A good article appeared in the fitness section of MSNBC on the other day. Since you’re busy, I’ll do a quick summary of the article – the good stuff, the bad stuff, and what you need to do today to get started.
First, you need to know this. And this will probably shock you. Rarely, if EVER, do you need to suppress your appetite!
The real secret is to increase your metabolism, the rate at which your body uses food for fuel.
Then being hungry is a good thing as long as you’re eating the right foods at the right time.
Jon Benson’s Favorite Foods plan is a great way to do this.
But let’s say you want to curb your appetite at night, that’s the time most people really lose it on a diet plan. Even on a plan that ASKS you to eat frequently like mine, there are times where night-time cravings need to be put to sleep.
So use these tips from the article to ease the urge to eat at night:
1. Protein First
As Jon stresses in his dietplan, “Rise and shine with protein.” But what does this have to do with night-time cravings?
Everything.
Set the body up to use your own fat-stores for fuel by eating protein in the morning and your appetite FOR fatty foods goes way down during the day and the night. Protein is “thermogenic”, meaning it helps increase your metabolism. It also acts as a natural appetite regulator.
Notice I said “regulator” and not “suppressant.” That’s because you only need to regulate your appetite, no matter how much bodyfat you desire to drop.
Cool, right?
2. Go For The Grapefruit
In a study at the Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego, people who ate half a grapefruit with each meal lost an average of 3.6 pounds in three months. That doesn’t sound like a lot (and it isn’t) but that’s ALL they changed.
It doesn’t matter for our purposes, we want to lower insulin at night. Why? Insulin is not only dangerous for your health in excess but it also can cause a LOT of fat storage if secreted too much at night.
Enter the lowly grapefruit. A great snack, especially if you have a few bites of lean protein with it.
3. Smell This!
This is a trick I didn’t know about until recently.
Smelling food can trick your brain into thinking you’ve eaten.
A recent study found that those who inhaled peppermint in scent form every 2 hours at (get this) 2700 calories LESS per week than they normally did.
Let me put that in perspective: That’s a fatloss of more than half a pound a week from sniffing peppermint!
Vanilla also works. You can keep vanilla-scented drops or even candles around the office and take a wiff every few hours.
How easy is that?
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The Bad Part
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The MSNBC article goes on with advice like “eat potatoes” and “eat just a little bit of fat”, both of which are nonsense.
Potatoes may fill you up, but they are still starch – and starch should be consumed on your “off” days.
Potatoes are especially bad due to the higher-than-desired glycemic index of 85 (anything over 50 is too high.)
You also need dietary fat and not just “a little.” You need a moderate amount to stay healthy and keep insulin regulated.
Olive oil and even coconut oil are excellent sources, as are naturally occurring fats in fresh fish, grass-fed beef, farm-raised chicken and whole eggs.
The rest of the article is common sense stuff: Workout, eat dense food that requires you to chew a lot (tire out the jaw muscles and you naturally eat less), etc.
The top 3 are the real winners.
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