Does acupuncture help with weight loss?
Maintaining a healthy body weight is important for many reasons. Excess body weight places additional pressure on joints accelerating wear and tear, increases risk of metabolic disorders, stresses the cardiovascular system, and increases the risk of many other negative health outcomes.
Unfortunately, gaining weight is easy, getting it off is much harder. People in search of weight loss support and solutions often consider acupuncture as an adjunct therapy to help them with their weight loss goals. More often than not, people are hoping acupuncture will provide a shortcut to weight loss. So the million dollar question is can acupuncture help you loose weight?
As a stand-alone therapy with no other interventions or behavior changes, acupuncture will do little if anything to help you lose weight. As an adjunct to other weight loss interventions, acupuncture can be a great support to help you achieve weight loss goals.
In order to maximize your weight loss efforts, here are some practical tips and considerations:
Acupuncture can help your weight loss efforts by optimizing hormones. Many people who are experiencing chronic or sustained stress develop changes in hormones that can lead to either weight gain or the desire to eat foods that will cause weight gain. By down-regulating stress hormones, acupuncture can help you with weightless, assuming you take additional steps with diet and exercise.
Dietary changes are far more impactful than exercise when it comes to weight loss. Having an acupuncturist who understands functional nutrition will be able to support your goals by giving you guidelines and even a blue print for success. There are many different strategies that can be effective for weight loss, having a practitioner who is well versed in nutrition will help determine which strategy is the best for your needs and lifestyle.
Acupuncture can help with food addiction and cravings. Acupuncture works by disrupting neurological signaling associated with addiction. If you struggle with intense cravings, this can be an indicator of metabolic imbalance and having enough will power or self control can be an uphill battle or a near impossibility. Introducing acupuncture can reduce the resistance you may feel when trying to break addictive food habits.
There are no shortcuts to successful weight loss; sustained success necessitates shifts in food behaviors, changes in diet and balancing fundamental metabolic dysfunction. Kristin Misik is unique as an acupuncturist in that she has more than 20 years in functional nutrition and can help you achieve your weight loss goals.
Call today to learn more with free consultation.