Eating More To Losing Weight- The Evolutionary Precedent Against Low Calorie Diets

Losing weight is usually associated with the practice of eating less and thus the idea of eating more for many appears almost counter-intuitive. The standard practice for weight loss has traditionally been an attempt to create a negative energy balance by eating fewer calories- which forms the basis of almost all popular diets. However as universal as this practice may be, it has not enjoyed much in the way of success as it is in many ways contrary to natural human behavior. In spite of numerous protocols for eating less, long term weight loss remains elusive for the overwhelming majority of the population as 80% of those who attempt to lose weight through conventional dieting regain any weight lost within the course of a year- even when exercise is included.[1,2,3] In a word, the idea of eating less to lose weight has been an abysmal failure. Failures that do nothing to curb the fact that over 65% of Americans over the age of twenty are overweight [4] nor do those failures do much to stem the deaths of over a quarter of a million people here in the United States alone each that are directly ascribable to the ill effects of being overweight. [5] Human beings are the only mammals in nature aside from domesticated animals that do not work to obtain food. Trips to the supermarket do not approximate the energy expenditures of our hunter gatherer ancestors, nor is it close to the energy required to stay alive in a pre-Industrial Revolutionary agricultural society since in an affluent society there is no real link between the food we eat and the energy we expend. That being said, as much as overeating is a very real problem today, our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate far more calories than the average American while possessing well-muscled physiques that most would find enviable. The back breaking labor required for existence in an agrarian society also suggests a higher calorie intake. [26] Thus, eating more- in the way of nutrient dense and minimally processed foods in conjunction with intense physical activity appears to be more in line with our evolutionary heritage than simply eating less. It is no surprise that elite athletes today eat anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 kcals/day yet have little in the way of excess body fat and have no problem losing weight when necessary even though they eat significantly more than the average person. In this article we take a look at how eating more to lose weight with a program of exercise may be more natural for humans both behaviorally and possibly genetically as opposed to low fat and calorie restrictive diets.

Conventional notions of eating less to lose weight- especially within the confines of a low fat diet, fail to address three immutable facts;

1. Hunter-gatherer societies have consumed high fat and high calorie diets since the Paleolithic period without concurrent weight gain to the point of obesity.[6,7,8]
2. From the Paleolithic  to the Neolithic period, the physical demands of staying alive created an environment of greater calorie intake to compensate for our greater energy output [9,10] thus a higher caloric intake is required.
3. The processed foods that form the staple of today’s diet are high in calories, but still do not always provide adequate nutrition, even among those who are obese,[12,13] while a diet of only naturally occurring meats, fruits, nuts and vegetables may require more food and more calories from fats- yet likelihood of deficiency is unlikely, and it is a path to healthy weight maintenance proven by generations of human beings.[8,11]

In this article we take a look at the idea of incorporating exercise and eating more as a viable and history proven method of weight loss employing the nutrient rich and at times calorically dense foods that have been part of our diet for millennia.

Eating More To Lose Weight- Great Physiques- High Energy Intakes

Our hunter-gatherer ancestors had the physiques of elite athletes.

While the trappings of modern society can often blur the distinction between our current state and our ancestral heritage, it must be noted that we are genetically similar to our early hunter-gathering ancestors,[14] That being said, in spite of our relatively recently acquired trappings of supermarkets and high stress jobs, we remain biologically adapted to the physical and metabolic environment of our predecessors.[6] An environment that over the course of almost 2 million years conditioned the human genome to be what it is today.[14,15,16] Ironically, as harsh as survival was for us as a species during both the Paleolithic and agriculture based Neolithic periods, archeological discoveries show that early man had a level of lean muscle mass far superior to that of the average human today.[17, 20,21] With a physique more akin to that of an Olympic  athlete [17] or perhaps natural bodybuilder, our ancestors were by no means the physical equals of the typical man or woman today. Anyone who has ever seen a National Geographic or similar documentary program featuring the men and women of  today’s hunter gatherer tribes, who live in an environment similar to that of our ancestors, know that they all share similarly athletic builds and low body fat percentages, and studies confirm that their average skinfold thickness is only half that of aged matched Americans.[18] As an aside, it is important to note that the well-toned bodies of early hunter gathers bear no resemblance whatsoever to the skinny fat ‘supermodel’ ideal that has become common in our society. A media promoted ideal that is in essence, a perfect example of poor health and limited athletic ability. One that has unfortunately caused significant harm to the young women who seek to emulate it by severely restricting their calorie intake with the goal of losing weight. As widely promoted as the unhealthy skinny fat look may be, there is no denying the universal appeal of a trim and toned body on both men and women, but such physiques are not born of energy restrictive diets and require considerable physical activity.

Eating More To Lose Weight- How Much Did Our Ancestors Eat?

Our hunter-gatherer ancestors actually ate more calories than we do today

The average human several hundred thousand years ago was as tall as the average citizen in an affluent society today but far more robust. [19] The hunter-gatherer lifestyle to which we as humans genetically adapted to over the course of 1.8 million years [22] required significant physical labor, as did the physical demands of the agrarian lifestyle that followed it 10,000 years ago[22] up until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. Given the unavoidable physical work required to stay alive and procure food during the Paleolithic period, our ancestors required a high calorie intake to offset the demands of a higher energy expenditure.[23] Extrapolations from the estimated daily caloric intake of hunter-gatherer societies suggest that the taller and comparably active humans of the Paleolithic period consumed somewhere in the ballpark of 3,000 kcal a day- (averaged for both men and women.)[25,26,33] An average that is considerably higher than the current American calorie intake of 2,475 kcal/day for men and 1,833 kcal/day for women,[24] and a far cry from the 1,200-2,000 kcal/day restrictive diets that are common today. Such an intake would not bring about a concurrent gain in weight due to the fact that the average total energy expenditure was much higher than it is today and given the higher resting metabolic rates of early hunter-gatherers due to their greater proportions of lean muscle tissue.[34]

Eating More To Lose Weight- The Importance of A Relatively High Fat Intake

One of the main contributors to the higher calorie intake of our foraging ancestors was the higher levels of fats in their diets. Unlike those who live in affluent countries and prefer relatively lean cuts of meat, hunter-gatherer groups consume all edible parts of the animals they procure through hunting or scavenging. This would include organ meat, bone marrow, brain and animal fat- all much higher in calories than the select cuts consumed today. Without access to grains or cereals, fats are essential to maintaining life- a fact I always stress when teaching survival classes and one that I was all too aware of during my own survival trainings. Low fat cuts may look appetizing but in the wild eating only low fat meats can be deadly. The best available estimates from modern hunter-gatherer counterparts suggest that our ancestors obtained about 35% of their calories from fats, 35% from protein and 35% from carbohydrates. Keep in mind however that since all animals consumed at the time were wild, not domesticated and thus the saturated fat intakes in their diets were lower than that of modern Westerners. In addition to wild meats, dietary choices among our ancestors were limited to minimally processed wild plants, fruits and nuts- another high fat and high calorie food which has been shown to actually promote weight loss. (Read my article on how nuts help you lose weight here.) Needless to say, the hunter-gatherer diet was by no means a low-fat, low calorie affair and yet diabetes, heart disease, obesity and other diet related diseases were noticeably absent.[17,18,23] Interestingly enough, some studies suggest that today’s low fat diets bring about a reduction in serum testosterone production,[35] the hormone responsible for among other things, increasing muscle mass and decreasing body fat. Another important factor to consider with regards to a low calorie and low fat weight loss

Eating More & Losing Weight- Understanding Ancestral Energy Expenditure

The higher calorie expenditure of our hunter-gatherer ancestors was dictated primarily by their searches for food. Studies of hunter-gatherer tribes show what we assume to be a Paleolithic rhythm- with men hunting taking place one to four times a week on nonconsecutive days and women gathering food every two to three days. [27] Overall, the pattern for foraging involves days of intense physical exercise alternating with days of rest and lighter activity.[27] Other labor intensive activities included tool making, butchering, cooking, clothing preparation, carrying water and firewood as well as the exertions associated with moving camp sites from time to time. Dance based rituals that lasted for several hours several times a week were also significant sources of energy expenditure as was child care. In hunter-gatherer societies, infants are carried by their mothers or other members of the tribe either on their backs or in sling like devices with the average child being carried for 681 miles during its first two years of life.[28]

While this may sound like an impressive distance- it should be noted that the average distance covered by some hunter-gatherers averages an astonishing 252 miles a month.[25] Indeed from an evolutionary perspective today’s recommended physical activity requirements of 11/kcal/kg/day of bodyweight seem paltry by comparison as they are less than half the levels of energy expended by hunter-gatherers.[25] As modern foraging tribes have been observed expending as much as 24.7 kcal/kg/day. Given that we are so genetically close to our pre-agricultural ancestors it would appear that each of us is physically capable of far more than we think and that the performance of high level athletes may not necessarily be that far out of reach of the average person if they were conditioned over time.

Eating more and exercising more to increase lean muscle mass is the best way to lose weight and keep it off.

Eating More to Lose Weight- Exercise As the Great Leveling Factor

Low fat diets reduce testosterone levels, which can impair muscle growth and fat losses.

It goes without saying that it would be impractical in our times to expect the average person to devote such huge amounts of physical activity to their daily routines. The time requirements for such levels of daily exertion would be impossible given today’s hectic schedules, however as physically demanding as the activities of ancestors may have been, they lack the efficiency of physical exercise afforded to us by the tenets of modern physiology.[25] With high intensity training protocols for example, it has been shown that we can attain similar physiological effects such as reduced body fat and increased lean muscle mass with minimal time expenditures.[29,30,31,32] Such training paradigms, however require higher calorie intakes to support the intense physical activity and concurrent increases in lean muscle mass- which would bring about an increase in resting metabolic rates. Thus to get the most out of the incorporation of intense exercise into your daily routine you must eat more to lose weight.

We have established thus far that there may be a strong genetically programmed precedent for us as a species to thrive in a metabolic environment of high energy expenditure and output. One that severely contradicts the low fat and low calorie dietary approaches which appears to offer only short term weight loss at best, as it fails miserably as a long term solution.[1,2,3] Such eating practices are far removed from what our evolutionary past suggests and the perhaps this accounts for its general failure in the general population. Losing weight is by no means a natural part of the human experience as it is only fairly recently that obesity has become a problem for us as a species given the overabundance of food, the lack of physical labor required to obtain it and the strong marketing towards over-consumption. However, if we can learn anything from both hunter-gatherer examples and the examples of the many athletes whose calorie intakes exceed or equal that of most individuals who are overweight it might be that ideally we are designed to eat more to lose weight with the inclusion of intense physical activity. Such activity necessitates higher calorie intakes, not only to offset the energy demands created by such intense forms of exercise but also to support increases in lean muscle mass. There is one other important factor that leans towards eating more to lose weight and that is the very nature of the foods required for optimum health and performance.

Eating More To Lose Weight- More Food Does Not Always Equate To Weight Gain

Author, Kevin Richardson

Using myself as an example, I consume on average anywhere from 3,000 to 3,500 kcal/day depending on my activity levels with all of my calories coming from minimally processed or completely natural foods. I weigh considerably more than most at my current weight of 212lbs and my body fat is estimated at this time to be at or about 7% or lower.  My food intake is considerable, as I eat six to seven meals a day and I never had a problem maintaining a low body fat percentage eating as much food as I do. I don’t drink milk, protein shakes or juices of any kind- just water- which necessitates that I get all my calories solid foods only. I eat eggs and chicken- which costs a considerable amount unfortunately these days to get truly free range and non corn fed birds. I eat meat of some form every day as well,  with a strong preference for leaner wild meats like bison, venison or grass fed and free range beef, goat or lamb. I eat fish every day- a wide range of wild caught fish that changes almost every day, but I tend to mostly eat the fishes that I grew up with in the West Indies as opposed to cold water fishes that are here in the temperate zones- unless I catch it myself. I don’t eat regular wheat products  but I do eat oats, rices, roots and tubers as my carbohydrate sources (ground provisions- we call them back home) and of course fruits and nuts. It’s without question quite a lot of food- but it is what I need to keep increasing my strength and muscle mass while maintaining a very low body fat. Without my exercise program, or muscle mass such a diet would only make me fat- but it should be noted that for the past 23 years I have never trained more than three times a week for no more than 10-20 minutes per workout. High intensity training workouts that are brutally intense, but mercifully short form the foundation of all my accomplishments as a natural bodybuilder and most importantly it allowed me the ability to always have the time to train. Even over the past two decades that have seen me become a parent to five, working two jobs and now as an independent business owner that probably does far more than he should. The bottom line is that quality trumps quantity and at the end of the day consistency and sustainability are the most important aspects of any training program.

Overeating is indeed a problem for many today and it would be both unfair and irresponsible to brand calls to eat less as being without merit. Nutritional guidelines are not written for advanced athletes but rather for the sedentary majority of the population and they must take into consideration the foods that said population regularly consumes when recommendations are made. That being said, eating less processed foods are always a good idea, especially for those who are relatively inactive, but given the fact that we may very well have a genetic predisposition towards eating more as a lasting artifact of our earlier days of existence when we were more active, attempts to circumvent this inherent tendency may always be doomed to failure. Instead, the ideal may very well be an embrace of the idea of eating more and doing more to lose weight and keep it off.

If you enjoyed this article be sure to click here to download a copy of Kevin’s free weight loss ebook

Kevin Richardson is an award winning health and fitness writer, natural bodybuilding champion, creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training and one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City. Read more about the science behind his high intensity training programs at his official website at www.naturallyintense.net

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References

1. Stunkard AJ, McLaren-Hume M. The results of treatment for obesity. Arch Int Med 1959
2. Kassirer J, Angell M. Losing weight—an ill-fated New Year’s resolution. N Engl J Med 1998
3. Wing RR, Hill JO. Successful weight loss maintenance. Annu Rev Nutr 2001
4. Hedley AA, Ogden CL, Johnson CL, Carroll MD, Curtin LR, Flegal KN. Prevalence of overweight and obesity among US children, adolescents, and adults, 1999–2002. JAMA 2004
5. Allison DB, Fontaine KR, Manson JE, Stevens J, VanItallie TB. Annual deaths attributable to obesity in the United States. JAMA 1999
6. Eaton SB, Konner MJ. Paleolithic nutrition. A consideration of its nature and current implications. N Engl J Med 1988
7.Cordain L, Watkins BA, Florant GL, Kehler M, Rogers L, Li Y. Fatty acid analysis of wild ruminant tissues: evolutionary implications for reducing diet-related chronic disease. Eur J Clin Nutr 2002
8. Cordain L, Eaton SB, Sebastian A, Mann N, Lindeberg S, Watkins BA, O’Keefe JH, Brand-Miller. Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century.  J. Am J Clin Nutr 2005
9. Cordain L, Gotshall RW, Eaton SB. Physical activity, energy expenditure and fitness: an evolutionary perspective. Int J Sports Med 1998
10. Cordain L, Brand Miller J, Eaton SB, Mann N, Holt SHA, Speth JD. Plant to animal subsistence ratios and macronutrient energy estimations in world wide hunter-gatherer diets. Am J Clin Nutr 2000
11. Nelson GJ, Schmidt PC, Kelley DS. Low-fat diets do not lower plasma cholesterol levels in healthy men compared to high-fat diets with similar fatty acid composition at constant caloric intake. Lipids 1995
12. O. Kaidar-Person, B. Person, S. Szomstein, and R. J. Rosenthal, “Nutritional deficiencies in morbidly obese patients: a new form of malnutrition? Part A: vitamins,” Obesity Surgery, 2008.
13. O. Kaidar-Person, B. Person, S. Szomstein, and R. J. Rosenthal, “Nutritional deficiencies in morbidly obese patients: a new form of malnutrition? Part B: minerals,” Obesity Surgery, 2008.
14. Gould SJ. The structure of evolutionary theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002.
15. Boaz NT. Evolving health: the origins of illness and how the modern world is making us sick. New York: Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2002.
16. Nesse RM, Williams GC. Why we get sick. The new science of Darwinian medicine. New York: Times Books, 1994.
17. Eaton SB & Eaton SB  An evolutionary perspective on human physical activity: implications for health. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 2003
18. Eaton SB, Konner M & Shostak M (1988) Stone Agers in the fast lane: chronic degenerative diseases in evolutionary perspective. American Journal of Medicine
19. Walker A & Leakey R (editors) (1993) Perspectives on the Nariokotome Homo erectus skeleton. In The Nariokotome Homo Erectus Skeleton. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
20. Ruff CB, Trikhaus E, Walker A, Larsen CS. Post cranial robusticity in Homo. 1. Temporal trends and mechanical interpretation, Am. J. Physical Anthropol. 1993
21. Bridges PS. Skeletal biology and behavior in ancient humans. Evol. Anthropol. 1996
22. Marlowe, F. W. “Hunter-gatherers and human evolution”. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews. 2005
23. SB Eaton et al. Paleolithic nutrition revisited. Euro J. Clin. Nutr. 1997
24. National health and nutrition examination survey. Intake of calories and selected nutrients for the United States population 1999-2000. CDC
25. Cordain L, Gotshall RW & Eaton SB. Physical activity, energy expenditures and fitness: an evolutionary perspective. International Journal of Sports Medicine 1988
26. Astrand P-O. Whole body metabolism. In: Horton E, Terjung R. editors. Exercise, Nutrition and Energy Metabolism. MacMillan 1988
27. Sahlins MD. Notes on the original affluent society. In: Lee RB, DeVore I. editors. Man the hunter. Aldine 1968
28. Lee RB. The !Kung San. Men, women and work in a foraging society. Cambridge University Press 1979
29. Gilba MJ. High-intensity Interval Training: A Time-efficient Strategy for Health Promotion. Canada Current Sports Medicine Reports 2007
30. Tremblay, A. et al. Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Canada Metabolism. 1994
31. Burgomaster KA, Krista R. Howarth KR, Phillips SM, Rakobowchuk M, MacDonald MJ, McGee SL, Gibala MJ Similar metabolic adaptations during exercise after low volume sprint interval and traditional endurance training in humans. – J Physiol 2008
32. Tabata I, Nishimura K, Kouzaki M, Hirai Y, Ogita F, Miyachi M, Yamamoto K. Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max.-Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1996

33. Toobey J, Cosimides L. The past explains the present; emotional adaptations and the structure of ancestral environments. Ethol Sociobiol 1990
34. Kious, Brent M. Hunter-gatherer Nutrition and Its Implications for Modern Societies. Nutrition Noteworthy. 2002

35. Wang C, Catlin DH, Starcevic B, Heber D, Ambler C, Berman N, Lucas G, Leung A, Schramm K, Lee PW, Hull L, Swerdloff RS. Low-fat high-fiber diet decreased serum and urine androgens in men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2005

Five Ways Eating Nuts Can Help You Lose Weight

Losing weight can appear to be a relatively simple affair- reduce your calorie intake to the point where you consume less calories than your body uses and you will lose weight. Easier said than done for a mountain of reasons, but this concept of striving for a negative energy balance is nonetheless the key rationale behind most weight loss endeavors. To that end, it makes sense to eliminate or restrict the intake of high calorie and high fat foods like nuts. A logical step since it would appear to be all too easy to go over your daily calorie limits by eating several handfuls of these tasty but high energy snacks. However reviews of all the studies on the matter clearly demonstrate that in this case you can indeed have your cake and eat it as they say. In fact, those who eat nuts as a regular part of their diet tend to have a lower BMI when compared to those who don’t.[1,2,3] Further complicating the issue is the rather contradictory finding that you can lose weight even if you consume more calories than your body needs if those calories come from nuts.[5] In fact those who add nuts as a regular part of their weight loss protocols on average lose more weight than those who don’t. A somewhat puzzling and counter-intuitive happenstance but in this article we will take a look at the mechanisms behind this phenomenon and explore five ways that eating nuts can help you lose weight and stay on track with your diet.

As far back as the Stone Age, nuts have been a part of our diet with evidence of its regular consumption from archeological sites dating back over 780,000 years. Recently, nuts have been recognized as an invaluable source of health promoting and heart friendly nutrients such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, protein and fiber. Nuts are also excellent sources of vitamin E, and those eating nuts on a regular basis have higher intakes of folate, beta-carotene, vitamin K, lutein, phosphorous, copper, selenium, potassium and zinc per 1000 calories when compared to those who do not.[29]Also found in nuts are plant sterols and phytochemicals- whose benefits are not fully understood but seem to play a role along with the other nutrients in nuts in conferring some protection against cardiovascular disease.[4] Thus, not surprisingly, more and more public health  authorities recommend nuts be integrated into everyone’s diet.[28] However since it is indeed a rich source of fats and a high calorie food, and as we mentioned previously, many avoid eating them for fear of gaining weight even though numerous studies show that this is not usually the case. Some of the nutritional concepts behind why nuts don’t contribute significantly to weight gain can seem to be somewhat involved and are seldom fully explained in the media. That being said, here are five of the ways that nuts can help you lose weight- attributes that hold true for all varieties of nuts.

How Nuts Help You Lose Weight- 1. All The Calories From Nuts Don’t Count

All the calories from nuts aren't full absorbed by our bodies.

One of the most confusing aspects of understanding calories is that what we see on food labels doesn’t always reflect the true biologically available energy content of a food.[6] For the most part, calorie values are relatively accurate but there are some exceptions and nuts happen to be one of them. The calorie values we use today are direct results from the work of Wilbur Atwater, arguably the father of nutritional sciences here in the United States. Who created the caloric standards that we use today in the early years of the 20th century to measure the energy yield of our foods. These values are well known by most with any familiarity with nutrition: Proteins and carbohydrates are estimated to have 4 Calories per gram, while fat, which is higher in energy yield has 9 Calories per gram. These numbers work remarkably well for most instances requiring energy estimation. However they don’t necessarily tell the whole story, especially where nuts and plant proteins are concerned. It might be a surprise to some to learn that according to Atwater’s measurements, most protein foods have a true calorie yield of 5.65 Calories per gram. (Learn more in my in depth article on Understanding Calories)

The discrepancy lies in the fact that not all of the calories in a protein can be fully used by our bodies. Proteins contain high levels of nitrogen, which is not oxidized and instead is converted mostly into urea and excreted in urine. Thus some of the calories found in protein foods cannot be absorbed by our bodies and Atwater’s calorie values take this into account. That’s why the calorie estimates for protein foods are set at 4 Calories per gram and not 5.65 as it measures the biologically available calories. A corrective estimate is added to calorie values to compensate not just for proteins, but for all foods, as our digestive system never uses 100% of any food that we consume. Thus any calories contained in undigested particles don’t count towards our overall energy intake and this is accounted for in the calorie values of most foods to give an accurate assessment of how much energy our body can obtain by consuming them.

It isn’t a perfect system as it doesn’t accurately gauge the calorie values of nuts, which our body is unable to fully digest and so we are unable to absorb all of the calories from them.[7,8,9] Most foods are estimated to have a net loss of about 10% figured into their calorie values due to undigested particles, but studies have found the values for nuts to be 10 to 15% higher than those estimates. So assuming you needed 2,500 Calories to maintain your body weight and regularly ate let’s say 300 Calories above your metabolic requirements. If those calories came from regular foods you would, in accordance with the laws of thermodynamics see an increase in your body weight over time. However, if those extra calories came from eating nuts you wouldn’t gain weight since all the listed calories from nuts don’t count.

This inability to digest all the calories from nuts comes from the resistance of the parenchymal cell walls of nuts to the gut enzymes and bacteria that break down our foods. As a result, cells that aren’t broken down from chewing may pass through our bodies without releasing the high calorie fats they contain.[10,11] This is one reason you should choose whole nuts over nut butters as studies have found a much greater energy loss from whole nuts compared with nut butters.[12,13]

How Nuts Help You Lose Weight- 2.The More Nuts You Eat The Less You Eat

One of the main ways that nuts can help you lose weight is by reducing the size and frequency of eating.[5] Eating nuts makes us feel not necessarily full, but satisfied.[28] This high satiety effect goes a long way in reducing how much food we eat after consuming them and studies have found that between 55 to 75% of the calories added to our diets from nuts are offset by the subsequent reduction in energy intake from other foods.[5] The fiber, protein, fats and phytochemicals in nuts all require significant processing in our mouths before swallowing. This coupled with a very distinct and energy rich flavor seems to go a long way in making us eat less and better adhere to weight loss diets.[14]

How Nuts Help You Lose Weight- 3. The More You Chew The Less You Eat

Nuts aren’t like processed snacks that are designed to be easily eaten as they do require some degree of chewing to crush them into pieces small enough for us to swallow. Chewing activates mechanical nutrient and sensory signaling systems that appear to significantly affect our appetite. The act of chewing (mastication) breaks the parenchymal cell walls of the nut and liberates some (but not all) of the fats and proteins they encase. These nutrients promote the release of appetite related peptide hormones in the intestines such as cholecystokinin (CKK) and glucagon-like protein 1 (GLP-1) which in turn increases our feeling of satiety and prompts us to eat less.[18-20] Anyone who appreciates eating nuts can also attest to the fireworks that seem to go off in your mouth when you eat them. Apparently the sensory properties from the taste of nuts stimulates our salivary glands, digestive system and increases metabolism.[15] Perhaps as a way our body prepares to get the most out of the nutrients it can derive from the foods we eat. A rather controlled clinical study found that chewing almonds 25 times (which is the average number for most people who eat almonds without trying to choke) elicits the strongest reduction in hunger and increased feeling of fullness two hours after eating, compared to chewing 10 or 40 times.[16] Which leads us to believe there is no need to exaggerate chewing in order to reap the appetite suppressing attributes of nuts since regular chewing seems to do the trick.

Choose nuts in shells over shelled nuts and nut butters to get the most benefit from eating them

How Nuts Help You Lose Weight- 4. Shells Can Slow You Down & Make You Eat Less

While pure peanut and nut butters are listed as a healthy additions to a wholesome diet, as we have mentioned previously, there is something to be said about the mechanics of chewing to help us get the most benefits out of eating nuts. This applies to many foods that are processed as well, since processing can remove some of the important properties of foods we have evolved to eat over the past several thousand years. Bear in mind that the human genome hasn’t changed much changed since the emergence of behaviorally modern humans some 150,000 years and so we are still genetically adapted to eat the foods consumed by our remote ancestors [17,18,19,20,21] and in their minimally processed or unprocessed forms as they have been eaten for countless generations. That being said, for optimal weight management it is always wise to eat foods like nuts in as natural a form as possible- and while eating shelled nuts may be more convenient, it is a better practice to eat nuts that are still in their shells. The form in which nuts are available is a very real factor in regards to our overall appetites, as the extra preparation time required slows down our rates of consumption. That it takes longer to eat nuts when they must be first removed from their shells increases the metabolic signals of satiety- which can thus reduce the amount of calories we consume in a sitting.[22] An invaluable side effect for anyone trying to control their eating habits.

How Nuts Help You Lose Weight- 5 Nuts Taste Good & Act As A Replacement For Unhealthy Snacks

For maximum weight loss benefits choose raw nuts over butters

One of the most important, if not the most important aspects of any diet is sustainability, as results can only occur if you are consistently able to adhere to an energy reduced diet.[23,24] Weight loss regimes that center only around bland and unpalatable foods are always doomed to eventual failure as we are by nature designed to enjoy the foods we eat. Far too often we focus on the numbers- how many calories need to be consumed and what foods are best to reach that quota efficiently. In so doing many experts in the field forget that long term compliance to an uneventful but calorically correct diet is unlikely for the overwhelming majority of the population. Studies have shown, however that including nuts as a staple in weight loss diets increases long term adherence and augments overall weight loss.[25,26] It makes perfect sense since having nuts in your diet allows for a tasty and calorie rich food while watching your calories otherwise. A much needed break that serves not only to reduce the cravings for unhealthy high calorie snacks, but also increases the likelihood that you will stay on your diet.

Additional Health Benefits

Add to these five important weight loss factors, the bad cholesterol (LDL) lowering effects of nuts[45] and it is clear that nuts should indeed be an integral part of any diet designed for optimal health and weight management. So much so that the US Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Nutrition stated that: “Scientific evidence suggests but does not prove that eating 1.5 ounces per day of most nuts as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease.” Also of note is the fact that most of the U.S. population falls short of the recommended intakes for magnesium, a mineral that is often lost in processed foods and one where chronically low intakes appear to be linked to an increased risk of osteoporosis.[30,31] All nuts and seeds contain magnesium and inclusion of more nuts and seeds in could make a significant contribution towards protection against chronic insufficiency of magnesium.[29] that being said, replacing refined high carbohydrate snacks with nuts could have a significant positive impact on dietary nutrient density and risk of developing chronic disease. Nuts are useful not only as snacks, but stand on their own almost as a specific food group, providing a viable protein substitute for vegetarians who do not consume meat or animal products, as 1/2 ounce of nuts or one tablespoon of peanut butter is considered to be nutritionally equivalent to 1 ounce of lean meat, poultry or fish.[29] In terms of weight loss, not only is the consumption of nuts not associated with weight gain, but the evidence highlights the tried and true pattern of healthy weight management by eating natural foods. Foods that have been part of our diet as human beings for millennia- and in a form that is as raw an unprocessed as possible.

Thanks for reading and if you enjoyed this article feel free to get a copy of Kevin’s free weight loss ebook here.

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Personal trainer NYC Kevin Richardson is an award winning health and fitness writer, natural bodybuilding champion and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training.

References:

1. Natoli S, McCoy P. A review of the evidence: nuts and body weight. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2007

2. Sabate J. Nut consumption and body weight. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003

3. Rajaram S, Sabate J. Nuts, body weight and insulin resistance. Br J Nutr. 2006

4.Penny M Kris-Etherton, Shaomei Yu-Poth, Joan Sabaté, Hope E Ratcliffe, Guixiang Zhao and Terry D Etherton. Nuts and their bioactive constituents: effects on serum lipids and other factors that affect disease risk. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, September 1999

5. Mattes RD, Kris-Etherton PM, Foster GD. Impact of peanuts and tree nuts on body weight and health weight loss in adults. J Nut. 2008

6. Trivedi B. The calorie delusion. New Sci. 2009

7. Haddad E, Sabate J. Effect of pecan consumption on stool fat. FASEB J. 2000

8. Cassady BA, Hollis JH, Fulford AD, Considine RV, Mattes RD. Mastication of almonds: effects of lipid bioaccessibility, appetite, and hormone response. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009

9. Ellis PR, Kendall CWC, Ren Y, Parker C, Pacy JF, Waldron KW, Jenkins DJA. Role of cell walls in the bioaccessibility of lipids in almond seeds. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004

10. Kendall CWC, Jenkins DJA, Marchie A, Ren Y, Ellis PR, Lapsley KG. Energy availability from almonds: implications for weight loss and cardiovascular health. A randomized controlled dose response trial. FASEB J. 2003

11. Zemaitis J, Sabate J. Effect of almond consumption on stool weight and stool fat. FASEB J. 2001.

12.Hollis J, Mattes R. Effect of chronic consumption of almonds on body weight in healthy humans. Br J Nutr. 2007

13.Levine AS, Silvis SE. Absorption of whole peanuts, peanut oil, and peanut butter. N Engl J Med. 1980

14. Kirkmeyer SV, Mattes RD. Effects of food attributes on hunger and food intake. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord.2000

15.Eisenstein J, Roberts SB, Dallal G, Saltzman E. High protein weigh loss diets: are they safe and do they work? A review of the experimental and epidemiological data. Nutr Rev. 2002

16. Cassady BA, Hollis JH, Fulford AD, Considine RV, Mattes. RD. Mastication of almonds: effects of lipid bioaccessibility,appetite, and hormone response. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009

17. Eaton SB. The ancestral human diet: what was it and should it be a paradigm for contemporary nutrition? Proc Nutr Soc 2006

18. Eaton SB, Eaton SB 3rd, Konner MJ. Paleolithic nutrition revisited: a twelve-year retrospective on its nature and implications. Eur J Clin Nutr 1997

19. Cordain L, Eaton SB, Sebastian A, et al. Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century. Am J Clin Nutr 2005

20. Eaton SB, Konner M. Paleolithic nutrition. A consideration of its nature and current implications. N Engl J Med 1985

21. Eaton SB, Konner M, Shostak M. Stone agers in the fast lane: chronic degenerative diseases in evolutionary perspective. Am J Med 1988

22. Painter, J. The pistachio principle: calorie reduction without calorie restriction. Weight Management Matters. 2008

23.Sacks FM, Bray GA, Carey VJ, Smith SR, Ryan DH, Anton SD et al. Comparison of weight-loss diets with different compositions of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. N Engl J Med. 2009

24. Shai I, Schwarzfuchs D, Henkin Y, Shahar DR, Witkow S, Greenberg I et al. Weight loss with a low-carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or low fat diet. N Engl J Med. 2008

25. McManus K, Antinoro L, Sacks F. A randomized controlled trial of a moderate-fat, low-energy diet compared with a low fat, low-energy diet for weight loss in overweight adults. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2001

26. Wien MA, Sabate J., Ikle DN, Cole SE, Kandeel FR. Almonds vs complex carbohydrates in weight reduction program. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2003

27. McKiernan F, Lokko P, Kuevi, A, Sales, RL, Costa, NMB, Bressan J, Alfenas, RCG, Mattes RD. Effect of peanut processing on body weight and fasting plasma lipids. Br J Nutr.

28. Mattes RD. Dreher ML Nuts and healthy body weight maintenance mechanisms. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 2010

29 King JC, Blumberg J, Ingwersen L, Jenab M, Tucker KL. Tree Nuts and peanuts as components of a healthy diet. Journal of Nutr 2007

30. Tuker KL, Hannan MT, Chen H, Cupples LA, Wilson PW, Kiel DP, Potassium, magensium and fruit and vegetable intakes are associated with greater bone mineral density in elderly men and women. Am J Clin Nutr 1999

31. Ma J, Folsom AR, Melnick SL, Eckfeldt JH, Sharrett AR, Nabulsi AA, Hutchinson RG, Metcalf PA. Associations of serum and dietary magnesium with cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, insulin, and carotid arterial wall thickness: the ARIC study. Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study. J Clin Epidemiol. 1995

10 Simple Steps To Losing Weight & Eating Healthier

Eating healthy today isn’t as easy as it might have been for those in generations past, as waistlines expand and mortality rates climb healthy eating is no longer a cosmetic concern but an important factor in the quality of our lives. Given the unfortunate biological reality that our bodies were designed to store and not shed body fat, losing weight and getting in shape is indeed a daunting task. Like Sisyphus, cursed to push his rock up that steep mountain every day, only to see it fall back to the foot of the hill with the setting of the sun, many of us toil away trying to eat right and exercising regularly only to see downward movement on the scale reversed over time. However, unlike Sisyphus who was doomed to pick up his rock with the dawn of every new day, most of us quit in frustration after several weeks, months or years of seeing our weight climb back up in spite of our best efforts. Sadly, it is this very act of defeat that confines us to forever continue the cycle. Eating well, like so many other things is a matter of patience and persistence, and it doesn’t come overnight. It took me the better part of 15 years to really eat consistently well and not for the lack of trying! There are some useful steps that you can take to make the transition to healthy eating a bit easier and I have compiled ten such tips to help you get started on your journey. Remember though, that losing weight and getting in shape is like climbing a mountain. You don’t try to look at the summit of the mountain, as doing so will only make it easier for you to fall Instead you focus only on the next handhold you need to pull yourself up. By taking a seemingly insurmountable task and breaking it up in to manageable pieces- we can indeed achieve that which seems to be almost impossible.
Here are 10 steps to help you stay on your path towards healthy eating:

Step 1: Educate Yourself
Most if not all of what passes today for conventional wisdom with regards to losing weight and getting into shape has no little foundation in science or truth, but instead is based on advertising and the self interest of those in the food industry. Understand that it isn’t a matter of advertisers being inherently evil or that there is a plot to keep us all fat and out of shape, but simply a matter of economics. There is only a limited amount of food that any one person can eat and in a market saturated with thousands of different food products the only way that food manufacturers can keep their profit ratios high is by doing everything they can to convince you to eat more. (See my article on the Economics of Obesity). Take great care when evaluating any health or fitness claim and always ask yourself “Cui bono?’ or who stand to gain when you hear a study mentioned in the media touting the benefits of some new ‘superfood’ or claiming that something that you know is unhealthy is all of a sudden good for you. Don’t be fooled by intrinsically meaningless labels such as ‘natural’, ‘fat free’ or ‘organic.’ The huge variety of foods that have kept humans in good health for the past 150,000 years haven’t changed and if you eat them exclusively you’ll do a lot better than someone eating foods with great claims on the labels. Understand as well that there is nothing that happens quickly in nature and that the laws of thermodynamics are very simple- if you eat more calories than you need, regardless of what it is- you will gain weight. It’s a lot, but there are a lot of great sources of information out there and great authors, bloggers and real authorities who aren’t afraid to say it like it is without the glamor and glitz that works well to sell products to large audiences.

Step 2: Eat A Large Healthy Breakfast
Eat a large breakfast. My experience has been that individuals that skip breakfast almost always have difficulty towards the afternoon to evening avoiding junk foods. A good breakfast will do wonders to regulate your appetite, and you will be surprised at how quickly the late night cravings disappear! The mantra I keep repeating to my clients is to always breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and eat dinner like a pauper- follow that rule and you will be in shape in no time. You can download my free weight loss ebook on healthy breakfast choices here!

Step 3: Get A Support System
Let everyone at work know that you are trying to eat better and actively recruit them. Not eating what everyone else is eating can be a real strain at times and it helps to have people around who understand and support your endeavors. You can also get some real motivation from friends online who may be thousands of miles away on Facebook or Twitter. Finding people who are on the same path you are on in terms of getting into shape can be daunting, but the internet does make it a lot easier these days. (Get motivating and inspirational updates daily from Kevin’s Twitter account @BATMANNYC)

Step 4: Set Realistic Goals
Set realistic expectations for yourself by remembering to practice moderation, and don’t feel badly if you indulge from time to time. The guilt that we feel after eating something that we should not will work against you, in that it will cement the idea of eating the wrong food in your mind for a long time afterwards, as you keep on beating yourself up for slipping. In so doing you are actually more likely to do it again. The best bet is to forget about the past, (since there is nothing that you can do about it unless you have access to a working time machine) and instead just pick yourself up and keep on going. Everyone slips sometimes and we forget instantly how well we have eaten for the day and instead focus on the one bad food that we may have eaten. So be patient with yourself and keep things in perspective and most importantly- don’t beat yourself up if you fail. (See my articles- Why Is Staying On A Diet So Hard & Controlling Your Eating Habits)

Step 5: Know Your Problem Times & Triggers
Identify those times of the day when you’re most vulnerable to a junk-food attack and plan to do something about it. Is it that relentless 8 pm craving while home watching TV? The phone call from your client-from-hell that creates a sudden need for donuts? Stress at work? Stress from the kids? Whatever the trigger, prepare ahead of time by having healthy, flavorful meals always alternatives on hand. Better yet, learn to distract yourself during those difficult times. By doing something positive such as going for a walk you’ll have time to evade the desire to eat as a way of comforting yourself. (See my article on Distraction As A Weight Loss Strategy) Many of us were raised with the idea of food being a comfort when things get bad by very well meaning parents- however part of growing up is learning that everything we learned isn’t always good for us and that we need to sometimes change behaviors that we have always carried with us.

Step 6: Make Good Choices When Eating Out
The best part about our current health problems is that there are more and more healthy choices to be made when eating out. Always avoid fast food restaurants and the ones that market themselves as ‘healthy fast foods’ (see my article on Subway here). That being said there are great places to eat out but you do have to be a bit diligent in making your choices. For example, when eating out always choose grilled or broiled versions of foods that are typically fried, don’t eat the bread or fries that may come with the main meal and ask for all the sauces on the side. In the better restaurants, you can ask to have your food cooked without salt but almost everywhere (except fast food restaurants) you can find entrees that are mainly natural foods sources like chicken, fish, or lean meats that can fit in with any healthy diet. For more details on eating out check out at my posts on Eating Out & Staying Healthy and my  Restaurant Guide For Eating Out & Staying In Shape)

Step 7: Never Let Yourself Get Too Hungry
Even the most disciplined among us will consider yielding to the temptation of unhealthy foods if he or she is ravenously hungry and feels like there aren’t that many choices. The same applies to a trip the supermarket on an empty stomach- as you will buy foods that appeal to your immediate desires. We are slaves to our evolutionary traits to crave foods that are high in salt, fat or sweet and the food industry is well aware of our tendencies. We live in a world that is abundant in all the foods we shouldn’t eat and are often pressured by others to eat them as well. It’s an uphill battle in really bad weather and so you have to do your best to stay on point at all times. How do you do that? By not letting yourself get too hungry. Try to eat a small meal every 3 to 4 hours with an adequate ratio of protein, fats and carbohydrates so your body always has a steady stream of nutrients. That will help keep your blood sugar nice and level and help keep the cravings away. Nuts are also a great way to keep yourself satisfied without putting on extra pounds as studies show they can help you lose weight. (Check out my article on Nuts- The Ultimate Weight Loss Snack) That being said, don’t give in to the temptation to eat to the point of being stuffed either as you can still gain weight if you overeat healthy foods as well.

Step 8: Go To Bed Early
Sitting in front of the television late in the evening can be a formula for bad eating habits as well as insomnia. The most dangerous period for anyone trying to lose weight or get in shape are the evening hours when you are home from work and decide to unwind by watching TV or surfing the internet as overeating, and snacking on the wrong foods usually goes hand in hand with these activities. The problem is that if you eat too much at night- especially high carbohydrate processed foods- you’ll not only have trouble falling asleep (See my article on insomnia and weight gain), but you’ll also have no appetite in the morning for breakfast. And skipping breakfast is a major causative factor of overeating later in the day (See my article on Night Eating and The Importance Of Breakfast) In addition to exercising at least three times a week- you should find other activities to keep you occupied. (I don’t recommend any more than that and as great as exercise may feel, if you train too often you will end up being overtrained and diminish any potential gains you are getting from the activity.) Instead find a hobby over simply going home and watching television night after night, as it will indeed help you stay on track, diet wise. Keep in mind as well that it is almost impossible to resist the temptation of unhealthy foods when you are up late with few good choices in sight. There is an old saying that ‘locks keep honest men honest’ and the same goes for anyone trying to get in shape. By removing yourself from temptation by going to bed early, you bypass the risk of eating the wrong foods or overeating at night- the time that you are most vulnerable.

Step 9: Prepare Your Own Meals If You Can
Learn to cook. There is perhaps no better way to be sure that you are eating exactly what you should than by preparing your own meals. Not only is there the sense of satisfaction that comes with taking full responsibility for what goes into your body, but there is also the convenience of always having what you need on hand. It is not easy to always find healthy foods when you have to always eat out and very often you either end up giving in to the ever present junk foods or find yourself compromising with foods that aren’t quite what you need, but are rather the best that you can do under the circumstances. Cooking your own foods and bringing it with you bypasses this problem entirely and for those of you who are pressed for time- a great idea is to cook large quantities over the weekend and pack away your meals for the week in the refrigerator. With some containers handy you’ll always have the food you need with you at all times and thus have more control over your calorie intake.

Step 10: Plan Ahead!
Plan ahead. Whenever an aircraft takes off not only do the pilots have information as to where the plane will land, but also what other airports are available if for some reason there an emergency along the route. Extra contingency fuel is also loaded onto the airplane so that there is enough fuel to get to an alternate airport if there is a problem at the intended destination and in case the aircraft has to spend more time in the air than anticipated due to holding caused by weather or traffic. Still more fuel is stowed on the aircraft- known as reserve fuel that the pilot must always land with unless there is a dire emergency of some sort. You may not have thought that all this planning goes into a flight that takes you from airport A to B, but it does and the same strategy should apply to your food supply if you are serious about getting into shape. If you know that you are going to be away from home for a certain period of time, always carry enough food to eat for the duration, and then some extra stores just in case. Simple snacks like fruit are always good first choices to have along with your meals as well as non-perishable snacks like nuts and seeds that you can keep with you as a reserve at all times. Equally important is your food supply at home. Don’t wait until your fridge is empty to go grocery shopping so you will always have what you need on hand. Parties and social events can be a bit more of a challenge- but if you make it a practice to ALWAYS have either a piece of fruit or some protein BEFORE going to a dinner or event, you won’t have the temptation to eat the wrong foods as your ‘pre-meal’ will take the edge off of your hunger. That way you’ll make better choices and be less likely to eat the wrong foods or eat more than you should.

In the end these are some very basic tips on staying on point with your diet and the list is by no means exhaustive. What’s important is that you understand that getting in shape is very much a series of failures that you have to keep getting up from without losing your determination. It’s a marathon event , not a sprint, where all that matters is that you cross the finish line. So don’t be overly concerned with how often you fall- just keep getting up and stay the course. There is a prevailing trend of thought these days that it takes 10,000 hours to get really good at anything and I would thing the same applies when it comes to losing weight and getting in shape. Excelsior!

Get a copy of Kevin’s Free Weight Loss Ebook Here!

Related Articles:
Understanding Calories
The Leptin Connection- Why Not Regaining The Weight Is So Hard

The Economics of Obesity- Why America Needs Us to Overeat

Losing Weight & Eating Well on a Budget

 What’s It Like To Never Cheat On Your Diet?

Kevin Richardson is an award winning health and fitness writer, natural bodybuilding champion, creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training and the most sought after personal trainer in NYC. Visit his official website at www.naturallyintense.net.

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Sleep And Weight Loss- Not Enough Sleep Makes You Gain Weight

In this day and age, not sleeping is seen not only as an admirable trait but as a noble requirement for anyone aspiring towards any degree of financial success. Compared to years past Americans sleep far less than they ever did with twenty percent of the population reportedly getting less than six hours of sleep a night. That’s one in five in the realm of being chronically sleep deprived while the rest of the nation isn’t doing that much better with the number of people reportedly getting less than eight hours of sleep increasing drastically as the years go by. Contrast this with a century ago when the US national average was around 9-10 hours of sleep per night! A dream for most by today’s standards (pardon the pun) as that is far beyond what any average member of the society gets today.  This overall reduction in sleep time unfortunately applies not only to adults, but to children as well.  There are so many more stimuli in our lives that stealthily rob us of our precious time in bed. Television and the internet play a major role in making both children and adult lives stay up longer but our increased work times are also significant. In a sense we have sacrificed sleep for increased productivity. Working more and becoming a nation of robot like machines fueled by coffee and the caffeinated energy drink of the day. What is overlooked in this equation is the effect of sleep deprivation not only on our overall health but as a contributing factor to the increased numbers of overweight American adults and children. Numerous studies have found that not enough sleep can make you gain weight and experience has shown that it can also seriously sabotage your weight loss efforts!

Second only to casual alcohol consumption, the common denominator among my clients who had difficulty losing weight over the past twenty years has been sleep deprivation. Not only was lack of sleep a physiological barrier to them losing weight as easily as others who were eating well and sleeping normally, but it also appeared to be a behavioral obstacle- as those who stayed up longer tended to consume more calories and were more likely to eat more junk food at the end of the day. It is very much a vicious cycle as eating significant amounts of food late at night makes it physically harder for you to fall asleep, affects your sleep quality and reduces how long you can stay asleep.[1] (See our article on Night Eating Syndrome)  In this article we will take a look at the insidious role of sleep deprivation in making us fatter and how the very demands of the modern workplace may be working against your health and your waistline.

Most are sleep deprived during the week and then try to make up for it on weekends- which only makes it easier for you to gain weight.

When sleep deprivation studies on laboratory animals were first carried out researchers confirmed what most of us would think to be true – namely that sleep deprived animals would suffer a decrease in overall body weight over time.2, 3. However numerous epidemiological studies with humans show quite the opposite effect- that humans tend to gain weight as a result of sleep deprivation.[3,4,5,6,7] A explanation of this phenomenon may come as a consequence of human sleep deprivation in the real world occurring because of alterations between periods of restricted sleep followed by periods of increased sleep. A chronic pattern that mirrors our five day work week during which most sleep far less than optimal times followed by weekends where many attempt to make up for sleep lost during the week. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands set out to model human conditions of chronic sleep restriction by having male rats endure 5 day periods of sleep deprivation followed by a 2 day period of sleep allowance. There was also a control group of rats who were consistently sleep deprived. In the first few weeks there was some loss of body mass in the sleep deprived rats, but in the following weeks there were two incredibly important changes that were observed:

The first was a significant increase in food intake on days that the rats were sleep deprived.

The second finding was an increase in weight gain during the weekends where the rats were allowed to sleep for regular periods of time.

What is fascinating about the weight gain is that the food intake during those days was not notably different from the food intakes of the sleep deprived rats in the control group who lost weight during the period eating the same amount of food.[3]

Sleep Deprivation and Hormones- How Lack Of Sleep Affect Hormones That Make Us Gain Weight

There is without question no shortage of well controlled studies of both humans and animals that underline the fact that the chronic partial sleep loss that has become the benchmark of our times may increase your risk of obesity. Research has shown that there are marked changes in metabolism and endocrine function as a result of sleep deprivation in both adults and children.[4,7]

Sleep restriction plays a major role in affecting us hormonally, namely by:

1. Decreasing glucose tolerance- which not only can lead to weight gain but an increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease [8]
2. Increasing insulin sensitivity- insulin resistance is a precondition to diabetes and is recognized as a contributing factor to obesity and weight gain. Interestingly enough, caffeine used to offset the effects of inadequate sleep also plays a role in increasing insulin resistance as well.[9, 10,11,12]
3. Increased concentrations of the stress hormone cortisol later in the day- which can work to suppress your immune system and increase susceptibility to disease.[13,14] Note however that there is no science to support the popular theory that cortisol causes weight gain- as this is simply another form of misinformation used to sell weight loss products of questionable efficacy.
4. Increased levels of ghrelin- Ghrelin is an important hormone that stimulates our appetite and desire to eat[15] which can in turn lead to overeating and consequent weight gain when concentrations are high.[16] (See my article on how ghrelin affects our appetite here)
5. Decreased levels of leptin- acting contrary to the effects of ghrelin, leptin serves to inhibit our appetite and tell us when we should stop eating.[17] (See my article on the role of leptin in weight gain here)

Fighting Back- Increasing Quantity & Quality of Sleep As An Aid to Weight Loss

You can't drink coffee if you have limited sleep time and want to make the most of it.

Taken as a whole, chronic sleep deprivations creates a perfect storm of hormonal reactions that all contribute to increasing your risk of obesity and making it much harder for you to lose weight and keep it off. As such more and more clinicians are recommending increased sleep time as an intervention to help prevent the onset of obesity and the syndrome of life shortening disease that accompany it. In my practice, individuals with jobs where their working hours were constantly changing always had the lowest amount of weight loss compared to regular sleepers, followed closely as mentioned before by those who slept less than six hours during the work week. It might seem to be a hopeless proposition given the increased number of work hours that our lives today often demand, but it isn’t impossible to get a decent number of hours of sleep if you follow these key rules that I have used quite successfully with my clients over the years.

Strategies for Sleeping Better

1. Restrict internet and television time after 9 pm. Most of us use both television or internet surfing as a way to unwind after a long day- but that very action can do more to rob us of valuable sleep time than help us truly relax. If you don’t have that much time to sleep then read a book to help you catch your breath and relax after work. You won’t be as stimulated and it will be less likely to keep you up.
2. Don’t drink caffeinated drinks. It is better to be sleepy all day and sleep well at night than alert all day and too wired to get decent sleep time at the end of the day. Coffee, energy drinks like Red Bull, and fat burners have no place in the lives of anyone with difficulty sleeping or who has limited time available for sleep. Not only will such drinks interfere with your ability to sleep but with your sleep quality as well. The same applies to alcohol as well- don’t drink it to help you go to sleep as it works to initially make you drowsy and then increases your alertness later on- not exactly a workable formula for a good night’s sleep.
3. Don’t drink fluids immediately before bed. Nothing is worse than having to go to the bathroom multiple times during the night. It cuts into your quality sleep time and drinking right before bed can make you do just that. Always curtail your fluid intake two or three hours before bed so you won’t have to ever get up more than once.
4. Got to bed at the same time ever night if at all possible. If you don’t work a job with shift changes, sleeping the same hours every day can go a long way in increasing your quality of sleep and the likelihood that you will fall asleep.

How much sleep exactly do you need? It is a very individual requirement; much like food intake and it depends on the person and their activities. Eight hours is usually quoted as the standard for most, but others may need more or less depending on how they feel. The key is that you should be able to awaken refreshed in the morning at a regular hour without the need for an alarm. If you can’t do that or are excessively groggy and feel that you can’t function first thing in the morning without coffee or a pick me up of some sort- you really don’t need the coffee. What you need is more sleep. If your sleep problems persist however you may need to seek professional help, as inadequate sleep can be very much hazardous to your health.

References:

1.Stunkard A, Allison K., Lundgren J. Issues for DSM-V: Night Eating Syndrome- Am J Psychiatry 165:424, April 2008

2. CA Everson, Functional consequences of sustained sleep deprivation in the rat, Behavioral Brain Research 1995

3. Barf RP, Desprez T, Meerlo P,  Scheurink AJ. Increased food intake and changes in metabolic hormones in response to chronic sleep restriction alternated with short periods of sleep allowance. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2011

4. Taheri S, Lin L, Austin D, Young T, Mignot E (December 2004). “Short Sleep Duration Is Associated with Reduced Leptin, Elevated Ghrelin, and Increased Body Mass Index”.

5. Lyytikäinen P, Rahkonen O, Lahelma E, Lallukka T. Association of sleep duration with weight and weight gain: a prospective follow-up study. J Sleep Res. 2011

6. Nielsen LS, Danielsen KV, Sørensen TI. Short sleep duration as a possible cause of obesity: critical analysis of the epidemiological evidence. Obes Rev. 2011

7 Leproult R, Van Cauter E.Role of sleep and sleep loss in hormonal release and metabolism.Endocr Dev. 2010

8. Barr EL, Zimmet PZ, Welborn TA, et al. (2007). “Risk of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in individuals with diabetes mellitus, impaired fasting glucose, and impaired glucose tolerance: the Australian Diabetes, Obesity, and Lifestyle Study

9. Graham, TE; Sathasivam, P; Rowland, M; Marko, N; Greer, F; Battram, D (2001). “Caffeine ingestion elevates plasma insulin response in humans during an oral glucose tolerance test”. Canadian journal of physiology and pharmacology

10. Keijzers, GB; De Galan, BE; Tack, CJ; Smits, P (2002). “Caffeine can decrease insulin sensitivity in humans”. Diabetes care

11. Petrie, HJ; Chown, SE; Belfie, LM; Duncan, AM; McLaren, DH; Conquer, JA; Graham, TE (2004). “Caffeine ingestion increases the insulin response to an oral-glucose-tolerance test in obese men before and after weight loss”. The American journal of clinical nutrition

12. Akiba, T; Yaguchi, K; Tsutsumi, K; Nishioka, T; Koyama, I; Nomura, M; Yokogawa, K; Moritani, S et al. (2004). “Inhibitory mechanism of caffeine on insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in adipose cells”. Biochemical pharmacology

13. Palacios R., Sugawara I. (1982). “Hydrocortisone abrogates proliferation of T cells in autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction by rendering the interleukin-2 Producer T cells unresponsive to interleukin-1 and unable to synthesize the T-cell growth factor”. Scand J Immunol

14. Besedovsky, H.O.; Del Rey, A.; Sorkin, E. (1984) “Integration of Activated Immune Cell Products in Immune Endocrine Feedback Circuits.” p. 200 in Leukocytes and Host Defense Vol. 5

15.Inui A, Asakawa A, Bowers CY, et al. (2004). “Ghrelin, appetite, and gastric motility: the emerging role of the stomach as an endocrine organ”. FASEB J. 18 (3): 439–56. doi:10.1096/fj.03-0641rev. PMID 15003990.

16. Castañeda TR, Tong J, Datta R, Culler M, Tschöp MH. (2010). “Ghrelin in the regulation of body weight and metabolism”. Front Neuroendocrinol.

17. Brennan AM, Mantzoros CS (June 2006). “Drug Insight: the role of leptin in human physiology and pathophysiology–emerging clinical applications”. Nat Clin Pract Endocrinol Metab
Kevin Richardson is an award winning health and fitness writer, one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training™. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here. If you live in the New York metropolitan area and need help losing weight or taking your body to the next level give Kevin and his team a call at 1-800-798-8420 or click here to get started with 50% off your trial personal training session.

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Understanding Eating Disorders, Binge Eating & Night Eating Syndrome

Eating disorders have existed in one form or another since the beginning of civilization; however it is without question that its presence has increased significantly over the past thirty years. It’s hard to pin point one central causative reason for the increase, but it goes without saying that the social and societal pressures to be thin and in great shape while living in a developed nation where over a third of the population is overweight has been consistently implicated as a cause for the growing number of mostly women with eating disorders. The unstoppable deluge of advertising and marketing cues for women to be supermodel slim and trim doesn’t only affect us here in the United States and Europe but creates an environment ripe for eating disorders even in third world countries where food supplies are scare. In India where it is estimated that almost 60% of the female population is malnourished and where a well rounded body has traditionally been upheld as a nationally accepted ideal, the influx of Western television has brought with it an explosion in the number of young girls with anorexia nervosa- often with fatal consequences.[1]

Here in the United States over eight million people suffer from an eating disorder of some kind with a huge gender bias of seven million women versus one million men.[2] One in 200 American women suffer from anorexia nervosa- the so called slimming disease that can cause suffers to starve themselves to death. A study by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa & Associated Disorders found that 5 – 10% of anorexics die within 10 years of contracting the disorder and that approximately one fifth of them will die within twenty years. Sadly the mortality rate for anorexia is 12 times higher than the death rates of all causes of death for young females within the ages of 15-24 years old[2], a sobering statistic, but one that does nothing to stop the presentation of being ultra thin to a fault as an ideal.

Bulimia  & Binge Eating- Signs & Symptoms

While one in every 200 American women suffers from anorexia, two to three in 100 women suffers from bulimia

Binge related eating disorders are even more widespread throughout the American female population- while one in every 200 American women suffers from anorexia, two to three in 100 women suffers from bulimia. Bulimia is an insidious and often silent illness in which a person binges on food or has regular episodes of overeating while feeling a very tangible loss of self control over their eating. The affected person then uses various methods such as vomiting, diet pills or laxative abuse to prevent weight gain.[3] Similar to but not exactly the same as bulimia, binge eating disorder is even more common as people with binge eating disorder often consume large amounts of food while feeling a real loss of control over their eating, but without the recourse to purging methods.[4]While almost everyone overeats at one point or another (usually over the holiday season), some overeat with a regularity that qualifies it as a disorder. While not categorized as a psychiatric condition per se, as with all eating disorders, binge eating comes with the classic cycle of compulsive urges followed by extreme feelings of guilt and powerlessness to stop a reoccurrence. As it is largely undiagnosed, millions are affected but no one can give a precise number as the practice is often shrouded in secrecy and the shame and embarrassment over having so little control over your actions isolate many from ever revealing that they have a problem and getting help.

While bulimia nervosa appears to be of relatively recent origin, binge eating has been a problem for humankind for centuries. Simply eating large amounts of food or being over one’s ideal weight does not mean that someone has a binge eating disorder. Research over the past three decades has conclusively shown that most obese individuals eat relatively normally, (read my post on calories to understand a bit more of how easy it is for us to gain weight) and that the subgroup of obese people with episodic periods of extreme food consumption is relatively small with some sufferers being of normal weight.[5] My experience over the years has been that most people regarded as ideals within the fitness industry do have serious problems with their attitudes towards food, sadly to the point where is can indeed be classed as a disorder.

The criteria for binge eating disorder are:

· Frequent episodes of eating what others would consider an abnormally large amount of food.

· Frequent feelings of being unable to control what or how much is being eaten.

Several or all of these behaviors or feelings:

• Eating much more rapidly than usual.
• Eating until uncomfortably full.
• Eating large amounts of food, even when not physically hungry.
• Eating in isolation out of embarrassment at the quantity of food being eaten.
• Feelings of disgust, depression, or guilt after overeating.[6]

Bulimia & Binge Eating In The Fitness Industry

The extreme dietary habits of many bodybuilders, fitness and figure competitors could be seriously categorized as an eating disorder.

Both binge eating and bulimia nervosa affects many bodybuilders and fitness models in numbers higher than most would expect. Persons with bulimia regularly purge, fast, or engage in an unhealthy pattern of prolonged strenuous exercise after episodes of binge eating which is a textbook description of the cycle for most competitive physique athletes. The purging process within bulima is usually understood as vomiting but it can also include the use of diuretics (water pills) or laxatives doses to avoid gaining weight after eating- practices that many in the health and fitness circles regularly engage in to maintain ‘the look’.

Fasting is defined as not eating for at least twenty-four hours and many use it as a way of making up for what they see as over the top food consumption (see my article on fasting as a form of weight loss here). Strenuous exercise, in this case, is defined as exercising for more than an hour, but not as a means to better health or self improvement, but as a reactive practice to avoid gaining weight after a period of binging. Purging, fasting, and prolonged strenuous exercise are dangerous ways to attempt weight control and the excessive shape and weight concerns of most competitors in the physique arena are also characteristics of bulimia and or eating disorder of some kind. Issues that may appear benign in someone with rippling abdominals and an ultra tight body, but one that is inevitability self destructive and unsustainable.

The only difference between a physique competitor and someone diagnosed with an eating disorder per se is that the cycle of weight gain, weight loss, extreme dieting, nutrient deprivation and dehydration combined with thousands of hours of daily prolonged strenuous exercise has become almost socially acceptable. Unfortunately the extreme practices of those following this particular lifestyle are seen as ideals for many who aspire to have well muscled and toned bodies just like those of the individuals they see in the pages of the magazines. Unless there is a sense of balance where your overall health is prioritized over the attainment of a transient cosmetic ideal such as being big and muscular or having extremely low body fat levels, the practice falls squarely in the realm of an eating disorder and has no relation to health and fitness whatsoever even though it is portrayed as such in the media.

Night Eating Syndrome- The Other Eating Disorder

Almost uncontrollable eating at night is a serious problem for many.

There are other eating disorders that can also often go unrecognized as 1.1-1.5% of the U.S. population suffers from another as yet undiagnosed eating disorder called Night Eating Syndrome. Seen as a delay in the daily rhythm of food intake, Night Eating Syndrome is defined by two important points:

The first is hyperphagia- which is an ingestion of over 25% of daily calories after dinner and or waking up to eat at least three times a week.[7]

Usually triggered by feelings of stress, Night Eating Syndrome is a disorder that that many can relate to, albeit in a less extreme form. Characterized by a lack of appetite for breakfast and the consumption of considerable amounts of high calorie, and usually high-carbohydrate snacks and insomnia, the foods eaten during the night time binge are almost always unhealthy.[4,6] After the night binge, the person is usually not hungry in the morning, and breakfast, the most important meal of the day for both optimal performance and appetite regulation is skipped. (Read more about the importance of breakfast for weight loss and appetite regulation here)

The excessive food intake at night also creates a decrease in melatonin, a critical sleep related hormone. The decrease in melatonin contributes to the increased sleep disturbances and insomnia associated with night eating syndrome.[8] Evidence suggests that night eating may be a pathway to obesity as in three studies it preceded the onset of obesity and was a major factor in predicting continued weight gain in female night eaters who were already obese.[9] Not only is night eating a contributor to increased weight gain, but it is also a serious cause of distress for those who feel overpowered by food at night.

Again, it should be kept in mind that most may not have the characteristics of this particular syndrome to the extent that it becomes pathological, but the pattern of almost uncontrollable late night snacking on high carbohydrate and unhealthy foods is a very common issue for many individuals today. While the general population may not be diagnosed as having an eating disorder, most still find the task of controlling their eating habits to be a Sisyphean task. However there are practical and systematic approaches that make the likelihood of success much greater and none of them involve quick fixes. Nothing worth achieving comes quickly, and having control over your eating habits is no exception. It takes practice and patience as lasting achievements stem from a lifetime of dedication. Exercise can go a long way in helping relieve some of the symptoms of depression that eating disorders can bring about, but again balance is the key. That being said, if you have an eating disorder it is always recommended that you first seek professional help.

Get a copy of Kevin’s Free Weight Loss Ebook here!

Related Articles:

Changing Your Diet Forever- Why Change Is So Hard

Exercise and Depression

Fasting Is Not An Effective Form of  Weight Loss

References:

1. McGivering J. Anorexia takes hold in India. BBC News- 2003

2. Eating Disorder Statistics- South Carolina Dept. of Mental Health

3. Bulimia nervosa; Binge-purge behavior; Eating disorder – bulimia. A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia.

4.Marcus MD. “Binge Eating in Obesity.” In: Fairburn CG, Wilson GT (eds). Binge eating: nature, assessment, and treatment

5. Gordon, Richard A. 2000. Eating Disorders: Anatomy of a Social Epidemic. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, Ltd.

6. Stunkard AJ. “Eating Patterns and Obesity.” Psychiatric Quarterly, 1959, Vol. 33, pp. 284-295.

7. Stunkard A, Allison K., Lundgren J. Issues for DSM-V: Night Eating Syndrome- Am J Psychiatry 165:424, April 2008

8. Lundgren JD, Newberg A, Allison KC, Wintering N, Ploessl K, Stunkard AJ: 123I-ADAM SPECT imaging of serotonin transporter binding in patients with night eating syndrome: a pilot study. Psychiatry Res

 9. Andersen GS, Stunkard AJ, Sørensen TI, Petersen L, Heitmann BL: Night eating and weight change in middle-aged men and women. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2004; 28:1338–1343

Kevin Richardson is an award winning fitness writer, one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training^TM. Get a copy of his free weight loss ebook here. If you live in the New York City metropolitan area and need help losing weight or getting into cover model shape, give Kevin and his team a call at 1-800-798-8420.

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