Unlock Your Ideal Body: Mastering Digestive Health for Weight Loss!
Now, you can control your weight by checking your digestive health. Isn't it good news? Please continue reading to know everything about it.
Table of Contents
“One of the fastest ways to improve your health is to eat slowly.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana (Author)
Growing up in Indian culture means cultivating an intense relationship with food. Food in our culture holds a lot of importance. From cooking ‘Prasad‘ for religious events or a delicious meal for a special occasion, we have food to talk about everywhere. We have always enjoyed our food no matter what time of the day we eat, often ignoring proper digestion.
But how many know that your digestive health controls your weight?
Various gut bacteria aid digestion, which is very important for our overall health and weight. All these gut bacteria are increased by the food that we eat regularly.
Let’s see through this article how you can control your weight by focusing on your digestive health. Also, let’s look at certain food items that can help increase your gut bacteria, thus managing your weight.
Food For Thought
Our body has many bacteria, most of which live in our stomachs.Of these, healthy gut bacteria help in digestion and make our tummy happy tummy.
What Is Digestion, And How Can It Affect Your Weight?
Go on a diet plan. We both had almost the same weight when we started our weight loss journey.
Our goal was to reduce certain kilograms within the time we decided. She lost some extra kilos while I either remained at the same weight or increased.
But the strangest of all was we were eating the same food, working out together, and following the same routine (it was done intentionally), but the results differed for both.
Back then, I didn’t know it was due to different digestion processes, but now I do. Everyone’s body works differently and digests food differently, thus making a difference.
So, what is digestion?
Digestion is our body’s ability to use the energy we achieve from food by absorbing nutrients and removing everything our body does not need. As soon as we eat the food, digestion starts. It begins with us chewing the food, where it mixes with saliva. Then your chewed food travels all the way from mouth to stomach for digestion.
Digestion differs with the person, age, gender, and other factors. And that is how it is related to our weight. If we have an excellent digestive system, our body will use more calories to burn food, thus promoting weight loss.
For your information –
Food can take around 36 hours to digest and leave our bodies completely. Some food products may even take between 2 to 5 days for digestion [1].
You will be surprised to know how our little digestive system absorbs and digests different macronutrients. Carbohydrates are the fastest to get digested, then protein, fats, and fibre [2].
So, if you want to remain full and not eat often, you should eat more fibrous food. Since fibre is the slowest to digest, it will be stored longer in your body, not making you feel hungry soon.
Hence, it will help you in managing and maintain your overall weight. While there are several ways to add fibre, adding Aashirvaad Multigrain Atta might be one of the simple ways to get the fibre of 6 carrots in just 3 rotis!
What Are The Things To Ensure A Good Digestive Health For Weight Loss?
We discussed gut bacteria above, these are good bacteria, and you need them always for your digestion to run smoothly.
You can also follow these simple steps to ensure you do not face any problems with digestion. If your digestion system is strong, you will not face difficulties maintaining weight.
- Your first focus should be eating every meal slowly and not rushing and gulping down your food. Food should be enjoyed, and the best way of eating your food is when you can taste the flavors in every bite. Eating slowly will not burden your digestive system and will function properly.
- Try and eat a balanced diet. Your plate should have veggies, fibre, carbohydrates, protein, and iron. Any deficiency in the body can also result in poor nutrient absorption in your gut.
- Enjoy the sun whenever you can; after all, it is the best source of Vitamin D. Vitamin D is excellent for the immune system and helps keep our gut happy. A happy gut equals good digestion, resulting in better weight management.
- Try and eat fresh and seasonal food as much as possible over others. Fresh produce is always easy for our bodies to digest.
- Include more probiotic food, such as yogurt, in your diet. Probiotic food acts as fuel for healthy gut bacteria, making your digestive system run smoothly.
- Exercise also plays a very important part in improving digestive health. Moreover, it is always said that people who exercise will always stay fit and in shape.
What All Food Products to Eat For Good Digestive Health And Weight Loss?
There are a lot of food products that you can eat daily for good digestive health, and below are some for your reference:
Fibre Rich Food
- Fruits – raspberries, pear, apple, banana, orange, etc.
- Vegetables – green peas, broccoli, turnip, potato, sweet corn, cauliflower, carrots, etc.
- Whole grains – whole wheat, brown rice, corn, oats, millet, barley, etc.
- Beans – split peas (arhar ki dal), black beans, baked beans, etc.
Probiotic-Rich Food
- Fermented dairy products – yogurt, buttermilk, sour cream, etc.
- Fermented soy products – soybean paste, soy sauce, enema, etc.
- Miso soup
- Kimchi
Prebiotic Rich Food
- Garlic
- Onions
- Chickpeas
How to Support Gut Bacteria for Good Digestive Health and Weight Loss?
You can follow the steps below to support your gut bacteria for good digestive health.
1. Minimize Your Stress For Good Digestive Health
Stress is the reason for a lot of problems in this world. People don’t eat, sleep, or do their daily work properly. Being in stress makes us feel irritated with a lot of mood swings. One of the main reasons we have fewer gut bacteria is stress in our life. Therefore, you should try to relax and be stress-free in your life.
Whenever you feel stressed, you can go to the park for a walk, listen to your favorite music, eat your favorite food, do some yoga, read a good book, or watch movies with your kids.
When your body is relaxed, you will have a proper eating schedule promoting a healthy gut. A healthy gut will later support your digestive health.
2. Become Active For Good Digestive Health
Imagine someone sitting on the couch the whole day, watching TV and just munching on junk food. How will it affect its gut health, and how will be the digestion process? Not only will it affect digestion, but it will also increase overall weight. Therefore, staying active is the key to promoting a healthy lifestyle and gut bacteria.
Therefore, athletes and people who do regular workouts will always have a healthy digestive system [3]. If you are active and doing proper workouts, you can even promote the healthy gut bacteria in your body.
3. Eat Light At Night For Good Digestive Health
We have always been told to eat breakfast like a king and dinner like a slave. There is a reason why it is said. Our body needs a lot of energy during the entire day, and thus we should eat heavy meals during the day.
At night we need to sleep, and the body needs rest to repair; therefore, we should eat light meals. Eating light meals at night gives our bodies ample time to break and digest the food.
What Are The Benefits Of Good Digestive Health?
Besides good digestive health support with weight loss, it has several other benefits for your body.
- You will have an even better immunity system if you have a good digestive system. A sound digestive system will not let you fall sick or catch infections easily.
- Your gut and digestive health are also associated with clean skin. If your body is involved in proper digestion, you will not have acne, pimples, or other skin-related issues [4].
- We all know lack of nutrients can lead to hair fall, and similarly, good nutrients and digestion can result in better and healthier hair [5].
- In most cases, poor digestion results in a lot of problems. When our bodies deal with such conditions, we lose energy levels. Our energy levels will always be high with a proper and well-maintained digestion process.
Wrapping Up
Following a diet to reduce your weight is not wrong in any way. If you eat a proper diet with the right amount of carbs, proteins, fats, and fibre, it will have good results for your body. Your body, especially your digestive system, needs good bacteria to do its job.
So, it is your job to eat the right food. If you have sound digestive health, you may never face problems with your weight.
So, happy eating good and yummy food, keep maintaining your digestive health, and it will take care of your weight. Also, try to indulge in activities such as dancing, swimming, jogging, cycling, and walking.
These are said to be great for increasing healthy gut bacteria in addition to eating food. Following it will make you slim and fat-free.
FAQs
1. Does excellent digestive health result in weight loss?
If you have a well-functioning and efficient digestive system, it will burn more calories for digestion. By burning more calories, your digestive health will support you with weight loss.
2. Can you improve your gut health to lose weight?
Your gut is healthy when it has many healthy gut bacteria. They are good bacteria that need to do digestion. You can eat a diet rich in fibre, prebiotics, probiotics, and fermented foods.
3. Can bad digestive health result in someone being overweight?
Your digestive health burns calories which in turn helps in reducing weight. If your digestive health faces issues, it will not work as efficiently as required. In that case, lesser calories will be consumed, which may result in someone not losing enough weight.
4. Can you improve your digestive health and lose weight?
Including more fibrous food such as fruits, whole grains, and vegetables in your diet would be best. These food products improve digestive health and keep everything running smoothly. Moreover, water also plays a very important role, and you should drink a lot of water to keep yourself hydrated. Water will help the food you have eaten to go smoothly through your body.
