Carbohydrates and Its Impact on your Weight

Carbohydrates are an essential part of any balanced diet as they are the primary source of energy for the body. Without carbohydrates, the body will not be able to function properly. However, carbohydrates are one food group that has a lot of variations and should be consumed with a lot of thought put into the food choices to avoid possible weight gain.

There are two groups of carbohydrates; simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates provide the body with the very basic form of carbohydrates: sugar also referred to as glucose. This glucose is the body’s source of energy used to fuel internal body processes. Sugar can be found in fruits, candy and refined sugars like white sugar. Complex carbohydrates are referred to as starches and are present in corn, legumes, starchy vegetables like potatoes, and grain products like bread and macaroni. These complex carbs take a longer time to be broken down to glucose by the body and tend to stay in the stomach for a longer period.

The problem with carbohydrate consumption is that these get digested very quickly, allowing a feeling of hunger only a few hours after a meal. That poses a problem for weight loss programs where staying fuller for longer is of high importance. When carbohydrates are eaten, they are quickly converted to glucose form. When blood glucose levels rise, insulin is released by the pancreas to stabilise it. This hormone that is responsible for body fat storage converts glucose into glycogen to be stored in the liver and muscles. The human body is only capable of storing a limited amount of glycogen; the rest of the glucose is converted into body fat.

The insulin level in the blood does not go down as fast as the glucose level. Instead, it lingers in the blood, which causes sugar cravings. This sugar-insulin cycle is the main reason for sugar craving and is one of the strongest causes of weight gain. The process of weight loss requires that the body use stored fat as fuel. Cutting back on carbohydrates is therefore essential to the process of weight loss.

Advance Your Bedtime If You Hope To Reduce Your Waistline

If you are one among the ever-growing obese population that is looking to lose extra pounds and if you are one among those that hit the bed late at night, you need to carry on with the reading. Here is some food for thought to help you lose the extra pounds that crept in while you stayed awake late into the night.

While it had been advocated for years by health experts that a good night’s sleep is inevitable to stay fit and healthy, the changing lifestyle has made people borrow their sleeping hours to pound on their computer keyboards. Well, technology has enabled to work from the comfort of home, but it is unfortunate that you do not realise that you overwork. The extra time spent working or watching some entertainment shows on television results in weight gain as seen by research conducted on the association between weight gain and sleep deprivation.

How Sleep Deprivation Results In Weight Gain

When you stay awake late into the night, you are naturally prone to go for the extra food that you are not supposed to be eating. Food cravings are common when you stay awake at night. It could either be hunger thanks to the extra calories burnt while you are awake for more hours or it could be an attempt to energise your tired body and mind. Either way, it is only going to help you add some extra weight, which you have been desperately trying to lose.

Not Only Hormones, but Your Appetite Is Also Affected

The general idea everyone has about a lack of sleep is that it affects the hormones. Not only your hormones, but sleep deprivation also affects your appetite as well. Recent studies have brought to the fore that sleeplessness affects appetite, which in turn results in weight gain. Leptin and ghrelin, the hormones influencing our appetite, are affected when you sleep less. Leptin level reduces making you feel that you have not had enough and ghrelin level increases, triggering your appetite. So you end up eating more than what is rightfully due.

Cravings Go Down As Sleep Time Improves

When you treat yourself with sufficient hours of sleep every day, you do not feel tired. This, in turn, reduces your cravings for high carb snacks and sweets. Since you do not burn the calories you are supposed to; your body stores them as fat. You not only lose your sleep but also lose out on your goal to achieve weight loss.

Physical Activity Reduces With Reduced Sleep

Lack of sleep makes you tired the following day, and this could badly ruin your physical activity. Various studies have been conducted on people who are sleep-deprived. The results point to the fact that individuals who sleep less spend more time in front of their television rather than engaging themselves in physical activities. This plays a part to an extent in weight gain.

If you are planning to lose weight, you need to attack your excess flesh from all possible angles. While a balanced diet and regular exercise play a key role, to achieve the result you need to get quality sleep. Sleep not only helps in weight loss, but it also makes you energetic and healthy

Break Away From Alcohol

If you associate alcohol with nausea, vomiting and blackouts, you may be shocked to find out that you need more than the fingers on both your hands and your partner’s to count the ill effects of alcohol consumption. Did you count becoming obese? Yes, one such effect alcohol has on you is weight gain. Consumption of alcohol makes you obese. Hence, if you are planning to enter a weight loss program, you may want to refrain from alcohol consumption. Keen to know how alcohol can make you fat? Here you go.

Liver Disease And Weight Gain

 Cirrhosis is one of the most common risks faced by alcoholics. Being toxic to the cells in the liver, alcohol damages the liver so badly that liver performance is greatly reduced. Cirrhosis can cause weight gain. The poor performance of liver can result in obesity. The two major functions of the liver are detoxifying the blood and metabolising the fat. When the liver becomes sluggish, it results in weight gain. Remember that regular alcohol consumption can make your liver sluggish.

Higher Calorie Intake

You know that increased calorie consumption can cause weight gain. By consuming alcohol regularly, your intake of calories increases resulting in weight gain. Apart from the meals you eat, you gain more calories by drinking alcohol. You may want to know that 12 oz. of regular beer contains 150 calories, 1.5 oz. of whisky contains 105 calories, 1.5 oz. of rum contains 96 calories and 1.5 oz. of gin contains 110 calories.

Studies have proved that alcohol consumption before meals increases calorie intake at an alarming rate. Apart from the calorie, you gain from alcohol, you tend to get hungrier after consuming alcohol and end up eating more than you are supposed to be eating. Alcohol being an appetiser, you lose control over what you eat and how much you eat. The release of dopamine, the hormone for pleasure and addiction leads to further cravings for alcohol and food. You know where you will end up.

 Hormonal Imbalance Leads To Weight Gain

 Alcohol consumption increases cortisol levels and decreases testosterone levels. It does not matter whether you drink occasionally or regularly. Your cortisol level goes up nevertheless. While cortisol levels cause breakdown of muscles and suppress muscle recovery after exercise, lower levels of testosterone fail to burn fat leading to beer belly. Since cortisol breaks down muscles, your muscle loss will lead to weight gain.

Ability To Burn Fat Reduces

 Consumption of alcohol affects your body’s ability to burn fat. Studies have proved that fat metabolism is reduced drastically after consuming alcohol. Hydration is essential for your body for building muscle and burning fat. Since alcohol dehydrates the body, the fat burning process is affected thus leading to weight gain. Thus, you not only intake more calories by drinking alcohol, you also slow down the fat burning process, which inevitably leads to weight gain.

Stay Addicted To Health

 Being addicted to alcohol is nothing but ruining your health, wealth, happiness and in short, your life. It is better not to categorise such harmful acts as pleasures. The true pleasure lies in staying healthy. There is no better addiction than being addicted to health – physically and mentally.