Join the weight loss revolution at Palm Springs Pharmacy

The Impromy Weight Management Program has now helped our clients lose over 200kg at Palm Springs Pharmacy.  Developed by the CSIRO and clinically proven to be effective, this system is a reset to your diet and to your future quality of life.

We are now getting towards the end of January meaning about 90% of our New Year’s resolutions are in the junk folder and we have returned to most of our old habits.  Of course, losing weight or getting into shape is often top of the list for the most common New Year’s resolutions which also makes it top of the list for failure by sometime mid-January.

In Australia we know that approximately 65% of the adult population is overweight or obese.  So, it is no surprise that there are aspirations to lose weight.  We also live in times where many chronic diseases are on the rise because of the growing obesity epidemic.  Our dietary habits are compromising our future health which affects both how long we live and how well we live.

There is no shortage of information or methods of how to lose weight.  Unfortunately, lots of the information is conflicting and some of the methods are not so good for you.  Working out the difference and what is fact versus fad is difficult and frustrating. 

There are two points I’d like to make on this. 

The first is that we have adopted the Impromy program at the pharmacy because it is safe, effective and systemised.  This means you can have faith in it and it is easy to follow.  The end game is that it retrains your eating of normal food so you are not reliant on products and shakes. And this helps stop rebound weight gain at the end of the program, which is so common in so many weight loss systems.

The second is that it helps to understand your body’s biochemistry when it comes to weight gain.  There are hormonal control mechanisms that cause you to gain weight and that can help you lose weight. Understanding these is a game changer.  I’ve written a brief piece below that outlines this. This can help you with food decisions and help you manage your bodyweight for the rest of your life.  If you would like to know more please let me know.

Getting back to the Impromy, there are a few special things happening that may help you if you are interested in starting the program.

1. From now until Feb 14^th we are offering a 2 for 1 membership.  Join with a family member or friend and one of you will get free membership.  A saving of $49.95
2. From Feb 15^th until 7^th of March there is a free box of shakes (valued at $103.90) for anyone who signs up to our 8 week challenge.  You just need to complete 8 weekly program visits before 9 May 2021.  This is available to new members and to those already enrolled in the Impromy program.

And we’ve also managed to secure some more Bodisure electronic bathroom scales for just $25.  If you need some new scales grab some now while stocks last.

Biochemistry Of Weight Loss

We’ve all heard about the importance of calories in relation to bodyweight.  The idea that you gain weight if you eat more calories than you burn and you lose weight if you eat less calories than you burn.  This would be great if it were that simple but it’s not.  True, a calorie deficit is helpful to lose weight but there are a few more things going on.  One is that, when you eat reduced calories for extended periods, your body adapts and actually runs on less calories (Funnily enough, when you overeat regularly your body does also burn more calories). The second, and most important is that a calorie is not a calorie.  Where you get your calories from matters massively.  This is because your bodies handles calories from carbohydrate differently to calories from fat or from protein.  And understanding why this is the is the key. 

At the centre of this conversation is insulin.  This is a hormone that most would have heard of in relation to diabetes. But is it also very important in relation to weight gain.  Its role in the body is to facilitate the movement of glucose from the blood into cells of the body so it can be used as energy.  When the energy needs in the most body cells have been met, the excess is stored as fat. This fat can then be accessed later when needed if there is insufficient energy coming into the cell (or it just keeps accumulating if there is never a need to burn it for energy). In the liver, the storage of excess glucose is a little different, it is stored as a more accessible form of glucose.  This means when you have a deficiency of energy input into your body, your energy can be gained quite quickly from the liver and then a little more slowly from the fat in your body.  So, if you have no insulin or very limited insulin then the glucose cannot get into your cells.  And if glucose doesn’t get into cells, then it can’t be stored as fat in the cells.  In fact, even better, your cells start burning the stored fat.

Now, the release of insulin in your body is stimulated by rising blood glucose.  And blood glucose only rises when you eat carbohydrates.  The more carbohydrate you eat and the more often you eat carbohydrate, and the more easily absorbed type of carbohydrate you eat, the higher your blood glucose goes.  This results in higher insulin levels which is trying to get the glucose out of your blood and packs it into cells.  When the cells have more glucose than they can use they store the rest as fat.  Which means they get fat, which means you get fat.  This process does not happen if your body is not stimulated to release insulin.  And only carbohydrate based foods stimulate insulin release. Proteins and fat do not.  Insulin is the storage hormone that allows you to store energy.

This concept is the reason why keto diets are effective. However, this is not an anti-carbohydrate conversation.  They are an important part of a healthy diet.  But, for many of us, they are too big a part of our diet and they are most often in the wrong form.  When I say wrong form , we are talking about processing.  When these foods are processed (best examples are flour and sugar), they are so easily and quickly digested and absorbed mainly as glucose. This causes a quick rise in blood sugar which results in a big release of insulin.  The insulin then packs lots of glucose into the cells of the body quite quickly which then easily creates an energy excess and the formation of fat.  Interestingly, non-processed carbohydrate (eg, wholegrains, vegetables, fruits) have a high fibre content which makes them harder to digest, which results in a more controlled rise in blood glucose and the release of much less insulin in the body.  This means the glucose enters the cells in a bit more of an orderly fashion and there is less chance of excess resulting in the formation of fat.

The bottom line here is that if you limit the release of insulin in your body, then energy can’t get into cells. Which means they don’t form fat. This also means they look elsewhere for energy, and this means they burn the accumulated fat.  The only way to control the release of insulin is to limit carbohydrate intake for extended periods. 

This really is a conversation starter rather than the whole conversation.  If you would like to know more, or chat specifically about how this relates to you, please get in touch I am more than happy to help.  In future emails I hope to expand on this topic.  I have conversations with clients about weight loss and health almost every day.  It is so common that people are frustrated by their results and it is equally common that there are some simple changes that dramatically improve results.  If you would like some help to a healthier future our door is always open.