THE THYROID HORMONE FACTOR: UNLOCKING WEIGHT LOSS EASY WAY
The human body is nature’s marvel all by itself. Did you know that a small gland in the shape of a butterfly located at the front of your neck produces hormones that impacts the functioning of every organ and the most vital processes in the body? The thyroid gland produces hormones in the body that regulate the body’s energy consumption.
Your thyroid hormone controls a large portion of your body’s metabolic processes. Any malfunction in the thyroid hormone producing functions may cause disruptions with levels of metabolism in the body, which could have a severe impact on your weight, indirectly leading to other problems in the body. You could either be gaining weight rapidly, losing weight rapidly, or discover that reducing weight is more difficult than usual as there is a weight loss plateau.
Most people who plan their diets, don’t pay much attention to small things and that is why they do not think about how their thyroids and metabolism levels in the body can affect their efforts to lose weight. Most of the diet plans don’t see the broader picture. They focus on only one factor and that is cutting out calories from the diet is the most effective strategy to reduce weight.
Individuals who suffer from a condition called “hyperthyroidism” in the body, experience an overactive thyroid hormone, which causes their body’s metabolism levels to soar. In such cases chances of losing weight quickly increase. For those people who are overweight and want to lose weight quickly, this is good news. Though, on a long term, sustainable basis, this is harmful to your health.
Excessive weight loss because of a diseased condition in the body presents a set of different challenges to managing a healthy lifestyle. Those patients who have difficulty in maintaining their weight, suffer from body weaknesses and eye bulging, and doctors may need to administer special care for this type of illness.
On the contrary, the condition of “hypothyroidism” in the body operates in the opposite direction by slowing down metabolism levels to the point where the body rapidly puts on weight. Unlike “hyperthyroidism”, the condition of “hypothyroidism” results in a generalised bodily weakness. If ignored, it can also require particular care and pose a serious health risk in the long term.
While reducing calories is the biggest challenge that most people on their weight loss journey – just think of the folks who are fighting for their lives in the grocery store aisle over whether to buy that extra box of candy – some people suffer with the opposite issue. They consume too few calories as opposed to consuming too many, which is a problem in and of itself.
The easiest strategy that is recommended by most of the professionals and the media promoting fad diets, is to dump the calorie levels in the body by cutting them out from the food that we eat. The whole idea behind the strategy is that decreasing calories excessively will produce better results in the body.
Unfortunately, the human body does not operate in that manner. Though diets could benefit from calorie restriction, eating too few calories or cutting out the calories all of a sudden force the body to enter into a hoarding mode that causes the metabolism to slow down as a result of the diminished energy levels in the body.
When your body shifts into this state, your metabolism will be so slow that losing weight will be impossible. Here, the goal should be to cut calories in a rational manner without causing the body to slow down its metabolism. Only then would it be simpler and easier to lose weight.
Another issue in the body that might result from a slowed metabolism is that if you all of a sudden eat a satisfying, calorie-dense meal after the metabolism has slowed down dramatically, you are likely to acquire more weight due to the higher energy excess levels in the body. This is the precise reason why the body starts gaining weight once you chuck out the restrictive diet from the window.
Weight loss is nothing but a number and deals with common maths. If your scale measures your weight in pounds, divide the mass by a factor of 2.205 to determine how much you weigh in kilogrammes.
For e.g: If the scale reads 250 lbs, the weight in kilogrammes would be equal to (250/2.205) = 113.37 kgs.
On the other hand, if the scale measures your weight in kgs simply multiply your weight by the factor of 2.205 to get the reading in pounds.
For e.g: If the scale reads 120 kgs, the weight in pounds would be equal to (120 x 2.205) = 265 lbs.
Managing weight loss should be as simple as possible. In every meal, try to maintain 300 calories in the following percentages, 40% protein, 25% fat, and 35% carbs in your daily meal plan. For best effects, space out all meals throughout the day in the same proportion.
Though the actual calorie counting process is more complex includes various other factors like the age, sex, height, etc, the basic thumb rule gives an idea about the ideal weight that needs to be managed in the body.
Remember that the body has so many complex processes in its arsenal that it adapts to its condition even though it may be a simple computation of 300 calories to arrive at the figures. If you confuse the body’s processes by submitting it to harsh conditions, like restricting calories through food you can end up with outcomes you did not anticipate.
Managing a lifestyle should be as simple as possible and if you don’t understand the body and its processes, it is always better to seek the help of a professional to keep things simple. After all, it does not make sense to fret and fume over weight loss when it is really as simple as child’s play.
Managing an overall healthy lifestyle or slimming down, is dependent on positive habits, and managing those habits is the key to success in managing a healthy lifestyle that goes beyond slimming down. In real terms, the final battle for slimming down starts with the mind where habits are created for the foundation of a healthy lifestyle on a sustainable basis.