Yes, there is a definite link between your low hormone levels. Low thyroid levels mean that your metabolism has slowed to the point that you are not able to burn sufficient calories, no matter how much you exercise. Remember: 20% of weight loss is due to exercise. 80% of weight loss will be what you are eating. This is despite what your personal trainer may tell you. There is really no amount of exercise you can do that will compensate for poor dietary habits. At the Wellness Innovations, you will be counseled on what type of eating will help your overall hormone balance.

Low thyroid levels will make it almost impossible to lose fat (remember, we want you losing fat—not muscle; too many weight loss programs focus on losing weight—we want you losing only fat). Any weight loss program must be preceded by having the free T3 checked.

Now what about this scenario: your best friend can eat anything she wants, and never exercises, and yet she never seems to gain a pound. You, on the other hand, exercise 5 to6 times per week doing cardio and weights, and you almost starve yourself, and you still gain weight. What’s going on? Chances are you are what we call “insulin resistant.”

Insulin resistance is somewhat complicated to explain, but, put simply, it means that your body needs more and more insulin to help keep your blood sugar under control (this is not diabetes). So the insulin levels keep going up. The only problem with that is this one little problem: insulin’s nickname is the FAT-STORING HORMONE. That’s right—it makes you take any food you are eating, whether it’s protein, fat, or carbohydrate, and magically turn it into fat for long-term storage . . . on your hips, thighs, and tummy.

At our Center, we screen all patients for insulin resistance by doing a fasting glucose test. This gives us the picture if your insulin levels are too high and making you store all that fat. It can be very frustrating for a man or woman to be dieting and exercising for years with no results to show, only to find out that they were insulin resistant all along. Anyone fighting weight problems needs to have this test done. Many diet centers prescribe phentermine to curb your appetite. Phentermine is nothing more than an amphetamine or in other words legalized “speed”. In our opinion, this is a dangerous way to lose weight, due to the damage it does to the nervous system. As soon as these patients go off the phentermine, they gain all the weight back, plus some.