Princess Know It All has teamed up with Carolyn Coker Ross, MD, MPH, to answer all your health-related questions. Dr. Ross is an Integrative Medicine physician, who has developed and pioneered the use of integrative medicine in healing food, body image issues and women’s health.

Dear PKIA and Dr. Ross:
I have been over-weight since I was a little girl. I’m now 30-years-old and the mother of three small children and I’m obese. I am 5 feet, 9 inches tall and just under 300 lbs. I have tried everything to lose weight and now I barely eat anything other then chicken, however I can’t seem to drop ANY weight. What’s wrong with me?

Sincerely,
Still Obese and not Eating

Dear Still Obese & Not Eating:
My heart goes out to you. I work with many individuals who have struggled with their weight since childhood. It sounds like you’ve tried a lot of different things. In response to your request for help, I would suggest that you take the following approach:

1. See your family doctor and make sure you have no medical factors that contribute to your –get a thyroid test, get blood sugar and insulin tests.

2. You have to eat MORE not less to lose weight. For more on this, see the blog on my website: http://www.carolynrossmd.com/which gives you 10 tips to jump start your weight loss.

3. Swear off diets. What I mean by this is that you have to find a healthy eating plan that you can stick with rather than looking for the quick-fix, latest, greatest diet. Make small changes in your diet such as using the “adopt a vegetable program,” in which you add new veggies to your diet each week. Just increasing your vegetable intake will help with your weight.

4. Increase your physical activity. I’m not saying that you need to go to a gym or sweat to the oldies with Richard Simmons. Just go to the park with your kids and take a walk. Start with walking or swimming 5 minutes, twice a day and increase by 5 minutes a week. Do an activity that you enjoy and that you can see yourself doing regularly. Yoga, along with more aerobic exercises like walking, will help with weight loss.

5. Make sure to get enough sleep. Lots of studies show that if you sleep less than 7 hours per night you will be more likely to be obese. If you have difficulty sleeping, there are many natural remedies for sleep including Valerian and L-tryptophan.

6. Take care of your emotional health. If you are depressed, you may not know that exercise is the best treatment for depression. You can also take natural supplements to support your mood including omega-3 fatty acids (1-2 grams per day) and a B-complex vitamin. If need be, talk to your doctor about medication.

7. Use the step approach to weight loss that I describe in my blog, in which you work to lose 10% of your weight and then try to maintain that for at least a month before you try to lose more weight. Weight maintenance is very important because yo-yo dieting has a bad effect on your health.

8. Give yourself credit for each and everything you do to improve your health. Don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t lose weight right away. It’s been a lifelong problem so you can’t expect it to go away overnight (although it would be great (smile)).

9. Get support for your efforts. Walk with a friend. Consider going to a 12-step group (they have them online now). Take healthy cooking classes where you can meet others who are interested in their health and learn to cook healthy meals.

10. Most importantly – don’t give up hope! If you’ve given birth to three kids, you can do anything! Examine your life for other areas where you’ve faced difficult challenges and ask yourself what got you through them. How did you approach the problem? You have many more skills than you think. You can apply these skills to your weight loss efforts.

Take one step at a time. Don’t try to do everything at once. You can reach your goals if you work on something that helps with your health a little bit every day.

Sincerely,
Princess Know it All and Dr. Carolyn Ross