Why the Belly Fat Diet Works

By Erin Palinski-Wade from Belly Fat Diet For Dummies

Before you embark on the Belly Fat Diet or on any plan to reduce weight or improve your health, you probably want to know why you're doing something and how it works.

How the Belly Fat Diet reduces insulin response

Have you tried to lose weight before but struggled with constant hunger and cravings, which made it impossible to continue your diet? If so, you have experienced cravings as a result of insulin response, which is the insulin/blood sugar cycle that occurs after eating and is even stronger after eating carbohydrate-laden foods.

Here’s how this response works: When you eat a food, especially a food rich in carbohydrates, your body converts it into sugar (glucose) for energy. Insulin transports glucose from the bloodstream into the cells for energy.

So when you eat foods that cause a spike in blood sugar, you experience a spike in insulin levels as the insulin rushes into your bloodstream to transport the excess sugar into your body’s cells. After the excess sugar is out of your bloodstream, the excess insulin stays there.

Your brain, sensing an increased level of insulin, realizes you need more sugar in your bloodstream to prevent your blood sugar from dropping too low. Your body makes you feel hungry and crave sugar, so you eat and get more sugar back into the bloodstream.

If you give in to the cravings and consume more simple sugars, the cycle continues to repeat itself over and over. You may find yourself eating a refined carbohydrate, craving more soon after, eating again, and on and on. This cycle can lead to weight gain, and, most importantly, increased levels of dangerous visceral fat.

Luckily, the Belly Fat Diet can help reduce this response. By following the diet, you discover the sources of simple carbohydrates and begin transferring away from these toward whole grains, fresh produce, lean proteins, and healthy fats. This lifestyle change helps to keep your insulin levels balanced, thereby stopping the hunger/sugar craving cycle.

How the Belly Fat Diet regulates blood sugar

When your blood sugar fluctuates rapidly, you can experience intense cravings and hunger. Think about the last time you were very hungry and craving something. What did you want to eat? Most likely it wasn’t a steamed vegetable.

When you allow yourself to get too hungry, cravings for something high in refined carbohydrates or something heavy, such as a fatty, fried food, sneak in. And if you’re eating in a way that allows you to get too hungry on a regular basis, you’ll continually experience an increase in food cravings, which can make choosing healthy, belly-friendly foods quite challenging.

The Belly Fat Diet recommends foods that keep you feeling satisfied for hours, not just minutes. These same foods trigger a very small blood sugar response, preventing a spike and fall in blood sugar and insulin levels, which can help keep cravings at bay.

By following the diet, you also get in the habit of planning out healthy meals and snacks to eat frequently during the day. Doing so not only keeps blood sugar levels consistent, but it also helps give your metabolism a boost.

How the Belly Fat Diet decreases stress hormones

Stress hormones can be triggered due to emotional and physical stressors. These hormones can, in turn, cause your body to store abdominal fat. Luckily, getting specific foods and nutrients into your diet can actually help to decrease the stress hormones flowing through your body, helping to prevent that belly fat storage. And that’s where the Belly Fat Diet comes in.

While following the Belly Fat Diet, you increase your intake of antioxidants, such as vitamin C and healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids, which help to limit your body’s exposure to stress hormones. You also transition to whole grains and make sure to eat at regular intervals throughout the day. All of this helps regulate the neurotransmitters in your brain.

Neurotransmitters, or brain chemicals, transfer signals within your nervous system. Some of these neurotransmitters impact mood, and the foods you eat can directly impact the neurotransmitters. So if you’re eating the wrong foods in the wrong amounts, your mood, and in turn your stress levels, may be impacted.

Limiting or overconsuming a particular food can trigger imbalances in neurotransmitters that may lead to irritability, moodiness, think-ing problems, and even sleeping issues. But, by following the Belly Fat Diet, you take in the right foods (in the right amounts) to help balance your neurotransmitters, feel great, and reduce stress.