10 Triggers That May Be Causing You To Hold Onto Weight

At what point in your day do you say, “I can’t take it… I just need to have some chocolate”? (Or fill in with your favorite naughty treat.)

Perhaps it’s after a long day at work. Or maybe when you have a certain job or task at work you are avoiding. Or maybe it’s after a difficult conversation with a colleague or your partner.

Whatever it may be… there is a trigger that sets you off feeling like there is no other option than to reach for a food to console you in that moment.

Well just like a bad traffic jam or a boring work meeting can trigger you, your body also has a set of triggers that causes it to switch ON into fat storage mode.

Understanding these 10 triggers will help provide you with a greater understanding of why your body has held onto weight, despite the best diet or workout routine.

And once you understand your trigger that is causing these F.A.T Programs to be switched ON, then switching OFF the fat storage mode is even easier.

Without further ado, let’s dive into these 10 Triggers and see which one has been causing you to hold onto excess weight:

1. CHRONIC DIETING:

As one of the most prescribed ways to lose weight, many people don’t realize that restrictive dieting could actually be perpetuating their weight problem. You’ve unintentionally put your body into what’s referred to as a “famine state”.

While fat might seem like your worst enemy, in certain circumstances, your body sees gaining and storing fat as the best way to protect you.

2. EMOTIONS:

Emotional turmoil and stress caused from not being fulfilled emotionally can activate a chemistry in the body that causes weight gain.

If your emotional life is activating your FAT Programs and keeping you from achieving your ideal weight, you are most likely troubled by one or more of the important relationships in your life.

And how does that cause weight gain? Without boundaries, you feel helpless, as though life is happening to you, and both food and fat can shield you from the daily emotional onslaught you have to deal with. Insecurities act like a chronic stress that spikes your cortisol levels and tells your body to store fat.

3. FALSE BELIEFS:

“You are what you think.” If you think you’re unable to lose weight, your thoughts could be holding you back.

Your logical mind takes the sum of all your experiences with diets and exercises and forms a very strong belief that there is no hope, that you’re lost, and that you’re destined to struggle forever. This is absolutely NOT true, and thousands of my students and I are living, breathing proof that you can totally transform your body no matter what.

Whatever your beliefs are, they are shaping your reality, and if you don’t believe that you can lose weight, you won’t. Not now, not ever. So how do you change those beliefs?

Take the FAT Trigger Quiz and get customized results for how to change your beliefs.

4. LIFESTYLE STRESS:

Many people in the modern world experience stress regularly in their professional and personal lives. Chronic stress can have many negative effects on your health, including weight gain.

And whether your stress is emotional, physical, or buried in your unconscious mind… your body reacts the exact same way.

It releases cortisol into your body. Elevated cortisol levels turn your FAT Programs on and not only cause you to gain weight, but simultaneously make it impossible for you to lose weight.

For you to be successful with weight loss, you must identify the root causes of your problem, and then use Gabriel Method treatments such as visualizations, meditation, or healing therapies to tell your body that you’re now safe, strong and protected.

5. MEDICATION:

Side effects of certain medications include weight gain, especially those that are steroid based as well as certain antidepressants and antibiotics.

Why?

The medications can cause adverse hormonal changes. Also the toxins in medicinal drugs can add to your toxic load, strain your liver, and make it more difficult for your body to burn fat. Your body responds to toxicity by using fat as a physical barrier between the toxins and your blood stream. The more toxins you have, the more fat your body creates to protect you.

Don’t stop any medication – seek the advice of a trained professional. But you can start to make a positive change in your diet and life. After a while, you may no longer need the medication that’s been making you put on excess weight.

6. NUTRITION:

When you don’t get enough nutrients from the food you eat, your digestion gets impaired and your body experiences a “nutritional famine” which causes you to keep eating until that nutrient need is satisfied.

In an attempt to beat the “nutritional famine,” you might experience non-stop food cravings that turn many people on to sugary sweets and processed carbohydrates in an attempt to satiate their hunger.

And the result? Over time, a high-sugar diet takes its toll on the body and leads to insulin resistance (or worse, type II diabetes). When your body is “insulin resistant,” it means that you need more and more insulin for the same effect (insulin balances your blood sugar). And since insulin is the fat-storing hormone, more insulin means more fat.

7. PAST TRAUMA:

If you haven’t resolved trauma experienced in the past, your body could be using weight as a coping mechanism.

Most likely, your body is trying to protect you from emotional pain (which it is unable to differentiate from physical pain) by gaining weight.

When you lose someone you love, are abused, hurt or experience unthinkable loss, your body can react by shielding you from the world with fat as its protection mechanism.

8. POOR DIGESTION:

When your digestion system isn’t functioning properly, your body can’t absorb essential nutrients and can go into starvation mode – causing weight gain, inflammation and other health complications.

Most people who experience poor digestion are undernourished, dehydrated, lacking in essential friendly bacteria and digestive enzymes – or suffering from a mix of all three.

Our modern diet of highly-processed and cooked foods is a recipe for digestion-disaster and negatively affects the health of millions of people each year.

When our digestion is impaired as a result of a poor diet, our bodies are no longer able to access nutrients, so they suffer from a nutritional famine. When our bodies are starved for nutrients, they remain in perpetual fat storage mode, which increases our hunger and makes weight loss impossible.

9. SLEEP APNEA:

If you suffer from sleep apnea, most likely you rarely get a full, rejuvenating, good night’s sleep.

This happens because you stop breathing, sometimes hundreds of times a night, often without even realizing it. Your breathing gets interrupted because the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses and cuts off the airway.

This condition affects overweight people more because their neck is heavier, and the weight of the neck then collapses the airway. Sleep apnea reduces blood oxygen to dangerously low levels, so your body is starving for oxygen. So how does this make you fat? You become chronically exhausted, which increases your cortisol levels, causes junk food cravings, and almost guarantees weight gain.

It’s a vicious cycle; sleep apnea makes you fatter, and the fatter you get, the worse your sleep apnea becomes. This is why it’s absolutely essential to get tested and treated for it in order to lose weight

10. TOXICITY:

Toxins from your environment and diet are stored in your fat cells. The more toxins you have, the more fat your body creates in order to keep them from being released in your body.

Most likely, you’ve been exposed to toxins from your environment, diet, and maybe some other not-so-obvious sources. You can be exposed to toxins through pesticides found in non-organic plant and animal foods, prescription or over-the-counter medications, the fermentation and commercial processing of alcohol, or the commonly known cigarette smoke or pollution.

So what do toxins have to do with weight gain?

When more toxins enter your body than you can eliminate,your body stores the excess in fat cells to create a buffer between the toxins and your blood stream. Your body essentially gains and holds onto weight in an attempt to keep you safe from these poisons.

So which of the 10 FAT Programs is triggered and set to ON, and consequently causing you to hold onto excess weight?

Take my short F.A.T. Trigger quiz and find out which program is affecting you the most.