Looking to speed up your fat loss? Want more energy through the day? Well I might just have a solution for you.
When most people fail to get the results they want on their fat loss plan, they feel they have tried everything and get confused on what works and what doesn’t. Once it becomes to confusing all of a sudden it feels impossible that anything will work to lose body fat.
The good news! Once a well planned out nutrition plan and training program is done, you will find yourself back on track and seeing excellent results.
One overlooked issue that may be holding you back from losing body fat loss is gut health.
Gut health? This may or may not be a new concept to you but the fact is that most people never consider their gut health to be the issue when it comes to losing body fat and failing to do so.
Let’s take a closer look into how your gut health could be impacting your fat loss results and the steps that you can take to get it in shape so that you can start seeing the results that you desire.
Gut Health
Inside your gut there are billions of bacteria, both good and bad. You may know the term probiotics, which are good bacteria.
With current lifestyle and dietary habits, many people do not have enough of these good bacteria in their body.
This then allows harmful, bad bacteria to start taking over.
When this happens, health issues arise.
So what is your gut health responsible for?
Immune Health
Your immune health is impacted dramatically by your gut health.
80% of your immune system is found in your gut, so when these healthy good bacteria are not at optimal levels, this means that your immune system weakens, putting you at a higher risk for infection and disease.
Many studies over the years have shown that having too many bad bacteria in your body and not enough of the good bacteria has been linked to conditions such as autism, obesity, diabetes, allergies, depression, cancer, heart disease, fibromyalgia, eczema, as well as asthma.
Another increased risk related to a weakened immune system is inflammation that can impact your entire system when you don’t have enough good bacteria. Inflammation is a big issue in today’s world, thanks to processed foods, take aways, refined foods and an imbalance in omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3 fatty acids. There are more but these 4 topics are very common with a hectic busy lifestyle rushing around and not taking the time to prepare your nutrition appropriately.
When you have sufficient probiotics in your system, you can help to combat inflammation before it starts. When you don’t, you’ll be more susceptible to it.
Synthesis Of Hormones
Another issue with how your gut influences your health and well-being is the synthesis of hormones. The bacteria living in your gut are partly responsible for various hormones in the body, which will help with the overall development of your body, assist with regulating your metabolic rate and to assist with how effectively your body burns fat.
So to help your body lose that unwanted body fat its a good idea to assist your body and dose up that good bacteria.
Nutrient absorption
Good bacteria help assist your health and weight loss is by ensuring the nutrients that you are eating are being absorbed and broken down efficiently.
It doesn’t do you any justice eating foods high in all the right nutrients your body requires when it can’t absorb them efficiently. Failing to absorb nutrients such as the B vitamins, which are responsible for maintaining optimal energy levels and a metabolic rate, iron, which helps ward off fatigue during exercise, as well as calcium, which promotes strong bones and regular muscular contractions can have a dramatic effect of how you feel and perform.
So, if you are not getting healthy bacteria, there’s a very good chance that you are not reaping the benefits that your healthy eating plan provides.
Unfortunately this is a common issue with a lot of people wanting to improve their energy, improve overall health or lose body fat.
Bottom line: The state of your gut health will impact how your body feels and how it will function.
What impacts your gut health?
In today’s society, there are a few things that can influence the state of your gut. These include:
- The overuse of antibiotic medications which kill off both the bad as well as the good healthy bacteria
- The overconsumption of processed and fast foods, which the bad bacteria feed on
- The use of highly refined and sugary carbohydrates in the body, which also deprive the good bacteria of nutrition while feeding the bad bacteria
- Being in a state of chronic stress, which can reduce the numbers of good bacteria in the body
- The insufficient intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, which can provide probiotics, which are what probiotics feed on to multiply in number
All of these factors working together put our society on the whole at a very high risk of poor gut health. Unless of course, you take steps to combat this.
So what can be done to promote better overall gut health?
Here is a list of steps that you can take to help maximise your gut health and promote better weight loss and well-being.
Improve Your Gut Environment
Get rid of all processed foods
Choose whole foods from natural sources
Eat your fruits and vegetables
Increase your fibre intake
Fix you fatty acid ratio: 3:1 for (Omega6:Omega3)
Consider supplementing with a quality probiotic.
Supplementing with a probiotic is one of the fastest and easiest ways to rebuild your gut health.
Once your gut health is on track the results may surprise you
Want to find out more about how you can kickstart your health & fitness?