Do you constantly overeat and have recently gained a few extra kilos? It turns out that the reason for this can be not only banal incontinence or lack of willpower, but also health problems. What diseases make us eat more than usual?
Insomnia
Recent evidence from medical scientists suggests that lack of sleep stimulates appetite. This dependence is observed in both adults and children. Moreover, it is important not only how many people sleep, but also how he sleeps. If the dream is superficial, restless, this does not affect appetite in the best way.
Two hormones are produced in our body that are responsible for the feeling of hunger. These are leptin and ghrelin. The first suppresses appetite. The second, on the contrary, makes the desire to eat “atrocious.” If you sleep poorly, leptin production decreases and ghrelin grows. Such fluctuations cause a feeling of hunger.
Moreover, a light snack with fruit or low-fat yogurt does not bring relief to a sleepy person. The disturbed balance of hormones leads to the need to feast on “heavy” foods rich in fats and carbohydrates. Only then does a person feel satiety and satisfaction.
How to be with Insomnia?
You need to teach your body to fully relax and sleep at least 8-9 hours a day. Moreover, at night sleep should be at least 6.5 hours.
For those people who do not get enough sleep “out of habit”, it is not so difficult to rebuild. They just need to go to bed on time, not watch television programs and movies exciting the nervous system, and don’t eat too much at night.
Those who suffer from real insomnia or sleep disturbance will benefit from modern medicine. At first, you can try to limit yourself to herbal soothing and glycine.
If this does not help, you can, after consulting with your doctor, start taking melatonin preparations that make falling asleep easier. In the most severe cases, the doctor may prescribe a prescription for sleeping pills.
Until you have recovered full sleep, limit yourself to eating. Consider the fact that you have an increased appetite. Therefore, first put half a serving on your plate. Eat it and do not go into the kitchen for 20-30 minutes. If you feel that after this time hunger has remained, you can afford to eat another quarter of the desired amount of food. And stop there.
Try every day in the morning and eat lean meat for lunch. It reduces appetite caused by hormonal fluctuations, and not too high in calories. Chew your food thoroughly. It also helps to feel full and stop in time.
It will be useful to increase physical activity. This is good for wasting calories, and to restore full sleep. But the load must be chosen wisely. To sleep soundly and not get fat, long, but not very intense exercises are better. These include walking, swimming, cycling, skiing at a slow pace. But work on simulators two to three times a week can benefit the figure, but not affect the quality of sleep.
Depression
Nutrition scientists have proven that women with depression are twice as likely to have increased appetite and overweight. A similar pattern can be traced in the opposite direction. Overweight women are twice as likely to suffer from depression. An explanation for this phenomenon is not difficult to find.
People who have had a sweet tooth since childhood often become dependent on simple carbohydrates, that is, sugar. Our body, after we eat sweets, produces hormones of pleasure, in particular serotonin. There are a number of people who have this relationship is very strong. They have by nature not a very high level of hormones of pleasure. Therefore, when they are deprived of sweet, they come into a depressed state, which doctors call “serotonin depression.” In order for their mood to improve, it is imperative for such people to eat some foods from which a “pleasant” hormone is produced. For example, cheese, bananas or chocolate. After that, their body calms down and even drags many into sleep. Naturally, the combination of such high-calorie dishes and the desire to lie on the sofa harms the figure.
In the future, when a person gains obvious excess weight, this leads to an even greater reduction in physical activity. As well as depression and guilt. The label of a person suffering from fullness reduces self-esteem and drives into even greater depression. And in a depressed state, it is much more difficult to take some kind of weight loss action. The circle closes.
How to be with Depression?
To get rid of excess weight and increased appetite, it is necessary to treat depression. Treatment methods can be different: tablets, and psychotherapy, and a combination of these methods. Just have to be prepared for the fact that the therapy will take 4-6 months, or even more. But as soon as depression comes to naught, appetite is also normalized.
For people with a sweet tooth addiction, dietary guidelines have been further developed. The need for light carbohydrates is very similar to a smoker’s addiction to cigarettes. And just like nicotine, sweets and cakes can be discarded using various techniques.
The first way – select for yourself a certain small “norm” of sweets for a day. For example, a teaspoon of sugar in tea, one glazed curd and one banana. And try not to exceed this “norm.”
The second way is more “hard” and difficult – sharply, in one day, completely abandon sweets. And hold out like this for at least a month. During this time, the body will rebuild. And in the future, the need for sweets will not be so acute.
The third option is to completely waste calories from light carbohydrates. To do this, you need to familiarize yourself with the tables of caloric content of products and tables of energy expenditures for a particular type of activity. It turns out approximately the following pattern: ate a cake – I swim 45 minutes.
You can cope with the problem with the help of biologically active additives. Special pills are now available. They contain a substance similar to the natural precursors of the hormones of pleasure. The exact names of dietary supplements and the scheme for their administration will be recommended to you by a nutritionist.
Type 2 diabetes
An increase in appetite for type 2 diabetes mellitus occurs for the same reason as with polycystic ovary syndrome. Cells cannot properly perceive insulin, and because of this, they are hungry all the time. However, in diabetics, these changes are much more pronounced.
In addition, many drugs that people with diabetes take also increase their appetite. Especially powerful is the externally administered insulin.
As a result, a person eats more and more fat. And from completeness insensitivity to insulin only intensifies. There is a vicious circle, breaking which is not easy. But this is very necessary.
How to be with diabetes?
With diabetes, being overweight is not just a cosmetic flaw, but a factor that aggravates the disease. Therefore, to approach the fight against appetite and overeating is necessary in all seriousness. For diabetics, special low-calorie diets have been developed. They take into account all the needs of the body and prohibitions.
In general, the emphasis is on vegetables, not very sweet fruits, fish and meat stewed, boiled or baked. Low-fat dairy products are also allowed. Sweets are completely excluded. Ideally, you need to eat a little and often. Thus, the appetite is suppressed and sharp jumps in the blood glucose level disappear.
There are also medications that reduce appetite and help restore insulin sensitivity. Particular attention should be paid to vitamin-mineral complexes containing chromium since this trace element reduces cravings for sweets and helps to maintain a diet.
In severe cases of diabetes, even special pills for weight loss are recommended. But they should be used only after a thorough examination and under the supervision of a doctor.