Most people realize that eating a lot of sweets is going to make them gain a little (or a lot of) weight. However, they typically attribute the rise in the scale to the fat that these types of food contain.
Certainly, the fat in most cookies, ice creams, and other desserts is usually an unhealthy kind, which doesn’t help. But sugar is often the bigger part of the problem—for a number of reasons.
First, the more sugar you eat, the higher the likelihood that you’ll become insulin resistant. Insulin is the substance that helps stabilize your body’s blood sugar, an action that’s necessary if you eat too many sweets. So if it isn’t working, you’re going to have more blood sugar issues, which means that you may be your way to developing diabetes, a condition which often makes it harder for your body to control your hunger appropriately.
Second, by eating a lot of sugar, you’re increasing the size of your fat cells. As if this alone wasn’t bad enough, fat cells secrete leptin, a hormone that your brain relies upon to know how much fat you need to store. Throw this one substance out of line and suddenly you’re craving food even when your body doesn’t need anymore.
Third, eating sugary foods increases your cravings for even more sugary foods. This puts you on a vicious cycle where you’re either fighting cravings all day or giving in, neither of which is going to help you reach or maintain your weight loss goals.
Ultimately, by reducing or even eliminating sugar from your diet, you are able to avoid these types of negative consequences. That makes it easier to stick to a healthy weight loss or maintenance plan so you can have the body you work so hard to get.
