Tag: tummy fat

Menopause Belly Fat – ways to fight fat naturally

During menopause, some women find they struggle to lose weight – especially around the mid section. No matter how hard they try, counting calories, cutting the carbs and even exercising 3 times per week, just won’t budge the belly fat kilos. This is because they have weight loss resistance. No matter what they do, the weight won’t shift and no pill, potion or motion will get the scales moving in the right direction. So what do you do when you can’t lose weight during menopause?

Between the ages of 45 and 55, women gain on average half a kilo a year and a total of 2.3 kg during the menopausal transition. #menopauserelief

It isn’t just the weight gain itself; many women find where they lose weight shifts during menopause. Traditionally, women gain weight around their hips and thighs. After menopause, however, that weight gain zones tend to be around the tummy zone. Declining estrogen during menopause increases belly fat, but there are other factors that also cause weight loss resistance such as:

  • Your microbiome changes
  • Your metabolic rate slows down, so you burn fewer calories
  • Your fat cells change, so more fat accumulates as belly fat
  • Menopause can impact sleep, which can impact other fat-regulating hormones including your stress hormone, cortisol
  • Inflammation linked to injury triggers fat cell production
  • You might not be exercising as much

All of these changes plus many more can lead to weight loss resistance during menopause.

Obesity increases in women once they reach the age of 40. About 65 percent of women 40-59 are obese and 73.8 percent of women 60 years older are obese. #midlifecrisis

Abdominal fat in women is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease. Getting assessed for the underlying cause of hidden weight gain is the first step towards living a healthy, long and active life.

For years I tried to lose weight – I’d lose a couple but gain a few. Working with Narelle meant I finally could maintain a healthy body – without shakes or extreme dieting

Amanda Johns – Geelong

Are You Weight Loss Resistant?

You’re doing everything correctly: count calories, reduce sugar intake, cut out refined foods, and hit the gym 3 times a week. Yet despite your most focused effort, those kilo’s refuse to budge.

Hit a roadblock in your weight-loss journey? When you stay consistently on course and weeks – even months – go by without the scales budging, that’s weight loss resistance. It’s your bodies way of telling you metabolically somethings not right. The best way to beat it is to get assessed.

The calories-in-calories-out model is outdated. It fails to account for the 120 hidden variables that can affect fat loss. Weight loss resistance is when you’re not losing one kilo of fat every week when doing everything right.

There are over 120 hidden causes of weight loss resistance, including pharmaceutical and over-the-counter medications, food allergies or sensitivities, thyroid or adrenal imbalances, microbiome and genetics. At MassAttack, we analyze your lab work and employ additional testing that reveals what sabotages your success.

The reality is: calories matter. If you eat too many calories from any food, your body stores those excess calories as fat. Weight loss resistance is triggered by something that many diet plans neglect or fail to understand: hormonal imbalances triggered by microbiome imbalance.

The truth is, calories matter, but hormones matter more. Hormone imbalances become a major but often overlooked culprit for weight gain and weight loss resistance. Most of those imbalances hinge on one big player: insulin. What many people don’t realize is insulin (your fat saving hormone) is released in response to the consumption of different foods and this response is different for everyone – depending on their unique microbiome. Even something like the humble tomato can be a hidden trigger of weight gain in some people! This is why I incorporate this testing as part of our resistant weight loss assessment.

120kg I knew I had to lose weight. but how could I? I had given up hope. With Narelle’s support and guidance I lost over 40kg and I’ve kept it off.

Joanne Rite – Melbourne

Vegetable Curry

  • Vegetable Curry (serves 4)
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 large onions, peeled and sliced
  • 2 tablespoons medium-hot curry powder
  • 2 cups vegetable stock
  • 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into thin sticks
  • 4 parsnips, peeled and cut into thin sticks
  • 250g green beans, trimmed
  • 1 head broccoli, cut into florets
  • 1 cup low-fat natural yoghurt salt and pepper
  • ½ cup fresh coriander leaves fresh chilli, sliced

Heat a large saucepan, add oil and onion, and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes until onion is softened. Add curry powder, turn up the heat to medium and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly to toast spices. Add stock and simmer for 5 minutes. Add carrots and parsnips to the pan and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Add beans and broccoli, and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

The vegetables should be tender and the liquid reduced by half. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in yoghurt and season with salt and pepper to taste. Once yoghurt has been added, do not allow mixture to boil, or it will curdle. To serve, scatter with coriander and place sliced fresh chilli on the side, if desired. Serve with 2 tablespoons of steamed fragrant wild, basmati or jasmine rice.

Are Your Microbes Making You Fat?

For years you’ve probably tried diet after diet, eat less, exercise more, count carbs, drink shakes and yet no matter what you do the scales just keep creeping up.

Ironically, most people come to me for weight loss who already eat healthy and exercise, yet they struggle for years to maintain a healthy body weight.

Statistics show a dramatic increase in rates of type 2 diabetes, yet we are investing in weight loss more than ever before. This means, we need to get to the biological causes of why our cells are becoming insulin resistant and develop new late life-interventions to slow the process down (4,7,9).

If you are gaining lots of weight or can’t lose weight even with significant changes in diet or exercise routines, fat loss resistance triggered by microbiome may be the culprit

Passionate about helping people maintain a healthy body weight, I developed MassAttack 20 years ago to determine the biomarkers of what causes weight gain and provide 100% natural strategies to stop, reverse and prevent insulin resistance.

After 20 years of researching, the results are better than what I hoped and everyone who wants to maintain a healthy body weight needs to know this information!

The Facts on Flora

Our guts contain around 100 trillion microbes, collectively known as the gut microbiota. No two people’s microbiomes look exactly the same, and they are a product of what we inherit from our mothers during birth, our diets, environment and lifestyle.

In a pilot study, 26 participants went on a lower-calorie diet high in fruit and vegetables, and some didn’t lose as much weight as others. Analysis of their gut bacteria found participants had different levels of two particular types of bacteria, and one, Dialister, that hindered weight loss.

Many factors can affect your ability to lose weight, including certain health conditions, your dieting and weight loss history, age-related changes and your mother’s diet during pregnancy.

What researchers also found was that some for some people, eating tomatoes can make them fat! This is because tomatoes are one food that spikes insulin levels quite a lot for some people and they need to control the amount they eat. What this means is, the key to long term weight maintenance is to know your microbiome DNA. This is why I’m so excited – these insulin spikes trigger other hormonal problems linked to weight gain it’s a compounded effect and no matter what you do to try to lose weight, your body will fight you all the way. The good news is, you have access to the technology to find out if this is you!

The 3 key steps to turn back the scales are:

  1. Remove the stimulating factors
  2. Identify genetic causes
  3. Inhibit biological changes

1. Remove stimulating factors

Accelerated weight gain in both men and women is triggered by over 120 hidden factors that are modifiable – BUT the current structure for managing weight currently does not screen for these!

Having just one hidden factor can increase body weight by a steady 5kg per year and 1 in 5 people have at least one hidden factor.

This is why I developed the MassAttack assessment screen – an affordable, accessible way to put the stops on hidden factors accelerating biological weight gain.

2. Identify genetic causes

Getting assessed is the first step to take. Knowing how to fix these problems is next and DNA testing provides answers.

Perhaps you’ve already had some genetic testing done through your specialist for genetic mutations like MTHFR or thyroid conditions. What you are unlikely to have been tested for is the interaction between your genes, your diet and how this affects your biological metabolic age.

Microbiome health influences metabolic health in both men and women. It is also implicated in foetal development and impaired diversity is linked to autism spectrum disorder (16).  For starters it influences over 30 genes involved in the uptake and metabolism of nutrients needed for the prevention of conditions linked to weight gain like PCOS, endometriosis and thyroid disorders (1).  This includes the metabolism of vitamins A, C, D and B12 as well as folate, glutathione and coenzyme Q10 (5).  

Other genes play a role in how rapidly your metabolism ages primarily due to their influence on conditions that influence energy conversion like inflammation, mitochondrial function, digestive problems, hormone related conditions and autoimmunity.

In addition, exciting new microbiome DNA testing identifies the influence of specific digestive flora on estrogen production, insulin regulation and thyroid health – all key triggers for accelerated metabolic aging. This means, depending on your microbiome balance, taking an over the counter probiotic or eating more fermented foods could potentially be making things worse.

It also means, whatever you do to improve your metabolism, including dietary choices, taking vitamins or managing your health, can become more effective if you match it to your DNA.

DNA testing is an exciting NEW strategy for rapidly reversing the rate of metabolic decline. Tailoring your diet to your DNA can literally shed around 5 kg per year without trying.

3. Inhibit cellular changes damaging your metabolism

Finally, (this is new information that can make a big difference to conceiving) an amazing researcher at Princeton University – Coleen Murphy discovered cathepsin B proteases increase metabolic aging.

The super exciting part is, advances in genomic herbal therapeutics means you can inhibit, reverse and slow this process.

If you have been trying to lose weight, it’s time to take a new approach. My 3 new and exciting discoveries means you can not only slow metabolic aging but turn back time! It’s exciting. It’s new. People struggling to lose weight should know this!

Remember, the approaches currently promoted to people are eat less, exercise more and decrease carbohydrate intake. It’s far too simplistic and collectively we need to stop thinking this way. Simply waiting for it to happen naturally, following a healthy lifestyle or taking over the counter herbs or vitamins is in some cases helpful, but only skimming the surface and in some cases potentially making things worse.

This approach to improving metabolic outcomes is an absolute game changer. It’s a 100% natural way to stop, reverse and restore the effects of accelerated metabolic aging and if you apply these steps you really can change your path to maintaining a healthy body weight. It’s time to start believing it really is your time to be slim!

Narelle Stegehuis MHSc HM.

Narelle Stegehuis is a leading natural health provider.  Helping people be healthy for over 20 years, Narelle is passionate about natural accelerated age reversal and environmental metabolic health. Narelle provides specialised content for Torrens University and media publications such as New Idea, Woman’s Day and Women’s Fitness magazines. Narelle strives to create community awareness and affordable programs for the management of complex health disorders.

  1. Dadachanji, R., Shaikh, N., & Mukherjee, S. (2018). Genetic Variants Associated with Hyperandrogenemia in PCOS Pathophysiology. Genetics research international, 2018, 7624932. doi:10.1155/2018/7624932
  2. Enciso M, Sarasa J, Xanthopoulou L, et al. Polymorphisms in the MTHFR gene influence embryo viability and the incidence of aneuploidy. Hum Genet 2016; 135(5):555-568
  3. Kollerová J, Koller T, Hlavatý T, Payer J. Vnitr Lek. Hormonal changes in inflammatory bowel disease 2015 Dec;61(12 Suppl 5):5S35-9. Slovak. PMID:27124970
  4. Lauretta, R., Sansone, A., Sansone, M., Romanelli, F., & Appetecchia, M. (2019). Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals: Effects on Endocrine Glands. Frontiers in endocrinology, 10, 178. doi:10.3389/fendo.2019.00178
  5. Nazki FH, Sameer AS, Ganaie BA. Folate: metabolism, genes, polymorphisms and the associated diseases. Gene 2014; 533(1):11-20
  6. Poppe K, Velkeniers B, Glinoer D. Thyroid disease and female reproduction. Clinical Endocrinology [serial online]. March 2007;66(3):309-321. Accessed July 19, 2017
  7. Shah S, Leffler D. Celiac disease: An underappreciated issue in women’s health. Womens Health (Lond Engl) 2010;6:753-766.
  8. Templeman N, Lou S, Kaletsky R, Ashraf J, Keyes W, Murphy C. Insulin Signalling Regulates Oocyte Quality maintenance with Age via Cathepsin B Activity. Current Biology March, 2018.
  9. Baker JM, Al-Nakkash L, Herbst-Kralovetz MM. Estrogen-gut microbiome axis: Physiological and clinical implications. Maturitas. 2017 Sep;103:45-53. doi: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2017.06.025. Epub 2017 Jun 23. Review.
  10. Lee CJ, Sears CL, Maruthur N. Ann N Y  Gut microbiome and its role in obesity and insulin resistance. Acad Sci. 2019 May 14. doi: 10.1111/nyas.14107. [Epub ahead of print] Review.
  11. Jin Y, Wu S, Zeng Z, Fu Z. Effects of environmental pollutants on gut microbiota. Environ Pollut. 2017 Mar;222:1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2016.11.045. Epub 2017 Jan 11. Review.

Restart For FREE

After 20 years, I know weight loss is not easy! And trying to lose weight on your own is challenging.

That’s why I’m here to help.

Getting your health back on track after life events, busy work schedules or a bout of poor health can be a struggle. Especially when battling cravings, emotional eating and stubborn weight that won’t budge. My evidence-based approach to losing the weight means you not only lose the kilos but keep it off.

With my support and guidance, you control hunger, regain control of your eating habits and lose the weight you have always wanted to shift. 

If it’s time to make your health and well being a greater priority in your life and lose a little or – a even a lot of weight, then getting in touch with me is the best way to get started.

Break through the confusion of what weight loss program is best for you. The truth is, there is no one size fit’s all approach. There are over 120 hidden factors that slow your metabolism and trigger weight gain and leaving these unmanaged means your body will fight you 100% of the way.

So if you have tried everything including low carb, high protein, low fat, Atkins, Paleo, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Lite N Easy, Michelle Bridges, Hello Fresh, Intermittent fasting, Meal replacements – or are exercising – and the weight won’t budge, then it’s time we had a chat.

So, what does the research say?

Research tells us that the best way to lose weight is to get assessed, have a tailored program individual to you and to learn how to keep it off naturally. This is what I do and why working with me gets results.

When you work with me, I’ll do a comprehensive 100% natural metabolic assessment and tailor a weight loss program to you based on the best available evidence and your lifestyle and dietary preferences.  Your dietary program will be designed to help you achieve rapid and safe weight loss, naturally.

The best part is, I’ll teach you how to self manage your weight, so you can break free from needing powders and pills to maintain a healthy body weight.

If you are ready to improve your physical well being and take the first steps towards a healthier you, Now is YOUR time. 

Many people who are looking for help with weight loss, don’t know where to turn. Some might even be wondering if a weight loss coach is for them. Here is what you can expect when you work with me.

The first consultation is dedicated to finding out all about you. I’ll look at your journey so far, search for hidden triggers and causes like health conditions, medications or genetics.

I’ll measure the rate you store fat, how slowly you lose it, work out how to improve it and teach you how to manage it to avoid cardiovascular disease and accelerated aging.

I look to support underlying health conditions that are contributing to weight gain, and detect any underlying conditions such as Thyroid disorders, Anxiety/Depression, Sleep apnoea, PCOS or poor microbiome health.

In clinic consultations available in Melbourne

If you are attending my clinic in Melbourne, I also do in-depth body composition analysis to ascertain your starting weight and muscle mass, which helps guide us in determining your target weight goal.

I’ll weigh and measure your body for weight loss and assess your metabolic markers associated with insulin resistance (BMI, fasting glucose, HbA1c1) and triglycerides so you can see your metabolism and health improving.

Whether you choose to work with me over the phone or in clinic, I am here to guide you every step of the way with tips to control cravings, dietary advice, exercise programs and my new and highly successful “Microbiome” Program – developed to overcome the most resistant weight gain.

The good thing is, when you work with me it doesn’t stop when you reach your goal! This is my most important work – lifelong weight maintenance. I’ll help you keep the weight off and stay on track.

With the one-on-one support… when you work with me, long term weight loss and weight maintenance is possible! 

Restart MassAttack in Spring for FREE* – Start your assessment now!

https://www.massattack.com.au/f_form.php

Enter the code D2XQTN to waiver the $99 assessment fee.

*Additional Fees and charges apply to in clinic sessions. Call 0425969344 to book.