What Are the Causes of Weight Gain?

Weight gain is multifaceted. If you thought that we were obese as a nation before, imagine what might be coming in the very near future. With the concerns of the effects of this Covid-19 pandemic, stress will be on the rise, leading to stress eating. There are so many factors causing weight-gain in America today, but it is the combination of many aspects that are a recipe for disaster:

• The stress of the “Standard American Diet” 
• The over judicious use of antibiotics in our medical models and in our livestock
• The increase of medications that are being prescribed for so many psychological illnesses
• The increased imbibing of alcohol due to pressures of the current state of affairs
• And being marketed to about what happiness “truly is”

The effects of a pandemic on weight gain are truly staggering. 

The Effects of Weight Gain

Effect #1: High Levels of Cortisol (Stress Hormone)

We live in such a charged up world that we are experiencing adrenal exhaustion at breath-taking speeds. Our internal batteries are suddenly completely drained and we have no idea that it’s even happening. Symptoms of adrenal exhaustion due to high cortisol levels include: 

• exhaustion
• irritability
• insomnia
• weight gain
• poor food choices 
• lack of ability to concentrate
• rapid heart rate
• dehydration

Effect #2: Thyroid Dysfunction

This little gland is one of the medically most checked glands, especially in women, to address exhaustion, loss of cope, weight gain, feeling cold, dry skin, sore joints, thinning of hair and fingernails. Hypothyroidism is very common today, being one of the biggest syndromes in our country and has some of the most prescriptions written for. Iodine is a key missing component that allows the thyroid to suffer by becoming deficient. The metabolism slows due to an under-active thyroid and because of the intricate relationship of the thyroid to the renal system (also known as the urinary system), weight gain is the result. 

Effect #3: Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease/ Liver Cirrhosis

Those that seem to grow a visible stomach or have an abnormally large, disproportionate middle to their bodies, who have to walk leaning back slightly in order to counterbalance themselves suffer from this. The liver begins a process of replacing itself with hard, dense scar tissue that doesn’t allow perfusion of blood to occur through the organ. When this happens, the body begins to shunt fluid into the abdominal cavity and you can actually hear the fluid if you flick someone on the surface of their tummy. It sounds like there’s water in there. Like the sound of a drop hitting the surface of a puddle. This type of weight gain causes swollen ankles, breathing issues, and pain in the abdominal region.

Effect #4: Kidney Problems

These little gems are the unsung heroes of the body, constantly purifying our mistaken diets, our medications, our mistakes from the night before at the corner bar. They deal with the most devastating poor habit that we have...the lack of proper hydration and mineral absorption. Weight gain happens when we begin to retain fluid because the kidney isn’t able to remove all the waste that it has come at it. The tissues of the body begin to hold this waste and swell. 

Effect #5: Insulin Issues

From diet drinks to sugar overloads over and over again. We have tapped out the pancreas to the point now that our insulin simply can’t keep up with the demand anymore. The body is stressed beyond its ability to cope. More sugar and sweetness cause an order of insulin that is unable to be fulfilled by the pancreas. The job of insulin is to let sugar into the cells. When we have too much sugar, we have cells that are full and can no longer accept anything more. Therefore, it just pours into the blood and stays there… unable to be used.  Maybe you’ve heard of this… too high blood sugar? Can anyone say diabetes? Too much blood sugar? This is tremendously stressful on the pancreas because it’s taking its orders from the brain that is telling it to keep producing insulin; to which there are limits and eventually deficiency. This issue is what we know to be Type 2 Diabetes. This is where the argument becomes a circular firing squad. 

Why Are We Gaining Weight?

Why is this happening to us at an accelerated rate with less and less defense to be used against it? Why are we gaining weight and our bodies aren’t able to process this excess of intake? All of the issues above have a real secondary cause that has to do with chemicals, medicines, and misunderstandings of their uses and resultant health issues/illnesses that accelerate us towards obesity because we’re allergic to it all.  Our body shapes are a result of being allergic to our lifestyles. We eat because something inside our brain tells us to.  Back in the 1940s, antibiotics were invented. It changed the world. People didn’t die from the things that they died from before. Pneumonia or infections weren’t necessarily a death sentence anymore.  The tragedy is that we didn’t know for sure how to use antibiotic therapy preventatively. We should use antibiotics in order to help people recover from illness while still allowing the body to go through the illness. This would create a stronger and more complete immune function. Instead, they were given for every symptom that came up over the next 80 years without really assessing the overall effects on the population. We also began to give it to our livestock to make sure that we did not have infections go through the herds.  These antibiotics were then passed along to the end-users... us.  Antibiotics are great at addressing severe illnesses. However, if it is an issue of toxicity build-up or a minor illness, it may be a good idea to question the necessity of antibiotics.  Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, MD, states in Confessions of a Medical Heretic, “The majority of the time, we give antibiotics to help the parents calm down and know that everything that can be done is being done, even though it wasn’t really going to reduce the amount of time or suffering in the child”. This overprescribing of antibiotics leads to antibiotic resistance which leads to the need for stronger antibiotics. The body is funny that way. The body is actually a self-healing entity that works every second of its life to do the best it can to be the best it can be. To paint a picture of what happens: Antibiotics can act like a forest fire that ravages through the body, specifically the gut, and wreaks havoc causing an immediate overgrowth of the infamous yeast bacteria known as Candida albicans; that flourishes from that point forward.

There is supposed to be a 90:10 ratio of bacteria to fungi in the gut/intestines. After a round of antibiotics, the ratios can become reversed. Some folks do alright and never have anything symptom-wise that they can blame on candida yeast. While they may not have any outward symptoms, candida is often lurking in the recesses of the gut, percolating and growing, beginning to make unrecognized demands on the body’s microbiome.  Some of these symptoms that can be caused by candida overgrowth are:

• skin rash 
• migraines 
• itching
• exhaustion
• belching
• flatulence

Only recently has the gut been credited with any type of wisdom, any use really to the body besides a septic system. It turns out that the gut is actually a complex system of nerve endings and networks that would make any IT engineer envious. The gut actually has more nervous material than the brain does. It’s a system that talks to other parts of the body - especially the brain. The gut/brain relationship is a unique and undying love affair. They depend on each other for their survival. They also can, however, become their own worst enemies. If the gut is ravaged by antibiotics, the brain must respond. Because of their relationship, the brain is eventually influenced in a negative way and becomes like the gut, buying into the negative environment that has been produced and even becomes addicted to what it thinks it needs and wants. Which negatively influences the gut… and so the cycle continues. As the gut is overrun with candida due to the overuse of antibiotics, the brain begins a feedback loop that can never really be satisfied. As we struggle to quit a certain unhealthy eating habit that has been put into motion by this gut/brain relationship, the cycle deepens. When the gut needs to be fed, the brain is all too ready to assist in this self-destructive behavior. The brain begins to look for the very thing that you can’t resist. This cycle can become so over-riding that the behavior is more akin to a robot...you pull into the garage from the drive home from work and find an empty package of cookies or an eaten hot fudge sundae sitting on your lap and you have no idea how it got there. It’s just there. And the infected, unhealthy gut/brain relationship continues its devolution into more yeast, more sugar, more weight gain, more sugar loop.

Are We Surprised of the Weight Gain?

Is it any wonder that we’re bigger than we should be? More meds, more processed and easy to make foods that are already pre-made, all the chemistry of modern-day foods, all the chemicals that we spray on our food supply, all the genetic engineering to produce stronger more resilient and resistant crops, all of the access to stressful living situations, all of the over-prescribing and over judicious use of antibiotics give us the equation of obesity. Let loose and untended, it becomes an epidemic with more negative feedback loops. The body has fewer and fewer choices to help it survive, so it puts water everywhere it can, to reduce the toxicity and allergy of our lifestyles. 

What Can Be Done?

The good news is that candida overgrowth and the weight gain that it causes is not the end of the story. Candida overgrowth, which is a centerpiece in so many of the issues first listed, can be treated successfully and naturally. Along with a healthy diet, Skinny Up! Yeast Redux is specifically designed to target and kill candida yeast overgrowth. Our candida cleanse is equipped to re-establish a healthy gut flora to heal the microbiome. Once the brain is finally able to make good food choices again, the gut will have a chance to truly heal. When paired with Skinny Up! Reduce, true weight loss and detoxification can happen. All-natural and hormone-free, Skinny Up! products are designed to target the visceral fat cells where the body packs away toxicity and stored nutrition. Addressing the top ways that weight gain occurs begins with addressing the health of the gut. Every time. Got questions? Leave us a comment and we’ll respond promptly!