The liver is a very commonly-overlooked source of weight
problems. Most people are aware that the liver is involved
in detoxifying certain chemicals in the body - the most
familiar being alcohol, but the liver does many other
things. With regards to weight control, liver function is
extremely important from two perspectives - water
retention, and the production and/or activation of ALL of
the body's fat-burning hormones. Good liver function is
absolutely essential to being able to achieve natural
weight loss.
Because of poor lifestyle choices, such as excess alcohol
consumption, the use of drugs and medications (even
over-the-counter medications), and poor diet - particularly
eating a lot of fat and animal proteins, it is common for
the liver to become overworked and irritated. This results
in an inflammatory response in the abominal cavity, which
results in an accumulation of fluid (called ascites). This
accumulation of fluid causes the abdomen to bulge outward
in what is commonly called a "potbelly" or "beer gut". In
women, the problem can get bad enough that the protruding
belly makes them look pregnant when they are not. For
people with this water weight deposition, weight loss can
be frustrating because exercise will not "burn it off" -
because it's not fat. Since natural weight loss approaches
fail to get results in these situations, some people resort
to diet drugs, which may work at first, but ultimately harm
the liver even more and create even more abdominal water
retention.
With liver-related water retention, many diet programs and
weight loss aids also actually make things worse. Diets
that are high in protein and fat, such as Atkin's, further
overload the liver and create even more water retention.
Some weight loss aids contain drugs or chemicals that the
liver must process, and again, create even more liver
irritation and subsequent water retention.
In addition to the water retention issue, good liver
function is necessary for the proper production and/or
activation of the hormones that stimulate fat burning. For
instance, the liver is needed to convert the inactive form
of thyroid hormone (T4) to the active form (T3). When the
liver is overworked and cannot do the hormone conversions
efficiently, the body cannot burn fat efficiently, no
matter how much exercise you may do or what other natural
weight loss steps you take.
The liver also produces a fat-burning hormone of its own,
called insulin-like growth factor (IGF). IGF controls blood
sugar during the relatively long-period that you go without
eating during sleep. As your blood sugar level falls while
you are sleeping, the liver produces IGF to burn fat
reserves to mobilize stored energy. Again, if liver
function is not as good as it should be, this hormone is
not produced efficiently and you don't burn as much fat.
The other thing that occurs is that your blood sugar will
go lower than it should and you wake up in the morning
feeling very fatigued and irritable.
So what do you need to do to help your liver so that you
can lose the retained water "potbelly" and produce/activate
the necessary hormones so that you can burn fat and achieve
natural weight loss more efficiently? The first step is to
minimize the amount of work the liver must do in
detoxification. This means cutting back on alcohol and any
unnecessary drugs and medications. If possible, I recommend
avoiding alcohol and non-essential medications entirely for
at least a few weeks to give the liver an opportunity to
recover.
The next step is to clean up you diet to make things as
easy as possible on the liver. The ideal approach is to go
vegetarian for at least a few weeks and eat primarily fresh
vegetables, and fruits, and use nuts, seeds, and beans as
your primary sources of protein. If you can't do that, it
is advisable to at least cut out fried and greasy foods and
high-fat meats for a while. The better your diet, the
faster you'll lose the retained water in the abdomen and
the faster you'll make real progress on losing weight.
There are various "liver de-tox" products on the market
that contain some combination of herbs and/or nutrients
that are reputed to be beneficial for the liver. These can
be useful in more extreme cases or for those who simply
aren't willing to take the dietary and other lifestyle
measures just described. In my opinion, changing the diet
and implementing the other natural weight loss lifestyle
factors is a much more effective way to go, but using a
liver detoxification product is probably better than doing
nothing. Because some of these products contain herbs that
can interact with certain prescription medications, it is
strongly recommended that you consult with a physician or a
pharmacist before using any of these products if you are on
prescription drugs.
In addition to weight loss, as liver function improves,
your skin usually becomes clearer and your mood and energy
level will typically improve, especially in the morning.
People with chronic headaches often notice that the
headaches become less frequent and may go away altogether.
Likewise, people with chronic pains in the upper back along
the right shoulder blade often report that those pains go
away as they begin to take better care of the liver.
It should be noted that as the liver recovers and the body
stops retaining water in the abdomen, you will typically
lose weight very rapidly (it could be 5 pounds or more per
day!) and you will need to urinate frequently (that's how
the body gets rid of the excess water). Once the extra
water is gone, the weight loss will slow down. If you
continue on a natural weight loss program, a reasonable
expectation after you have lost the water weight is about 1
to 2 pounds per week.
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Dr. George Best is a holistic healthcare provider in San
Antonio, Texas. He provides information on natural weight
loss at http://www.trainyourbrain4weightloss.com and is a
consultant for http://www.myfoodwiththought.com - a service
that customizes recipes and meal plans for weight loss and
other health needs.
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