Manage Binges: Pigging-Out, It's In Our Hormones

March 8th, 2009 | by Riki Quinn

You have been on a diet for a couple of weeks and you look and feel good. But suddenly, after a long day at work, you have an overwhelming urge to eat ice-cream. You tell yourself, “I’ll only have one little bowl”, and you end up eating the whole tub. Sound familiar? It turns out pigging-out is not only due to having poor will power, according to an article in Fitness Magazine, but due to a few very small but  important agents in our bodies called hormones.

Here are a few tips from that article to help you manage these seemingly harmless little creatures when they’re on the rampage:

Eat Protein: Ghrelin is a hormone produced in the gut and it reaches a high before we eat. It’s what makes us feel hungry. The higher it spikes, the hungrier we are. But protein curbs ghrelin, thus making us less hungry. Try to eat lean protein like chicken, fish, soy, beans&rice, eggs or lean meat.
Reduce sugar intake: Leptin is the hormone that tells our brain that we’re full. Sugar and high fructose corn syrup lower the levels of this hormone. Sugary drinks have an even worse effect because they are absorbed so quickly and put more strain on the liver than solid food. This makes it harder for the liver to absorb  sugar and causes a spike in triglycerides. So when we drink a cup of coke while we eat, we’ll end up eating more and gaining more weight.
Relax & Exercise: Cortisol is produced in higher levels when we’re stressed. Our body interprets stress as being in a “flight or fight” situation, making us crave fatty, sugary food to give us ready energy to survive the “dangerous” situation. What’s more, there is a high density of cortisol receptors in our abdomen. So when we’re stressed, we eat more sugary, fatty food, which accumulates in our abdomen, giving us the “beer-belly” look. Stomach fat is a risk factor for heart disease and diabetes. Relaxing activities like yoga and meditation suppress the production of cortisol. Exercise causes the production of endorphins that make us feel good, thus reducing the production of cortisol.
• Don’t wait more that 4 hours in between meals: PYY helps us feel full. When our stomach is empty (approximately 4 hours after our last meal) it is scantly produced. So when we do eat, it can take longer for PYY to kick in. Also when we eat more frequently GLP-1 is produced, which also aids in feeling full.
• Don’t give in to PMS: Progesterone is produced during the 2 weeks preceding the menstrual period. Our body slows down and tells us to eat more to prepare for the possibility of pregnancy. Be aware of your cycle and be prepared to gear up your will power during this time to eat healthy and exercise.
• Sleep at least 7 hours a night: Lack of sleep causes gherlin – the hormone that makes us feel hungry – to spike and it lowers Leptin – the one that makes us feel full. This is double the trouble. When we don’t sleep enough we’re not only hungrier but we also crave high energy (and fattening) foods to give us an energy boost. According to Fitness we should aim for 7.5 hours of sleep a night. That’s hard for most of us, especially if we have young children, but even taking short naps whenever possible is better than nothing.

Now we know the scientific reasons for the all too familiar health tips: eat well, sleep well and exercise…

Good luck!

Source: Howard, Beth. “Outsmart Your Fat Hormones”. Fitness Magazine, January 2009.

Image Source: tj.blackwell

Tags: diet, disease, energy, exercise, health, meditation, stress

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Live in Balance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.