The Best Foods To Fill You Up, Boost Metabolism, And Burn Fat
Your genes that regulate your weight, your health and your strength are sensitive to what you eat, how much you eat and how often you eat. The overconsumption of food in our culture causes weight gain, health loss and premature aging. But calorie restriction alone is not the most effective strategy to get in shape. You can be on a low calorie diet and NOT lose weight. Or you can be on a high calorie diet and still stay slim.
You have hormones that control your hunger and your satiety. These hormones determine whether you expend energy or store it, which controls whether you are burning bodyfat or retaining it. Hunger hormones do just that- make you hungry. They also slow your metabolism down, conserving energy, calories, and fat. Satiety hormones turn off hunger, and give you greater energy, and that energy comes from fat burning, which leaves you leaner.
These two sets of hormones are in constant flux with one another, balancing your food intake with your energy output. Problems arise when your hunger hormones override your satiety hormones. This happens when you go long periods of time without eating, like eating only one meal a day. It also happens when you eat too frequently, causing your body to NOT dip into your fat stores for energy. And it happens when you eat processed carbohydrate foods frequently, like pretzels, crackers, breads, candy, even sugared drinks.
So, how do you boost your satiety hormones?
1.EAT FOODS THAT FILL YOU AND SATISFY YOU. This means eating protein plus carbs AT EVERY FEEDING, whether it is a meal or a snack. This includes nuts, seeds, legumes, dairy and your animal proteins, along with fruits, veggies and grain foods, again, AT EVERY FEEDING. No more just chips or cookies or even just a piece of fruit. And no more just protein like cheese or lunchmeat. Both carbs AND proteins must be combined to ignite your fat burning metabolism ongoing. Have the fruit with the cheese. Put the lunchmeat on a piece of bread. Dip the pretzels in peanut butter.
2.AVOID THE FOODS THAT CAUSE HUNGER. These are refined carb foods including baked goods, candies and sugary beverages(check your flavored waters for sugar content!), sugars, and high fructose corn syrup products. These foods spike your blood sugar and then it drops quickly, leading to that “I need to eat and they don’t make enough food” feeling.
3.LEARN TO WAIT FOR REAL HUNGER TO EAT. This means not consuming all those foods in #2 between meals, as they keep you from experiencing true hunger. When your body knows that it is not going to be fed (and “fed” includes empty calorie foods and beverages between meals), it adapts its hunger and satiety hormones to send you deeper into fat burning, to hold you over. Real hunger can only happen when you have gone at least 3 hours without consuming anything except water. Waiting for real hunger is like exercising-it is a form of training your body in how to produce energy from bodyfat combined with your last feeding. But don’t go to the other extreme and not eat at all. This drops your blood sugar and you will burn your muscle for energy.
Understanding more of how your body regulates hunger and fat burning and energy production is essential for weight maintenance, and health as you age. Now you know your best options for keeping your body appropriately fed.
Enjoy.
Maureen Shortt club, Nutritionist. 215.262.1532 maureenshortt@gmail.com To learn more about maureen, click here.
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