Our bodies store 2 types of fat; visceral fat and subcutaneous fat. Visceral fat is fat that builds up around our tummies, bums and thighs and is closely related to the development of type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. Subcutaneous fat is found all over the body beneath our skin.
More disturbingly Visceral Fat (VF) can release chemicals that can damage the arteries around the heart leading to heart disease and increase your risk of getting cancer. VF also sits very close to the liver and releases chemicals that can get into the liver easily interfering with its ability to clear insulin from your blood which in turn can lead to type 2 diabetes. A thicker waistline can be a good indicator of VF but the good news is VF some of the first fat you lose when you start to lose weight. Many of us assume that the quickest easiest way to lose weight is to skip meals there by cutting down calorie intake.
1. Don’t skip meals
This is what happens when you skip meals; research suggests that we are biologically driven to crave certain
types of food when we are hungry. If you skip breakfast and you get really hungry your brain tries to compensate by urging you to crave high calorie foods – a dieting disaster! That’s because your brain is responding to a powerful signal that comes from a hormone called ghrelin. When our stomachs are empty ghrelin sends a message to our brains that says ‘fill me up now’ and that triggers a powerful urge to eat high calorie food to compensate. When you are hungry your brain is trying to get you to eat high calorie foods so when you skip a meal the unconscious part of your brain zeros in on high calorie food to compensate So the first tip to losing weight is DON’T SKIP MEALS because our brain has a really primitive response to this making us crave high calorie high fat foods to compensate and will power may not be enough to fight it!
This is what happens when you skip meals; research suggests that we are biologically driven to crave certain
types of food when we are hungry. If you skip breakfast and you get really hungry your brain tries to compensate by urging you to crave high calorie foods – a dieting disaster! That’s because your brain is responding to a powerful signal that comes from a hormone called ghrelin. When our stomachs are empty ghrelin sends a message to our brains that says ‘fill me up now’ and that triggers a powerful urge to eat high calorie food to compensate. When you are hungry your brain is trying to get you to eat high calorie foods so when you skip a meal the unconscious part of your brain zeros in on high calorie food to compensate So the first tip to losing weight is DON’T SKIP MEALS because our brain has a really primitive response to this making us crave high calorie high fat foods to compensate and will power may not be enough to fight it!
2. Change your plate size
A simple trick to add to your diet is to change your plate size, down from a 12-inch diameter plate to a 10-inch plate. Various experiments have been done with this eg. in one study a cinema audience was given 2 different size tubs of popcorn; small and large and were asked to eat as much popcorn as they wanted during a film. Both sizes of container were large enough so the audience could eat their fill but large enough so that they were unable to finish the tubs. The audience who were given the larger tubs eat more than those who were given the smaller tubs not because they were any hungrier but just because they were given more to eat.
When more food was available to them they couldn’t stop even when they were full, they just kept on eating more. Experiments like this show that if you increase your portion size by using a larger plate or bowl you’ll tend to each much more. So the 2nd simple tip if you want to stop eating when you are full is to simply reduce your plate or bowl size. If you put less food on your plate you could end up eating up to 22% less food overall.
A simple trick to add to your diet is to change your plate size, down from a 12-inch diameter plate to a 10-inch plate. Various experiments have been done with this eg. in one study a cinema audience was given 2 different size tubs of popcorn; small and large and were asked to eat as much popcorn as they wanted during a film. Both sizes of container were large enough so the audience could eat their fill but large enough so that they were unable to finish the tubs. The audience who were given the larger tubs eat more than those who were given the smaller tubs not because they were any hungrier but just because they were given more to eat.
When more food was available to them they couldn’t stop even when they were full, they just kept on eating more. Experiments like this show that if you increase your portion size by using a larger plate or bowl you’ll tend to each much more. So the 2nd simple tip if you want to stop eating when you are full is to simply reduce your plate or bowl size. If you put less food on your plate you could end up eating up to 22% less food overall.
The Female Health Detective