Lose Weight By Eating More This Holiday

By Kevin DiDonato MS, CSCS, CES

We are full blown into the holiday season and this article about avoiding certain foods still applies and you may be feeling stuffed, lazy and FAT.  But overeating during the holidays does not have the spell the end of the road for your weight loss.

In fact, having days where you overeat can actually BOOST your metabolism.  Yes, you heard me correctly: overeating can ACTUALLY help you lose weight.  Hold on a second though.

I am not telling you that EVERYDAY you are able to OVEREAT and lose weight.
But the occasional feast, say your typical holiday meals, may actually be good for your metabolism.

Confused?  Let me explain…

Fat Burning HormonesWe have these funny little hormones which are released from our fat cells which regulate energy intake and our METABOLISM.  Those two hormones are Leptin and Ghrelin.  When Leptin is increased you have a DECREASE in energy intake.

Leptin is the good angel who Makes You Stop Eating

You see, Leptin has the ability to cross the blood brain barrier and travel to your BRAIN.

Once in your brain, it cuddles up to your hypothalamus and tells it about what is going on in your stomach.

Leptin Communicates with your brain

Leptin then tells YOUR brain you are full.  This stimulates your body to stop eating and then INCREASE calorie burn.  Now Ghrelin works in the opposite.  Is the Ying to Leptin’s Yang!

Ghrelin tells your body and brain that you need to EAT MORE because you are lacking nutrients therefore lacking energy.  Now when you are overweight, your body becomes resistant to one key hormone and that is Leptin.

You body might be resistant to Leptin and all its WONDERFUL benefits.
And obesity, you are full-blown resistant to Leptin, which may make it harder for you to control food intake and also REDUCES your metabolism.

Overeating And LeptinWhen you overeat, your body releases Leptin allowing it to travels to your brain, telling it you are full.  Then, with all the calories you have ingested, your body REALLY wants to return to homeostasis or to what it perceives as normal.  So it RAMPS up calories burning to try to get your body back to normal.  This burns more calories.

Stimulating your metabolism BOOST Calories burn,
preventing it from being stored as fat.

This gives your body the burst to stimulate FAT BURNING!

What Else You Can Do...And you can help further INCREASE your metabolism by exercising.  That’s right, exercise!  Exercise burns extra calories which may help keep your metabolism and FAT burning firing.

Enjoy The Holidays (In Moderation)...The holiday season is a time of family, great food and LOADS of calories.  Indulging a few times per year may stimulate your metabolism to new heights.  Overeating may stimulate a very important hormone, possibly stimulating fat burning.  And this happens is a NATURAL process and stimulates your metabolism to keep you at a healthy weight.  But in order to maximize your metabolism-firing hormones, you need to do extra to keep it firing.

Exercise and getting back “on the wagon” the VERY NEXT day spells damage control for your body.

So enjoy yourself this holiday season!

Just remember to stick to your weight loss goals and enjoy yourself, and the feast in front of you!Because, who knows what will keep your METABOLISM firing!