How Proper Digestion Can Help Weight Loss

Proper digestive functioning is needed to reduce hunger, to gain the nutrients you need, and to offer you proper energy levels for effective weight management. If your digestive processes are not functioning at their peak, you may feel tired, weak, exhausted, constantly hungry and dissatisfied. Improper digestion can also affect your mood and your overall health; so, to lose weight, you should optimize your digestive processes.

Proteins and Digestion

• In "Eat Carbs, Lose Weight: Drop All the Pounds You Want without Giving Up the Foods You Love," authors Denise Austin and Amy Campbell M.S. R.D. C.D.E. explain how digestive processes aid weight loss practices. In discussing protein consumption, the authors explain that consuming proteins helps to slow down digestive processes which, in turn, slows down the entry of sugars into your bloodstream. When this happens, you develop a sensation of being full faster. When you feel full, you will cease eating and will consume fewer calories; this will help you reduce your overall caloric intake, so you can lose weight more readily.

Carbohydrates and Digestion

• Austin and Campbell argue that you should also break up your carbohydrate consumption throughout the day and eat smaller meals to help you stabilize your blood sugar levels. A drop in blood sugar levels could make you feel hungry when you really are not. Further, since you will be breaking your meals up into smaller portions, your digestive system will be working more frequently throughout the day to digest foods; this will also improve your sense of being full and diminish your hunger cravings.

The Effects of Rapid Eating and Stress

• In "Eat More, Weigh Less: Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Losing Weight Safely While Eating Abundantly," Dr. Dean Ornish explains that stressful emotions and rapid eating have an effect on your digestive processes that may actually cause you to gain weight. Since the act of eating involves satiating your hunger, eating too fast can cause you to fail to get any enjoyment out of the foods you consume; this may cause you to eat more and to gain weight.

  In addition, Dr. Ornish writes that during stressful periods, your digestion is negatively affected; your body will shunt blood away from the digestive system when you are stressed. When you are not getting enough blood and energy to your digestive system, your body will fail to absorb the nutrients it needs from the foods you consume. Finally, Dr. Ornish says that whenever you are emotionally stressed your mouth will reduce its production of saliva and the alpha-amylase enzyme: an enzyme needed for the first stage of digestion. The latter will reduce proper nutrient absorption as well.

Malabsorption

• If your digestive system is not working properly, there is a possibility that you will not get all of the nutrients you can from the foods you consume. In "Nutritional Biochemistry," Tom Brody explains that a lack of nutrients and issues with malabsorption can develop into health conditions, such as anemia, that can make you feel tired and fatigued. These conditions will do little for your energy levels and you will have less motivation to exercise and lose weight.

Enzymes, Digestion, and General Health

• Janet Fishborne, a nutritionist, asserts that a specific combination of enzymes help to make the digestive tract work properly and to increase your energy levels. Such enzymes include lipase 8, alpha amylase 1000, gluco amylase 100, bromelain, and protease 5000. Fishborne further argues that good digestive processes affect your health in general: with poor digestion comes a reduced metabolic rate and reduced levels of energy. What's more, both of the latter further complicate digestive issues, which can result in the malabsorption of nutrients that you consume.