Benefits of Binge Eating!
Did you know that it can be beneficial, if you are watching your weight and on a low carb diet, to have one day a week where you eat whatever you like? Andrew Simmons and Tim Ferriss recommend having a cheat day once a week to spike your calorie intake and keep your metabolism high.
Why are cheat days beneficial for low calorie dieters? Cheat days can help you stick to your diet for the other 6 days. Cheat days also work because by spiking your calorie intake one day per week you cause a number of hormonal changes which improve fat loss including increasing cAMP and cGMP (*explained at page bottom if interested) as well as improving conversion of the T4 thyroid hormone to the more active T3 thyroid hormone (*explained at the bottom of the page).
Extended calorie restrictions (diets) will cause the body to decrease its metabolism rate, making your body more efficient at storing fat, it will suppress thyroid function and muscle building and literally lower your core temperature. Cheat day resets your metabolism and allows you to continue to burn fat rather than store fat.
You may worry that you will put on weight from the cheat day, however even though you may weigh in heavier the day after your binge day, a lot of this is fluid retention. This weight usually disappears after 48 hours and you will continue to burn fat and build muscle for the rest of the week.
Tim Ferriss offers a range of suggestions in The Four Hour Body for improving your bodies response to Cheat Day. These suggestions will help to maximise your weight loss while still allowing you to eat whatever you want:
- Start the day with a high protein, high fibre meal as you would on a low carb diet. (The binge starts a little after breakfast)
- Shortly after, or whenever your next meal is, have some grapefruit juice before your meal – the combination of fructose and naringin helps suppress your glucose response.
- You can combine the grapefruit juice with a coffee as the naringin in grapefruit works with caffeine to extend the thermogenic effect of caffeine.
- Accelerate ‘gastric emptying’ through use of caffeine and theobromine – tea/coffee/chocolate/yerba mate. The faster your food moves through your digestive system, the less gets absorbed.
- Brief bursts of exercise such as squats and wall presses for 60 – 90 seconds before and 90 minutes after eating triggers a specific insulin reaction called the ‘Glut 4’ response, which helps recruit food calories directly to muscle cells rather than fat storage.
- Supplement with Cissus Quadrangularis (CQ) on binge days. CQ is a traditional Ayurvedic herb in use for over a thousand years. It is used for bone and metabolic health. It is also beneficial for digestive issues and especially when digestive problems prevent weight loss.
- Boost your gut bacteria, by avoiding artificial sweeteners, eating fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchee, and taking pro- and pre- biotic supplements.
There is a growing world-wide support for the slow carb diet with inspiring claims for impressive weight loss and body recomposition. The cheat day helps you to stick to the diet better and therefore have a better result with the diet. Remember it is recommended that you eat as much as you want on cheat day, not as much as you possibly can!
1* Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and Cyclic guanosine monophosphate belong to a class of substances known as “second messengers” and are important cell-regulating compounds. Increased cellular cAMP results in a broad range of physiological and biochemical effects, including inhibition of platelet activation (resulting in decreased likelihood of blood clots), reduced release of histamine (resulting in decreased allergy symptoms), increased force of contraction of the heart, relaxation of the arteries and other smooth muscles, increased thyroid function and increased lipolysis (fat burning).
2* Thyroid cells combine iodine and the amino acid tyrosine to make thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). T3 and T4 are then released into the blood stream and are transported throughout the body where they control metabolism (conversion of oxygen and calories to energy). Every cell in the body depends upon thyroid hormones for regulation of their metabolism. The normal thyroid gland produces about 80% T4 and about 20% T3, however, T3 possesses about four times the hormone “strength” as T4.
http://www.naturodoc.com/library/treatments/forskolin.htm
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/cyclic+GMP
http://starcreate.hubpages.com/hub/Slow-Carb-Diet-Cheat-Day
http://slow-carb-diet-success.com/understanding-cheat-day-on-the-slow-carb-diet/
http://www.fourhourbodycouple.com/2011/10/14/common-questions-faq-about-cheat-day/
