Key Messages
The Key to Weight Loss and Better Health: Eat Correctly, Not Less
When it comes to getting leaner and healthier, eating the right foods matters.
That goes for cutting back on dietary fats too – overdoing it with low-fat foods won’t help your cause.
As Always Hungry? explains, obesity rates have only increased since nutrition experts have suggested that people cut back on dietary fat.
Rather than resorting to calorie counting and depriving yourself of yummy treats, you actually need to eat correctly.
This book can set you on the right path in understanding why scarfing down cinnamon buns will actually make you hungrier, how an overstuffed fat cell is similar to a stab wound, and why its totally possible to get leaner by eating fatty foods!
Understanding the Myths and Misconceptions Surrounding Weight Loss
It’s a commonly held belief that the obesity epidemic in the United States – and indeed, around the world – is due to a lack of physical activity and genetic factors.
While these two components certainly play a role at individual level, they’re not behind the dramatic rise in obesity rates witnessed over the past few decades.
We often overestimate how many calories are burned during exercise, for example, or attribute too much power to ‘fat genes’.
But this won’t explain why obesity has become such an issue so quickly in recent years.
Something else had to be going on.
The false assumption that we can make a dent in our weight problems just by consuming fewer calories is wrong-headed too.
Not only is it incredibly difficult to willfully eat less all the time but you don’t put on pounds because you have too many cells filled with energy – it’s because your organs aren’t receiving enough nourishment from your bloodstream!
The Dangers of High-Carb Diets: How Consuming Refined Carbs Can Lead to Weight Gain
We all know that overconsuming sweet and starchy foods isn’t good for our waistline — but why, exactly? It’s all because of a hormone called insulin.
Insulin is produced by your pancreas and helps to regulate how your body stores and processes calories in your bloodstream.
When you eat sugary or starchy foods, insulin levels naturally increase in your body and cause it to absorb the nutrient-rich glucose from these processed carbohydrates.
This causes fats in your fat cells to be taken away and stored until needed for energy.
However, if you consume too many starchy or processed carbohydrates with this rise in insulin levels, excessive amounts of glucose will enter your bloodstream which can cause weight gain.
The reward centers of the brain sense this rush of energy from all the excess sugar in your blood and make you feel hungry again soon after — even though you’ve already eaten — prompting you to eat more resulting in even more weight gain.
The Dangers of Chronic Inflammation as a Result of Obesity
Being obese isn’t good for your immune system.
When you gain weight, it stresses your fat cells and causes chronic inflammation in your body.
This is because when a fat cell reaches a critical size and dies from oxygen deprivation, the wound triggers an immune response to fix the damage.
Unfortunately, your body can’t distinguish between foreign bacteria and your own bodily tissues, so it ends up attacking itself!
This chronic inflammation can lead to a number of health problems such as increasing insulin resistance, overstimulating cell growth, making the liver function improperly and even causing type 2 diabetes.
Drugs can only lessen the effects of inflammation, but they cannot cure it.
All in all, obesity throws off the entire balance of your immune system, resulting in multiple health issues.
The Key to a Healthy Weight: Nutrients, Protein and Vegetables, Not Processed Carbohydrates
Losing weight and getting healthier doesn’t require you to follow unhealthy diets like low-fat or low-calorie ones.
Instead, make sure you get the right kind of nutrients that your body needs in order to stay healthy.
This means focusing on protein, with a few ounces per day, alongside healthy fats like monounsaturated fats such as olive oil and nuts, polyunsaturated fats found in fish or saturated fats found in coconut oil.
To also ensure optimal nutrient consumption while staying away from processed carbohydrates, try adding more vegetables into your daily meals as they are a powerful source of protein and calcium – and can help you shed pounds through maintaining healthy bacteria in your colon.
Finally, be mindful of carbohydrates; it’s best to consume them sparingly since excessive amounts can disrupt your immune system, cause permanent damage to your liver and lead to fat storage.
Following these simple tips will not only help you lose weight but also improve overall health!
Have Trust in Your Body, Make if-then Plans and Stock Up a Healthy Kitchen to Develop Self-Discipline for a Healthier Lifestyle
If you want to develop the discipline to stick to a healthier lifestyle, it’s important to shop intelligently and stock your kitchen with foods that will benefit your body and mind.
Don’t rely on calorie limits or obsessively measure yourself; instead, trust your body and listen to its hunger cues.
When stocking up your kitchen, throw out all of the bad tempting snacks like high-carb baked goods, candy, white rice and nonfat dairy products.
Instead, purchase frozen tropical fruit, maple syrup, whole milk products, nuts, seeds and dark chocolate.
These are healthier options that will fill you up without leaving you feeling guilty.
In addition to stocking only healthy foods in your kitchen, keep an organized space for preparing meals.
Having everything set up and prepared beforehand will help reduce cravings for unhealthy snacks when you get home late at night without energy to cook from scratch.
Bottom line: make sure your kitchen is stocked with nutritious food so that you can stay on the path towards living a healthier lifestyle.
Start Your Healthier Lifestyle with Lowering Insulin Levels and Eating Real Food
The first step in creating a healthier lifestyle is to get your cravings in check.
The key here is to cut out items that trigger cravings and cause your insulin levels to spike, like grains, processed foods and potatoes with added sugar.
Instead, it’s important to opt for real foods that provide nourishment without overloading on unhealthy sugars and fats.
When it comes to meals, Nourish’s Always Hungry program recommends a 50-25-25 ratio of fats-carbohydrates-protein.
A great breakfast idea is two eggs (one extra egg white) fried in olive oil accompanied by a spicy chili sauce and two tablespoons of shredded cheese, plus Greek yogurt with fresh or frozen raspberries on the side.
Take this approach but don’t starve yourself!
Eat until you’re satisfied but not overly full– if you find yourself still hungry after eating then you can always go for seconds.
In between meals be sure to snack on healthy treats such as hummus and veggies or pumpkin seeds tossed in olive oil and roasted for ten minutes.
And don’t forget about water– hydration is essential for any healthy diet!
When it comes time to exercise, start with a daily walk and gradually ease into more intense workouts once you’ve adapted.
Embrace Mistakes and Exercise to Succeed in a Healthy Lifestyle
The second phase of Always Hungry? is all about retraining your body and its fat cells to properly deal with carbs.
After the first stage, which was focused on getting your insulin levels down, your body should now be more sensitive to carbohydrates.
So, you can reintroduce unprocessed carbs into your diet in moderation.
Aim for a ratio of 40% fats, 25% protein and 35% carbohydrate.
Whole-grains, starchy vegetables (no potatoes!), tropical fruit and honey are all great sources of healthy carbs that’ll give your cells the right kind of fuel they need – just try not to have them at the same meal.
If cravings start increasing while following this plan, reduce your intake of grains and carbs further, but include more proteins and fats instead.
Don’t beat yourself up if you slip up here – accept it as part of the journey, learn from it and carry on.
To make sure everything runs smoothly, add a half-hour of moderate physical activity such as yoga or light jogging each day – this will both help strengthen your body and burn any excess carbs as well!
The Last Stage: Mindful Eating to Maintain a Balanced Diet
The last step of transitioning to a healthy diet isn’t just about reintroducing carbs – it means being mindful of how you’re consuming your food, and keeping your stress levels in check!
Once you’ve reached the final stage and have reintroduced some processed carbohydrates into your diet, make sure you pay attention to how your body reacts.
Eat mindfully, avoiding stressful conversations and activities – like watching television or working in front of the computer – while eating.
Plus, keep lots of healthy fats in your diet such as nuts, nut butters, avocados and olive oil so that if you do indulge a bit on carb-heavy foods, such as bread with breakfast or pasta for dinner, you’ll still be able to moderate.
Your aim with this stage should be to consume a diet that follows 40% fats, 40% carbohydrates and 20% proteins every day.
And don’t forget to incorporate outdoor activities into your daily life, whether it’s swimming in the ocean or taking a leisurely stroll!
With these adjustments in place, you’ll start to feel more satisfaction from fewer carbs while helping reduce stress.
Wrap Up
The Always Hungry? Book is a great source of practical advice if you’re trying to lose weight.
The key takeaways are to listen to your body and not just push through with an unsustainable diet.
Instead, it recommends recalibrating your diet with nutritious foods tailored to your body’s needs, which will help your cells become more efficient at processing fats.
It also warns against cutting calories, starving yourself or following a low-fat diet as these will not help you lose weight in the long run.
Ultimately, this book provides insightful tips on how to nourish and fuel your body in order to reach and maintain a healthy weight.
