Digestive Disorders that Cause Weight Gain and the Fad Diets that Don't Help

Digestive Disorders that Cause Weight Gain and the Fad Diets that Don't Help

There are several digestive disorders that cause weight gain: Crohn's disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), and ulcerative colitis, to name a few. These are all painful medical conditions in the digestive system that can affect body weight. Unfortunately, there are a bunch of diets out there that only make matters worse.

I am going to level with you. If your goal in trying to find out which digestive disorder you might have is to lose weight, you may need to adjust your mindset. There are a lot of products and services out there that prey on people who are struggling with body image. If you are here, that's not my thing. I want to talk about digestive problems that cause weight gain, but the goal is not to laser focus on your supposed 'weight problem' and then sell you something to solve that. I am all about body positivity and part of a movement I am a big fan of called "Health At Every Size" (HAES). 

I want to mention three quick fixes being offered to you to address your weight and show how they could potentially worsen your underlying gastrointestinal issues. Here they are:

1. The Cleanse – 'Eat this, not that. 'Drink this, not that. Juice this potion and drink it every day for a week.'

2. Portion Torture – 'Learn your BMI, caloric intake, and count those macros!'

3. Body Bootcamp – 'You can do anything for 15 minutes!' The 'fit it into your day' workout regimen you have started and stopped a hundred times.

Before we get into it, all of the three things above can be good in some respect. This isn't an all-or-none deal. We don't want to replace one line of dogmatic thinking with another. But I want to frame the conversation in a new light.

First, addressing a person's weight is just one subcategory in the bigger picture of your overall health. It is like a supporting actress, not the lead. Have you ever seen the movie "The Devil Wears Prada" with Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway? It's hilarious. Question: who is the lead actress in that film? It's Meryl. We love Anne; Anne is fantastic, a princess even. But Meryl is Meryl. We would have still loved "The Devil Wears Prada" with some other supporting actress. Your overall health is Meryl, and your weight is Anne; significant, but not the main focus.

Second, You have a specific body type that has nothing to do with your choices. Have you ever heard of Somatotypes? If not, it is a delineation of three different types of bodies, ectomorph (thin and lean), mesomorph (muscular), and endomorph (curvaceous). Guess what, you can't change which type you are. And, we mustn't let society (specifically America) dictate that one of these types is more beautiful than the others. My encouragement is to accept the body you have and seek to become the healthiest version of yourself possible. There is still another variable that significantly affects your body size, child-bearing. Many cultures around the world, past and present, consider body change due to carrying babies a badge of honor! Instead, we often read slogans like 'how to get rid of all that baby fat!' It is wrong.

If you landed here today because you are struggling with body shame over your weight, please reach out. I have my own story about learning to love my body while also paying attention to my gut's signals. I would love to grab 20 minutes with you and hear your story; it's completely FREE.

Third, let me say this, obesity is an actual medical condition that can be life-threatening and lead to a host of health problems. While I am a body-positive and Health at Every Size advocate, I am not part of the movement that denies the health ramifications of being massively overweight. If that is you, I am not shaming you at all, but I want to help you become healthy so that you are protected from long-term damage to your body like heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes that can lead to a higher risk of death. Obesity leads to many health conditions like colon cancer, liver disease, and thyroid disease.

Ok, let's get to it. These are all the things you have been told about how weight loss will solve the issues in your body. These three quick fixes all promise, 'If you do our weight loss program, you will look better, feel better, and be happier.' And hey, maybe there's some truth in it, BUT you could cause more significant problems by ignoring or not considering an underlying condition.

Three quick fixes that people commonly use to lose weight. 

1. The Cleanse

Cleanse diets are trendy, and I have done them all. Whole 30, Juice From the RAW, lemon & cayenne pepper Cleanse (which almost killed Kelly Kapoor), and the KETO diet (to name a few).

“Im gonna look amaaazzing…”

One massive problem with cleanse diets is that they are 'one-size-fits-all' solutions. That is bad because, remember, we want to appreciate multiple sizes and shapes of humans. But also, depending on what is going on in your gut, you might actually make the underlying problem worse.

These cleanse diets almost always flare up whatever underlying digestive issues you might have. They often increase your sensitivity to certain foods and cause a new food intolerance to develop. For example, a lot of people end up feeling worse after the Whole30 diet because they begin eating some new food that their body isn't used to in order to avoid other foods. Often times that new food is something they have a sensitivity to as a result of a leaky gut. Or, the foods they binge on because of Whole30 are the very foods that their body has a hard time extracting nutrients from.

If you have a leaky gut, we need to learn which foods your unique system has an easier time extracting nutrients from and focus on those while avoiding the foods from which your body isn't extracting nutrients. Once we determine food sensitivities through testing, we can eliminate those foods for a short time, heal your intestinal lining and villi, eradicate the problem, and then add them back in. 'Isn't that what Whole30 does?' Not exactly. Whole30 wants to show you what foods cause weight gain and permanently leave them out of your diet. That is the case with all cleanses, permanent removal. That is not good. Certain nutrient-rich foods need to be part of a healthy diet.

Let's use an obvious example that may surprise you. Wheat. Sometimes wheat gets a bad wrap, which is partly deserved because of how it is processed in America. BUT, there are healthy whole grain wheat options that are very important for a healthy diet (unless you have celiac disease). Wheat contains B Vitamins that are essential for energy. The goal should not be to eliminate grain (or any other food) entirely from your diet forever unless it is absolutely necessary. This is something I talk about in my leaky gut webinar. If your stomach lining is compromised, removing foods will only create new food sensitivities.

Most people start cleanses to lose weight but end up with even more problems. These diets are not sustainable. You will inevitably return to old habits and might even binge to reward yourself when you are done. This is something referred to as 'yo-yo dieting, which causes unwanted hormonal changes and damage to your gut. Yo-yo dieting is not a good idea. Eventually, you will create insulin resistance, which means your body doesn't have the ability to release the extra weight you were trying to lose. Nobody wants to experience rapid weight gain, but rapid weight loss can be just as damaging.

These diets also create what I like to call the shame-law-scold cycle. First, diet pushers shame you: 'You don't look like you used to!' 'Get your 20-year old body back.' Then, they give you a law: 'Do this diet for 30 days!' 'What are you willing to do to see results?' And then, if (when) you cheat or quit altogether, you are either scolded externally or internally: 'what is wrong with me?' 'My weight is my own fault.' Guess what? The shame-law-scold cycle is the very reason we binge on sugar in the first place!

We need to break that cycle. What if we replaced 'shame-law-scold' with 'curiosity-moderation-grace'? Instead of using shame as a motivation, what if we had a posture of curiosity that went something like this: 'what is my body trying to tell me about my gut health, shame cycles, and trauma that keeps me from being the healthiest version of myself?' Followed by moderation: 'I am going to make some sustainable lifestyle changes that are actually achievable and take into account real-life humans that go to parties and on dates and have a glass of wine and a piece of chocolate cake.' And finally, grace - 'I accept myself when I don't perfectly follow my protocols. I listen to my body and offer grace to myself for having needs that I sometimes meet with food.' 👈🏻 🤯

Once we are reoriented and have the proper motivation, we need to start with testing. My motto is "Test, Don't Guess." We need to test for particular food sensitivities and underlying gut infections in the small intestine: SIBO, GERD, and H-pylori. These are three common digestive disorders that cause weight gain. But if we focus only on the weight and not the disorder, we will never see permanent results. Once we have these specifics, we can adjust your diet temporarily and run gut protocols alongside the diet change that re-inoculate and restore your intestinal wall. The goal is to ensure your body can break down proteins in food.

2. Portion Torture

Portion Torture is my description of weight loss programs like Weight watchers and NOOM. The message from these programs is that if you can restrict your eating, you will shrink in size. The methods include counting calories, tracking macros, and measuring your Body Mass Index (BMI).

These restrictive diets promise that you will be fulfilled with enough food even though you are being told to limit calorie intake. They tell you your body will look like a supermodel, and all of your muscles will show. They use the BMI, an archaic system that hasn't been proven to support health and is based on the male body. The BMI does not take into account women's fluctuating hormones and menstrual cycle. Restricting foods causes your hormones (progesterone and estrogen) to get out of whack. It also causes your thyroid to struggle to keep up. When you overtax your thyroid, it swings into hyperthyroidism, where your body burns more energy than it is supposed to. Eventually, it moves to hypothyroidism, and your body quits producing TSH, T3, and T4. This causes even more weight gain than you had before! Many people who restrict calories and tax their hormones eventually develop Hashimoto Disease (an autoimmune thyroid disorder).

Caloric deficit on a regular basis can actually lead to unexpected weight gain, weakened immune system, IBS symptoms, irregular bowel movements, hair loss, and other digestive conditions.

Instead, the goal is to feed our bodies a balanced, nutritionally diverse diet. This means not restricting whole groups of foods unless a food sensitivity panel (test don't guess) tells us otherwise or you have bad bacteria, parasites, or bacterial infection. The gut thrives off of diversity, not restriction. Your gut microbiome prefers 30 different plant species per day and a variety of amino acids from different types of meat (organic, grass-fed, and finished meats), and most importantly, a balance of healthy fats and carbohydrates. Doing this creates the proper amount of stomach acid to help the GI tract digest appropriately and make good bacteria in the gut. Most digestive diseases result from this imbalance and chronic inflammation. The treatment options from your traditional health care provider typically are just a bandaid and still leave you with debilitating GI symptoms.

This doesn't mean you can eat whatever you want, such as processed foods that cause water retention and foods full of sugar. However, depriving your body of entire food groups like dairy (for those who are not lactose intolerant), gluten, or legumes creates a lack of diversity in the microbiome, leading to increased leaky gut symptoms.

My goal when working with clients is for them to be full after every meal. We work with percentages to ensure that the ratio of food types is balanced. For example: 40% protein, 30% fats, 30% carbohydrates. This will help solve many gut dysfunction issues because it balances your blood sugar. If your blood sugar is balanced, your weight hormones release appropriately. You won't have insulin resistance or high cravings for sugar and salty foods, which is ultimately what causes our body to hold onto excessive weight. When we eat the right foods and the right percentages, our body will land in the size it was meant to be. It may not look like the cover of Fit Magazine, but you will feel full, satisfied, and strong.

3. Body Bootcamp

Workout programs prey on our desire to look like magazines and movie stars. Let's be honest; we would all gladly take Jennifer Anniston's 50-year-old body at any point in our life. But you aren't Jennifer Anniston, and neither am I. This is an invitation to tell the truth about ourselves, but even more importantly, working out could be a terrible idea if you have a gut disorder.

Have you ever decided to be super disciplined in the gym but never experienced much weight change after several months? Here's the reason: When you have a gut disorder, hard workouts put excess stress on your body, which overtaxes your cortisol release and impacts your hormones. Too much cortisol release can increase your risk of sleep disturbances, depression, and even weight gain. Surplus cortisol also increases the amount of stored fat, particularly near the abdomen. When your gut is in bad shape, we actually need to remove physical stress until we address what is going on. Otherwise, no amount of pushing your body to the limit will bring you the results you desire.

We have to look under the hood to see the exact cause your body is not responding well to exercise. We need to remove physical stress, repair your gut, and send the correct hormones so that your body can actually handle the stress load when you are working out. If you have gut dysfunction, walking instead of running, light yoga instead of lifting, and stretching instead of HIIT would do more to heal your adrenal system and gut than 15-30 minutes of the most strenuous workout you can find.

Another thing worth mentioning is the intricate connection between our gut and brain. Chemicals in our brain help us feel happy and energized throughout the day. Depression and anxiety are at an all-time high. If you have depression or anxiety, you absolutely have some type of gut disorder and chronic inflammation in your body. The gut is where serotonin and dopamine are produced and sent to our brain.

When your gut is leaky, your body has to focus on trying to send signals to try to correct that problem. Unfortunately, that means the body is not focusing on sending the right hormones that result in brain happiness. So what does that have to do with working out? If your gut is not healthy, your hormones are not healthy. Working out only creates more stress on the body, exasperating gut issues.

All that being said, regular exercise is a great thing! But, don't push yourself too hard when you have symptoms of a gut disorder. Also, make sure your motivation is healthy. Remember, instead of 'shame-law-scold', remember 'curiosity-moderation-grace'. I want you to use physical activity simply to honor the fact that it has the ability to do it and to help your body release dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. When we move our bodies, it helps us have the energy to do the rest of the hard things we have to do to make life happen.

I hope that was helpful! Remember, I am just a phone call away and would love to help in any way I can.

Talk soon,