Since going gluten-free involves switching up one’s diet, most people are bound to experience a difference in their weight. What changes can we actually expect? To help, we’ve provided here the 3 possible routes your weight can take on your gluten-free journey.
- The Good – Weight Gain
In Celiac Disease, because of the damage your intestinal walls go through over time, the body loses its efficient natural ability to take nourishment from the food it consumes. Someone who has had this disease, and has not been diagnosed for a long period (which may very well be a decade or more), may be extremely underweight, as a result. Or if not , they may have difficulty in maintaining healthy weight, because of the challenge this disease poses for nutrient and calorie absorption.
After getting diagnosed and taking measures to improve your condition, by eliminating gluten, for one, the body can then heal itself. Your intestines can gradually once again absorb the nutrients, and calories from the food you eat. Your small intestines will hopefully improve its function, and as a result you will experience weight gain as your body absorbs the benefits from the food it consumes. This weight gain is great news! It is important for the body to maintain a healthy weight to make sure your it performs optimally.
- The Bad Weight Gain, And Good Weight Loss
However, Dr. Vikki Peterson, a doctor publishing specialized content on gluten relevant concerns, explains that there is also another case where the body may react differently. In gluten sensitivity, wherein the damage is not as severe as those in Celiac disease, but where the body is still very reactive to gluten, the manifestation instead could be the opposite. Sensing your body is not able to gain nourishment from the food it consumes, it can hold on to what you give it by not wanting to burn anything. This results a decrease in metabolic rate, causing your body to pack on the pounds. [1]
In this case, eliminating gluten and the inflammatory substances from food you eat, can actually eventually correctly tune your body into letting go of all the pounds it’s been saving for a rainy day. Going gluten-free may actually help you lose weight.
3. The Ugly – Unadvisable weight gain
There is a third route your body may take, on a gluten-free diet. If you do not have problems with severe weight loss from Celiac Disease, you may encounter another type of weight gain, that is not the desirable kind.
It may be the case that in your effort to remove gluten from your diet, you are in turn consuming a lot more processed foods with a whole lot of junk in them. A lot of gluten-free food are processed foods that can contain sugars, sodium, or additives, bad fats, and dairy in unhealthy amounts. Avoid the trap of ditching gluten, the one thing your body is reactive about, only to land on a whole pile of things that is in other ways very bad for you.
The trick would be to go naturally gluten-free. Or if you are eating processed food, know the ingredients in what you’re eating. Choose to take the fruit, instead of the gluten-free baked good with glaze and so much butter. For your main meal, get vegetables on the side in place of those gluten laden dinner rolls. Basically, be careful of the general content of your food, aside from the gluten content. This can help eliminate the unnecessary weight gain from adopting this new diet.
Do you have your own experience to share on how going gluten free affected your weight? Feel free to share with us in the comments! 🙂
References:
“Gluten Sensitivity: Is It Possible To Be Overweight And Have A Gluten Problem?” Performance by Dr. Vikki Petersen, Gluten Sensitivity: Is It Possible To Be Overweight And Have A Gluten Problem?, YouTube, 6 May 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l09pkn71vSo&t=0s&list=PLF-d5_BISpj0BGZ1ttOYnrxVjk3aFxBl9&index=2.
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