Our Obsession With Thin Is Making Us Fat

Most diets rely on reducing body fat by restricting the calories we eat and increasing our activity. Many of us have spent years eating low-fat food, counting calories, going on extreme fitness regimes & testing out our willpower there’s just one problem with this sort of strategy it treats the symptoms & not the cause, so people may experience short-term results until biology kicks in. Our brain is like a supercomputer, processing enormous amounts of information at any given time.

The brain, therefore, uses a large percentage of our daily energy expenditure. Restricting calorie intake (dieting) is alarming to the brain, for if there were to be an energy shortage, the result could be a catastrophic seizure, coma & even death. Therefore, we can only restrict calorie intake for a short time before the brain releases the starvation response. Acutely sensitive to the number of available calories in the blood, the brain unleashes measures to increase calorie intake (appetite) & conserve energy (lowers metabolism).

It’s no wonder people put all the weight back on overtime. What if instead of lowering our calorie intake and increasing our physical activity, we just consume nutritious foods ‘guilt-free & until we are satisfied & maintain activity levels that we enjoy and can sustain what if we could lose weight without going hungry? What if we could train our fat cells (fat storage sites) to stop hoarding calories, and to share these calories with the rest of the body, including the brain? Well, let me introduce you to a powerful hormone called insulin.

You may already be familiar with some of the actions insulin performs (e.g.) managing blood glucose levels. However, insulin’s reach goes much further than this. When the pancreas secretes high levels of insulin into the bloodstream in response to the digestion of a meal it not only supports the uptake of glucose by our cells but also the uptake of fat & protein. Insulin also prevents the release of fat from our fat cells, so that in this environment the body cannot use this stored fat as energy.

How do you think the brain feels about this? With declining access to fuel in the bloodstream, the brain unleashes its starvation response to hunger & energy conservation. Eating more food calms the brain’s starvation response in the short term, but the end result is that we’ve eaten more calories. So the key to losing weight naturally would be to lower the amount of insulin secreted by the pancreas, to retrain fat cells to stop hoarding calories & to encourage them to release these calories to be used by the rest of the body.

Our brains would calm down with better access to fuel our metabolism would start humming & our cravings would subside. So what causes the pancreas to release the most insulin? Refined carbohydrates in the form of sugar (e.g. sugary drinks, lollies) & starches (e.g. bread, biscuits, refined cereals). The solution goes for whole, natural, slow-digesting foods that your grandparents would recognize & eat until you are actually content.

Turn The Starvation Alarm Off:

Your brain relaxes by avoiding calorie restriction to lose weight.

Get The Life Stuff In Order:

Perform physical activity you actually enjoy get a good night's sleep and incorporate stress relief practices into your day.

Reduce Insulin Spiking Foods & Drinks:

Easy on refined sugary & starchy carbohydrates & enjoy a variety of good quality fats, proteins & unrefined carbohydrates in the form of nuts/seeds, oils, oily fish, lean meats, eggs, beans & non-starchy vegetables.