses a unique and natural metabolic process called ketosis. What does this mean? Well, when your body doesn’t have enough energy in the form of glucose, stored fat is used as fuel instead, producing a byproduct called ketones. When monitored by professionals and done in moderation, these ketones can be eliminated from your body. This allows your body to maintain your water weight and muscle mass, which is important because muscle mass helps maintain a higher metabolism. So, in Ketogenic Diets, you lose fat mass with minimal loss in water weight and muscle mass.
Designing a Metabolic Weight Loss Diet Plan
Not all bodies are created equal. As simple as it sounds, this is something commercial weight loss programs (and fad diets) often get wrong. Even if they “personalize” your nutrition plan, they fail to account for your specific metabolism and any underlying health issues.
On the other hand, the first step in any well-designed, medically-supervised diet plan is to examine your metabolism and improve those unique components that prevent weight loss. By optimizing your body and health needs, we can help understand what’s going on and create the best metabolism and metabolic burn rate.
To set you up for weight loss success, we recommend you take the following tests to understand underlying issues:
- NMR Panel (from LabCorp) – In addition to giving the usual lipid levels, it also gives you the Small Particle LDL, which is the only particle of the LDL that is known to cause heart disease. It also provides you with your Lipoprotein-Insulin Resistance Score (LP-IR score), which is a marker of insulin resistance. Elevated insulin resistance prevents you from losing weight, but this test is often ignored in western medicine. The LP-IR test shows insulin resistance long before your blood sugar or Hemoglobin A1C rises. Treating this early significantly improves your weight loss journey.
- Complete Thyroid Panel – The thyroid runs your metabolism in every single cell in your body. An “average” number is not good enough, because it often means that your thyroid is not functioning at your optimal level. This panel will test your TSH (an often poor indicator of thyroid function), your Free T3 (the most active thyroid hormone), and your Free T4.
- Thyroid Peroxidase Antibody (TPO) Level – One in 15 of our clients will have thyroid labs in the “normal” range, but will have an elevated TPO. This means they actually have antibodies against their own thyroid. Most physicians won’t check for this even if their patients have every symptom of Hypothyroidism with normal thyroid lab results.
- DHEA Level – DHEA is an adrenal hormone that is associated with chronic fatigue, as well as an independent marker of cardiac disease risk.
- Vitamin D3 Level – People with low vitamin D3 levels have more difficulty losing weight because it acts more as a hormone than as a vitamin.
- Insulin Level – We check for insulin resistance, which can cause high cholesterol, high glucose, and high blood pressure.
- Testosterone Levels – These are especially important for both men and women over 40, as low testosterone causes fatigue, foggy thinking, irritability, increased fat mass, and decreased muscle mass.
Once our providers examine these 7 tests, they are able to create an individualized nutrition plan for you that takes in your ideal protein, carbohydrate, and fat content needs. Our metabolic and weight loss experts will optimize your body for optimal ketotic weight loss, and you’ll begin your journey with our dietitian, Alyssa.
How do I get started with weight loss?
If you are interested in a custom-tailored plan for your unique weight loss goals, please fill out our online consultation form to get started. We are here to help you feel better, live better, and look better!
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