It is not uncommon to hear the negative impact of sugar on our health and weight. You must have often wondered how much weight can you lose by cutting down on sugar. In this article, we shall learn in detail the connection between sugar and weight.
Rich in calories and nil in nutrients, sugar is a big culprit if you want to lose weight. Too much intake of sugar may cause diabetes, weight gain, tooth problems, etc. There are many food products with additive sugar and consuming these over a while can take a toll on your health.
Sugar provides energy to the body but too much of it leads to weight gain, cancers, heart disease, and other chronic diseases. When a body receives more energy than required it is stored as fats in the body.
Food products with additive sugar have no nutritional value and are a poor source of energy when compared to foods containing natural sugar. Cutting sugar from your diet can surely benefit you in weight loss. How much weight you lose depends on the amount of sugar intake.
How weight loss occurs?
When you skip a meal or cut sugar the insulin level falls. As a result, the body uses stored fats to meet its energy requirement. When you are on a weight loss journey the excess fat is used by the parts of the body as a result you can shed those extra pounds.
Process of fat deposition with sugar intake
What you eat, when you eat and the combination of food you consume affects different hormones in the body. These hormones, particularly insulin determines how well the food is processed in the digestive system. How the body responds to glucose varies in every individual. Let us learn how consuming sugar adds to extra fats around.
Inflammation effect
The hormone insulin is released when there is sugar in the blood and it is responsible for weight gain. When the blood sugar level is more than the body needs to meet the energy required, the extra glucose (sugar) is stored as fats. These fat cells travel through blood and deposit around the body. The fat cells release chemicals that lead to inflammation causing weight gain.
Makes you calm and happy
When you eat sugar, it makes you crave more for it. There is a link between excess sugar intake and craving for it. Eating sugar releases the hormones serotonin and endorphins. These hormones make you feel calm and happy. Consuming addictive sugar for a long time adds on calories and you gain weight.
Imbalance of healthy and unhealthy gut bacteria
Gut microbes are important for healthy digestion. Eating additive sugar, refined carbohydrates, or sugar feeds the unhealthy bacteria in the gut. An increase in unhealthy bacteria makes you crave more sugar, causes digestive problems, and makes it hard to lose weight.
How does cutting sugar help in weight loss?
According to the studies it is proved that limiting sugar intake can help you lose weight significantly. Giving up sugar can help you lose approximately 1 kg in two weeks, it may differ depending on the dietary habits and lifestyle. Eliminating additive sugar also lowers the triglyceride level and improves your cholesterol.
Given below are some of the reasons why cutting sugar helps in weight loss.
1. Removes a lot of calorie intake
Avoiding sugar-added foods or drinks can save you a lot of calories. Try avoiding soft drinks, muffins, pastries, etc, and see the changes.
2. Giving up sugar indicate eating natural foods
When you quit taking sugary foods or drinks, you are more into eating fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods. You can swap sugary drinks with water, deserts with fruit salad, etc.
3. Quitting sugar makes you quit weight gain foods
When you quit sugar you also eliminate the unhealthy foods which are always recommended in a weight loss program. Avoiding highly processed foods, aerated drinks, fast foods, etc is poor in nutrition with preservatives and added flavors makes you in a better position to lose weight and prevent associated health conditions.
Some common foods containing added sugar
You may be successful in keeping yourself away from a teaspoon of sugar but not from other hidden sources. Salad dressings and sauces are some of the common foods with added sugar which cannot be avoided completely.
To find the hidden sugar do read the label before you get the food items from the grocery. The ingredient label on the food items can list sugar content with different names such as sucrose, fructose, glucose, maltose, molasses, corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, etc.
To conclude
You need not eliminate sugar from your diet to manage obesity. Eating it in moderation and sensibly can go a long way in promoting health and favor weight loss. Consuming foods that are naturally sweet can overcome your craving without adding extra calories. If you are not able to control your sugar intake and it makes a major part of your diet, you would surely prefer to consult a dietician. A dietician can work out with you to cut sugar and lose weight.