Do Not Do This When Trying To Lose Weight
A myth which has been ingrained in our beliefs is that blood sugar is inherently unstable, and we need a constant stream of calories to ensure it never dips or spikes. These little 100 calorie snack packs that I see people buying at the grocery stores are killing them. It’s all in an effort to stabilize their blood sugars thinking that this will cause them to lose weight. This strategy not only does them a disservice in the weight loss department but can place them at increased risk for insulin resistance leading to pre-diabetes and diabetes!
Insulin – The Fat Storage Hormone
Insulin is the fat storage hormone as you know, but glucagon is the “take from storage” hormone. The problem is that insulin responds rapidly to the increase in blood sugar that eating causes, allowing us to store excess energy readily, but glucagon has a much slower response which only happens after we have gone through that fuel, a process which can take up to four hours!
If you attempt to control blood sugar by eating often, the only metabolic change you are likely to make is that your body will be releasing more insulin and less glucagon. By actively suppressing glucagon secretion, your body is less likely to take energy back out of storage, and weight loss will be slow.
Healthy Meal Intervals
When you allow healthy intervals between your meals, your body gets the chance to use its own natural blood sugar stabilizer, the hormone glucagon. The result is your body spends more time in “take from storage mode” and you lose weight more readily!
For those of you on the 30 Days to Lean program, you know how important it is that “when you eat – you eat, and when you do not eat – you do not eat. At first you think I am a crazy woman suggesting eating only 3 times a day and no snacking.
I get it! At first it seems a little crazy as so many people are used to eating more than 3 times a day. After a while though, my members settle into this lifestyle, losing weight more rapidly than on any other lifestyle plan. The best part is that as the weight comes off, settling into really enjoying eating becomes a big bonus. I can’t tell anyone this though. They just have to experience it. But when they do, they realize immediately that all those years they thought they loved to eat, they really had no idea what truly loving to eat meant!
It’s the craziest thing, but what happens is they enjoy food more for three main reasons: One, they are actually hungry when they sit down to eat. Two, there is no guilt. They can sit down and enjoy breakfast, lunch, and dinner with no apologies. Three, they are eating real wholesome food. They are eating like we a designed to eat!