At the time of writing in 2025, weight loss medication is hitting the mainstream. Many people who have struggled with their weight are turning to the various injections now available, such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, hopeful that they finally have the solution to losing stubborn weight. However, these medications are not without their issues. Even for those who do not experience immediate side effects, the way that the injections work (like most medications), tends to work against how the body should ideally be operating, thus in many ways worsening the root cause of the weight issue and potentially leading to other health issues in the future. These medications affect the function of the gall bladder, pancreas, gut microbiome health and the digestive system as a whole. In this series of articles, I will cover some natural alternatives to weight loss jabs which are more aligned with how the body should function for optimal health.
While weight loss jabs focus on reducing the intake of calories through a reduction in food intake, I would argue that this is the wrong focus. The reason that people are overweight, in the vast majority of cases, is not due to how much that they eat. While calorie restriction can reduce weight, it tends to be too difficult to maintain over a long period of time and the body will realise that food is scarce and make adjustments to metabolism in order to burn less.
Far more important is what you eat, when you eat and how you eat. Paying attention to these also helps you to become healthier overall, reducing the risk of the various diseases connected to being overweight such as diabetes and cardiovascular problems. I’ll cover each of these three factors and how you can use the information to lose weight without medication in this series of articles, continuing today with How You Eat.
Part 3: How You Eat Matters – The Impact of Stress
Stress is huge for all facets of health, not least of all weight loss. When we experience stress, our stomach acid production reduces, negatively affecting the capacity of the entire digestive system to process food, our metabolism is affected and our blood sugar becomes erratic, increasing cravings and affecting insulin release and thus weight gain. So stress is pretty high on the list of things to address for losing and maintaining a healthy weight. Sleep is another really key factor that affects this but in this article we are going to briefly cover how one should eat.
How Should You Eat to Lose Weight?
These days many of us eat on the go, while our attention is elsewhere, perhaps at our work desks or even while on the phone. It’s a sad reality that these days our time is more precious than ever before and we seem to have less and less of it. Who has time to sit down and have a meal, especially at lunch on a working day? But taking this time could pay for itself many times over in dividends for your health.
If the body is in a stressed state, it is not able to digest food, it’s really that simple. And if the food is not properly digested, it will sit inside of your gut for longer, growing pathogens in your gut and leading to all sorts of body-wide issues. Many health experts in history have understood the importance of digestion and the gut. I won’t quote them all here. It can be tricky in the modern world to handle stress in our lives and some stressors we can’t avoid. But what we can all do is prioritise taking some time out of our busy schedules at meal times and ensuring that at least this time is sacred and a time where your health is prioritised.
Take the time and effort to turn off from your stressors while eating. In order to digest our food properly, the parasympathetic state of the nervous system needs to be active. This is often known as the “rest, repair and digest” state. The stressed state, controlled by the sympathetic nervous system, is often known as the “fight, flight or freeze” response and this is what most of us are stuck in. Here’s the issue – if we’re stuck in sympathetic, we will not lose weight and we will quite likely put it on. This affects the body in many ways, including metabolism, blood sugar regulation and even the choices we make for foods – we reach more for those foods that give us a quick sugar hit when stressed, which has a negative effect on weight loss. So, at least for meal times, make the effort to turn off that fight/flight response and enjoy your meal.
How can you do this? Here are a few suggestions:
- Firstly, step away from your work desk, computer, phone. Get away from the stressors and distractions.
- Sit down, avoid eating on the go.
- Take some deep breaths. Breathing is a brilliant way to regulate stress and bring oneself out of the fight/flight response. I suggest breathing in for a count of 4 and out for a count of 6, making the exhales longer than the inhales. Repeat this for several breaths, longer if you are more stressed, and you will feel your body begin to calm down.
- Eat slowly, chewing well before swallowing. Take at least twenty chews per mouthful and put your cutlery down between mouthfuls. Eating in this slower way will improve digestion and reduce over-eating and you will realise that you are full sooner than you think.
- Avoid distractions such as computers, TV, mobile phones or reading while eating. If the mind is digesting something, the body will not be able to digest your food as well! In Ayurveda, this is understood with the concept of Agni.
Summary
While this is very much a surface level overview of the topic, the importance of stress in weight loss cannot be over-exaggerated. At the very minimum, start by focussing on turning off the stress repsonse while eating, even if it’s just one meal a day to begin with. Ideally, this should be combined with changing what it is you are eating. For the other parts of this article series, please click here for the discussion of What You Eat and here for When You Eat.
If you would like personalised guidance and support on your journey to lose weight in a natural way, consider consulting with me. You can view my consultation and package options by clicking here.
