Health, Fitness, Lifestyle
Here’s Why I Don’t Snack Anymore.
Snacks never worked for me. It does not work for some. I found the reasons after suffering and corrected the damage.
This story reflects one of my biggest mistakes caused by my nativity in my younger years. The consequences were substantially affecting my physical and mental health. Snacking was only addressing my emotional hunger.
If you are snacking, please pause a moment to read this story. After reading this article, you may continue your indulgence if you wish. Sorry for this unexpected interruption.
Having no prejudice or judgment, I know snacking is widespread in the western world. Snacking could be good or bad, depending on our metabolism, health conditions, and lifestyle factors.
Some people eat ten times a day and don’t gain a gram of fat. Some eat only three meals daily, and they struggle with weight management. I was the one in the second group as a carbs-intolerant person.
Interestingly some people snack to lose fat. Some nutritionists and dieticians advise it. The merit is the thermic effect of food.
It has scientific backing, but when the hormonal effects of frequent feeding are factored in, the thermic effect of food becomes negligible.
Not knowing this fact was my mistake.
Snacks never worked for me. I found the reasons later, after suffering a lot. I used food for emotional numbing rather than using it as fuel.
I used to snack several times a day without knowing its adverse effects on my body. I thought my body needed fuel to function.
My office desk was full of celery cuts, carrots, sandwiches, low-fat cookies, and many snack packs purchased from health shops. While typing, I was stuffing something into my mouth. Sometimes with no awareness!
Sometimes I thought my snacks were stolen by colleagues and asked them who pinched my snacks. There were a few embarrassing moments of blaming others, but the culprit was me. It was no one, but my mindless eating was consuming them.
One day I had an epiphany.
My snacking was entirely emotional eating. By snacking, I was trying to feed the void. My uncomfortable emotions were driving my hunger and appetite.
I was rationalizing snacks by associating them with health reasons, such as it would boost my metabolism and initiate fat loss. An empty stomach was causing discomfort. Something was missing all the time.
When I would get angry, upset, ashamed, and disappointed, I comforted my hurtful feelings with food. Food was a source of perceived healing. However, it was poisoning my body.
Eating three meals a day and supplementing with three snacks overloaded my digestive system. Bloating was obvious and getting worse and worse.
My thinking was to burn the calories with my usual 10-K run. I was running after lunch and dinner. Running gave me instant pleasure, but my joints and ligaments started feeling the pain with severe inflammation after a while.
My focus was on calories. I was counting calories taken and spent. I was burning calories with my extensive cardio, but that was not my issue. Later, I learned that fat loss had nothing to do with calories but a lot to do with hormones.
The issue was excessive glucose in my bloodstream caused by constant feeding and no fasting. My digestive system did not have a chance to rest and heal.
Worst of all, constant and excessive glucose in the bloodstream triggers insulin. High and frequent insulin release into my bloodstream created the central issue. When insulin is high, our bodies do not burn fat. Insulin was taking the sugar from my bloodstream and converting them to fat molecules.
Insulin is an essential hormone for doing its job. But too much insulin can have metabolic issues. One notable mention is diabetes two. My parents and some relations struggle with diabetes. We are all carbs-intolerant. Insulin resistance was the major culprit for our suffering.
So my problem was high-level glucose in my body converting to fat with spiked insulin. The fat building was mainly abdominal fat. I was young and doing a lot of cardio, but my belly was growing.
Calories confused me a lot. I was calculating my calorie intake and outtake diligently. But not losing fat with a calorie deficiency did not make sense to me. According to my calculation, I was supposed to be lean with no fat. But my fat ratio was increasing day by day.
The more snacks I ate, the more hungry I felt. The more I ate, the more glucose was in my bloodstream. The more glucose in the bloodstream, the more insulin is created. With more and more frequent insulin releases, more fat was accumulating.
I was starving and craving more food when insulin removed the glucose from the bloodstream.
I revisited my habits. Every three to four hours, I replenished my fuel tank. I did not know I was adding garbage to my body.
My body did not need more carbs. It needed more protein and healthy fat. The emotions were compelling me to eat more carbs and sugary food.
Finally, I decided to cut the snacks. Eating more protein and healthy fat in my meals has relieved hunger.
Whenever I feel like eating a snack, I ask: do I need more sugar in my bloodstream?
Pausing and asking questions myself turned into a habit.
After a while, I learned about intermittent fasting and the ketogenic diet. Fasting 16 hours and eating in the 8-hour window had a tremendous effect. Fasting with the ketogenic diet was a double whammy.
My body became fat-adapted and learned to burn fat naturally. I never felt hungry again as it became leptin sensitive. Leptin is the satiety hormone.
When I broke my fast at dinner time, the food was delicious. Food consumption was for fuel, not for emotional numbing anymore. Cutting snacks and carbs helped me reinvent myself.
In three months, I lost ten pounds of fat. For a long time, I have been on one meal per day. I keep my optimal weight and emotionally feel wonderful.
Losing actual fat, especially from the belly, was a remarkable achievement. I felt healthier and happier. I shared having a six-pack after my 50th birthday in this story.
Saying goodbye to snacks and frequent meals healed me. I hope my story provides useful insights and inspiration to consider your body’s feedback for your needs.
My Transformation from Multiple to a Single Meal Plan
In the following two stories, I provide glimpses of my transformation from sugar to fat-burning metabolism in the last three decades.
First, I skipped breakfast for a decade. Here is what happened during this period.
Then I transitioned to a one-meal-a-day plan. Here is what happened after 15 years.
Consuming healthy fats put me in a metabolically advantageous position.
I have no fear of cholesterol anymore as I lowered my inflammation with healthy lifestyle habits.
Ketosis helped me reduce inflammation and increase BDNF.
Here are my findings bout BDNF.
I am cautious of the sugar paradox related to snacks.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.
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As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.
Sample Humorous Stories
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