4 Reasons You May Not Be Losing Weight From a Functional Dietitian

Have you been dieting, exercising, eating in a calorie deficit, trying everything you can think of yet you still can’t seem to drop the excess weight? This can be so frustrating to see all your hard work not pay off. It is NOT always as simple as calories in vs calories out… sorry to all the fitness guru health influencers who think this is true. This is why working one on one with a licensed functional dietitian can be extremely beneficial as we are trained to look for other root causes as to why you can't lose weight!

You will learn the top 4 hidden root causes as to why you aren’t losing that stubborn belly fat that I see in my clients who struggle with inability to lose weight. In addition, you’ll learn how to test for each of these and some guidelines on how to fix them!

Reason #1 - Hypothyroidism 

Your thyroid is a butterfly shaped gland that sits in your throat. In has an influence in many biological processes from sex hormone regulation, body temperature, heart rate, and more. In addition to these functions, the thyroid regulates your metabolism, which is a fancy word for the rate at which your body burns calories. Hypothyroidism is when your thyroid is functioning at a sluggish rate. This can cause symptoms like weight gain or inability to lose weight, chronic fatigue, hair loss, depression, headaches and so much more. Slow thyroid function causes slow metabolism. 

You can screen your thyroid by requesting a FULL thyroid panel (not just TSH, which is what your doctor will suggest). This includes TSH, Free and total T4, free and total T3, Reverse T3, and Thyroid antibodies to give us fill insight into how the thyroid is producing and using it’s hormones. The thyroid is heavily influenced by nutrient deficiencies, poor gut health such as an imbalance of bacteria or poor digestion which can lead to nutrient deficiencies, environmental toxins like heavy metals, lack or excess of iodine and more. 

Reason #2 - Blood Sugar Dysregulation

When your blood sugar is not properly regulated, weight loss resistance is an extremely common side effect of this. A diet high in refined carbs and sugar with minimal protein and healthy fats is going to cause an imbalance of blood sugar throughout the day. In response to carbohydrate intake, our pancreas releases insulin into the bloodstream to turn this glucose into energy for our body. With excess carb intake, we release more insulin. When we have too much insulin in the blood this can lead to insulin resistance, which makes it extremely hard for weight loss to happen considering the body stores this excess glucose in the blood in fat cells.

Blood sugar management should always be screened and discussed during any weight loss consultations. You can test your insulin, glucose, and hemoglobin A1C through blood work. I recommend taking this information to a functional dietitian for specific and personalized blood sugar management tips for you. In addition, trialing a continuous glucose monitor can be very beneficial for learning your own blood sugar patterns to make necessary adjustments as needed.

Reason #3 - Under-eating/Not Hitting Daily Calorie Needs

I see this one in my practice way too often while working with women. Ladies, you need more than 1,200 calories a day to survive. Especially, if you are physically active!! Maybe social media has told you that you need to eat less calories to lose weight, but have they told you that you need to at least be hitting your basal metabolic rate daily for you body to not think it is in starvation mode? Right, they wouldn’t know that if they aren’t a licensed dietitian! This is why it is so important to not believe everything you see online. Yes, you will lose weight at first, but overtime you are going to plateau. If you are not hitting you minimum amount of calories your body needs to function that is 100% personalized to you based on your age, weight, height, gender, and activity level, it is going to be extremely difficult to lose weight. Your body holds on to fat when eating less than your BMR because it doesn’t know when it will be properly fueled again. You are stuck in a state of fight or flight!

If you are interested in knowing you exact daily nutrient needs, please reach out to a licensed dietitian to help you calculate your macronutrients to use as a guide on what your eating pattern should look like.

Reason #4 - High Cortisol aka Cortisol Belly

This is another very common one I see in my nutrition practice. A good indicator of cortisol belly is if you hold all your weight in your abdomen. This is a really good indicator that there could be adrenal dysfunction going on. There are many things that could be stressing your adrenals outside of your typical work, home, or other life stress sources such as infection in the gut, mold, pesticide, plastic, or heavy metal overload, tick borne illnesses, inflammation from hypothyroidism, blood sugar dysregulation and so much more.

You can test your cortisol levels through blood, urine or saliva. I recommend doing a 24 hour urine sample so we can see not only total cortisol levels but also your cortisol pattern throughout the day. Some additional signs you may be dealing with adrenal dysfunction is chronic fatigue, salt cravings, caffeine dependency, irritable, moody, and more. There are many supplement, diet, and lifestyle factors we can implement to support the adrenals like proper hydration, b vitamins, adaptogens, circadian training and so much more.

Have you ever had any of these tested for your weight loss resistance?

In my opinion, this is why working with a functional dietitian can be more beneficial than a conventional dietitian. We are clinically trained to look for root causes outside of just calories in vs calories out when it comes to weight loss among finding the root cause of many other chronic diseases or symptoms. 

If you are interested in working 1:1 with a functional dietitian, you can apply to work with me HERE. 

Kaitlyn Franken, MS, CNS, LDN