How’s your weight?

I’ve never been someone who puts weight on very easily.

I’ve been known to devour tubs of ice cream, and plates and plates of food without seeming to put on much weight at all.

Donna on the other hand feels she can put on weight by just looking at food and has to be far more careful to maintain a healthy weight (though when she was ill with Ulcerative Colitis it was the complete opposite – at times she was VERY underweight).

Whilst health is more important than weight, someone’s weight can be an important indicator in their overall health – whether that person is either overweight or underweight…

Underweight

For many people (not all, obviously), especially those with digestive health problems, being underweight is a real problem…

When suffering with your health you may lack appetite, and if you’re gut health is in a bad way anything you do eat can very often pass straight through you.

Also, inflammation can mean you don’t absorb so much in the way of nutrients and calories.

Over time (or sometimes quite rapidly) this leads to a large amount of weight loss to the point where it’s certainly not healthy.

Overweight

Excess weight can put a huge burden on your joints, back, and knees, leading to pain and difficulty moving.  

It can also affect how well all systems of the body work (leading to energy problems, digestive problems, hormonal issues, and more), lead to fatigue simply because moving around is so much more difficult with excess weight, and is linked with insulin resistance and diabetes.

What Can Be Done?

It’s hard to go into all the ins and outs of weight in a short email but here’s some of the main points to consider…

Inflammation

If inflammation is a factor in your weight, then the long-term goal should be to reduce the inflammation and get to the underlying causes of your problems.

By doing that the food you do eat will be much more effectively digested and absorbed, making weight loss and gain simpler.

Supplements

Whether overweight or underweight, the products in our Daily Health Bundle can support your overall health in many ways.

Amongst other things it contains our “Fish Oil Capsules” which are a great source of healthy fats, and our “Advanced Multi” – a really important product for overall health and avoiding nutrient deficiencies that can be such a common cause of symptoms.

Stress

If you are a chronically stressed then your body is in fight or flight mode and appropriate digestion of food, and use of calories and nutrients, will not be done effectively by your body.

Activity / Exercise

Your daily activity levels are important as that will be a big factor in how many calories you burn. 

If you are very underweight you may need to consider if you are doing too much activity / exercise and, conversely, if you are overweight then are you doing enough (even some short simple walks can be a good starting point if you are able to).

Food / Calories

Finally, the food you eat is critical as it provides important nutrients and calories.

Underweight people likely need to eat more calories each day, and overweight people less (that’s a generalisation, but is broadly true).

One of the easiest ways to adjust your calorie intake is through the fats you eat.

This is because fats are higher in calories per gram than carbs and protein.

Therefore, underweight people should likely be eating (if tolerated!) more of things such as avocados, tinned coconut milk, nuts, eggs, red meat, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil and oily fish (or fish oil).

Find out more about our Daily Health Bundle by clicking here.