THINKING OF FOOD MAKES YOU FAT!!!
The only thing that can make us happy if it’s good and make us sad if it’s bad is food. Everyone likes good food because of its looks, taste, and aroma, but have you ever imagined that even thinking of food makes you fat? Yes, you read it quite right, Japanese researchers have found that just thinking of food makes you fat. Now you might be wondering about the magic behind this, well it’s quite biological and scientific but in simple words, according to their research, orexin-A, which is a protein-like molecule is activated during motivated behaviors (can be anything, for instance, thinking and craving for food) and active walking.
To know the reality behind the production, activation, and effects of orexin-A, the researchers ejected it into ventromedial hypothalamus (a portion of the brain that contains a massive number of nuclei responsible for different functions) of rats/mice and observed that it triggers the muscle to start taking up glucose from the blood.
Effects of insulin rising in body by just thinking about food:
Let’s discuss something scientific about the connection of our thoughts of food with obesity but in easy terms, suppose when you are scrolling down on your Instagram or Facebook feed, you will see many intriguing and tasty food videos or posts that will make you crazy and spike up your desire to eat the food right from your smartphone. It might seem normal to you but in real what is happening inside is that you are entering into a constant state of cephalic phase insulin response, which occurs when you see, smell or just think about the food.
The state produces insulin in your body by your thoughts, which is of no use as the insulin does not have a food to work on and you are not eating the food in real, but only thinking about it. Insulin is a hormone that has two functionalities:
- Use sugar (glucose) from the carbs present in food that you eat.
- Store energy, glucose or in other words, fat.
So when you enter into a constant state of cephalic phase insulin response, your body is producing useless insulin as you are not eating any food, so by default, it starts storing the fat which is also known as non-caloric weight gain.
Some other reasons for you getting fat:
As we have discussed above the scientific reasons and the effects of changes in the body by just thinking of food and its connection with getting fat, now let’s discuss some other reasons that might be a big concern for you getting horizontally challenged.
• When you see super delicious food on the internet that makes your mouth water, you crave for it badly and end up putting extra calories into your diet.
• According to a Journal of Consumer Research, dieters are getting into the tricks of healthy-sounding labels behind their diet food.
• Lack of sleep also plays a major role in the increase of your waistline as researchers at the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital found that the sleep-deprived people consume 300 more calories than normal people who sleep well.
• Stress spikes up the production of cortisol and insulin that makes you want to eat more, which means you are putting some extra calories into the body. It is also known as stress-eating, which can ultimately make you fat.
The mind is the most important organ of a person’s body that is responsible for all the actions and reactions which he does or intends to do. So whenever you think about food, keep in mind that just thinking of food makes you fat.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy could be your perfect weight loss strategy:
Gaining weight is the easiest thing but losing it might sound difficult and trust me it is. What would you do in order to shed some extra pounds you have put on? You will do all those common things that every other person does, which are following a diet, doing some exercises and hitting the gym, et cetera, et cetera. If you are lucky enough then you might end up losing a few pounds off but the problem is that you will again get them back if your behavior towards eating is not altered correctly.
So to change your poor behavior towards eating and to set a crystal clear path for clean eating, a CBT (Cognitive-Behavior Therapy) is the most helpful solution. When you are following a normal weight loss strategy you say what to do next, while CBT teaches you how to get yourself to do it.
It will teach you how to have a strong grip on your emotions, feelings, and behavior towards eating. For instance, suppose you are in a party with plenty of food around you, and you are also on a mission to lose your weight, what will you do? Will you just not eat and roam around thinking about food? You already know that thinking of food makes you fat, right? So that is not the thing to do. Will you then say “what will possibly go wrong if I have 1 or 2 cupcakes?” According to CBT the right thing to do in this situation is to restrain your mind from overthinking and say “I will just have 1 cupcake and enjoy every single bite of it”.
Another solution to overcome the over-eating problem is to keep response cards that can restrict you to do something against your goal in the best way your mind can understand. Here are some response-card messages made by Psychotherapy Networker:
• I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want, or I can be thinner. I can't have it both ways.
• Hunger and craving always pass. I can make them go away faster by focusing my attention on something else.
• My body doesn't know it's a holiday. It'll process food in exactly the same way as on other days.
By thinking like this and making your mind follow you instead of following it blindly, you can achieve a great success in your weight loss problems.