If you have been trying to change your habits for a while and have started going to the gym regularly, eating healthy and not drinking alcohol, it means that you want to lose weight quickly. However, despite your efforts, you may not lose any weight, or at least not as much as you would like to lose. Then you should know how to lose weight correctly, healthily and quickly.
According to specialists, 120 hormones influence appetite. The way in which these interact harmoniously requires the presence of a very fine and delicate balance that can be disturbed very quickly. This can ultimately trigger an increased appetite.
Various studies have shown that after a sleepless or restless night, you usually wake up very hungry and have an increased appetite for foods rich in carbohydrates.
Lose weight quickly – how sleep helps us
“Sleep is an important modulator of neuroendocrine function and the uptake of glucose by cells. Sleep disorders can disrupt metabolism,” says Maria Eugenia Castro, specialist in nutritiology at the Italian Hospital in Buenos Aires. “In addition, lack of sleep, which is very common these days due to stressful everyday life, leads to sudden changes in the level of the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates appetite,” claims the specialist. But that's not everything. After a heavy or strenuous night, leptin levels drop. If its level is high, this hormone in particular makes you feel full; if it is low, you have an increased appetite.
Hormones are the secret weapons in the battle to lose weight
The hormone ghrelin not only causes an increased appetite, but is also the reason why the food we eat seems tastier and we therefore eat more. Mario Pereio, doctor in biochemistry, leader of a research team at the National Multi-Profile Institute for Cell Biology (IMBICE) in La Plata, Argentina and subordinate to the National Council for Research and Technology Development (CONICET) warns that “ghrelin levels increase when people are hungry, but also when they are stressed, which is why we binge on food.” This hormone used to have an important biological function for humans, especially in times of food shortage. But due to the large amounts of junk food these days, “this effect of ghrelin turns into our enemy” and makes it very difficult for us to lose weight quickly, says Pereio.
According to research from the University of Chicago, a partial reduction in sleep caused participants to increase their appetite, increasing it by 24%, and they were unable to lose weight quickly. To satisfy this increased appetite, they chose mainly sweets such as cookies and chocolates, very salty products such as French fries and chips and other snacks, and carbohydrates such as bread and pasta.
Fast food and carbohydrate foods are the enemies of a healthy diet
Poor sleep and uncontrollable appetite are the result of stress. “When we are nervous or tense, the brain sends a signal to the adrenal glands to produce more cortisol,” explains Carina Cox, specialist in nutritiology and lecturer at the University of Favaloro. This hormone causes the organism to release glucose into the blood, which in turn is stored as fat in fatty tissue.
Lose weight quickly through the balance of hormones
In addition, problems may occur in the brain centers that control increased appetite, causing them to send a hunger signal. In addition, at such a moment “some neurochemical substances, serotonin, dopamine and endorphins, are no longer in balance, which leads us to eat something sweet, carbohydrates or other food that makes us happy like chocolate,” explains Carina Cux.
It is also interesting that women are more likely to fall into such states of increased appetite than men. “Stress has a greater impact on women because their autonomic nervous system and neuroendocrine system are more sensitive than on men,” says psychiatrist Enrique Jadresic, co-author of the book “The Psychopathology of Women.”
Further research shows the following
Replacing an hour of passive activity a day, such as watching TV, with an hour of sleep, can prevent increased appetite and reduce daily calorie gain by 6%. In order to get more sleep, you will certainly have to change your daily routine, but your body and your health will thank you.
The balance of the organism is regulated through healthy sleep and stress reduction
Eating healthy also means good hormonal balance and a good mood
A good night's sleep is the best gift for our body
How to lose weight while you sleep with the right dietwe explain here.