How many of you have been on a diet for multiple years and stuck to it?
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… I thought so!
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What happens to your hormones when you go on a diet?
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STAGE 1: As you restrict calories, your glucagon levels (the hormone that increases blood sugar levels) increase to maintain blood sugar levels. Insulin (the blood sugar lowering hormone) levels reduce and you start to see a drop on the scale. What are you losing? Fat, MUSCLE and water.
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STAGE 2: As your body realizes that you’ve put it through a starvation, it goes into a “stress mode” – cortisol levels increase (to help preserve energy and fat), grehlin (the hunger hormones) increase and you start to not only feel very hungry, but also realize the rate of weight loss has slowed down.
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STAGE 3: You eventually give in to that one piece of cake or carbohydrate that you’ve restricted yourself from eating. Result? Insulin (which is also a fat storage hormone) sky rockets along with cravings. Your body does everything it can to preserve fat at a much higher rate than muscle as it does not know when it’ll go into a starvation mode again.
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END RESULT? More fat, less muscle, slower metabolism and a destroyed self esteem.
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The next time you decide to crash diet, re-think it!
