Are Food Sensitivities Preventing Your Weight Loss?

All year long, but especially this time of year, a number of people come to me interested in food sensitivity testing for weight loss.  Once people find out food sensitivity testing is a service I provide, one of the first questions I get is about weight loss. They often ask:

Can food sensitivity testing help with weight loss? 

In short, yes, it can.  There are some ways food sensitivity testing can lead to weight loss:

• Your body is inflamed, and as you lose the inflammation, you drop excess water weight.
• Your diet is restrictive enough you can’t get enough calories.
• You clean up your diet as a result of the test, so you end up losing weight. Examples:
  1. You start avoiding bread because of yeast/gluten, you eat fewer carbs or better carbs and end up losing weight.
  2. You eat less dairy because the test told you too, so now you switch to plant-based fats higher in fiber and protein like avocados and nuts.

Except for scenario 1, the rest of the results can be achieved without a food sensitivity test.  Therefore, you don’t need a food sensitivity test to lose weight, and if it helps, it’s doing so expensively and indirectly.  Meaning the same results could be achieved for a LOT less without the test.

So, let’s explore scenario one because it is the only scenario in which the test is required to trigger weight loss:  You are “inflamed” or holding on to inflammation.

 

The presence of food sensitivities suggests inflammation and stress on the body. (Read what is inflammation.)  It’s kind of like which comes first, the chicken or the egg?  The inflammation or the stress?  We might never know.  What we do know is, the inflammation will cause you to hold on to water.  The stress will make it more difficult for you to lose any unwanted excess fat.  The claim that the excess stress caused by food sensitivities will make you hang on to unwanted pounds is a valid claim, in my opinion.  However, if this is the case, you will likely have more symptoms than just weight gain.  That’s why I have my potential clients fill out a symptom questionnaire, and we look to see if any symptoms they are having might point to chronic or generalized inflammation in the body.  Obviously, GI disturbances such as IBS (read how food sensitivities relate to IBS here) are a big tip-off, but others symptoms might be migraines, chronic sinus issues, chronic fatigue, or the presence of an autoimmune condition.  And I plan to review all of these conditions this year regarding food sensitivity testing so you will learn more about each one then (or feel free to shoot me an email if you have specific questions).

The point is, I would be okay with testing someone if I saw a cluster of symptoms that pointed toward them benefiting from doing the test.  I would never test someone just to help them lose weight. First, because unless you need the test, it’s unlikely to give you the results you want. Second, because if you do get the results, you will be attributing them to the wrong things.  I can help you lose weight a number of different ways, but I won’t let you waste your money on something that isn’t worth it.

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Hope that helps!  If you are looking to lose weight this year I have three kick-ass options to help you do so:

1. Individual Nutrition Counseling Packages
2. What to Eat? Custom and Standard Meal Plans
3. 52 Week to 52 Healthy Habits E-Course

More info on food sensitivities:

• Why I Don’t Recommend Elimination Diets
• What Is Inflammation?
• Food Sensitivity Test Options
• What to do AFTER food sensitivity testing
• IBS & Food Sensitivity Testing 

If you still think food sensitivity testing is right for you:

I take all my clients through the consultation process to make sure they are 100% a good candidate for the test.  You can schedule your consult here.  The fee is 25 dollars which will be applied to the test package should we decide you are a good candidate and will benefit from it.