This Blog Is For Women

Making the transition from sugar burning to fat burning isn’t an easy one.  The carb cravings that go along with transitioning to a low-carb diet can be overwhelming.   The good news is that they only take place during the transition.  The faster you can get from Sugar Burner to Fat Burner the sooner the cravings will die away!

photo credit: flickr.com/istolethetv

Why do we crave sugar?

All carbohydrates essentially become sugar in our bloodstream once our digestive enzymes get their way.  Starches and complex carbs are broken down to simple sugar and then they make their way into our bloodstream.

On a daily basis, most of us can perform all of our daily functions and activities on about 100-150 grams of carbohydrates.  Anything above that is excess and will be stored as fat.  Below about 100 grams of carbs, we will naturally begin to burn fat as fuel.  For those of us who wish to trim our figures or convert to fat-burning, consuming under 100 grams of carbs is ideal.  The trouble is that if we are “Sugar Burners” our bodies want more, we crave it.

Once sugar enters our blood stream, insulin is launched to eliminate it from the blood as quickly as possible.  Our bodies are designed to eradicate sugar from our bloodstream and to keep blood sugar levels at the lowest functional levels possible. Over time, we create a physiological expectation that there will be sugar present in our bloodstream in regular intervals, and we’ve got the tools to remove it at the ready. When we stop providing the sugar, the cravings begin.  Our bodies are ready for sugar, and we haven’t provided any.    Over time, a low-carb diet will reprogram our system to become fat-adapted.  The cravings will recede and appetite will normalize. But during the period of adaptation there will be a serious withdrawal period when our bodies are driving us to eat carbohydrates.

Other factors that can contribute to carbohydrate cravings include the serotonin effect that carbs can have on our mood.  Eating carbohydrates can mimic the effects of serotonin  and elevate our mood temporarily.  The trouble is, that this effect is temporary and, in fact, deplete serotonin in the long-run making cravings worse!   A better approach is to avoid carbohydrates and work to improve our body’s serotonin production and receptors.

What can we do about it?

The faster we can re-adapt our metabolism to be ketogenic or “Fat Adapted”  the faster we will eliminate our cravings.  For most people this can be achieved in 3 to 6 weeks.  

1. Not cheating will make the  cravings go away faster.  Withdrawal must take its complete course and any setbacks you have along the way will only prolong your eventual success.

2. Understanding this process can help us in the short-term to mentally navigate the sugar craving demons that urge us to eat sugar and complex carbohydrates.  In the long-term, being successful in the short-term will get us there one day at a time.   Know that,  if you don’t cheat, in about 21 days the cravings will be gone.  In the short term distraction can help.  Craving sugar? drink some hot water, do 3 sets of 10 push-ups, go outside for a  20-minute walk.

3. Proper diet, or supplementation of key nutrients.  Low light in winter, low vitamin D, low Omega 3, Low B6, low iron, poor protein absorption and poor hormonal function can also all cause inadequate serotonin function.   To assist healthy serotonin cycles we can get more natural light, use a full spectrum lamp, ensure adequate amounts of vitamins B and D,iron and Omega-3, and eat frequent small servings of protein (chewed thoroughly.)   These won’t cure the problem or be a miracle solution but they will assist serotonin function and give you a leg up at battling sugar cravings while you work at becoming a Fat Burning Beast.

Read more about carb cravings at PrimalBody-PrimalMind.com

Read about Mark Sisson’s take on Fat Burning metabolism at MarksDailyApple.com

The battle over diet and obesity rages on. More and more people  are struggling with maintaining a healthy weight.  The science is in on this one:  we have become addicted to sugar.

I’m not going to bore you with all the details about dopamine and receptors and addiction.  But recent scientific studies have proven that food, and specifically sugar, can cause the same effects on the brain as addiction to hard core drugs.

This might worry you, but it also might help you.  Drug addicts have found a way to recover from addiction and if you’re a sugar addict, you can too.

There are steps to take. But recognizing that you have a problem is the first one.     Some of the signs that you might have a sugar addiction can include:

• persistent sweet tooth
• sugar cravings that result in binge eating of sugary foods
• being unable to control your eating and feeling defeated and sabotaged after ward
• irritability when avoiding sugar

Once you recognize that you have a sugar addiction there are steps that you can take to help control your addiction.  These steps are different that then the simple will-power tactics you might have tried (and failed) in the past.  Will-power is important.  But you must take it one step further, ok 5 or 6  steps further.

1.  Avoid temptation: control your environment to the best of your ability to make sugar unavailable.  Don’t buy it, don’t watch other people eat it, if you’re at a party, stay physically away from the dessert table.

2. Plan ahead:  preplan your meals, and bring healthy snack alternatives with you when you’re on the go.  Nuts, seeds, and fruit are easy to pack.  And if you can manage a protein snack even better.

3. Distract:  when you feel the need for some sugar, do something else that will prevent you from eating.  Something like dancing, playing a musical instrument or other full body activity that makes it difficult to eat.

4. Exercise:  include a regular dose of exercise in your weekly regime.  Daily exercise that either gets your heart rate up, or builds or stretches muscles is great.  Think walking, dancing, yoga, pilates, or anything else you enjoy.

5. Hydrate:  insuring that your body is properly hydrated is a good step to stemming cravings.  Many times our body mistakes our thirst cue as a hunger cue.

6. Meditate: calming and enabling, meditation is a good way to quiet cravings and enable us to feel empowered.  It really is all in your head!

If you let sugar take you over, jump in on any one of these steps and then add the others in as soon as possible.  Before you know it, you’ll be a recovering sugar addict!