What Makes You Vulnerable to Temptation When Dieting?

Every person is different and every dieter has his or her own unique struggles; however, there are certain situations that make almost everyone vulnerable to temptation when dieting.

A study recently published in the Annals of Behavioral medicine studied 80 people who were already trying to lose weight. They asked them to use an app on their phone to record times when they were tempted to cheat on their diet and record how they handled the temptations. Although it is a small study, the results were about what I would have guessed.

Here are the four times/situations that tempted the dieters the most:

1. When it was late at night.

2. When they were tired.

3. When there was alcohol present.

4. When friends were present.

It’s an interesting list isn’t it? Although it would be wonderful if we could just diet without life’s stresses, without tempting social situations, without feeling tired, and never being tempted by alcohol, the truth is that we have to diet during our regular life. Most of us can’t go to a spa and lose weight and come back all fit and healthy.

Each of these four common situations made it difficult for the study participants to stick to their diets and about 50 percent of the time when faced with temptations, they gave in and ate foods not on their diet plans.

I don’t drink alcohol so I can’t speak to the presence of alcohol being a factor in going off my diet, but I can certainly relate to the other three. I’ve written about the influence of other people in dieting before, and I promise you, if I was already on the fence about eating right for a particular meal, the presence of overweight friends influenced my behavior.

I also fell into poor dieting behaviors when I was tired and not getting enough sleep. The lack of sleep affects more than just how sleepy you are. It also affects hormones that control hunger and appetite. If I started the day off tired, I had much less willpower than I did when I began the day (or week) feeling reasonably rested. I still find that to be true.

Late night eating is almost always dangerous for people trying to lose weight. Of course there are exceptions and planned snacks are fine, but hanging out with friends who are eating pizza is never good when you are trying to lose weight. Another challenge late at night is if you are alone and bored. That’s when I would break out the ice cream or whip up some biscuits for myself.

The good news is that none of these situations have to mean the end of your diet. You can learn to control nighttime eating, practice staying on track when eating with friends, not allowing alcohol to influence your eating patterns, and work on getting enough sleep.

In the end it is all about lifestyle changes. You can temporarily resist all temptations, but real life dieting means successfully losing weight through tempting times, through easy times, and through those times when you are feeling stressed. After all, life is not stress free and you’ve got to learn how to live healthy even when life is hard.

What do you find tempting and how do you stick to your diet in those times? Diane

Images courtesy of FreeDigital Photos.net by StockImages

Source: http://blog.fittothefinish.com/2014/03/what-makes-you-vulnerable-to-temptation-when-dieting/

The Benefits of Brown Fat for Weight Management

Did you know that there is a type of fat that helps you burn energy and lose weight? It’s called brown fat, a heat-generating fat that burns energy instead of storing it. According to recent research, brown fat may have an important role in proper weight management.

Based on animal studies, researchers concluded that 50 grams of brown fat can burn about 20 percent or more of your daily caloric intake. A previous article on WebMDreports:

“Kirsi A. Virtanen, MD, PhD, of the University of Turku, Finland, and colleagues analyzed brown fat in five young men. One of the men had about 2.2 ounces of brown fat. If the brown [fat] in this example were fully activated, it would burn an amount of energy equivalent to approximately 4.1 kilograms [9 pounds] of fat over the course of a year, the researchers calculate. And that’s a low estimate, as this assumes only 50 percent activation of the brown fat.” (link)

“No wonder people are anxious to tap into the fat-burning capabilities of brown fat!” exclaimsDr. Joseph Mercola.

What Is Brown Fat?

Brown fat is located in the neck area, around blood vessels (to help keep your blood warm), and marbled in with white fat in visceral fat tissue.

“Human newborns have a supply of brown fat to keep warm, but by adulthood they lose most of their stores of it,” explains Dr. Mercola.

However, a new study revealed that the brown fat still present in adults can be activated when exposed to cold temperatures. The men who participated in the study burned more calories when cooled. They also lost white fat, which causes obesity. According to the authors:

“This boosts the possibility that calorie combustion in brown fat may be of significance for our metabolism and, correspondingly, that the absence of brown fat may increase our proneness to obesity – provided that brown fat becomes activated not only by cold but also through food-related stimuli.” (link)

The study also states that there are certain groups of people that tend to have more brown fat than others:

• Young people have more brown fat than elderly people
• Slender people have more brown fat than obese people
• People with normal blood sugar levels have more brown fat than people with high blood sugar

Can Cold Temperature Help Activate Your Brown Fat?

Many studies have claimed that cold temperature can increase brown fat activity in people. For example, a Swedish research published in 2009 revealed that cold-induced glucose uptake was increased by a factor of 15 percent. To get the results, the researchers dipped the subject’s foot in an ice bath while using positron-emission tomography (PET) to measure the findings.

A similar study by researchers in the Netherlands confined their subjects in a 16 degrees Celsius (or 61 degrees Fahrenheit) room for two hours, and also found an increase in brown fat activity.

Dr. Mercola says: “Needless to say, researchers are excited about the potential for a medical intervention that can help people develop more brown fat. But I would be cautious of any solution in a pill form. Instead, I’d suggest trying out some of the non-invasive methods that have been found to promote brown fat production and its activation.”

One possible option is exercise, which was found to help convert white fat into brown fat in animal studies. Time magazine reports:

“During exercise, the animals’ muscles released a newly discovered enzyme called irisin, which triggered the conversion. It’s not clear whether the same phenomenon is true in people, though humans do have the same protein. However, the brown fat that is easily observed in humans tends not to be the kind that is derived from white fat.” (link)

Can Ice Therapy Also Work?

Tim Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Work Week, says that brown fat can also be activated when you are exposed to frigid temperatures. In his book The Four-Hour Body, Ferriss says that your fat burning can potentially increase by as much as 300 percent if you add ice therapy to your dieting strategy.

Ferriss’ Ice Therapy uses ice to cool down your body, activate the brown fat, and help you burn more calories. He recommends the following techniques (from easy to “hardcore”):

• Put an ice pack on your upper back and upper chest for 30 minutes daily
• Drink about 500 milliliters of ice water every morning
• Take cold showers
• Immersing yourself in ice water (bathwater and ice cubes) up to your waist for 10 minutes, three times a week.

Dr. Mercola advises: “Do advance slowly! It may be inadvisable to go straight to the ice bath if you’re not used to it!”

Other Ways to Improve Your Metabolism

Dr. Mercola also recommends strategies other than ice therapy to improve your metabolism for better weight management:

• Avoid sugar (particularly fructose) and grains because they cause insulin and leptin resistance. These directly affect your hunger levels, your fat-burning potential, and your weight.
• Eat healthy meals and snacks to satiate your hunger.
• Implement a well-rounded exercise program that includes strength-training and high-intensity interval training.
• Banish stress and negative emotions using tools like mediation, prayer, and theEmotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

“The goal is to establish a healthy relationship with food, one that will keep you satisfied, nourished, and slim, all at the same time,” reminds Dr. Mercola.

Source: http://www.drmercola.com/weight-loss-2/benefits-of-brown-fat-for-weight-management/