How Sugar Slows Down Your Fat Burning!
How Sugar Slows Down Your Fat Burning
Most people know that eating a lot of sugar is not particularly healthy. What is less well known is that sugar can actually inhibit the body's fat burning. There are various forms of sugar, and it hides in many foods. If you want to boost your fat burning, you should definitely take a closer look at nutrition.
How exactly does fat burning work?
Our body constantly needs energy for all kinds of processes. Even when we lie on the couch and do nothing, the body is at work. It builds and rebuilds, digests and supplies all organs with important substances. Energy is needed even during sleep. For example, the growth hormone is then active, which ensures fat burning by converting fat from fat cells into energy.
When we are more active, we of course use more energy than during rest phases. If the blood sugar level drops below a certain mark, glucagon is released. This hormone is essential for fat burning. It releases stored fat from the fat cells so that it can be converted into energy. But glucagon only becomes active when there is no insulin in the bloodstream at the same time. This is because insulin is the counterpart of glucagon.
What role does insulin play in fat burning?
Like glucagon, insulin is produced in the pancreas. In contrast, however, its task is not to raise the blood sugar level but to lower it. It therefore transports the sugar into the cells, and depending on the energy requirement, this sugar is also stored as fat. But that is not all: when blood sugar is high, the body first uses this quickly available energy. The fat you consumed with the same meal then largely moves into the padding you are less fond of, which is the opposite of fat burning.
Only when the insulin level falls again does your body have the chance, with the help of glucagon and other hormones, to return to fat-burning mode. The problem, however, is that your blood sugar is then fairly low again, and the insulin triggers a hunger attack. If you then reach for a dessert full of sugar, the whole cycle starts over. And that is the end of fat burning.
Insulin resistance from too much sugar
If your diet often leaves you with a lot of sugar in the blood, your body also needs more insulin to regulate the blood sugar level. In that case, cells may reduce the number of their insulin receptors and thereby block the uptake of sugar. The result is that the pancreas releases even more insulin, because the blood sugar level keeps rising. But the insulin resistance of the cells remains, and the insulin content in the blood is too high. This is called "prediabetes", a precursor of diabetes.
If this condition persists for years, the pancreas eventually stops working altogether. And that is how you get type 2 diabetes. A conscious diet is therefore sensible not only with regard to fat burning.
Which foods cause blood sugar to rise sharply and inhibit fat burning?
When it comes to sugar, most people think of white sugar. But this is not the only food that inhibits fat burning. Simple carbohydrates, for example, break down very quickly into their individual sugar components, which then circulate in the blood very rapidly. To determine how strongly individual foods raise blood sugar, the "glycemic load", abbreviated GL, was determined for each one. This value is an extended, more precise form of the glycemic index (GI). Pure sugar has a GL of 100.
Foods with a high glycemic load, which are therefore bad for your fat burning, include:
- Baked goods, especially sweet baked goods made from wheat flour
- gluten-free baked goods
- Cornflakes
- Pasta
- Popcorn without sugar
- Pizza
- Zwieback
- Rice
- Potato chips
- Maple syrup and honey
- Jam
- Chocolate
- Dates, especially dried
- dried apples and figs
The glycemic load is particularly low for:
- Vegetables, especially avocado, eggplant, fennel, olives and cucumber
- Salads, especially Chinese cabbage, lamb's lettuce and chicory
- fresh fruit
- Milk and dairy products
- Nuts
For meat and fish, the carbohydrate content is so low that the glycemic load cannot be determined.
The values for individual foods can differ greatly, because many factors influence the sugar in the blood. For example, the glycemic load changes when foods are processed or combined with other foods. Heating and chopping foods increases the GL. Combinations with protein, fat and fibre slow the speed at which sugar enters the blood. There are also foods with a blood-sugar-lowering effect, for example cinnamon, garlic, flaxseed, apple cider vinegar and turmeric.
Recognising blood sugar fluctuations, boosting fat burning
Instead of searching through tables, with a little practice you can also recognise the rise in blood sugar from how you feel. A lot of sugar in the blood makes you alert, but only briefly. Afterwards, the insulin brings tiredness and hunger for more sugar. So if after a meal you would most like to take a nap or eat a chocolate pudding, your insulin has probably risen quite sharply. Then rest for a moment, but instead of reaching for something sweet, rather reach for a few nuts. Pay attention to which meals leave you feeling fit and full of energy. This way you can gradually find out which foods are especially suitable for your fat burning.
Waking up at night with hunger can also be a sign of a carbohydrate-heavy meal in the evening, because your blood sugar has dropped so far during sleep that the body demands replenishment during the night.
The right diet to boost fat burning
There are various ways of eating that aim to reduce sugar and increase fat burning. They all aim to help you out of the blood sugar vicious cycle. Very extreme forms are the low-carb diet or the ketogenic diet, though both of these also have their critics. Intermittent fasting could also have positive effects on fat burning.
What you can also do without a strict diet is avoid foods high in sugar or simple carbohydrates. Proteins, fats and complex carbohydrates provide a lot of energy and let blood sugar rise only slowly. Especially in the two hours directly before training and also during it, it is worthwhile for fat burning to avoid soft drinks, muesli bars, pizza & Co.
