The battle to lose weight is big business, diets offering the suggestion that you'll lose stones in weeks are a tempting prospect, but before you commit to any diet, here are some things you should know about the body and brain that may help you decide which route you should take.
Our appetite is governed by a number of things going on in our body. The hypothalamus in the brain regulates and monitors various chemical signals from around the body. The signal to eat is triggered by a number of factors. The amount of leptin being produced by the fat cells in our body tells our brains whether we're at risk from starvation. Sudden losses in weight through illness or use of some diet drugs or diets can trigger this leptin production.
When this happens we are drawn to high fat food, it's a subconscious response and research shows that we feel more compelled to eat and not consciously be aware of what it is we're eating. Watching the birds chose the food put out for them this snowy period shows how deep this compulsion is, the birds tend to go for the high fat or sugar foods, like fat balls and fruit. The seeds and bread tend to take longer to be eaten. The birds haven't got the brain capacity to know what's the most nutritious, it's a built in instinct.
We also have a mechanism in the stomach that sends the message to the hypothalamus which tells us we're full and can stop eating. If we're lucky and had a mother who let us get down from the table when we were full we're lucky. Making children eat everything on their plate over rides this trigger and so we lose touch with this stop system.
We use food as rewards, "if you're a good girl you can have a sweety after we've done X, Y & Z". This builds up a pattern of habit in the limbic part of the brain. This template becomes stores in the hippocampus and so when faced with a situation, particularly with a similar unpleasant one, our unhappiness with the situation looks for a way out and last time - your hippocampus tells you, you had a cake, or sweets, or whatever the food choice is. The same goes for smoking or drinking, we enforce these habits as coping mechanisms and they do not allow us to cope at all.
I hope at this point you haven't thought - Oh dear there's just no point I’ve got no hope then, I think I'll have a cup of tea and a slice of cake to make me feel better - because there are a number of things you can do which will help.
1) Exercise - yes I know, everyone is thinking - oh no not that old chestnut, I can't be bothered or have the time. Well make the time. Let’s start with the reasons why.
- You burn up calories
- You produce Dopamine in the brain - this is the neurochemical that motivates us. The more dopamine you produce the more likely it is you'll carry on exercising and burn off more weight.
- You feel happier thanks to the dopamine, which in turn will produce more seratonin. As a side effect Seratonin makes us feel less hungry. Exercise, dopamine and seratonin will also help de-stress you. When you feel stressed you produce cortisol and this will make you feel hungry.
2) Be aware/mindful of what you're doing.
I know everyone groans when the two words "calorie counting" is metered around, yes it's a bind but knowing exactly what you're putting in will help you calculate how much exercise you'll need to burn off the calories. Remember if the body loses too much too quickly you'll likely to crave high fat foods, so reduce the calories gradually. You should look for a 2lb a week reduction.
Also eat slower - that full mechanism I mentioned earlier, well if you eat your food, chewing and moving the food around your mouth tasting every bit, then swallowing and take your time, you will start to recognise that full message coming back. Eat at the table where you can focus on the food, take as long as you can, and stop when you feel full.
3) Eat more blended foods in the form of soup!
Yep a surprising one that, but experiments show that if you make and eat soup made up of blended vegetables and some protein, it stays longer in your stomach than if you drink a glass of water and eat solids.
4) Are you getting good sleep?
The reason I put this in is because someone suffering with sleep apnoea will be told by their doctor to lose weight and it should clear up. The problem is though, if you have severe sleep apnoea then you just don't have the energy to do anything, you're falling asleep at the drop of a hat. I know someone who participated in trials to measure cortisol in sleep apnoea sufferers and their levels were way higher than normal. Cortisol, is a stress hormone and continued production will put a lot of pressure on the organs and as I've said before increases one's appetite.
This friend on receiving a pap mask lost 4 stone in two years, and now exercises several times a week and is a transformed person.
5) Reduce stress - look at your lifestyle. Are there any areas you're unhappy about? Think of the things you might like to do instead. Set yourself solid goals and the less stressed you are, the more discipline you'll find yourself maintaining.
6) If you're really serious about it, get some help. It's easier to do when you're not alone. Find a friend who can help, a partner, a sports coach, or a weight loss therapist that can help with habit breaking, like myself.
7) Think thin. You'll have more success focusing on what you want instead of what you don't want. Think of the goal, not what's driving that need. Think of being a size 10 so you see, feel and know how you'll feel when you're there. Don't focus on the negatives, as the brain doesn't understand don't.
What ever you do, don't ignore it. Weight related problems not only cost us the tax payer vast amounts of money in NHS bills each year, but being obese contributes to all sorts of diseases. Joint pain for example, the extra weight our knees and hips have to carry around lead to all sorts of problems. But if you're too overweight the NHS won't operate because it's too dangerous. Heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, breast cancer - the list goes on.
