Foundations of Fat Shredding & Mindset
Control Your Hunger
Control Your Hunger
Free
Daniel Raz
Fat Loss Coach
In this module, I'm diving into effective ways to control your hunger and make dieting easier. I'll explain why eating less is more efficient than exercising more and introduce you to the two key hormones that control hunger: ghrelin and leptin.
Introduction
Eating less is far easier and more efficient than exercising more. However, no one enjoys feeling like they are starving themselves, so we are going to discuss effective ways of how to suppress your hunger, as well as three keys to decrease your hunger hormone.
It is far easier to eat 200 less calories of pasta from your bowl than go run for 2 miles, which is the approximate equivalent of burning 200 calories. Jogging for 2 miles might take you 20 minutes, while taking 10 less bites of pasta from your bowl takes no time.
Eating slowly and using your non-dominant hand helps you eat less. Additionally, simply using a smaller plate makes an enormous difference as well. There are also five other strategies on how to suppress your hunger, but we will get into those in a moment.
Understanding Hunger Hormones - Ghrelin and Leptin
First, let's talk about two very important hormones that control your hunger levels: ghrelin and leptin. They work so your body knows when it's supposed to eat. That's why you usually get hungry around the same time every day. Also, if you aren't hungry but then begin to eat anyways, ghrelin kicks in, and you become hungry.
10,000 years ago, we didn't know when our next meal was going to be. For that reason, we evolved to develop these hormones, ghrelin and leptin, that let our body know when it's time to be hungry and hunt for food and when it's time to be full and rest.
Basically, ghrelin is a hormone that tells your body, "I'm hungry, feed me," and leptin says, "I'm full, I don't want more food." Just remember, ghrelin is the hunger hormone, and leptin is the satiety and fullness hormone. For us to be less hungry, we either need to decrease ghrelin, the hunger hormone, or increase leptin, the satiety hormone.
Leptin Resistance in Overweight Individuals
The way to increase leptin is by gaining fat. People with high fat levels actually have a higher amount of leptin than skinny people. So, in theory, they should feel fuller, but why isn't that the case?
The reason is that overweight people have such a high amount of leptin that they become leptin resistant. This means that receptors in their body that should detect leptin and tell them they are full, don't work anymore.
This is the reason why you should absolutely avoid leptin supplements at all costs. Controlling your body's hormones naturally is the best solution.
The Equation for Less Hunger
So if we know that the equation is: low ghrelin levels plus high leptin levels equals you being less hungry, and we now know that it is not a good idea to have high leptin levels, this means it's best to decrease ghrelin levels.
Luckily, there are a few ways to decrease ghrelin, which makes you less hungry. There are three keys to decreasing ghrelin naturally: increase protein intake, decrease sugar intake, and getting a good night's sleep.
Firstly, increase protein intake. Try to eat protein in every meal. This is especially important for your first meal, as it sets the tone for the rest of the day. This does not mean you need to eat chicken and steak for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Not at all.
Much better protein sources with significantly fewer calories include beans and lentils, nuts such as almonds and cashews, whole grain foods such as oatmeal and quinoa, as well as pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, any of those. Next, decrease sugar intake.
This does not just mean to avoid candy and sweets. The biggest thing you can do to decrease sugar intake is to avoid fast food chains, since they add ungodly amounts of sugar to their foods and beverages. And the third key to decrease ghrelin is getting a good night's sleep.
It is easier to be in a caloric deficit by sleeping in than by waking up early and going for a run. If you only sleep for 4 hours and force yourself to wake up and jog for 3 miles, you would only burn 50 calories more than had you slept in and got a good 8 hours of sleep.
Additionally, after the jog, you would be way hungrier than had you slept in for that full 8 hours. Also, there would be way more hours during the day for you to possibly be hungry and be tempted to eat than had you slept more hours.
So, get proper sleep. I'm not advocating to avoid exercise! I am just encouraging you to not exercise at the cost of sleep and then consume a bunch of calories afterwards.
Five Ways to Suppress Hunger
And finally, the five ways to suppress hunger are: keep busy or be super engaged in a task, drink 3 cups of water whenever you feel like your stomach is growling, get distracted by taking a walk, get a massage or take a bath to avoid stress eating, and number 5, exercise.
Addressing the Gray Areas
Now, the question that has been lingering in your mind all this time: what about tasty-but-not-healthy? Well, pause and ask yourself, how do I feel?
If I see a brownie on the counter, I'm not just going to mindlessly grab it just because it's there. I'll pause and reflect for a few seconds. Am I really hungry? Or will I only be eating the brownie just because it's in my proximity? Am I really craving it, and I can't survive without having the brownie? Or should I eat the brownie next time when I'm a little bit hungrier? Or should I eat something else instead?
I personally will never say to myself or anyone that I can't eat something, or I'm not allowed to, or I really shouldn't. Those thoughts never even cross my mind. In fact, studies suggest that people that say, "I can't eat something" are way more likely to consume that food than if they say, "I don't want to eat that."
Listen, you know what's right for you. You know when you deserve to indulge a little, and when you're eating just 'cause for no reason. I trust that you have the absolute best intentions for yourself, and YOU SHOULD TOO. Always have the best intentions for yourself.
You now have a simple but wildly effective guideline and tool of what to consume and what to stay away from.
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Complete the following task:
Activity : Decrease ghrelin by eating more protein and consuming less sugar than you did yesterday. Use one of the five hunger-suppressing techniques the next time you feel hungry.
This is one of the key elements in your Fat Shredded Unleashed journey. Cheers!
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QUIZ
What are the three keys to naturally decreasing ghrelin levels, the hunger hormone?
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Leave your comments and questions below.
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