Overeating and what happens to your body. Post-Binge Biology (and 8 Things To Do Afterward)

Feasts happen on a regular basis. Candy is given and received as gifts. And there are parties immeasurable, at work, with family, with friends, where calorie-dense, rewarding food is handed out, like, well, candy. The holiday season is a practice in overeating, and it can be very hard to avoid. You may not want to even avoid it; there’s something to be said for letting loose now and again on special occasions, especially when holiday cheer is in the air.

But what happens to your body when you overeat? And what can you do about it?
The type of overeating most people do across the holidays is high-sugar, high-fat, and relatively low protein. These are your cakes and cookies. Your brownies and fudge. Your pie for breakfast. This is the worst kind of overfeeding you can do. Research shows that just six days of high-sugar, high-fat, low-protein overfeeding rapidly increases fat deposition in the liver and muscle. Seven days of overfeeding reduces whole body insulin sensitivity, inhibits glucose clearance, and impairs endothelial function.

If you keep doing it, say, over the course of a month, bad things pile up. You get incredibly insulin resistant. Your liver fat increases. Your body weight and overall body fat increase. Your C-reactive protein increases, an indication of inflammation. A class of antioxidants called plasmalogens also increase, which means your body is fighting oxidative stress.

One problem with the studies is that you have to distinguish between quality and quantity; overfeeding with different foods elicits different effects. For instance, in the study that looked at overfeeding’s effect on lipid metabolism, the subjects overate by eating more cookies, potato chips, and cheesecake and drinking an oil-based liquid supplement. Overeating a bunch of that junk food is different than overeating steak.
In fact, research shows that overfeeding protein has little to no impact on fat or weight gain compared to carbohydrate or fat overfeeding.

Also consider individual variability. Some people are “obesity prone.” Others are “obesity resistant.” In one study, obesity prone and obesity resistant subjects had different responses to three days of overfeeding. The obesity prone people saw their fat oxidation rates drop during sleep; they burned less fat. The obesity resistant subjects saw their fat oxidation rates unchanged during sleep; they continued burning fat like normal.

So, when we talk about the effects of overeating, we have to keep in mind that the effects will differ between individuals and vary if you’re eating a pound of roast lamb versus eating half a pie. But the general point still stands: Overeating can make you gain weight, gain liver weight, induce oxidative stress, cause insulin resistance, increase inflammation, and make you sicker, fatter, and more unwell the longer it goes on.

Here are 8 tips for scaling back and minimizing damage.

1. Favor Protein
2. Eat Vinegar
3. Exercise
4. Accept It As a Positive Experience and Move On
5. Have Some Black Tea
6. Go For a Walk
7. Get Out Into the Cold
8. Don’t Throw In the Towel and Continue Overeating For the Foreseeable Future or “Until the New Year”

Details to these 8 tips:

1. Overfeeding protein has more neutral metabolic and body composition effects than overfeeding fat and carbs. Some effects are even positive, like boosts to energy expenditure during the day and during sleep. Load up on the turkey, the lamb, the beef rib roast and keep portions of mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, stuffing, candied chestnuts, and cookies more reasonable. One advantage of overeating protein is that eating less of the other stuff tends to happen inadvertently.
   
   
2. Vinegar, whether it’s organic apple cider vinegar with the mother still swimming in it or standard white vinegar from a two gallon jug, improves glucose tolerance and keeps postprandial hyperglycemia and insulin tamped down. The trick is eating the vinegar (maybe a side salad before the big meal dressed with a vinegar-y dressing) 20-30 minutes before you overindulge.
   
   
3. It’s simply physiological common sense. You consume a ton of calories, calories in excess of what your mitochondria can process and convert to energy. What makes more physiological sense - just sitting there, letting that extra energy circulate and eventually accumulate on your body, or creating an energy deficit so that the extra energy is utilized? It’s about throwing a ton of energy toward your mitochondria and giving them a job to do - or letting them languish in disuse. It’s not about “weight gain,” necessarily. It’s about energy excess and the oxidative stress and inflammation that results. It’s about not being wasteful. If you introduce a ton of energy and then do nothing, you are wasting that potential.
   
   
4. That overeating induces oxidative stress enough to trigger the release of antioxidant compounds may mean the occasional acute bout of overeating can act as a hormetic stressor that makes you stronger in the long run—provided it stays acute and hormetic. It could actually be good to overeat once in awhile. Yeah, go with that.
   
   
5. It turns out another benefit of the stuff is that it actually speeds up digestion after eating. It beats alcohol, espresso, and everything else that people tell you helps digestion.
   
   
6. Right after you overeat, a 20-30 minute walk will reduce blood glucose and speed up gastric emptying - helping you process the meal much faster and reducing the feeling of fullness. Longer walks are even better and can also reduce the postprandial insulin spike. It has to be immediately after though; waiting even 30 minutes will suppress the effects.
   
   
7. It’s the perfect season for cold exposure (in most places). Even mild cold exposure - just 18°C or 64.4°C for 2.5 hours - is enough to increase energy expenditure without increasing hunger or subsequent food intake. That’s downright comfortable for a lot of people. If you went out into sub 50°F weather, I bet you could get the same effects even faster.
   
   
8. A consistent finding in the literature is that people gain weight during the holidays and never quite lose it. They don’t do this because they had an extra slice of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving or five cookies on Christmas morning. They gain and retain the weight because they consistently overindulge for the entire duration of the holidays. They figure “Oh, I ate badly yesterday, which means this week is shot. I’ll just do better next Monday,” and then keep that mindset going for months. Well, one way to break that cycle is to stop that “this week/month is shot” mindset. No, just because you ate badly yesterday doesn’t mean you should eat badly today and tomorrow. That will compound your problems and dig an even deeper hole. Stop overeating immediately. Overeating happens. It’s okay, or even beneficial if used judiciously. There’s nothing like filling your belly with your grandma’s signature dish, or really letting loose with your favorite people in the world. Humans are feasters by nature. We like to make merry and eat big to ring in the good times. Just make sure you contrast it with leaner days. (Intermittent fasting around the holidays is great for this.) A feast no longer qualifies as a feast if you do it consistently. A party’s not a party if you party every day. Contrast is the stuff of life - heed that rule and all will be well.

Source - click here.

Delicious Sugar Free Cookies

The holiday season is time for family, celebration, and tasty food. While this can be a grand time to unwind and relax, many people tend to overindulge in many of the wrong foods, sending them several steps back in their health.

Many people will choose to forgo the healthy eating for a few days and deal with the consequences later. But as many people would love to substitute traditional recipes for very similar ones that are more conducive to health. Look no further.

Here you go – 4 of my favorite recipies:

Keto Vanilla Almond Christmas Cookies

• Prep 25 mins
• Cook 10 mins
• Total 35 mins
• Yield 24 cookies

Ingredients:

• 3 cups blanched almond flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 10 tbsp. melted grass-fed butter/ghee/coconut oil
• 2 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 1 pastured egg
• 1/2 cup Honest Keto Maple syrup
• 15 drops vanilla cream stevia
• 1 tsp. baking soda

Instructions:

• Step #1:  Mix flours and baking soda together
• Step #2:  Whisk egg, melted butter/oil, vanilla extract, almond extract, maple syrup and stevia together
• Step #3:  Pour wet ingredients into bowl with dry ingredients. Mix everything together
• Step #4:  Let cookie dough sit on counter for 10 minutes
• Step #5:  Form into balls and slightly flatten on baking sheet lined with parchment paper
• Step #6:  Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes

Snickerdoodles
Snickerdoodles are a classic holiday cookie. They are somewhat similar to the Vanilla Almond cookies, but with a winter spice added. The fiber and healthy fats make this a blood sugar friendly dessert recipe with the added anti-oxidant and blood sugar stabilizing benefits of cinnamon!
If you are looking to make this holiday more of a ketogenic style, these are another great option.

• Prep 10 mins
• Cook 10 mins
• Total 20 mins
• Yield 12 cookies

Ingredients:

• 4 pasture-raised eggs
• 2/3 cup of melted pasture-raised butter (or coconut oil, but butter is more flavorful)
• ½ cup of Honest Keto Maple syrup
• 1 tbsp of vanilla extract
• 20 drops of vanilla cream stevia extract
• 1 tsp of pink salt or celtic sea salt
• 2/3 cup of coconut flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp of aluminum-free baking powder
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg

Instructions:

• Step #1:  Whisk together the eggs, melted butter, vanilla, stevia and keto maple syrup
• Step #2:  Add in the coconut flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg
• Step #3:  Form the mixture into balls and flatten slightly
• Step #4:  Bake these at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes

 
Snowballs
This one is both nutrient-packed and festive. Combining a few simple ingredients and forming into shape makes for a simple, raw nutrition dessert that resembles a snowball! Please forgo the snowball fight with these, however.
These use a combination of ground chia seeds, coconut flour, raw cacao powder, and natural sweeteners. Combined, these ingredients provide a powerful combination of omega 3 fats, plenty of fiber, and antioxidants.

• Prep 15 mins
• Inactive 1 hour
• Total 1 hour, 15 mins
• Yield 10 snowballs

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp. chia seeds (ground in coffee bean grinder)
• 2 tbsp. coconut flour
• 1/4 cup raw cacao powder
• 1 tbsp. Honest Keto Maple syrup
• 1/3-1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup raw coconut shreds
• 1/2 tsp. pink salt

Optional Ingredients:

• Replace the keto maple syrup with 5-10 drops of liquid stevia
• 5 drops for a more mild sweetness and 10 drops for a stronger sweetness.

Instructions:

• Step #1:  Assemble all the ingredients
• Step #2:  Mix ground chia, raw cacao and coconut flour together
• Step #3:  Add maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla and salt
• Step #4:  Form into balls and roll in coconut shreds
• Step #5:  Freeze or place in the fridge for an hour
• Step #6:  Enjoy!  Keep extra's in the refrigerator

 
Banana Bread
While this dessert is technically not sugar free, it is absolutely delicious and much healthier than what you could buy in a store. Made with whole-food ingredients, it is loaded with fiber, healthy fats, clean protein, and delicious flavor.
If you are a banana bread person, definitely give this one a try this holiday season. It will fill your home with a delicious soul-warming smell that is perfect for the holidays. If you love banana bread and are concerned about the extra sugar, you can even substitute keto maple syrup or liquid stevia for the honey and maple syrup.

Grain Free Banana Bread

• Prep 20 mins
• Cook 45 mins
• Total 1 hour, 5 mins
• Yield 8 slices

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas
• 3 tbsps of almond butter
• Juice of ½ lemon
• ½ cup of coconut flour
• 4 pasture-raised eggs
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 2 tbsps of grass-fed butter, ghee or coconut oil (melted)
• 1 tbsp of raw honey or grade B maple syrup (Can also try liquid stevia or keto maple syrup for a lower carb version)
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• Pinch of Real Salt (sea salt)

Instructions:

• Step #1:  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line your loaf tin
• Step #2:  Combine and mix coconut flour, baking soda, and salt in one bowl
• Step #3:  In another bowl, combine bananas, almond butter, lemon, eggs, butter, honey or syrup, and vanilla and blend until smooth
• Step #4:  Add wet ingredients to the dry and mix until well combined
• Step #5:  Pour mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for 45 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out cleanly. Enjoy!

Let me know if you have any questions. Contact Us.
Source - click here.

Is It Harder to Be Skinny Today Compare to The 80-is?

This article below explains why it may be harder today to be skinny compare to 20 years ago. Keep on reading! If you have questions, let's connect!


A study finds that people today who eat and exercise the same amount as people 20 years ago are still fatter. The 2016 study published in the journal Obesity Research & Clinical Practice found that it’s harder for adults today to maintain the same weight as those 20 to 30 years ago did, even at the same levels of food intake and exercise.

The authors examined the dietary data of 36,400 Americans between 1971 and 2008 and the physical activity data of 14,419 people between 1988 and 2006. They grouped the data sets together by the amount of food and activity, age, and BMI.

They found a very surprising correlation: A given person, in 2006, eating the same amount of calories, taking in the same quantities of macronutrients like protein and fat, and exercising the same amount as a person of the same age did in 1988 would have a BMI that was about 2.3 points higher. In other words, people today are about 10 percent heavier than people were in the 1980s, even if they follow the exact same diet and exercise plans.

"Our study results suggest that if you are 25, you’d have to eat even less and exercise more than those older, to prevent gaining weight,” Jennifer Kuk, a professor of kinesiology and health science at Toronto’s York University, said in a statement. "However, it also indicates there may be other specific changes contributing to the rise in obesity beyond just diet and exercise."

Just what those other changes might be, though, are still a matter of hypothesis. In an interview, Kuk proffered three different factors that might be making harder for adults today to stay thin.

1. People are exposed to more chemicals that might be weight-gain inducing. Pesticides, flame retardants, and the substances in food packaging might all be altering our hormonal processes and tweaking the way our bodies put on and maintain weight.
   
   
2. The use of prescription drugs has risen dramatically since the '70s and '80s. Prozac, the first blockbuster SSRI, came out in 1988. Antidepressants are now one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the U.S., and many of them have been linked to weight gain.
   
   
3. Kuk and the other study authors think that the microbiomes of Americans might have somehow changed between the 1980s and now. It’s well known that some types of gut bacteria make a person more prone to weight gain and obesity. Americans are eating more meat than they were a few decades ago, and many animal products are treated with hormones and antibiotics in order to promote growth. All that meat might be changing gut bacteria in ways that are subtle, at first, but add up over time. Kuk believes the proliferation of artificial sweeteners could also be playing a role.

The fact that the body weights of Americans today are influenced by factors beyond their control is a sign, Kuk says, that society should be kinder to people of all body types.

"There's a huge weight bias against people with obesity," she said. “They're judged as lazy and self-indulgent. That's really not the case. If our research is correct, you need to eat even less and exercise even more” just to be same weight as your parents were at your age.

Source: The Atlantic - click here