Lose Weight With An Anti-Inflammatory Diet

By Kara Carper, MA, CNS, LN
September 30, 2024

Struggling with a slow metabolism?

Tried a low-fat diet or low-calorie diet with no lasting success?

Feel like you lose some weight only to gain it back?

Or maybe, despite your best efforts, you feel like you’re not making any changes to your body composition?

The solution may be an anti-inflammatory diet plan.

Many experts have found that the healthy diet and nutritional plan that results in weight loss is the same plan that reduces symptoms of inflammatory health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, IBS, inflammatory bowel disease, depression, PMS, joint pain, migraines, and many others.   

Less Inflammation = Weight Loss

Research has shown that cleaning up the diet can get rid of chronic conditions while also increasing metabolism.

Mark Hyman, MD and author of UltraMetabolism and The Ultra Mind Solution, says his patients who have refined their diets have been able to rid themselves of conditions such as migraines, while lessening the symptoms of chronic diseases, like arthritis and asthma.

“People need to stop focusing on weight loss and start focusing on getting their bodies back in balance. From there, excess weight will start to drop away automatically,” he explains.

Time and again in articles, on our podcast, and in our classes, we talk about how when you focus on healing the body, weight loss will follow. The Nutritional Weight & Wellness Way of eating is naturally an anti-inflammatory diet and can help support you no matter what your health struggle might be.

So let’s dig in a little bit to see what you can do to decrease inflammation and increase metabolism with your dietary approaches.

More About Inflammation

 Inflammation isn't all bad, but it's when it becomes chronic inflammation where we begin to see issues and where it might be a challenge to lose weight.

 

Understanding Inflammation's Role

There IS a time and place for inflammation. The body is smart and has all the devices it needs within its systems and physiology to heal itself.

For example, after a cut, white blood cells mobilize, which creates swelling and irritation for a few days. But then the inflammation “cools down” and things go back to normal as the cut heals.

This is a normal cycle of acute inflammation. The purpose of inflammation is to protect the body.

Dietary Impacts On Chronic Inflammation

However, the issue becomes when we are surrounded by things that keep up the inflammation without allowing the body to rest (much like with stress!).

Bombarding the body with an inflammatory diet filled with foods and beverages such as sugar, refined carbohydrates, caffeine, alcohol, damaged fats, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and processed foods, can be too much for the body to process.

Sometimes it can cause allergies or food sensitivities to develop. This then leads to swelling and irritation occurring internally and externally throughout the body, causing a host of problems.

Health Problems Associated With Inflammation:

Repeated inflammatory response from your body could be associated with some of these health conditions:

• Inflammation in the heart may cause heart disease.

• Inflammation in the brain may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

• Inflammation in the lungs may exacerbate asthma.

• Inflammation in the joints may create an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis pain.

• Inflammation in the fat cells may lead to metabolic syndrome and weight gain.

Tips To Reduce Inflammation

What’s the secret to “cool down” the chronic inflammation that causes people to hold on to stored fat?

The advice may sound familiar: add the good stuff and get rid of the bad stuff. Said another way: swap your inflammatory diet choices to anti inflammatory foods.

How do you do that? We'll show you how!

Anti-inflammatory Foods To Include

Plenty of brightly colored vegetables and fruit, high quality proteins (ideally without hormones or antibiotics), and healthy fats like olive oil, nuts and butter.

An anti-inflammatory diet plan is similar to a Mediterranean diet as they are both plant forward and natural fat focused dietary interventions. However, we at Nutritional Weight & Wellness also emphasize the importance of animal proteins, including red meat, poultry, and fatty fish, to name a few.

Protein is especially important for weight loss when combined with lots of fiber-rich anti-inflammatory fresh fruits and vegetables.

Learn More: Why Protein Is Important article

Some of our favorite anti-inflammatory plants: 

• Leafy greens (like spinach, kale, arugula, romaine)
• Cruciferous veggies (like broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts)
• Root veggies (like carrots, sweet potatoes, beets)
• Asparagus, cucumber, tomatoes, zucchini
• Snow peas and snap peas
• Berries
• aApples

Pro-Inflammatory Foods To Avoid

Inflammatory foods are ones containing sugars, highly-processed fats, and artificial sweeteners.

Dr. Marion Nestle gives a great description for these ultra-processed foods to avoid: stay away from food options that "cannot be made in home kitchens” because more than likely the “food” contains some sort of chemical or additive made from a lab.

This is a helpful guideline when looking for anti-inflammatory foods in the grocery store.

“Our best tool to reverse inflammation isn’t a drug, but our diets,” says Barry Sears, PhD, a former research scientist at Boston University School of Medicine and author of The Zone Diet and Toxic Fat Syndrome. Dr. Sears is an advocate for eating in “The Zone” which balances blood sugar and reduces inflammation.

How Blood Sugar & Inflammation Affect Metabolism

Balancing blood sugar is another critical part of the equation to bring down your inflammation.

When blood sugar has major swings from low to high, it can create chronic stress on the body. Excess sugar in the blood stream can promote inflammation as well as metabolic syndromes and chronic diseases, like prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. 

Practicing balanced eating means having protein, fat and carbohydrates at every meal and snack, preferably four to six times per day.

Eating balanced meals and snacks several times per day helps keep your blood sugar stable like rolling hills throughout the day rather than creating a lot of stressful peaks and valleys.

Carbohydrate Metabolism and Insulin Function

When you eat a carbohydrate, the body breaks that down into glucose (sugar) in your blood stream.

To get that energy source from the food into the cells, the body produces the hormone insulin to help carry the glucose into the cells.

Effects of Processed Carbohydrates and Blood Sugar Fluctuations

We like carbohydrates! Carbohydrates aren't bad! They give you energy and fuel for all the things you want to do in life, but there’s usually a sweet spot for the amount the body can utilize at one time.

When you eat highly-processed carbohydrates with a lot of added sugar in the ingredients (and with minimal nutrient benefits), the body has to produce more insulin to get the sugar out of the blood stream and into the cells.

Because insulin is a fat storage hormone, overproduction of insulin can cause extra stress for the body, so it increases inflammation to protect from the excess sugar and the extra insulin.

What goes up, must come down, so after the sugar and insulin spike, there’s a drop in blood sugar, which will have you feeling the need for another quick fix. And so begins the roller coaster cycle!

To stop this cycle in its tracks (and reduce the inflammatory response), eat those anti-inflammatory carbohydrates with lots of fiber (whole fruits and veggies!) and pair them with an animal protein and high-quality fat to slow down the blood sugar spike and give your body a chance to digest.

Food Sensitivities & Inflammation

Other culprits of inflammation and weight gain that cannot be ignored are food sensitivities.

Some studies estimate that up to 60% of adults are sensitive to one or more foods.

The two most common offenders are gluten (a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut, and some oats) and dairy.

For people who have celiac disease or a sensitivity to gluten or dairy, eating these foods wreaks havoc on their digestive system, which causes chronic inflammation throughout the body. 

Testing & Managing Food Sensitivities

An effective and practical test for food sensitivities is to try eliminating the suspected foods for three weeks. 

Many people whose weight loss has reached a plateau find that their metabolism starts to work again once the inflammatory triggers are removed.

Elson Haas, MD, and author of The False Fat Diet explains that eliminating foods that irritate the body while eating more foods that lower inflammation, will get rid of bloating, water retention, and produce fewer “weight gain” hormones.

Top tips for reducing inflammation:

1. Eat an anti-inflammatory food plan of whole foods.
2. Reduce or eliminate inflammable foods, like damaged oils and processed foods.
3. Balance blood sugar by eating protein, fat, and fiber-filled carbs regularly.
4. Experiment with cutting out foods you might be sensitive to.
5. Get support from a dietitian or nutritionist.

Top Tips For Reducing Inflammation

1. Eat an anti-inflammatory food plan of whole foods.

2. Reduce or eliminate inflammatory foods, like damaged oils and processed foods.

3. Balance blood sugar by eating protein, fat, and fiber-filled carbs regularly.

4. Experiment with cutting out foods you might be sensitive to.

5. Get support from a dietitian or nutritionist.

Lose Weight: Anti-Inflammatory Diet To Eliminate Inflammation & Support Your Metabolism

It may sound too good to be true, but removing foods causing inflammation and stomping out the internal inflammation fire within you may be the solution to increasing your metabolism.

A nice benefit to remember is that you’ll also be on a path to avoid asthma, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and cardiovascular disease!

When Building Your Meals & Snacks:

To recap what to look in certain foods for when creating an anti-inflammatory diet, here is a list of food groups that contain anti-inflammatory foods to prioritize and what to limit or reduce to lower inflammatory markers :

• Whole Food Proteins: Focus on incorporating proteins from whole food sources.

• Healthy Fats: Include a variety of healthy fats in your diet.

• Plant Carbohydrates: Choose carbohydrates from plant sources for their healing nutrients.

• Reducing High Sugar Foods: Minimize the intake of foods high in sugar.

• Limiting Highly Processed Foods: Avoid or reduce consumption of highly processed foods that can cause irritation and inflammation.

Personalized Support For Inflammation & Weight Loss:

Need help figuring out what this healthy diet looks like for you? Anti-inflammatory diets aren't a one-sized fits all plan. There's plenty of room for choosing the foods and flavors you like while still having anti-inflammatory meals.

We can support you in our Nutrition 4 Weight Loss program where you get to practice eating real food over several weeks’ time – making healthy eating a lasting habit and way of life.

Or make a nutrition counseling appointment with one of our registered and licensed dietitians and nutritionists to get a meal plan customized to your specific needs and desires. All of our nutrition counselors are well versed in anti-inflammatory diets and how to address chronic inflammation with real food.

Stomping out the fire is possible!

Additional Resources On Anti-Inflammatory Diets:

For more information on weight loss and anti-inflammatory foods, check out these resources:

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