How Functional Nutrition Can Help Your Obese Patients

When it comes to obesity and weight gain, isn’t it just about eating less and exercising more?

But what if you or your patient has tried just that with no results?

When it comes to obesity, there may be more complex things at work.

If a client isn’t responding to conservative weight loss measures, we may not be addressing root cause issues that aren’t remedied by caloric deficit alone.

In functional nutrition, quality of food, timing, ratios, therapeutic movement, SLEEP and hormonal balance all matter in maintaining optimal metabolism.

It is a complete holistic approach to addressing Obesity.

How does functional nutrition address Obesity?

One of the first targets is regulating insulin balance through optimal diets such as Ketogenic, Low carb, High Carb (I know, shocking), Anti-inflammatory or simple recommendations such as maximizing protein intake.

Next is improving the quality and timing of the foods.

Since insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance are better in the morning, I often advise my clients to front-load their carbohydrates in the morning. It is usually recommended to consume complex carbohydrates since simple will raise insulin and cortisol.

In addition, we can use supplementation to improve insulin sensitivity such as Momordica, Chromium as well as Green tea.

How about integrating exercise and lifestyle recommendations to addressing Obesity?

Lastly, metabolism can be aided by increasing muscle mass. My clients are often advised to do a mixture of weight resistance and short bursts of cardio depending on their tolerance and goals.

A caveat: if a client isn’t sleeping, it’s unlikely that their blood sugar and insulin sensitivity will improve. If that is the case, then it’s important that we tackle SLEEP first BEFORE nutrition.

For those that are interested in intermittent fasting, I typically recommend it AFTER blood sugar stabilization and improving insulin sensitization.

If you are interested in addressing your client’s health through an integrative approach and not just with medications, then join my my Integrative and Functional Nutrition certification for Nurses!

By the end of our intensive, you’ll have the confidence to create an integrative care plan to address Obesity!

This intensive will help you become more confident in helping your most complex clients and enroll today!

Learn more about the Certificate in Functional and Integrative Nutrition here