Weight loss is a popular topic and a multi-billion dollar industry for a reason. I have found that it is the rare person who is perfectly happy with their weight.  Most people are either trying to drop a few pounds, lose a lot of weight, or trying hard simply to maintain their current weight.  Why are so many people struggling with the numbers on their bathroom scale?  There are so many answers—we live in a land of abundance, we eat the wrong foods, we eat too much food, we exercise too little, and the way our food is produced is a nightmare. So how then, can you successfully jettison that excess...

I have no problem saying the F-word in front of my patients.  In fact, many want to say it too.  They’re getting Fat and many can’t understand why.  Yes, the obvious culprits are eating too much and not exercising, but many of my patients are eating appropriate portions and exercising, but still seem to be gaining weight. Here’s a list of some reasons you may be gaining weight; some may surprise you: Stress.  In Chinese medicine, weight gain due to stress is considered a Liver and Spleen disharmony.  In its simplest form, it’s the result of strong emotions (stress, anger, sadness) messing...

 Several years ago, a woman came to me for acupuncture treatments to help her lose weight. She told me she had tried all kinds of things to lose weight from crazy diets to hypnosis, but nothing had worked. At her first appointment, I did a careful intake exam and health history, and then treated her with acupuncture. A week later, when she came back for her second treatment, the woman informed me that over the course of the week, nothing had happened. She had not lost any weight, the acupuncture had not done anything, and she would not be coming back to see me! This woman also reminds me of many of my...

Claire is a patient who came to see me for acupuncture a couple of years ago.  She was deeply unhappy and stressed out in her present job, and was struggling with mild depression.  She also complained that she was gaining weight around her waist, and it was hard for her to eat healthfully because she had such strong cravings for sweets. This trio of symptoms—emotional upset, sugar cravings, and belly fat—is a pattern that I see in many of my patients. They come to me because they want to feel better emotionally, but also don’t like the fact that they’re gaining all this weight, especially...

One of the most frustrating patients I’ve ever had was a woman I’ll call Emily, who came to me for weight loss.  She was in her late fifties, about 50 pounds overweight, and told me that she had tried every diet imaginable.   She said that she had gained and lost hundreds of pounds, and was trying acupuncture as a last resort. I spent a great deal of time talking with Emily about weight loss from the perspective of Chinese medicine.  I described what would be involved for her success, including the role of digestion, stress management, adequate sleep, and physical activity—beyond just...