FitSugar

The Leptin Diet Means No Snacking

FitSugar — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:00:00 PDT

Who knew that our fat cells harbor the secret to controlling our appetite? Produced in fat cells, the hormone leptin helps control our appetites and metabolism. Author of The Leptin Diet, Byron J. Richards believes that mastering this fat hormone means preventing weight gain and obesity. His eating plan is not a diet, but rather a lifestyle based on "eating in harmony with leptin."

Think of leptin as a gas gauge. To know how much fuel you have left in your car, you check the gauge. Leptin serves the same purpose to your brain, telling it when you're low on energy and in need of fuel, aka food. Certain foods and eating habits can block leptin's message to your brain, so Richards developed five rules that allow leptin to do its job helping you maintain a healthy weight.

To learn the five rules of this leptin lifestyle, just

read more. Let me point out that these rules come straight from Byron himself:

Never eat after dinner. Allow 11 to 12 hours between dinner and breakfast, and finish eating dinner at least three hours before bed.
Eat three meals a day. Allow five to six hours between meals and do not snack. Snacking causes leptin to malfunction.
Do not eat large meals. Eat slowly and stop eating a meal when you are slightly less than full. Consistently eating large meals is the easiest way there is to poison your body with food.
Eat a breakfast containing protein. Your metabolism can increase by 30 percent after a high-protein meal. A high carb meal such as cereal or a bagel will increase your metabolism only by four percent.
Reduce the amount of carbohydrates eaten. Definitely eat some carbs, but don't overdo it. In each meal, half should be a protein source, and half should be a healthy carb.

To hear more, you can pick up his book called The Leptin Diet: How Fit Is Your Fat? ($15) I could never wait that many hours between eating and am a firm believer in snacks. After reading all these rules, tell me, what's your opinion of The Leptin Diet?

What's the Deal With: Leptin

FitSugar — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 02:00:00 PDT

I have come across the word "leptin" a lot recently and instead of just skimming over it and knowing it is vaguely related to weight, I thought I'd do a bit more research.

Leptin (from the Greek word leptos meaning thin) is a hormone that helps control appetite and metabolism. In a normal weight person, when body fat increases, leptin levels rise which signal the brain that it needs to speed up metabolism and decrease appetite. According to Leo Galland, M.D., author of The Fat Resistance Diet, when folks are overweight the leptin message gets lost and the body cannot regulate its fat stores.

New research indicates that inflammation, a condition in which your immune system is kicked into overdrive, may lead to weight gain and make losing more difficult. Doctors think inflammation interferes with leptin production. So from a nutritional perspective you should eat inflammation fighting foods that are high in omega-3 fatty acids.

Simply put, leptin is part of the complicated chemical process that helps regulate weight.

Not Enough Sleep and Weight Gain: What's the Connection

FitSugar — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 12:00:05 PDT

Are you getting a restful night of sleep? Do you wake up and feel energized? If the answer is "No," it could be causing other problems besides making you tired.

Scientists found that people getting 4 or less hours of sleep have a rise in the hormone ghrelin, that is related to stimulating the appetite, which in turn causes them to eat. At the same time, they have lower levels of the hormone leptin, which is what makes them feel full.

Not getting enough sleep at night actually makes people feel more hungry when they are awake, so they eat more. Sleep-deprived people tend to crave high-carb foods like bagels, cookies, pasta, and bread. They have chaotic eating patterns, which can mess up their metabolism, which will cause them to burn fewer calories.

There is a strong correlation between healthy sleep patterns and healthy eating habits. Getting enough sleep and controlling stress are subtle things that could have an impact on weight. Of course healthy eating and daily exercise play a part too.

Fit's Tips: If you are having a hard time getting a good night's sleep, you should definitely try different techniques like avoiding caffeinated drinks and alcohol, and exercising early in the day. Click here if you want to read up on the subject. If you've tried everything in the book, talk to your doctor about other options.

5 Reasons You Need More Sleep

Shape — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:14:00 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

Whether you admit you need help nodding off or are still in denial about the major suitcases under your eyes, chances are you could use an intervention: a full two-thirds of Americans say they have trouble getting enough shut-eye at least once a week. That’s pretty harrowing, considering that sleep is absolutely essential for health and normal functioning. If you need a reason to hit the sack early read on. You’ll be surprised how much skipped sleep impacts your well-being.

You'll Live Longer
Chronic insomniacs are more likely to suffer a heart attack than those who sleep well, according to new research in the journal Circulation. Other studies have linked lack of sleep to a higher risk of dying from a stroke and developing breast cancer.

See even more benefits of sleep after the break!

Simple Tips For Staving Off Holiday Sugar Cravings

Heather Dale — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 03:29:20 PST

You know you're getting into the holiday spirit when the movie Elf is on repeat in your DVD player. If this is the case, let's just hope you aren't influenced by Will Ferrell's bad dietary habits, which include copious amounts of candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup! We may not be guzzling down bottles of syrup, but when confronted with tables full of cookies, candies, chocolates, and cake, what's a girl to do? Other than exercising some restrain, here are some helpful tips that will help curb your sweet tooth during the holiday season.

Should You Skip Sleep to Fit in a Workout?

Shape — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 04:33:26 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. Shape turned to personal trainer and strength coach Joe Dowdell for the answer!

Q. What's more important: getting enough sleep or fitting in an early-morning or late-night workout?

A. To change your body composition in the least amount of time, cleaning up your diet and getting seven to eight hours of quality sleep are both essential. Sleep is extremely important for body composition and helps the body and brain restore and rejuvenate in many different ways. Plus, sleep (or the lack thereof) affects important hormonal activity tied to appetite and therefore has a direct impact on your ability to lose weight (i.e. body fat).

One study published online at the Public Library of Science shows how sleep is connected to eating habits and weight gain. The December 2004 study found that people who slept less than seven to eight hours a night ate significantly more and weighed more than those who slept longer. What's more, the more sleep deprived the person was, the more they ate and the greater their weight gain. These results can be directly attributed to two key appetite-regulating hormones: leptin and ghrelin. Leptin (a hormone secreted by our fat cells) and ghrelin (a hormone secreted in our stomachs) work like a checks and balances system in the body and control your feelings of fullness and hunger. When you don't get enough sleep, your leptin levels drop and your ghrelin levels rise. In other words, you're more likely to crave sugary, high-carb foods (thanks to higher levels of Ghrelin) that have the potential to sabotage your diet. The growth hormone - which is extremely important for tissue repair, body fat reduction, and healthy immune function - also gets released during sleep.

Now you can see why getting quality sleep is just as important as your workout routine and nutrition. In fact, I would rank sleep and diet as more important than exercise, especially if fat loss (i.e. getting a lean, toned body) is your primary goal.

5 Surprising Reasons You May Be Gaining, Not Losing

FitSugar — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:30:00 PDT

So you've really been trying hard to get in daily exercise and eat as healthy as possible but yet you're still not losing weight like you thought you would be. Don't give up, your new routine may not be at fault. WebMD outlined some interesting (and lesser known) reasons you may be gaining and not losing weight, and they may surprise you. Here are highlights:

You Might Be Gaining Weight Because of Lack of Sleep: The body functions best when well rested. "When you don't get enough sleep, your body experiences physiological stress and, biochemically, you store fat more efficiently," says Michelle May, MD, author of Am I Hungry? What to Do When Diets Don't Work.
You May Be Gaining Weight Because of Stress: "Stress response, whether it is 'fight-or-flight,' juggling too many responsibilities, or coping with financial pressures, triggers a biochemical process where our bodies go into survival mode," explains May. "Our bodies store fuel, slow down metabolism, and dump out chemicals [cortisol, leptin, and other hormones] which are more likely to cause . . . obesity in the abdominal region."

There's three more reasons so

Yo-Yo Dieting Makes Keeping Weight Off Harder

FitSugar — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 04:30:21 PDT

You eat a balanced diet and exercise, and you lose weight. But once you reach your goal, you exchange trips to the gym for pork lo mein on the couch, and end up gaining all the weight back (and then some). You're not alone. In fact studies show that two-thirds of dieters regain more weight within four or five years than they initially lost. Even celebs aren't immune to the grasps of yo-yo-dieting. Kirstie Alley, Oprah Winfrey, and Janet Jackson have all struggled with keeping the numbers on the scale from going up.

Constant yo-yo dieting makes it harder to keep the weight off because when your body mass decreases by 10 percent or more, it ends up slowing down your metabolism by 11 to 15 percent. Going on and off diets also changes other aspects of your physiology, such as increasing the hunger hormone ghrelin, and decreasing the hormone leptin, which makes you feel satisfied and full. Doctors believe strict diets which are low in calories are the worst. Your body may see restricting your calorie intake as a threat to its survival, and that's why it holds on to the extra pounds on your tush.

I'm sorry to say, but I have more bad news so keep reading

High-Fructose Corn Syrup Linked to High Blood Pressure

FitSugar — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:00:00 PST

No matter how much the Corn Refiners Association tries to convince us that high-fructose corn syrup is healthy, I'm not buying it. Now I have another reason to avoid it: new findings have linked high-fructose corn syrup to high blood pressure, aka hypertension.

In the past 20 years alone, Americans have increased fructose intake by 30 percent, and that increase tracks closely to the rise in obesity. But it may also be contributing to high blood pressure. A team of doctors at the University of Colorado Denver studied more than 4,500 adults with no prior history of hypertension and tracked their fructose intake with a dietary survey. The results are pretty persuasive, so read all about it.

5 Reasons to Love Omega-3 Fatty Acids

FitSugar — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:00:00 PDT

The age of nonfat foods seems to be drawing to a close as the benefits of certain fats, particularly omega-3 fatty acids, make the headlines almost daily. Found mostly in cold-water fish like salmon (here's my new favorite wild salmon recipe), omega-3s do some wonderful things for your body. Here are five of them.

Keeps the aches and pains at bay: Recent studies at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center found that taking a fish-oil supplement for 20 to 30 days relieved chronic back and neck pain. This may be due to omega-3's ability to fight inflammation.
Fights obesity with fat: Omega-3s improve the body's response to insulin by stimulating the secretion of leptin. Leptin is an hormone that helps regulate not only food intake, but body weight and metabolism as well.
Improves your mood: This form of fat has been shown to stabilize and lessen mood swings as well as decrease depression by helping the brain create the feel-good brain chemical serotonin.

There's a couple more reasons so