Perhaps you’ve noticed a few extra pounds around the middle after the long winter we’ve just endured. Gloomy, cold weather seems to create a need to increase the amount of sweets and other mood increasing foods we eat. But now winter is past and it’s time to shed those pounds. Believe it or not, but keeping a normal blood sugar level is part of losing the accumulated weight. Lowering the amount of sugar that goes into the blood stream, means there is less of it to be stored as fat. Now after every meal the carbohydrates we consume are converted to glucose, absorbed into the bloodstream and then insulin does it job of moving the glucose to cells that use it for energy. When there is more glucose than cells and other tissues need for fuel the rest gets stored as fat against future energy needs.
So the job is twofold. Eat food that minimizes that amount of food that is converted in to glucose and prevent excess sugar from being stored as fat. Looking at a meals glycemic load or impact is a good way to start. Unfortunately many of us get lazy when it comes to meals and go for quick, processed foods that convert to sugar very quickly. Changing to fresh food, that is higher in fiber and eating good protein sources can alleviate the sugar rush that our regular processed meals cause.
And how do you prevent excess glucose being stored as fat? Well, don’t have any excess glucose and diet is one way to start at this and exercise is the other part of it. When you exercise you force the muscles and cells of the body to burn glucose as the fuel to keep you moving, if the cells are nearly empty of fuel there is more room for them to store glucose and less chance that there will be any excess to store as fat. It’s that simple, exercise to burn fuel and eat differently to decrease the amount of food converted to sugar. Do it on a regular basis and soon that stored fat will be needed as fuel to make up for the decrease in glucose production.
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