WEIGHT LOSS MANTRA

BY Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha 

Those who embark on a weight loss programme often find that dieting works only for a short time. As you make a conscious effort to consume less food, it feels unpleasant when you’re hungry since you’re not eating enough to fill your stomach.

What’s more, it becomes difficult to live with the hunger pangs as you try to maintain a healthy weight after losing those extra kilogrammes.

One of the key factors in weight gain is the hormone ghrelin – often called the ‘hunger hormone.’ This is a chemical produced by the gut and secreted into the bloodstream. Carried along the blood vessels to the brain, ghrelin acts on the hunger centre to make you feel hungry and consume food.

When the gut feels empty, it produces more of this chemical substance so ghrelin levels increase when you’re dieting. If you can keep ghrelin levels low however, you won’t experience hunger pangs and be tempted to eat more. The higher the level of ghrelin in your bloodstream, the hungrier you feel!

An interesting experiment conducted recently compared the effects of diet and exercise on weight loss. Two similar groups of people were studied: one group combined a low-calorie diet with physical exercise; and the other followed the same diet without undertaking additional exercise.

When ghrelin levels were measured in all the subjects, it was found that they had increased in the dieting group but remained stable in the exercising group. The average weight loss in both groups was similar; but while the dieting group felt hungrier during this time, the exercising group didn’t feel hungry.

The conclusion drawn from this experiment was that exercise helped not only to burn calories but also keep ghrelin levels low, which meant that the subjects didn’t feel hungry even though they were consuming less food.

Ghrelin levels typically rise before a meal when your stomach is empty; and they fall shortly after your stomach is full. The increase in ghrelin makes you hungry when you start dieting – this is an evolutionary response by your body, which tries to protect you from starvation.

This adaptation makes it hard to lose weight and keep it off because your body tries to regain lost weight.

Interestingly, it has beenfound that ghrelin levels rise when one loses sleep while at the same time, the level of leptin (i.e. a hunger inhibiting hormone produced mainly by the body’s fat cells) tends to drop.

Experiments have shown that having less than seven hours’ sleep at night makes you want to eat more while those who sleep well are able to resist the temptation to consume sugary, high calorie foods.

We can’t control ghrelin levels with drugs; but we can maintain healthy ghrelin levels and minimise hunger.

Prioritise slumber time because poor sleep increases ghrelin levels – so ensure that you have adequate snooze time every night.

In addition, keep in mind that physical exercise is important. In addition to burning calories, exercise reduces ghrelin produced by the gut.

Having more fat-free muscle in your body is also associated with lower levels so eat more protein and food containing fibre. This increases the feeling of being full, and reduces hunger as well as ghrelin levels.