Healthy weight loss doesn’t mean starving yourself. On the contrary, it means keeping yourself full of delicious and nutritious food so that you don’t have those out of control cravings for sugar, salt and carbs.
Come munchie time, it is often difficult to make the right decisions. After all, you’re hungry and tired, and just want something yummy. Going for the package of cookies seems like a good idea. Yup, you are easily misled with all the claims on food labels like low or no fat and sugar-free. Many times, these products use strange binders and fillers to make the product palatable. For instance, sugar free usually means the food producer is using artificial sweeteners. Unfortunately, quite a few health issues are now being linked to artificial sweeteners.
Leptin is the master hormone to keep you from starving.
The other problem with going for a quick fix or skipping meals altogether is that it throws the delicate hormone balance out of balance. Quick fix snacks, or those that are high in calories yet low in nutrition, may have a negative effect on the hormone leptin. Leptin, the master hormone charged with keeping you from starving, controls how full we feel and also once full, it triggers the brain to start metabolizing, or breaking down food. When a lot of poor quality food is consumed there is a tendency to overindulge, which tricks your brain into thinking it needs more and leptin can’t do its job to turn off the appetite. This may result in constant overeating and weight gain.
Insulin increases the storage of fat in fat cells and prevents the cells from releasing it for energy.
When meals are skipped, the body goes into starvation mode and wants to hold onto fat to help with long-term lack of food. This means that if you are constantly skipping meals your brain is tricked into thinking that it should hold onto fat for the duration of the famine. The best way to keep your brain and hormones happy is to feed them a consistent supply of nutrient dense food. This will keep your blood sugar levels steady and insulin levels are less likely to spike. This means snacking twice a day, about 2 hours after your last meal.
Check out tomorrow’s blog for “10 Real Food Snacks for Healthy Weight Loss.”