Constipation Kills Weight Loss!(…and worse still your health!)

Constipation is one of the most devastating metabolism conditions of all! It kills weight loss very quickly, but even worse it is silently killing your health in more ways than you can imagine! After sleep it is the next most important function in the body to fix for proper weight loss.

Constipation can turn much of your food from nutrition into poison. Very quickly it unbalances the whole metabolism. Every key system and function in the body is affected by constipation. Outside of the digestive upset, it affects your liver, gall bladder, thyroid function, adrenal function and hormone balance to name a few.

Correct bowel function should be at least once a day, with twice daily (once every 12 hrs) being the gold standard. So you can measure the seriousness of your own condition against this. If you suffer from constipation you need to make fixing it a priority in your life.

Constipation drains energy, affects sleep patterns, makes PMS worse, can be a root cause in migraines, appendicitis, tonsillitis, poor nails, hair and skin and many more conditions you may not even associate with it. I have no doubt that if tracking was properly done a huge portion of people who go on to have bowel cancer, will have had unresolved constipation for many years before!

There are many different causes of constipation – not just the obvious lack of fiber! Poor thyroid function, excess calcium intake, excess caffeine use, low magnesium levels, unnecessary use of antacids, prescription medicines, stress, anxiety, lack of sleep and excess iron intake are a few of many causes. For most people it is a combination of factors.

From a weight loss perspective, when bowel function breaks down everything else in your metabolism goes wrong. On top of this even though you may be eating a lot, you absorb very little and it is like you body is permanently on a crash diet and weight loss shuts down. So if you are suffering from constipation, you need to work relentlessly to improve it. It takes time but it is all about getting better and moving closer to the once daily goal.

To start with 3 important easy things to help are as follows. Drinking 1 L of water between waking and 12 noon daily! Chewing food more is a huge point. This is probably the most critical part of digestive function. Slow down and chew harder and dryer foods like nuts, cheese and meats more! Add 5g of flax seeds to your food morning and evening. Make sure to chew the flax seeds and don’t just swallow!

Thanks for reading,

If you have any questions about anything above please email me at david@system10.ie and I will reply.

David McDonagh (Nutritionist, fitness trainer & creator of System 10 Weight Loss)