Nutritionist Fixed Her Gut Health and Lost Weight With These 8 Simple Changes

Are your hormones keeping you from losing weight? Micaela Riley is a functional nutritionist and "Health Problem Solver." She is Board Certified FDN-P, BS, CPT, CHN, and regularly shares how she lost weight, balanced her hormones, and healed her gut by evolving her approach to diet and fitness. In a recent Instagram post, she reveals her secrets. "My physique finally changed when I did this," she wrote across the Instagram video. "Here's what I did to not only change my body but also balance my hormones, heal my gut, and reverse hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's & PCOS."

She Swapped HIIT Cardio for Walking

First, she shifted her approach to exercise. “Stopped high-intensity cardio,” she writes in her post. “Switched to daily walks for sustainable movement without stress on my body.”

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She Prioritized R & R

Prioritized recovery and rest: Rest days became essential, helping me manage stress and improve results.

She Reverse Dieting

Instead of dieting, Micaela started practicing reverse dieting. “Boosted my metabolism by slowly increasing calories instead of constant restriction,” she writes.

She Stopped Overtracking

Micaela used to track everything, but once she stopped, the game changed. “Ditched the Apple Watch,” she says. “Freed myself from the constant pressure to ‘burn calories’ and tuned into what my body actually needed.”

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She Strength Trained

She also started lifting weight and doing some other workouts. “Focused on strength,” she says. “Strength training 4x/week plus Pilates 1x/week made a huge difference in building muscle and improving tone.”

She Followed a Gluten-Free Diet

She also stayed away from processed carbohydrates. “Followed a gluten-free diet,” she writes. “Nourished my thyroid and gut health with the right foods, keeping inflammation down.”

She Took Supplements

She also relied on supplements, “with targeted support,” she writes. “Added iodine, thyroid glandulars, colostrum, probiotics, and inositol to support healing and hormone balance.”

She Took a Functional Medicine Approach

Lastly, she relied on a functional medicine approach. “Balanced hormones, healed chronic gut issues with a 5R protocol, and reversed hypothyroidism by addressing root causes,” she says.

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Her Gut Health Improved

The bottom line? She was able to heal her gut by keeping her hormones balanced, and that helped her lose weight. “These changes were game changers because stress, gut imbalances, and thyroid issues can all make it so hard to see results in the gym and can lead to weight gain,” she writes. And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.

Have you been trying to lose weight but been unsuccessful? Sadie Chartrand of Slim Sadie Coaching is a weight loss coach, military spouse, MO, and Registered Nurse (RN) who “helps women who have been battling their bodies and struggling with their weight for their entire lives” get into shape. In a new viral YouTube video, she reveals how she did it. “This is how I lost 80 pounds in just five months,” she says at the start of the clip. “My only hope is to help you all lose weight based on my own experiences.”

She Was “So Heavy” That She Thought She Had a “Disease or Disorder”

“Two weeks before December 13th, 2017, I had decided at some point that the reason that I was so heavy had to be because of some kind of disease or disorder. So I went to the doctor, and I told myself when I went into the doctor's office if all of my results came back negative, I had to lose weight. I have no more excuses. This was December 13th, 2017. I went into the office, and she read my results back to me. Everything was totally normal,” she says in her post.

She Went to a Doctor and Had Her BMR Calculated

“I stuck to my promise to myself, so I asked this doctor to help me lose weight. The first thing that she did was body composition. From that, she showed me what my BMR was, which was basal metabolic rate. And then she explained to me that to lose weight, I needed to eat about 1,157 calories a day, no more than that,” she continued.

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She Amped Up Her Protein Intake

She is also excited about her protein intake. “She wanted to make sure that I really increased my protein. So I ate one gram of protein per pound of skeletal muscle that I had, which was about 75 grams of protein per day,” she continues.

She Cut Carbs

She also stopped eating carbs. “At the time, she really cut my carbs out. So I was only eating less than 20 net carbs per day, less than 50 total carbs per day,” she says.

Here Is What She Ate in a Day

She was eating a protein shake for breakfast and a protein shake for lunch. “And these are Premier Protein shakes, pre-made,” she says. “For dinner, I was having four ounces of meat and two cups of vegetables.”

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Walking Was Also Key

And, she got her steps in. “As for exercise, all I did was walk,” she says. A 2018 study published in the journal Obesity found a link between walking 10,000 steps a day and weight loss and weight management. Other studies published by the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) in JAMA Neurology and in JAMA Internal Medicine also linked walking 10,000 steps a day to less dementia and less cardiovascular disease overall, with less heart disease, less heart failure, and fewer strokes.

She Lost Weight Fast

When she went in for her two-week checkup “and just to check in to see how things were going,” she learned she had lost 14.7 pounds in just two weeks. “At first, I was so excited, and then everyone said, ‘It's water weight. It's going to come back. Don't get yourself all excited about this.’

She Went on to Lose 80 Pounds in 5 Months

“It never came back. And I continued to lose weight. At the end of the first month. I had lost basically 25 pounds in one month, which was my goal. I just barely miss it by a few ounces. But basically, it was 25 pounds. About two months into my journey, I had lost 40 pounds. And at the end of five months, I had lost 75 pounds. So that's why I say I lost 80 pounds in five months.”

She Gained Some of It Back

Unfortunately, she ended up gaining back 40 of those 80 pounds within a few months. “I got back into it, and I committed again. I lost all of the weight again by May of 2019. Her lowest weight was 180, and she admits that she is now 223.

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She Is Now Back on Track and Using These Tips

“I am embarrassed, I'm disappointed. But the most important thing that I have to keep reminding myself is that I've done this not once but twice before. I know how to do this, and I can do it. It's just a matter of convincing myself each and every day to do this. It's been a lot, but it's also been absolutely life-changing for me, and I was really missing out on life. So my motto is losing weight and gaining life.” And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.