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Video

Metabolic Minute #1 – Is Metabolic Adaptation Holding You Back?

In this 60 second video we explain a common cause of failing to lose weight, even with proper diet and exercise.  Hint, its not for lack of effort on your part

If you have been dieting, exercising, and no matter what you do you simply cannot lose weight you may be experiencing a condition called “metabolic adaptation.”  A hormone disorder that turns off fat burning as a survival mechanism usually in response to under eating or over exercising.

You see the body is programmed to thrive or survive… when thriving our hormones act normally, when pushed too far hormones shut off all non-essential systems, including the ability to burn fat.

If you are struggling to get the scale to move while eating right and exercising the answers could be deeper than eat less and move more.. you could be experiencing metabolic adaptation.

For more information on this topic read the article on our blog “Is metabolic adaptation holding you back?”

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Is Metabolic Adaptation Holding You Back?

Sandy has been on some form of diet for what seems like her whole life. They called her “big boned” in her youth, but it was just a kinder way of saying overweight. As she entered her teen and adult years, Sandy became both a chronic dieter and a yo-yo dieter – both unsuccessfully. The more she cut her calories or carbs, the more her body refused to drop a size – or reflect the waistline she wanted.

Across four states, Danielle is working toward her dream figure, too. She wants to achieve it with exercise – always looking to improve muscle tone and stay lean. You’ll catch her at the gym 2-3 hours per day engaged in long-duration cardio sessions, high-intensity interval training, and power weight lifting. What you won’t see Danielle doing is breaking for lunch or eating a protein bar. This over-exerciser is eating all wrong and wonders why her body never seems to change.

So, why aren’t these ladies seeing results from their clearly proactive efforts? A low-calorie diet and vigorous exercise help you lose weight, right? Not necessarily. Enter metabolic adaptation.

 

What Happens When Metabolism Adapts?

a woman exercising for her health

Source: Ryan McGuire, via Gratisography

Sandy’s mantra of “eat less, weigh less” isn’t working for her because she’s in starvation mode. And the same goes for Danielle and her “eat less, exercise more” regime. Sure, they may have lost a little (or even a lot of) fat, but their bodies cannot sustain this for too long. If you have a calorie deficit and/or are over-exercising, your metabolism has adapted so well that you’re no longer able to lose fat.

When weight loss slows down, people like Sandy and Danielle eat less and/or push harder in their exercise routines, forcing metabolism to slow…exponentially. Our bodies are constantly working to maintain homeostasis, which means rapid increases and decreases in consumed calories can cause issues. When we restrict our calories, our metabolism attempts to close the gap by decreasing our metabolic rate with leptin, the metabolism-regulating hormone. When leptin is high, metabolism is high; when it’s low, our metabolism rate plummets. This explains why a diet may work well for a month or so, and then less so as our bodies work toward homeostasis.

The impact of under-eating and over-exercising:

  • Metabolism-regulating hormones begin to down-regulate
  • Thyroid and leptin decrease to create homeostasis in the body
  • Muscle tissue starts to break down as it becomes an energy source
  • Metabolism slows
  • Reduction of calories burned in a day
  • Can cause weight gain

Stress is a Culprit

The human body is amazing at adapting under stress, and when you’re an under-eater and/or over-exerciser, that’s bad news. In order to respond to a threatening situation, a stress response mobilizes the body’s energy stores, effectively shutting down your fat-burning ability and muscle gains. It’s been seen in the scientific study of rats, in which chronic, stress-linked weight gain occurs despite less food intake, suggesting that metabolic adaptations occur during stress, increasing caloric efficiency.

Other fascinating research comes from Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford neuroscientist, who has been trying to understand why humans and their primate cousins get more stress-related diseases than any other member of the animal kingdom. Each year, he and his team follow troops of Kenyan baboons, gathering behavioral and physiological data on individual members, including blood samples, tissue biopsies, and electrocardiograms. His research finds that stress hormones are “brilliantly adapted” to help us mobilize energy, increase blood pressure, and turn off everything that’s not essential to surviving, such as digestion, growth, and reproduction. Thus, the metabolic adaptation and the ensuing stress response have created Sandy and Danielle’s situation.

How to Fix a Slow Metabolism and Prevent Metabolic Damage

Sandy and Danielle aren’t alone in the weight-loss, muscle-gain struggle. And like them, if you don’t take a stark look at your nutrition and exercise habits, and take the appropriate action, metabolic adaptation can turn into metabolic damage. This is a much more serious hormonal disorder involving the nervous system, endocrine system, and immune system.

The good news? Metabolic damage is preventable! If you suspect you might be struggling with the effects of metabolic adaptation, there are real tests, clear answers, and concrete solutions to get you back on track. And at Twin Cities Metabolism, we can produce these for you – quickly. If you’d like to fix your metabolism with hormone and metabolism testing, contact our metabolism doctor today to learn more at 651-636-0055.

Stay tuned to learn more about Metabolic Damage in our next blog.

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The Right Way to Prep for a Bikini Competition (Part 3) The Road to Recovery

The competition may be over, but the hard work is not. Recovering from a bikini competition (or any other extreme weight loss effort) takes just as much focus and effort as the prep. If you want to prevent future problems with your health and metabolism—you’re going to need to set some goals.

Your Post-Comp Strategy

Whether that was your first and last show or you’re a serial competitor, chances are you’re eager to get back to your “normal life.” You’re looking forward to cheat meals and less time on the treadmill. This well-deserved reprieve is possible, but only with a healthy approach. It’s important to maintain the leanness you achieved, while transitioning to a more reasonable diet and exercise plan.

All those hormonal and metabolic changes that occurred during your bikini competition prep, as discussed in part two of this blog series, must be restored. But how can you undo the metabolic adaptation that is likely in full swing? How can you reset your thyroid, sex hormones, stress response, and digestion, and pull yourself out over-exercising and starvation mode? Here’s how.

weekly to-do list

Set a post-competition strategy to recover in a healthy way.

Set a recovery timeframe

For most people, roughly half of your full prep time should be dedicated to recovery. If your prep was more on the more intense side with killer cardio, or extreme calorie or carb depletion, your recovery should match your prep time. For example:

Reasonable Competition Preparation:  12-week contest prep = 6-week recovery
Intense Competition Preparation:  12-week contest prep = 12-week recovery

Reverse your diet

Take your diet from 0 – 60 overnight, and you’ll balloon up fast. Make changes slowly over time, and your body will thank you. The goal post-competition is to have a diet that’s easy to follow, keeps you lean, and is as high in calories as your body can tolerate. Reverse dieting is the best approach for all competitors, creating a reasonable/sustainable diet that helps metabolism and prevents weight gain. Where you do you start? Slowly increase your calories and carbs each week until you reach a comfortable, sustainable diet. We suggest a 50 calorie increase from carbohydrates each week until you achieve the ideal “off-season” diet. And yes, that means cheat meals are back on the plate!

Reverse your exercise

Just like your diet strategy, slow and steady will take you far with exercising. Bring your workouts back down to a level that’s less intense and more enjoyable. We suggest a decrease of 1 min/day or approximately 5 min/day per week. Easing into the decrease is the easiest way to prevent weight gain.

Take supplements

Look … supplements aren’t some sort of magic pills, but in many cases, they can assist the body in healing hormone systems faster and easier, and replace deficiencies that can occur with restrictive eating. To ensure you’re not missing essential nutrients needed for recovery, consider the following. (But as always, check with your doctor for safety and medication interactions.)

  • Magnesium. Arguably the body’s most deficient mineral, magnesium plummets with the strain of aggressive training. Build it back up with magnesium glycinate at a dosage of 600 mg/day, which has great absorption.  Check out our favorite brand.
  • Fish oil.  As you introduce more food through reverse dieting, inflammation can rise. Combat this with a 2,000-4,000 mg/day dose of fish oil supplementation. But keep in mind, this is a long-term commitment. Fish oil works slowly over time by incorporating the fat from the oil into your body’s cellular membrane, preventing inflammation and potentially increasing overall hormone function.
  • B-complex. After the strain of all that intense exercise, your body needs B vitamins to produce stress hormones and other metabolic processes. A general B complex supplement can help.  See our recommendation here.
  • Digestive enzymes. Struggling with bloating or food intolerance post-competition? Digestive enzymes with proteases, lipases, and amylase will help your body break down protein, fat, and carbs more efficiently. Here’s one of our favorites.


Know when to ask for help

Two people having a consultation

If you feel like you’re losing control of your body, metabolism testing could help.

Some post-competition problems are easier to overcome than others. If your weight won’t respond to your workouts, or worse, your weight gain is spiraling out of control, you may have a larger metabolism issue. The stress of competition prep can cause your metabolism and hormone systems to break down, triggering significant changes in your weight, energy levels, and digestion. If you feel like you’re losing control of your body, it’s time to seek the help of a professional.

“Don’t throw your health away because you competed for a plastic trophy one day.”

I say this to every one of my bikini competitor clients. If you don’t approach recovery in a proactive way, you can be doomed to serious health damage down the road. Metabolic testing can help you evaluate your hormones and fat-burning ability, giving you a concrete recovery strategy designed specifically for your needs post-competition. If you’d like to pinpoint and address the issues you’re experiencing, Twin Cities Metabolism is here to help. Request a consultation to learn more about testing options, pricing, and what we can do for you.

Ready to take charge of your health? We have the tests and customized nutrition programs you need. Get in touch.

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The Right Way to Prep for a Bikini Competition (Part 2) Show’s Over, But Effects on the Body Last

You finally made it. It’s the day of the show. All that bikini competition prep work paid off and you look leaner than ever. Once you step off that stage and back into real life, you can return to eating whatever you want. Right?

Sorry, but no. Your journey isn’t over. The way you exit a bikini competition is just as important as how you enter. The rigor of food restrictions from your bikini competition diet and the intense exercise transformed your physique—but it also altered your hormones, metabolism, and self-image. Let’s talk specifics.

What Happens to Your Body After the Competition?

Your metabolism is probably lower.

Metabolic adaptation is a very real thing. Those months of vigorous training sent your body into self-preservation mode, causing you to burn fewer calories per day and lower your metabolism. In fact, studies show that when you get to your goal weight, your resting metabolic rate is so severely depressed, that you’ll almost immediately gain weight if you resume your prior higher-calorie diet.

woman's fingers holding half-eaten donut

Changes in brain chemistry during bikini competition prep can cause sugar cravings.

Your brain chemistry is probably off.

Extreme exercise gives you the same release of endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin that thrill seekers get—except you’re getting it over and over again. Cut off the release of these hormones cold turkey and you can find yourself with severe mood issues. To compensate, studies show you may crave and binge carbs and sugary foods for the temporary neurotransmitter boost (no, the craving isn’t a result of their long absence in your bikini competition diet like you assumed). But when that high wears off after a few minutes, you’re back to being crabby (and probably bloated).

Your GI tract/stomach changed.

For months, you conditioned your body to live off certain foods, and probably changed your enzymes in the process. Take dairy, for instance. Avoid it long enough, and it decreases the digestive enzymes on the surface of your small intestine, making you less able to digest it. Put dairy back in, and you’ll get diarrhea. This avoidance also affects your brain chemistry. Considering an estimated 90% of your body’s serotonin is made in your gut, making “poorer” food choices can influence this for the worse. Start bingeing foods you’ve been avoiding for months, and your guts and brain will hate you.

Your sex hormone levels are probably different.

A big decrease in body fat, and the stress of metabolic adaptation can affect your sex hormones. Studies show that most natural athletes experience decreases in testosterone and most women will experience decreases in estrogen production. The more rigorous your bikini competition prep, the more likely you are to experience symptoms of low sex hormones, including a decrease in sex drive, ability to burn fat, stamina, and general vigor.

Your carb tolerance is probably not the same.

Most bikini competitors stick to some version of a paleo diet: high protein and low carbs, or in a cycled fashion. If this is your bikini competition diet, don’t be surprised if you can no longer handle a high-sugar meal without crashing. You can blame insulin sensitivity and low carb tolerance for that. For quite some time, you’ll probably feel sick any time you try to increase your daily carb intake.

Body dysmorphia is a common issue after a bikini competition, as you start thinking your body is in worse shape than it actually is.

Your risk of body dysmorphia has increased.

By competition day, you’re at an all-time high in self-confidence, but you’re also facing a high risk of body dysmorphia. You’ve spent three months sculpting your perfect body. You’re leaner than you ever been, partly because you’re dehydrated, which sucks your skin tightly to your muscles. You’ll be able to keep this new and improved physique, right? Sorry, but no. You’ll have a water shift a day or two after the show. You’ll have a cheat meal. You’ll ease up on your training and gain back a few pounds of body fat. It’s inevitable. As you watch your show-body start to change, you risk becoming too critical, seeing yourself negatively, while everyone thinks you look great.

You didn’t make an after-show plan.

You made a very detailed prep plan, but did you create an after-show plan? If you’re like most bikini competitors who just accomplished their goals, you probably didn’t think beyond “I’ll continue to train.” Everything we discussed here needs to be carefully considered and addressed the moment you leave the stage. Your hormone changes, your metabolic shifts, your GI system—it’s all sitting there inside, waiting to make you sick, tired, and flabby. This will be your reality, unless you make a post-show plan and gently move back to your normal metabolism.

Need help with your post-competition planning? Keep an eye out for Part 3 of our bikini competition prep series, coming up next week.

Ready to take charge of your health? We have the tests and customized nutrition programs you need. Get in touch.

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Yes, Metabolic Damage is Real

Many people who “can’t” lose weight blame their metabolism—but they’re secretly eating cheat meals or missing workouts. Others stick to their diets and exercise plans meticulously—then cut more calories or stay at the gym longer when they don’t see results. Whether you’re the former, the latter, or somewhere in between, you may not know just how much your metabolism affects your weight. Worse, damage to it may be causing those other symptoms that seem completely unrelated.

Maybe It’s Metabolic Damage 

Weight loss seems very formulaic for the most part: calories in vs. calories out ultimately determines if you lose or gain. Add in some exercise, and you’re good to go. But metabolism, the interaction of hormones and organ systems that store and burn fat, is estimated to be responsible for between 60–70 percent of your fat-burning capability. Clearly, a problem with your metabolism is going to affect your weight, no matter what you eat or how much you hit the treadmill.

If you’re a nutrition nut who’s clocked more hours in the gym than you’d care to admit yet you’re still not seeing results, you may have metabolic damage—the most severe form of weight-loss resistance. This hormonal disorder involves the nervous system (brain), endocrine system (thyroid, adrenals, and sex hormones), and immune system, and can cause bothersome symptoms, including fatigue, irregular menstrual cycles, upset stomach, bloating with meals, low sex drive, and more.

Who Gets Metabolic Damage?

The tricky thing about metabolic damage is that it can happen TO you or BY you.

Chronic dieters and over-exercisers risk causing metabolic damage 

If you’re a chronic dieter and/or exerciser, you may have caused metabolic damage.
If you’re a yo-yo dieter, or you’re regularly doing long-duration cardio exercise while on a super-low-calorie or low-carb diet, you may have missed the warning sign of metabolic damage—metabolic adaptation. In the face of what it sees as a life-or-death situation, your body initiates a stress response that mobilizes your energy stores, effectively shutting down your fat-burning ability and muscle gains. The longer you live with metabolic adaptation, the worse health effects you’re likely to endure.

Take participants of “The Biggest Loser” televised weight-loss competition, for example. Several years ago, researchers studied the body composition and resting metabolic rate changes in 14 of the show’s competitors who were classified with class III obesity. They found tthose with the greatest weight loss at the end of the competition experienced the greatest slowing of resting metabolic rate, and those who maintained the weight loss after six years also wound up with a slower metabolism. These observations show definitively that metabolic adaptation is a very real response to extreme dieting and exercise.

If you have an undiagnosed/untreated metabolic condition that spreads, metabolic damage may have happened to you.
Imagine your metabolism is an orchestra playing a song. If the flutes are off key or out of time, the other instruments will likely wander off as well. The result? Everybody’s out of whack, and it’s a terrible song. This is how metabolic damage can develop as well. Because metabolism is an intricate system of organs communicating together, an undiagnosed health condition (say, low T3 syndrome) can negatively affect all other systems, shutting down your metabolism.

yellow sign with exclamation mark

There are warning signs before you reach metabolic damage, but you must be in tune with your body to recognize them.

The Warning Signs of Metabolic Damage

Adrenal Fatigue and Low Cortisol Levels – As metabolic damage begins, your adrenal glands get stressed, produce an over-abundance of cortisol. Once cortisol levels have been elevated for quite some time they fall to dangerously low levels, causing adrenal fatigue.

Low Thyroid Levels – Drops in T4 and T3 (the body’s major fat-burning hormone) can directly (or indirectly) result in a slow metabolism, fatigue, and/or low energy levels. In fact, the common clinical disorder, low T3 syndrome, is often seen with metabolic damage.

Low Testosterone – Low testosterone levels are common in men and women (except those with PCOS) with metabolic damage. If you’re suffering from metabolic adaptation or damage, your adrenal glands get pushed to their limit, creating a stress response that shuts down the production of testosterone.

Imbalanced Progesterone to Estrogen Ratio – When stress is out of control, your body will steal valuable resources to make stress hormones (including cortisol) instead of healthy thyroid and sex hormones, causing low or high estrogen levels, and most commonly low progesterone.

Low Leptin/Leptin Resistance – When you restrict our calories, your metabolism compensates by decreasing our metabolic rate with leptin, the fat-locating hormone. When leptin is high, metabolism is high; when it’s low, our metabolism rate plummets, often creating leptin resistance (or “blind fat”).

Immune System Overdrive – In a stressed state, your immune system gets overly excitable and attacks things it shouldn’t, such as ingested food and the body’s own organs. This contributes to food sensitivities, autoimmune diseases, and sensitivity to chemicals and the environment.

How You Miss the Signs…And What to Do If You See Them Now

It’s easy to miss the warning signs of metabolic damage when conventional medical providers aren’t looking for them. More often than not, they’re solely looking and testing for diseases they can treat with medication or surgery. This leaves you (and millions of other Americans) in the medical black hole—living with hidden metabolic disorders that spread and worsen over time.

If you suspect you have a metabolic disorder, we have some good news. Twin Cities Metabolism has the tests, answers, and solutions waiting for you. Contact us for a consultation to discuss your symptoms, get the proper testing, determine if you have a metabolism problem, and ultimately have the help you need.

Ready to take charge of your health? We have the tests and customized nutrition programs you need. Get in touch.

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Is it Me or a Metabolism Problem?

“Oh, I’ve just always been tired during the workday.”

“You know me, I’m always cold.”

“I’ve never had much of an appetite, yet I still can’t lose weight.”

Are you one to make definitive statements like these about yourself? When you’re always feeling a certain way, it’s easy to think, “Well, that’s just me.” But is it really you—or could it be something deeper?

The truth is, you don’t necessarily have to go through life feeling fatigued, shivering, or battling the bulge. You don’t have to accept that you’re never hungry, and you shouldn’t have to wonder why your weight is going up. Many of the symptoms you’re experiencing, especially if you’re struggling with weight loss, can stem from a metabolism problem. Fortunately, there are tangible signs to look out for.

Yellow road signs that read Help

Keep an eye out for signs and symptoms of a metabolism disorder.

8 Signs You May Have a Metabolism Problem

#1. Weight gain or loss
If you can’t remember a time when you weren’t on a diet or you can’t gain a pound no matter how much food you pack in, your metabolism may be to blame. The stress that an underlying metabolism disorder places on your body eventually causes your metabolism to shut down. Once that happens, normal hormone activity suffers, weight loss and gain become difficult, and other symptoms ensue.

#2.  Fatigue
Your body is like a car—it needs fuel to operate. If you have a metabolism disorder, you may have a lot of stored fat (aka fuel), and if your body isn’t using that fat for energy, you’ll go nowhere fast.

#3. Feeling cold
If you can’t go anywhere without bringing a sweater or you sleep with a space heater and two comforters year-round, you may have to check in with your metabolism. Metabolic adaptation can push your adrenal glands to their limit, creating a stress response that downregulates your hormones, and drops your tolerance for cold temps.

#4. Loss of sex drive/interest
Who would think metabolism could affect whether you’re “in the mood?” Unfortunately, when sex hormone output is low and you’re under 40, metabolic adaptation is usually in full swing.

Man lying down on the gym floor tired

If you can barely make it through a workout, your metabolism may be to blame.

#5. Low stamina
You start the workday bright-eyed and bushy-tailed but need tape to keep your eyes open by lunch. Or you start your exercise workout like a beast, but eventually pick up lighter weights because you burn out too quickly. If this sounds like you, a metabolism disorder may be affecting how your body burns calories for energy.

#6. Lack of hunger
You just slept for nine hours. You should be ravenous when you wake up, right? If you have a slow metabolism, you may be able to go even longer without feeling hungry. If you’re alert and awake, you shouldn’t go longer than four hours without eating something. If you can, it’s a sure sign that your metabolism is slow. (And if you’re eating less and still not losing weight, that’s just another sign!)

#7. GI issues
Dealing with constipation, loose stools, and food sensitivity? Metabolism problems can start in the gut with gastrointestinal issues like leaky gut syndrome or microbe problems, and often lead to food intolerance as time goes on.

#8. 100% effort, zero progress
You’re sticking to your exercise and nutritional plan with absolute precision. You’re measuring your body fat and muscle mass consistently. You’re doing everything right, but your body fat is going up and/or your muscle mass is going down. A metabolism disorder may be sabotaging you.

“Yep, that sounds exactly like me!”

If you relate to any of the above signs, it may be time to visit a metabolism doctor to see what’s going on. With thorough testing, a diagnosis, and treatment, you may be able to start eating that ice cream you gave up because it made you gassy or power through that hour-long boot camp class like you used to.

Ready to take charge of your metabolism? We’re ready to help. Get in touch.

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Something Sneaky is Sabotaging Your Weight Loss Goals

Something is dogging your health. Every afternoon, this evil force is fogging your brain, stimulating your sweet tooth, and zapping your energy. Yet you fight on—refusing to let these pesky behaviors steer you away from nightly trips to the gym, or put a hex on your discipline (you are not going home with that chocolate bar in your purse!). But the thing that’s dogging you fights back. And it’s set on making sure you don’t lose a pound or gain muscle, no matter how much willpower you apply.

If you’re eating tons of broccoli and doing all your pushups, but still losing the fight to lose weight, something deeper might be sabotaging your efforts. Very likely, it’s a metabolism disorder.

5 Metabolism Disorders that Can Be Sabotaging You

Metabolism is a powerhouse, constantly working behind the scenes to convert the food you eat into the energy needed to do everything from thinking to moving and growing. Along the way, it also influences how easily you gain or lose weight. So, slim people have a higher metabolism and overweight people have a slower metabolism, right? Not so much.

This incredibly intricate chemical process engages multiple bodily systems. If one of them misfires, your metabolism can take a hit. Any one (or a combination) of the following five metabolism disorders might stand in the way of your weight-loss goals.

1. Low thyroid

Person warming body by fire

Low thyroid can make you feel cold all the time. (Photo: Teddy Kelley on Unsplash)

When your body’s thyroid hormone levels plummet, you don’t burn as much fat—and it packs on the pounds. Whether it’s because of the more harrowing Hashimoto’s disease, which causes hypothyroidism, or the less commonly identified subclinical hypothyroid, thyroid dysfunction can discount your weight loss efforts.
Signs to look out for:

  • Loss of outer-third of eyebrows
  • Dry skin
  • Feeling cold
  • Low energy
  • Brain fog
  • Weight gain

How it’s diagnosed: Blood testing. For the most accurate results, get the full panel with nine blood tests vs. the more common three-test panel.

2. PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome)

What causes ovarian cysts to form is still a bit of a mystery, but it’s clear that when they do, weight gain will soon follow. These evil invaders cause your body to produce extra testosterone, and then they team up to create insulin resistance. And since insulin is the body’s primary fat-storage hormone, you put on pounds when it’s not used correctly.
Signs to look out for:

  • Weight gain around the belly
  • Extra hair growth in women
  • Acne
  • Irregular menstrual cycles and, in severe cases, infertility

How it’s diagnosed: Blood testing to identify if you have extra testosterone, and/or ultrasound of the ovaries.

3. Adrenal fatigue

When your adrenal glands get stressed, they overproduce or, more commonly, underproduce cortisol and DHEA. When the levels are too high, you’ll see a big gain in belly fat. Too low, and other non-essential hormones and body processes get “turned down,” causing metabolic adaptation.

Signs to look out for:  

  • Fatigue
  • Low stamina to make it through the day
  • Puffy appearance
  • Water retention
  • Salt cravings
A salt shaker

Adrenal fatigue can make you crave salt often. (Photo: Photo by Artem Beliaikin via Pexels)

How it’s diagnosed: Saliva testing, with multiple samples taken throughout one day to obtain overall cortisol level and rhythm.

4. Sex-hormone imbalances

When you’re dealing with low testosterone (in both aging men and over-stressed women) or estrogen dominance, your weight loss and muscle gains are going to suffer. Low testosterone causes weight gain by prohibiting metabolism-boosting muscle gains and fat burning. High estrogen levels damage your overall thyroid function, which as we saw above, can lead to weight gain.
Signs to look out for:

  • Lower-body fat deposition
  • Fat increase in chest (men)
  • Moodiness
  • Abnormal menstrual cycles

How it’s diagnosed: Blood or saliva testing.

5. Prediabetes

You’re not quite a diabetic, but you’re well on your way if you have abnormal blood sugar. That’s because an increase of blood sugar causes an increase of insulin, which causes an increase in body fat.
Signs to look out for:

  • Cravings for sweets
  • “Crashing” energy after afternoon meals
  • Being thirsty and urinating frequently

How it’s diagnosed:  Blood testing.

Don’t Guess, Diagnose

You may feel any or all of these symptoms from time to time, or you may experience none at all. But if you haven’t seen progress with your weight loss and you’re fed up, it’s time to take action by getting some testing.

Ready to find out what’s sabotaging your weight loss? We’re ready to help. Get in touch.

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If You’re Not Gaining Muscle or Losing Fat, Here’s Why

Think tracking your body composition is just about vanity? Think again. The only way to know for sure if you’re dieting and exercising effectively is to consistently measure your body fat, water levels, inflammation, and muscle mass. And the only way to make changes is to know what needs changing.

Why You’re Not Seeing Results

You spend an hour in the gym seven days a week. You eat healthy meals and get plenty of sleep. Yet, as the year draws to a close, you’ve seen virtually zero change in your muscles or you’ve failed to lose that 10 pounds. What gives? You may be unknowingly deterring your efforts or dealing with undiscovered health issues. Much like Sherlock Holmes, consistent body composition testing with tools like the Fit3D Proscanner and InBody can uncover the cause. In the meantime, consider the following questions.

Are you incorporating resistance training?

Man doing pushups

Resistance training is essential to muscle growth. (Photo via Pexels)

The stress of resistance exercises, like push-ups and planks, actually injures the muscles, causing satellite cells to come to the rescue to repair and grow the muscle. If you aren’t doing this type of exercise regularly or you’re not performing the movements properly, your chances of gaining muscle mass diminish.

Are using correct form?

If you are doing resistance training but still not seeing results, or you have “jacked” arms and stick legs, you may not be doing it right. Whether you’re not contracting hard enough, changing form, or not targeting specific muscle groups, it’s easy your effort to be all for naught.

Do you have a balanced diet?

If you’re struggling to build muscle or lose fat, you may be eating too little, too much, or not incorporating enough protein. It’s understandable to think eating less will have a positive effect on your fitness goals, but if your body enters starvation mode, you could end up with metabolic adaptation. Take a good, hard look at your diet. A balance of protein, fat, and carbohydrates is essential for muscle growth and fat loss.

Are you dealing with hormone dysfunction?

Fruit, veggies, toast, and orange juice on table

A balanced diet aids muscle growth and fat loss. (Photo: Jannis Brandt on Unsplash)

Whether it’s your adrenal glands, metabolic damage, nutritional deficiencies, biochemical stress, PCOS, or intestinal inflammation, hormone dysfunction may also hamper your efforts.

Do you struggle with food allergies or intolerance?

Whether you know you’re allergic to peanuts and eat a PB&J sandwich anyway, or you don’t realize you’re lactose intolerant and constantly eat ice cream, your body may be dealing with inflammation from intestinal issues; a huge roadblock.

Do you have an injury?

Untreated injuries also cause inflammation, which can deter your efforts. While a twisted ankle will show swelling proudly, a less obvious internal injury could be lingering undetected.

Testing Leads to Success

Fortunately, consistent use of body composition tools like the Fit3D and InBody helps search out all of these barriers to muscle growth and fat loss. Hundreds of measurements provide unparalleled insight into your body functions, so you know exactly what to change to make changes.

Ready to test your body composition? We have the tools. Get in touch.

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Metabolic Minute #18 – When you’re tired but can’t sleep, you pop a pill

But what do you do when your adrenal glands aren’t at their peak—when exhaustion, brain fog, and illness persist? Is there a magic tablet to take? A simple solution to swallow? Believe it or not, there is kind of, but it’s only a short-term fix to a potentially long-term problem.

The stress of metabolic adaptation, chemical exposure, food allergies, and hormonal imbalance can overwork your adrenal glands, and many people are quick to take adrenal adaptogens for this fatigue. Similar to whipping a horse for a burst of speed, these herbs will certainly boost function in the short term, but what happens when you stop taking them if you haven’t addressed the cause? You’re back to square one—sick and tired.

For more information on this topic visit the article on our blog entitled “Put your adrenal fatigue to bed.“

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Put Your Adrenal Fatigue to Bed

When you’re tired but can’t sleep, you pop a pill.

But what do you do when your adrenal glands aren’t at their peak—when exhaustion, brain fog, and illness persist? Is there a magic tablet to take? A simple solution to swallow? Believe it or not, there is, but it’s only a short-term fix to a potentially long-term problem.

The stress of metabolic adaptation, chemical exposure, food allergies, and hormonal imbalance can overwork your adrenal glands, and many people are quick to take adrenal adaptogens for this fatigue. Similar to whipping a horse for a burst of speed, these herbs will certainly boost function in the short term, but what happens when you stop taking them? You’re back to square one—sick and tired.

How to Boost Adrenal Function Naturally

If an eyelash is stuck in your eye, you don’t use eye drops or take aspirin for the irritation. You remove the offending eyelash. The same goes for adrenal fatigue. You must remove the aggravating factors to improve your glands’ overall function. Because the longer you continue making poor lifestyle choices, the more your body struggles to recuperate from physical and emotional stress.

The causes of adrenal fatigue vary, but taking small steps can hugely benefit how your glands function. Here are three ways to do just that.

1. Improve your diet

Adrenal recovery and a healthy diet go hand in hand. Start by removing foods and ingredients that tax your adrenals, such as:

  • Caffeine: Can lead to sleeplessness, causing adrenal wear and tear
  • Carbohydrates: Increase blood sugar levels and inflammation as the adrenals are forced to release more cortisol
  • Hydrogenated oils: Vegetable oils are highly inflammatory, leading to adrenal inflammation
  • Sugar and artificial sweeteners: Overconsumption causes a rapid rise and fall in blood sugar levels, and forces the adrenals to release cortisol to bring your blood sugar levels back up

Next, introduce foods that are high in fat and low in sugar, and packed with nutrients and fiber, including:

Carrots, tomatoes, kale nuts, strawberries

A healthy diet can improve adrenal function. (Photo: Pexels)

  • Avocado
  • Bone broth
  • Coconut & Coconut oil
  • Cruciferous veggies
  • Fish
  • Ginseng
  • Kelp and seaweed
  • Nuts
  • Olives
  • Sea salt
  • Seeds

 

2. Exercise…but not too much

Physical activity is great for the mind and body, but overdoing it and cause your adrenals to underperform. Over-exercising can create an inflammatory buildup in the body, leading to water retention. Next thing you know, you’re stuck at the same weight for months, looking a lot puffier than you remembered.

Woman lifting a barbell

Over-exercising can push your adrenal glands to the limit. (Photo by Isabella Mendes via Pexels)

If you’re wondering if you’re overtraining, consider taking advantage of the revolutionary InBody technology available at Twin Cities Metabolism, which measures fluid retention, the first sign of overtraining (more on that in an upcoming blog post!).

3. Avoid chemicals and toxins

In our busy world of instant gratification and convenience, it’s difficult to completely avoid chemical stressors—but you can limit exposure. At home, choose fresh foods over microwaveable, ultra-processed meals with preservatives and fillers. Stop loading up on over-processed red meats that are high in hormones and lacking nutrition. Choose grass-fed beef, and free-range turkey or chicken instead, and consume them in moderation.

Test and Address Adrenal Fatigue

If you suspect your adrenals are being pushed beyond their limit, a quick saliva and/or blood test for cortisol and DHEA can provide a diagnosis. But to get to the cause—the previously mysterious root of your adrenal fatigue—you’re going to need additional testing. Fortunately, Twin Cities Metabolism has seen it all, and we know what to look for.

Ready to take charge of your adrenal fatigue once and for all? We’re ready to guide you. Get in touch.

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Your Body is Sick and Tired of Adrenal Fatigue

Who would think that something the size of a walnut and weight of a grape can have such control over your health? The adrenal glands sit on top of the kidneys, working hard to manufacture the hormones that make you vital and full of life. When they’re overworked, you’re overwhelmed with health issues.

What If?

Silhouette of man standing in fog

Stress and poor diet put strain on the adrenals, causing brain fog. (Photo: Harman Abiwardani via Unsplash)

If you’re experiencing brain fog…

.. then you may have a nutritional deficiency. Many of the factory-farmed meat and processed foods we eat don’t support brain health. Your brain relies on a steady stream of vitamins and minerals, glucose, essential fatty acids, and amino acids to function. Stress and a poor diet put pressure on your adrenal glands, causing inflammation and changes to the three primary hormones (cortisol, dopamine, and serotonin) that determine your energy, mood, and focus.

If you’re feeling “puffy…”

…then you may be retaining water. Stress can trigger your body’s fight-or-flight response and pump out the hormone aldosterone. When functioning normally, this chemical regulates your blood pressure, and levels water and electrolytes in your blood. Under stress, aldosterone tells your kidneys to retain salt, which makes your body retain as much liquid as possible, so you feel bloated.

If you can’t lose weight even though you exercise and eat right…

…then your metabolism may have adapted. When you’re an under-eater and/or over-exerciser, your adrenal glands get stressed, produce an over-abundance of cortisol, and leave you with metabolic adaptation—or worse, metabolic damage.

Woman blowing her nose

Adrenal fatigue can run down your immune system.  (Photo via Pixabay)

If you’re constantly getting sick…

…then your immune system may be compromised. Continual stress can weaken the adrenals to the point where they can no longer adequately stimulate your immune system to keep you healthy. While you may only be dealing with recurring colds or the flu, proper immune system function is responsible for preventing more serious conditions like cancer and autoimmune diseases.

If you have a thyroid condition, and synthetic hormones don’t help…

…your adrenal function may be to blame. People with thyroid disorders often have weak adrenals. And if they’re underproducing or overproducing cortisol, your thyroid condition can get much worse.

If your libido is diminished…

… you may have low hormone levels. When your stress levels are high and energy levels are low, reproduction takes a back seat to survival and recovery. To conserve energy, your body lessens (and in some cases, stops) the production of estrogen and testosterone—the hormones responsible for your sex drive.

Boost Your Adrenal Function Naturally

Fortunately, a saliva and/or blood test for cortisol and DHEA can help diagnose adrenal fatigue, but you’ll require a variety of other tests to diagnose the cause. At Twin Cities Metabolism, we’ll start by asking you the right questions, follow with a battery of tests to banish any doubt about a diagnosis, and proceed with a customized treatment plan (which we’ll explore in next week’s post).

Ready to take charge of your adrenal function? We’re ready to guide you. Get in touch.

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Why Do My Adrenal Glands Hate Me!?

You walked around for years in a sleepy state, unable to lose weight, and feeling cold and puffy—but you finally know why! Your metabolism doctor confirmed that you’re suffering from adrenal fatigue. And now you have even more questions.

What are you doing to cause that extra wear and tear on your adrenal system? Why do you have increased inflammation? In short, why do your adrenal glands hate you?!

Your Adrenals Aren’t the Cause

As we mentioned in our last blog post, something is making your adrenal system work overtime, and more often than not, it’s biochemical and/or physical stress. These stressors cause the inflammation that’s putting your health at risk. Let’s take a look at a few.

Woman doing situps

Over-exercising can negatively impact your adrenal glands. (Photo: Pixabay via Pexels)

Over-Exercising

A few blog posts back, we introduced you to Danielle who stacked up three hours in the gym each day but fell flat on results. While her struggle had more to do with undereating and metabolic adaptation, if she took a closer look at her ankles instead of her biceps, she might have picked up a clue. Over-training can cause an inflammatory buildup in the body, manifesting as puffiness. Chances are, when Danielle removed her socks, sports bra, and smartwatch, there was an outline where each of them had rested for her three-hour workout. And had she visited her metabolism doctor, cutting-edge technology could have precisely measured her fluid distribution and confirmed she was over-exercising.

Food Allergies

Food allergies and intolerances are on the rise. Research shows that over the past 10-15 years, 15 million Americans, including 1 in 13 children, have a food allergy. What’s worse, many people are unaware they suffer from food intolerance because their symptoms vary and often appear hours, or even days, after the food is consumed. So, they keep eating that gluten or drinking that milk, creating a nasty chemical reaction that ultimately damages their adrenals.

Tractor harvesting wheat

Adrenals are affected by increased use of chemicals in agriculture. (Photo: Pixabay via Pexels)

Toxins and Chemicals

You might wonder why your grandparents’ generation didn’t suffer with all these food allergies. Well, you can blame the increased use and production of chemicals in industry and agriculture for that. In the “good old days,” food wasn’t yet treated with additives, antibiotics, and hormones to help preserve shelf life. While they’ve made life more convenient, they’re ultimately damaging bodily tissue and causing the inflammation that affects your adrenal glands. Add in the toxins we breathe in daily from the production process, and it’s enough to make you want to live on a deserted island.

What You Can Do

Instead of packing up and setting sail for Solitary Island, you can take real steps to overcome the stressors that are strong-holding your adrenals. At Twin Cities Metabolism, we can help you make small changes in your daily life to ensure extraordinary results for your health.

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Nobody’s in the Mood for Low Sex Hormones

You’ve got hot flashes, night chills, and you’re never “in the mood.” Sounds a lot like menopause—but wait—you’re only 30! While aging certainly affects our sex hormones, something more serious, and treatable, may be lowering your levels.

Signs Your Sex Hormones Are Low

When you’re not busy standing in front of a fan, wrapping yourself in a blanket, or giving intimacy the cold shoulder, you may find yourself experiencing the following symptoms if your sex hormones are low

  • Loss of ability to lose weight
  • Loss of ability to gain muscle mass
  • Menstrual cycle abnormalities
  • Decrease in vigor or energy
  • Loss of sexual function

So, you’re overweight, under stimulated, and completely exhausted. It’s no wonder all you want to do is sleep in your bedroom. But what’s causing the decline? It could be any number of the following.

Metabolic Adaptation

When sex hormone output is low and you’re under 40, metabolic adaptation is usually in full swing. Just ask our friendly baboons from a few blog posts back. Researchers found that their hormones, like humans’, are brilliantly adapted to turn off everything that’s not essential to surviving when under stress. If you’re suffering from metabolic adaptation or damage, your adrenal glands get pushed to their limit (known as adrenal gland suppression), creating a stress response that shuts down the production of estrogen and testosterone.

Fumes rising from the ground on a city street

Synthetic chemicals affect hormone production (Photo by Ethan Hoover via Unsplash)

Synthetic Chemical Exposure

As mentioned in our last blog post, plastics, resins, and pesticide interfere with hormonal processes. The intense chemical stress placed on the body causes the adrenals to fail, which trickles down to the sex hormones, often decreasing their production. Add to this any increased inflammation caused by biochemical issues like food allergies and yeast overgrowth, and your adrenals don’t stand a chance.

Missing Precursors

Just like prerequisites in school, if you’re missing “precursors,” your hormones aren’t going to function very well. Take DHEA, for instance. Your body uses this precursor hormone to make estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone—so without it, you’re operating at a loss. Other precursors like vitamins, minerals, and nutrients are also needed for the body to make sex hormones. If you have nutritional deficiencies, you simply may not have the raw material needed to make them

Age-Related Decline

Elderly man's arm holding a ball with younger person's arm assisting

Hormone levels naturally decline as we age (Photo: Matthias Zomer via Pexels)

We’d all love to find that elusive fountain of youth, but until we do, aging is inevitable. Everyone has a natural slowdown of hormone production as get older—especially women entering menopause. For men, testosterone peaks at about age 18 and falls from there, until it appears to plateau for good around age 40. So, yes, age does affect hormone levels, but should you put too much stock in that? No. Far too many people abandon their health too soon with the justification that, “I’m getting older…there’s nothing I can do.” But there are plenty of people who are incredibly healthy, vibrant, and amorous well into their 70s.

Getting a Hold on Your Hormones

Nobody should have to live with the symptoms of hormonal imbalance. High or low, there is hope for your health. Check back next week as we dive deeper into diagnosis, treatment, and maintaining a hormone-balanced life.

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Metabolism Out of Whack? So Are Your Hormones.

Under-eaters can’t lose weight. Over-exercisers aren’t having better luck. Their metabolisms have adapted like Alaskan children plopped onto a tropical island. Except instead of being a good thing, the metabolic adaptation has put them on the brink of metabolic disaster: a destructive hormonal disorder involving the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. Their hormone imbalances not only fuel their fat-loss resistance, they can cause fatigue, irregular menstrual cycles, low sex drive, and more.

How can misfiring hormones have such a massive effect on metabolism? Like dominoes, when one hormone loses its balance, others soon follow. And any attempt to lose fat without the proper balance of these capable chemical messengers will be in vain.

Hormones Do It All

Hormones wear a lot of hats. They shape the bodies of men and women. They ease stress, help you sleep, regulate your blood pressure and heart rate, help you digest food, control your sex drive, fight infections, control blood sugar, and help you burn and store fat. Sure, the weight-loss struggle involves a balance of calories and exercise, but when you’re facing metabolic damage, hormone imbalance is the bigger culprit. Those dominoes are falling, and you have to take action to set them up again. Here are just a few of the hormone shifts involved in the destruction.

Adrenal Fatigue and Low Cortisol Levels

Humans are hardwired for stress and survival. When you encounter stress, your adrenal glands start to fatigue and produce cortisol (the stress hormone). This hormonal release is a “fight or flight” response designed to prepare you for impending physical challenges. When the stress of your diet gets to be too much and metabolic damage begins, your body starts to produce extra cortisol. When cortisol levels are elevated for quite some time, the adrenals can fatigue causing the cortisol to fall to low levels. This can lead to chronic fatigue, exhaustion, and a disease of the endocrine system called Addison’s disease. Too much cortisol, and you may develop weight gain, depressed immune function, accelerated aging, and stomach ulcers.

Low Leptin/Leptin Resistance

Leptin is the body-fat-locating hormone, charged with the crucial task of keeping you from starving by monitoring how much fat you have stored. When your fat stores are satisfactory, leptin sends a text message to your brain: “Fat’s all good ☺,” and your metabolism and appetite remain at bay. But when your fat stores are insufficient (in the case of the under-eater and over-exerciser), less leptin is produced, sending the brain a “MAYDAY!” text to turn down metabolism, preserve fat, and increase your appetite. When the famine breaks, leptin levels rise, calories go straight to the fat stores, and your metabolism and appetite normalize. But unfortunately, most dieters end up regaining all their lost weight in the process because they simply can’t outsmart leptin.

When the subconscious mind is oblivious to the fact that there’s enough fat to get through a famine, the brain becomes leptin resistant, creating what’s known as “blind fat.” Your brain thinks it’s dealing with a super-thin body, and commands it to slow down metabolism and boost hunger. While ignorance is bliss, in this case, your blinded, leptin-resistant brain causes you to overeat, consume excess carbs, and experience blood sugar spikes, high triglycerides, and chronic stress. Bad brain!

Low Thyroid Levels

Aside from the fact that leptin resistance makes it more difficult to lose weight, it also causes issues with your thyroid gland. As calories are cut and leptin starts to take a dive, the thyroid wants to join the ride. Drops in T4 and T3 (the body’s major fat-burning hormone) can directly (or indirectly) result in a slower metabolism and may cause fatigue, low energy levels, and low sex drive. One study on low-calorie diets showed that when calories stay the same, but carbohydrates are replaced with fat, concentrations of T3 drop significantly. That means that even if you don’t drop your calories too low, cutting carbohydrates too much can affect your metabolism in the same way.

Low Testosterone

Testosterone is the primary male androgenic hormone that’s boosts strength and muscle mass, but it also greatly affects energy production and metabolism. As this hormone slows down protein breakdown and speeds up protein metabolism, your metabolism stays in check. When your fat intake is too low, the fatty acids required to create cholesterol vanish – and thus, cholesterol can’t be converted into testosterone. The stress caused by avoiding all those deliciously fattening foods not only lowers testosterone levels in men and women alike, it also lowers metabolic rates and muscle mass. This can be seen in an ongoing study of wild olive baboons in Kenya, where acute stress has been associated with suppressed testosterone concentrations.

Imbalanced Progesterone to Estrogen Ratio

With long-term stress of any kind, and especially with dieting, progesterone also takes a hit. Estrogen quickly becomes the dominant hormone, creating a fat-loss battle – and most often the hips and thighs are the losers. In time, estrogen can plummet as well, leading to belly fat, breakouts, irregular (or disappearing) menstrual cycles, and PMS.

Immune System Overdrive

While the nervous and endocrine systems are also impacted by metabolic damage, the immune system experiences perhaps the biggest impact. It goes into attack mode, battling your body’s organs, ingested foods, and other everyday chemicals. The increase in intestinal permeability (i.e., Leaky Gut, which we’ll delve into in a future blog post), can lead to gastrointestinal problems, food sensitives, autoimmune diseases.

Don’t Stress … Test

You may be experiencing hormone imbalances and not even know it. Undiagnosed metabolic damage is rampant today because conventional medical providers are simply not testing for them. At Twin Cities Metabolism, we provide the exact tests you need to identify the causes of your stubborn weight loss issues. That includes:

  • Blood Tests: to evaluate metabolism, including inflammation, comprehensive thyroid tests (more than just TSH, and T4), liver function, protein levels, blood sugar control, iron levels, and much more.
  • Hormone Testing and Adrenal Saliva Tests: to measures the body’s actual active hormones rather than inactive hormones bound to protein which can be found in blood.  
  • Stool Tests: to look for infections, fungus and yeast, parasites, intestinal inflammation and how your body is digesting and absorbing nutrients.  
  • Urine Tests: to determine if Leaky Gut Syndrome is present.

Once you have concrete test results, you can begin the path to healing your metabolism. By learning about your metabolic issues, following a customized process, and monitoring results, you can take charge of your health once and for all.

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Stop Metabolic Damage Before It Starts

In our last blog post, we met Sandy and Danielle, a pair of over-achieving health fanatics suffering the effects of metabolic adaptation. Sandy’s low-calorie diet and Danielle’s vigorous exercise regimen aren’t producing results because their metabolisms have adapted, making it impossible to lose fat. Try as they may, cutting more calories or adding in more exercise only makes things worse. Why? When metabolism adapts and you don’t make the right changes, metabolic damage is just around the corner.

Metabolic Damage – A More Severe Form of Adaptation

Until something changes, Sandy and Danielle are at risk of experiencing something much more distressing than weight-loss resistance – they can develop a hormonal disorder involving their immune, nervous, and endocrine systems. They’ll experience fatigue, irregular menstrual cycles, upset stomachs, bloating, and low-sex drives due to hormonal imbalances (which we’ll delve into in our next blog post), including:

  • Adrenal fatigue and low cortisol levels
  • Low thyroid
  • Low testosterone
  • Imbalanced progesterone to estrogen ratio 
  • Low leptin/leptin resistance
  • Immune system overdrive leading to gastrointestinal problems, food sensitivities, and more

But you don’t have to be like Sandy or Danielle to suffer from severe metabolic adaptation. Plenty of people aren’t aware of their underlying metabolism issues, making their road to damage subtler. Because metabolism is an intricate system of organs communicating, an untreated condition (like leaky gut syndrome) can negatively affect all other systems – and your overall metabolism. The pressure that chronic dieting and exercise or an underlying metabolism problem places on the body eventually causes your metabolism to shut down. And it’s easy to feel like it will never recover.

Case in Point

Metabolism and weight loss

Source: Public Domain Pictures, via Pexels

Several years ago, researchers investigated the body composition and resting metabolic rate changes in 14 people with class III obesity undergoing intensive diets and exercise interventions as part of “The Biggest Loser” televised weight loss competition. The result? The participants with the greatest weight loss at the end of the competition experienced the greatest slowing of resting metabolic rate, and those who maintained the weight loss after six years also wound up with a slower metabolism. These observations indicate that metabolic adaptation is indeed a response to extreme efforts toward reducing body weight.

Another research study showed the full hormonal impact on athletes who strive to achieve low levels of body fat while retaining lean body mass. As the athletes in the study created energy deficits and achieved fat loss, their weight-loss efforts were counteracted by changes in hormone circulation creating a number of persistent metabolic adaptations negatively affecting their ability to maintain weight loss.

Are You on the Road to Metabolic Damage, Too?

Today, severe metabolic adaptation often goes undiagnosed because medical providers are simply not testing for it. Instead, they’re solely looking and testing for diseases they can treat with medications or surgery. Because of the medical miss, you may walking around with a hidden metabolic disorder that’s just waiting to wreak havoc on your body.

But there is hope! At Twin Cities Metabolism, we understand and test for the hormonal shifts that can occur within the body. You no longer have to accept feeling tired all the time, lacking a libido, or fighting with your favorite foods. We provide the fastest and easiest way to get all your metabolism tests completed and analyzed by a professional, so you can have real answers and concrete solutions – once and for all.