Gut Health: The Hidden Key to Weight Loss

Our gut microbiome directly influences metabolism, appetite regulation, and inflammation, making it crucial for effective weight management. Imbalances in gut bacteria can lead to bloating, cravings, and weight loss plateaus that persist despite proper diet and exercise habits.

• Microbiome diversity correlates with healthier weight by properly extracting nutrients without bacterial competition
• Gut bacteria influence appetite hormones like ghrelin (hunger) and leptin (fullness)
• Short chain fatty acids from fiber fermentation improve insulin sensitivity and regulate appetite
• Modern functional testing (GI mapping, zonulin testing) can identify specific gut imbalances including "leaky gut"
• Fermented foods like kimchi, kombucha and sauerkraut deliver probiotics better than supplements
• Eating different types of fermented foods expands your "gut toolkit" with diverse probiotic benefits
• Hydration is essential for proper digestive function and overall gut health
• Perimenopausal and menopausal women often face gut-related weight challenges that require specialized attention

If you're hitting a weight loss wall despite doing everything right, reach out to us at www.HamiltonTelehealth.com to explore functional medicine testing options.

Thanks for tuning in to today’s episode!
Ready to take the next step in your health journey? Visit HamiltonTelehealth.com — your healthcare oasis.
Get care when you need it, where you need it. Don't forget to subscribe!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Gut Health Discussion
• 2:08 Gut Microbiome and Metabolism Connection
• 4:14 Appetite Regulation and Hormonal Balance
• 5:54 Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, and Testing
• 8:36 Fermented Foods and Hydration Benefits
• 10:33 Overcoming Weight Loss Walls

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:13

Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Tattoos and Telehealth. I'm Nicole Baldwin and I'm a nurse practitioner, and this is Kelly White. She's also a family nurse practitioner and, as you all know, we have to say that this is not medical advice. We're just two gals just having a conversation. Our attorneys make us say that and this does not constitute a patient provider relationship. So today we're going to talk about gut health and the association with weight loss and all kinds of great information that Kelly has as a dual board certification in functional medicine. She comes with a huge amount of knowledge regarding this and I know there's a lot. It's hot right now. Everybody's realizing that everything starts in the gut, like the health. The health of your body, um, you know, is a good indicator of what's going on in your gut, and what's going on in your gut is a good indicator of what's of of you know your overall body health. So, um, I'll let you take it from here.

Speaker 2: 1:11

Great, Thanks everybody. Um, so, like Nicole said, um, your gut health really does play a crucial role in just various aspects of overall health, including weight management, and that's kind of what Nicole and I wanted to chat about now. You know we've led you guys into talking about different medications you can use. We talked about Mike injections last week and we really hit that hard. You know, there's a lot of things that you can do to stimulate increasing your metabolism and fat burning. We were really excited about some other stuff that we're launching and when we're going to get into that, you know, at some point, I think, in the future, when we really have our hands in it.

Speaker 2: 1:48

But there's one big piece of the puzzle that I think everybody just kind of skates around or maybe we don't pay attention to. But I don't know about you, nicole, but I am that person that you know. I wake up thinking, man, I did really good yesterday, I ate good, I worked out. And then I wake up and I look down and I go why am I so bloated? What the crap, man, do you ever do that?

Speaker 1: 2:09

Yeah, sometimes we just we do all the right things, where we think we do all the right things, and then we're still like, oh, but I know we are our own worst enemy, but nonetheless I mean it's there, it's there right, the bloating is there, the feeling just crummy and drained, it's, it's there.

Speaker 2: 2:25

It is, and I think that one of the things we have to think about is our gut microbiome directly feeds into our metabolism. So if you think about all of the guts, you know that live in there. You kind of have this chain of this life of different types of bacteria, how they break down food, how they extract nutrients, and research tells us that individuals with a higher microbial diversity really do tend to have a healthier weight, and that's because you don't have this battle back and forth of this. You know this bacteria is trying to do their job, but there's not enough bacteria over here to do their job. You have an overgrowth here and an undergrowth here, and so you don't compete for this energy harvesting. That's happening, and so truly getting your microbiome under control is is the key, and so we have a ton of tests that are available to us. Now. Research and technology really has come a long way. We have access to, you know, gi mapping, zonulin testing, there's Dutch testing, and I'm not going to bore you with all of that, other than to tell you that we have those tests available to us. We can sit down, visit with you and let you know which one of those tests are appropriate for you based on what you're going through, and to let you know that truly those two things working together is is where you need to be thinking when you're working through this journey, especially those of you that have. You know, nicole and I hear this all the time You're like I've been doing this, I did so well, and then I hit this wall and I can't go any further and I was like I can't lose any more weight or I'm starting to gain a little bit of weight back, but I just I can't get past this and it truly has to do with that microbiome and what's happening in your tummy and you just can't metabolize.

Speaker 2: 4:01

The other thing that you think about when you think about gut metabolism is the influence on appetite and satiety, so the ability to realize that you're full, the ability to sit down while you're eating and recognize I'm good, like I'm done, I'm not hungry anymore, and that's a very significant hormonal response. If your brain can't tell you I'm done, you're just going to keep eating. And that's a hormone that's triggered through your gut bacteria, so it influences the production of hormones like ghrelin, which stimulates appetite. And if you guys haven't talked to Nicole when she is counseling patients about weight loss and these medications, hormones like ghrelin, come into play. That's where you get that stimulation of appetite, or the lack thereof, which tells you to stop, and leptin, which tells you I'm full. So a healthy gut microbiome balances those hormones. So ghrelin, leptin, it truly helps to balance those hormones and it reduces cravings, it promotes satiety, tells you I'm full.

Speaker 2: 4:59

Things like short chain fatty acids For those of you guys that maybe you lift weights, you go to the gym and you supplement your amino acids or short chain fatty acids. When your gut bacteria ferment fiber, we're always telling you to eat a balanced fiber. Make sure you have enough, not just with your macros, but you're eating enough fiber in your diet. That fiber produces short chain fatty acids. That helps to regulate appetite but that also improves your insulin sensitivity. So all these things you're starting to see kind of work together and that short chain fatty acid production is really linked to weight loss, fat reduction and all works together.

Speaker 2: 5:41

The other thing that you'll start to notice when you start to regulate your guts is chronic inflammation. Once you realize that your gut is unhealthy, you'll start to see more of that systemic inflammation. Those are people that have insulin resistance. Maybe they have problems being able to get fat off. Maybe they have some underlying inflammatory diseases that can truly just be managed with getting their gut under control. That leads to obesity and not being able to get your weight off. If you have insulin resistance, it's very hard to get weight off. Nicole, I know that you see patients that have pretty significant insulin resistance and that's kind of the hallmark of some of your treatment, right?

Speaker 1: 6:22

Yeah, it is, it absolutely is, and something I wanted to mention to you is that you know, with this testing that is now available, now, a big buzz to mention to you is that, you know, with this testing that is now available now, a big buzzword and you mentioned it is leaky gut. Do the tests that you run diagnose a leaky gut, and is that something that the patients can can request to say, okay, do I even have this?

Speaker 2: 6:47

Yeah, absolutely so. Whenever patients come in through Hamilton Telehealth they can absolutely make an appointment, just a functional medicine appointment we can sit and visit and those tests that we order GI mapping will let me know if they have a leaky gut. Along with that or a few other key pieces that we can discuss individually, but a GI mapping test will let me know if that person has a quote unquote leaky gut. Now there's not a test, for it doesn't say leaky gut, it's not like that's not a name of a test. It's that culmination of tests in the GI map that tells you Pages and pages right, like this.

Speaker 1: 7:21

Like it's not just leaky gut check the box, yes or no. Like it's a very, very detailed test, that that that Kelly looks at and it is just extensive and it's it's an amazing test. Now, that's that's offered. But you know, patients always say I think I have a leaky gut, but now there's actually tests that actually actually show that. So that's super, super encouraging you know the.

Speaker 2: 7:44

The other great thing that I've seen I'm not sure if you've noticed it, nicole on, you know, various social media outlets is fermented foods, and I've even seen women that are posting well, men and women alike that are posting recipes on how to make your own fermented foods.

Speaker 2: 8:00

Guys, that is amazing because it really does help support your gut. So our gut friendly foods that include fermented foods are not only fermented foods you still need high-fiber and prebiotic foods but fermented foods really really do help your diet because those are probiotic benefits, and the reason why those are so good is because taking pills that are probiotics don't always make it through the acid in your stomach and through the small intestine and get to do the business. Your stomach is so acidic sometimes it won't make it through the business um your acid. Your stomach is so acidic sometimes it won't make it through Um, and so making your own fermented foods or eating fermented foods is truly a powerhouse way of providing natural probiotics to your body, um, so I've seen that be something that's really come around. I think that's fantastic Um and then, sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 2: 8:45

And then, as always, you know, stay hydrated. I think that's my. You know, that's my second mantra. You know my first one is your body, your rules. My second mantra is drink your water.

Speaker 1: 8:54

Yes, drink, definitely drink, your water. We don't realize how much hydration is just and, and you know, most of the population is dehydrated. Let's be real. But what is the difference, if there is a difference, between eating a daily yogurt that's full of probiotics and fermented food? What is the difference, or the benefits of one over the other?

Speaker 2: 9:13

The difference is the type of probiotic you're getting. So oftentimes you'll see that the type of probiotic that you're getting in yogurt is going to treat different types of symptoms versus what you get in fermented foods. So fermented foods can include yogurt, but they also include things like sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, so it has a whole different host of benefits, Whereas yogurt maybe we're just trying to treat like a yeast overgrowth. Women use yogurt a lot whenever we're on antibiotics because we don't want to get a yeast infection. So you're really expanding, not just substituting. You're expanding your arsenal. So more tools in the toolkit is what I say. Don't stop doing yogurt and in place of fermented foods, but add that to your toolkit. You're just expanding your arsenal.

Speaker 1: 10:04

I love that, I love that, and so you know, I think today is a very, very important lesson for patients overall.

Speaker 1: 10:10

It's that you know, garbage in, garbage out, right With food, with our nutrition, with our food and even with weight management.

Speaker 1: 10:20

You know, we do have, I have had some patients where, no matter what we do, even if they're doing all the right things, they can't lose weight right.

Speaker 1: 10:27

And that's usually my, you know, perimenopausal, menopausal women, and it all has to do with when we really dig into it. And I know you spend a lot of time with a lot of time with those patients, men and women, but you know, especially women around menopause or menopausal, where they feel like they look at food and they and they, they gain it right, and so this really allows you to dive in with them at a cellular level and say what is going on and why. Because, no matter what we do, whether it's, you know, diet, exercise, whether it's at a GLP one or whatever they're really still struggling. Um, and you know that is like you know you, it's time and money, those, you know, all of that is time and money diet, exercise, medications, whatever and it's it's sad that sometimes it can go to the wayside or get wasted, because the underlying issue is a gut issue that just needs to be corrected and then you can move on and then continue to have that healthy weight balance.

Speaker 2: 11:26

Yeah, absolutely, and I think that it's something that oftentimes we overlook because we feel like it's just too complicated. I can't keep doing this anymore. When truly it circles back to just good gut health, I mean it really does. And whenever women hit that wall, I think, especially. I know I don't know about you, but by the time I get to that point, man, I'm just done. I'm like forget this, I'm done, I don't want to deal with this anymore. But if, if you know, if we can just sit back and circle back to just some good overall gut health, the way that those things work together, it really can be a game changer. Especially, I know, especially for me it was, um, and the way that I started to feel better, I started to have more energy. And then, coupling that with good sleep, adequate water, you know regular exercise, you know time for myself, breathing exercises like you. Couple that with all the things, you really start to see this robust response and your body goes this is how it can be. It doesn't have to be like that.

Speaker 1: 12:25

Absolutely, absolutely Well, that was some great information and I really appreciate you talking about that today, cause I know that is your specialty and that's why I just, I love, I love the functional medicine piece Um, and patients are catching on, you know, the world is truly, truly catching on to. You know, let me do what's healthy, so yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:43

I love it. All right, guys. Well, if you have any questions, please log on, let us know. You can reach out to our socials. You can reach out online. You can find us at wwwHamiltonTelehealthcom. Again, I'm Kelly White. This is Nicole Baldwin, our team of wonderful people on the backside. Please reach out, let us know if you need anything. Otherwise, we will see you guys next time. See you next time, bye.