By Dr. Alethea Eller
Have you wondered, “Maybe this is just how God made me?” Yes, it is possible that you may be on a quest of perfection. It is also very possible that your body is changeable. Read on.
Your body functions on a “divine design”. Your body perceives stimuli and responds accordingly, just as it was created to do. You are an endless chain of reactions to your internal and external environment.
When you eat more food, than your body can use at the time, your body stores the energy as fat. This is an example of response to external stimuli. It is a normal response to normal stimuli of too many calories. Many times, this is the only thing people consider when they are attempting to lose weight. Eat less, right?
Wrong! There is much more going on when you look at the “divine design” of your body. Your internal stimuli have a significant impact in causing excess weight. For example: You feel overwhelmed by stress and cannot seem to find joy in your day. Your body’s reaction to this internal environment is to increase stress hormones. By design, an increase in stress hormones will decrease restful sleep, deplete serotonin, cause digestion problems and the real clincher: stress hormones contribute to weight gain in the midsection that does not seem to respond to diet and exercise.
Telling an overweight individual to “eat less” only takes into consideration the first cause of “external stimuli”, making the assumption that they have continually eaten more calories than their body needs. As a physician, I have seen active patients in their 20’s that will gain fat eating under 1000 calories. Clearly this is not an issue of calories. What happens to that individual if “by design” their body is reacting to stress as the primary reason for weight issues?
Most end up incredibly frustrated! They keep trying to hyper-control their diet however their body seems to be just fine on extremely low calories. There is often more to the story if you have this continuous weight struggle. Your body is being told to store fat by your internal stimuli.
You are an amazing and efficient creation!
Your health and vitality rests on addressing your entire picture of health!
Dr. Eller practices in Chesterfield at Innovative Health Partners. To discuss this topic further with Dr. Eller visit www.innovativehp.com