How to Use Your Brain to Make Losing – and Controlling – Weight EASIER !!
Posted on October 16th, 2008
This new research is so exciting, especially for people who think they eat to comfort themselves… to feel better… to alleviate stress… to lighten depression.
The info shines a laser beam on a fallacy that can be stopping us from becoming as healthy and fit as we want.
That laser beam chips away another piece of the barrier that stands between us and our goal.
Or, as Dr. David Katz puts it, adds another sandbag to the levee.
It’s all about your ghrelin.
(Pronounced GRAY-lin or GREE-lin.)
For Many Years, we’ve known that the hormone peptide, ghrelin, is produced by cells in our stomach lining when the stomach is empty.
So, when we’re hungry, ghrelin levels go up.
The ghrelin travels in the bloodstream to the brain.
It binds with cells in the hypothalamus (the brain's chemical factory).
It tells the hypothalamus we're hungry.
The message "we're hungry" gets sent around other areas of brain, motivating us to eat.
Very Recent Research at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas is suggesting that ghrelin also binds with other cells in the brain and DECREASES DEPRESSION and ANXIETY!!
Stomach empty = more ghrelin
The more ghrelin = the less depressed and less anxious we are
The more ghrelin = the better our mood
Please note: I’m NOT talking about starving yourself.
The stomach doesn’t have to be completely empty.
That isn’t good because your brain and body needs Fuel.
So, eat just enough that your brain and body requires for Fuel.
And, stay slightly hungry.
Don’t we always feel better – feel happier – when we’re losing weight? Certainly we’re happier because we’re getting healthier and thinner, but perhaps – perhaps – part of the reason is because – in order to lose weight – we need to remain slightly hungry and therefore, ghrelin levels are higher.
This is really exciting!!
It makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint:
Dr. Jeffrey Zigman, the senior author of the study, said that
hunter-gatherers may have had a survival advantage
in remaining calm and collected in time of hunger
in order for them to successfully find food
The study also suggests that chronic stress causes an increase in ghrelin levels. Remember, when ghrelin travels in the bloodstream to the brain, it binds with cells in the hypothalamus, and the ghrelin triggers the signal of hunger.
Ghrelin levels go up = the message is sent to the brain “We’re hungry!!”
The message is being sent NOT BECAUSE WE’RE HUNGRY.
It is because we’re [chronically] stressed
It’s the increased ghrelin that is responsible for the “Feed Me !!” message.
Therefore, the response needs to be something other than eating!
Understanding the subtle process going on inside of us gives us such control. It is such freedom from the automatic, invisible, seemingly uncontrollable process that we THINK we have no control over!!
How To Actually Use This Research To Lose Weight:
1. When you become aware of the message “Feed Me!!!”… remind yourself that the amazing little hormone peptide, ghrelin, has just traveled from your stomach lining to your hypothalamus and has triggered the “I’m hungry!!” signal
Remind yourself it’s just a signal between brain cells. This is not a real life-or-death fire alarm commanding that you run immediately for the exits, and might not even be a valid correct true signal. Focus, and question the signal!! Notice the sensations. Check your energy level… recall when you ate last and what you ate. Was it enough fuel to energize you for a bit longer? Have you been under a lot of stress lately? Have a glass of water and see if that quiets the signal. Sometimes just paying attention to the signal is enough to quell it.
2. If you DO require Fuel – if you are legitimately hungry enough – eat just enough to leave yourself a little hungry. Unless you are leaving immediately for the bush country where there is little to no food available that wouldn’t require your needing to hunt down and kill it with your bare hands, you WILL have access to food again at pretty much a moment’s notice. Therefore, it is safe to leave some food on your plate and walk away. Remind yourself again how increasing that little pearl of a hormone will make you feel better.
(But wait!! Ghrelin does even more!! Be sure to read below:
“ there are additional bonuses!! “ )
3. Eat the appropriate food in sufficient amounts to fuel your body’s activities. A portion of food about the size of your fist will normally fill your stomach.
4. If you check in with yourself and realize that you have eaten recently and really don’t need additional fuel, but are still compelled to eat something, drink a glass of water, take a deep breath, and visualize molecules of ghrelin binding with the cells in your brain that are in charge of decreasing anxiety and depression.
If you are still feeling compelled to eat something, ask yourself the Five Whys to uncover what’s driving the desire. Remind yourself that you’re in control – you make the decisions!
If you DECIDE to go ahead and over-eat, just say to yourself that you are choosing to do it this time and promise yourself that you’ll observe WHY you have made that decision. Make this a research project. That lets the brain know that (a) you’re in control, (b) this was a decision to over-eat, and (c) you are still a success. By chipping away at the automatic behavior – by adding one David-Katz-sandbag at a time – you strengthen your resources and your resolve.
It’s so important to discover the WHY for our over-eating because, if we ARE NOT hungry, and we respond to the signal by eating anyway:
a) we’ll reinforce the wrong response of eating when we aren’t hungry (that’s how the brain works)
b) we’ll gain weight (that’s how the body works)
c) the additional food in the stomach will lower the ghrelin level in the brain (that’s how the brain and body together work)
Plus, understanding the WHY makes it ever so much easier to resist over-eating. Just the knowledge alone will help. Our chances of actually calming the urge by switching to the appropriate, relevant, desired, effective response are greatly increased.
The WHY may be as simple as needing to learn when our body is actually in need of fuel; that is when we are legitimately HUNGRY. You might be surprised how many people aren’t able to tell when they truly are hungry.
Become comfortable staying a little hungry, because
there are additional bonuses!!
First: Ghrelin also binds with cells in the hippocampus !!!!!!!!
(The area of the brain involved in learning, memory, spatial analysis.)
Ghrelin:
It improves absorbing information into the brain
It improves the retaining and storing of the information in the brain
It improves recalling the information from the brain
So, if you are going into a school exam or being interviewed or doing anything that you need your memory to be in top form, go in slightly hungry. The mind just works better when we're slightly hungry.
[Don't be TOO hungry because brain cells require fuel like glucose/natural sugar, oxygen, and water.]
Second: Scientists have identified a critical gene that specifically links calorie restriction to longevity.
So, we live longer.
Please:
Absolutely don’t judge yourself or criticize yourself if you don’t succeed 100% immediately. NO ONE DOES.
∞ The human stomach isn’t designed to keep accurate track of how much we have eaten.
(from Mindless Eating, by Brian Wansink, Ph.D.)
∞ This is a tough problem that (obviously) many (many, many) people are having difficulty resolving.
Just try Googling “weight loss,” and you’ll get links to 89,200,000 sites. You are not alone in this battle.
BUT – now YOU know one of the
previously unknown secret processes of the brain
that will make it easier to lose and control weight !!!!!!!!!!!!
Your life changes when you have a working knowledge of your brain.
(from Spark, By John J. Ratey, M.D.)
For further inspiration and hints from Martha Beck, Ph.D.
∞ The Four-Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace and a Diet Channel interview about this book
∞ http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/ss_omag_200701_mbeck
KEEP CHIPPING AWAY !!!!!!