Harness Your "FEEL FULL" Hormone for Fat Loss
By Bob Fritz
Open any health magazine and you see exciting
medical advances about getting lean by adjusting your own hormones. Exotic names
like leptin are thrown about, with the promise of a pill that can help you
get—and stay—lean and trim.
Indeed, it seems inevitable that these and other newly discovered hormones will
be part of future weight control. But at the end of every story that starts out
with such soaring fat loss expectations, the last sentence is the same: it will
be years before these skinny pills become available.
But you don’t have to wait years for a “lean
hormone” solution. There is an overlooked, yet powerful hormone inside your body
that deserves closer attention. In fact, this hormone may actually rival the new
fat loss discoveries. This hormone helps you “feel full” so you eat up to 30%
less.
But first, why it is so hard to get lean in the
first place, and how can this hormone help you eat less. The answers to both are
rooted in our caveman genes.
Your Inner Caveman
You have an inner caveman; his genes live in you today. As a holdover from the
last Ice Age, this caveman evolved to get and stay fat. Fat insulates from the
cold and helps store energy when another meal does not come around for awhile.
We are the descendents of cavemen whose bodies were designed to get as fat—and
stay as fat—as possible. Those cavemen lived, those with wimpy appetites died.
One way to get and stay fat was to be constantly
hungry. There were no anorexic cavemen who shoved away from a meal and declared
eating any more would ruin his waistline. No, he evolved to gorge on almost any
food whenever and wherever possible.
Early humans evolved a powerful set of metabolic
tricks to help keep us fat and hungry today. These tricks were built in over 5
million years of brutal, grinding existence that favored guys who got and stayed
fat. This is the battle: your inner caveman’s 5 million year old hardwired
evolutionary fat genes against your puny desires to get lean. Guess who wins?
For example, when you cut calories—even a
little—your body panics and thinks starvation. Alarm bells are sounded and
almost immediately, your body slows its metabolic rate. Which means you burn
fewer calories and stay fat. Talk about a mismatch. You eat less to lose fat,
while your inner caveman body slows down to hang on to that fat. And the more
you cut calories, the slower your body metabolism goes.
Similarly, missing a meal-or even being late for a
meal-triggers the caveman inside into starvation mode again. Stress hormones
like cortisol rise, causing a breakdown of tissue, including muscle. Losing lean
muscle slows metabolism and breaks down the very muscle tissue that burns
calories in the first place. Like I said, it’s an unfair mismatch.
The body has many other tricks, of course. Today,
you crave foods that were scarce in caveman days: sugar, fat, protein and salt.
As in jerky, ice cream, cake and other fast food. We crave these foods today
because cavemen found these rarely, and so evolved cravings to constantly search
for them.
Sounds depressing. We’re seemingly doomed to a
lifetime of our inner caveman raiding the refrigerator at midnight, or craving
donuts with the obsession of a heroin addict. Is our fatness scripted before
we’re born?
Now for the good news. There is mounting evidence
that harnessing our own “feel full” hormone can actually overcome these caveman
urges. Basically, you “trick” your body into not being hungry. Better yet,
natural supplements are the key to achieving this benefit.
CCK, The “Feel Full” Hormone
Back to that hormone that prompts you to eat less. This hormone is a mouthful
called cholecystokinin-CCK for short. CCK has been studied for decades and is
known as a powerful “feel full” hormone. When you eat food, especially proteins
and fats, CCK is produced, mostly in the intestine. This elevated CCK reaches
your brain and signals the body to stop eating.
Problem is, a surprisingly large percentage of
today’s cavemen have a “deranged” CCK metabolism. In these individuals, CCK does
not properly signal satiety (fullness). This survival holdover translates into
virtual 24/7 hunger. Science knows that in some, CCK may not rise sufficiently
to signal satiety, while others do not seem to have receptors that recognize CCK
signals. Whatever the cause, faulty CCK metabolism kept cavemen—and you today—in
constant hunger.
25 years ago, doctors learned that raising CCK
levels through taking CCK itself raised levels. These elevated CCK levels
resulted in reduced hunger and weight loss. More recently, medical studies have
revealed the power of certain natural food supplements to also raise CCK levels.
These nutrients can be taken at specific times to help block binge eating.
Blocking the Binge
Binge, gorge, pigout. All names for overeating. This stuffing behavior is a
relic from cavemen at a kill. People with CCK issues have times when their
caveman genes scream stuff yourself-now!
The time at which CCK runs low and signals the body
to binge is highly individual. For some, it’s night time eating. A bright guy
once observed that if everybody went to sleep at 8 at night, there would be no
fat people. For others, the “at risk” period may be at dinner with friends with
nachos in front of you. While those with normal CCK push away from the table
after a meal, you might eat the tablecloth when in this state.
These nutrients are taken prior to your individual
at risk period. CCK levels can be spiked prior to this at-risk period so you’re
less hungry when you would normally be starving. Your inner caveman says, “I’m
not so hungry, so call off the starvation dogs and eat less this--time.”
How much less do you eat with elevated CCK? Medical
studies point to a reduction of an impressive 10-30% less food eaten. This
reduction at a single meal may not appear impressive. However, on an ongoing
basis this translates into a healthy 2-4 lbs of fat loss per month. Lean,
ripped, sexy muscle—there all along—will now be revealed. You have achieved the
rare metabolism of the genetically lean person who does not overeat. You have
turned some of the body’s fat tricks in your favor, all without the use of
drugs.
CCK Management Plan
Listed below are natural nutrients demonstrated to boost CCK, leading to reduced
appetite. In turn, eating less results in weight loss. These nutrients run the
gamit of exotic peptides to rare plants to familiar amino acids. Virtually all
are available at health food stores, while others are somewhat new and may take
some searching. However, all have been studied and are considered quite
effective.
L-Phenylalanine. This versatile
amino acid performs a number of functions that help natural bodybuilders, among
them increasing CCK. L-Phenylalanine also boosts neurotransmitter production to
help sharpen mental focus and acuity.
Glycomacropeptide. This peptide is derived from milk and been shown to also
increase CCK levels. It also appears to help lower blood pressure, among other
benefits. Glycomacropepties are almost drug-like in power, and are an exciting
addition to natural nutrition.
PC (phosphatidylcholine) This
phospholipid has recently been discovered to increase CCK, reducing appetite. PC
is derived from soy and is also indicated to boost mental function. PC is also
involved in certain types of growth hormone increases.
Kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)
increases CCK, which reduces appetite. It also serves as an effective “starch
blocker” helping to reduce the excess glycemic effects of carbohydrate intake.
Salaretin (Salacia reticulate) is
a relatively new plant-based starch blocker that also normalizes blood sugar and
insulin levels.
There are other natural nutrients that can help the CCK feel full strategy. For example, glutamine peptides can protect lean muscle
from muscle loss that occurs during dieting. As mentioned, when you eat less,
muscle is typically lost which slows metabolism. Protecting lean muscle helps
you continue to burn fat.
Phosphatidylserine from soy lipids can blunt
cortisol spikes, which helps reverse muscle breakdown even further.
Additionally, elevated cortisol levels are strongly associated with virtually
every eating disorder, especially binging. So naturally lowering cortisol with
PS helps with both the mental and physical aspects of fat loss.
Take these nutrients 30 minutes prior to a meal, or
before your personal at risk period. Within this half hour, CCK will rise
signaling you not to eat as much. Simple and do-able in the real world.
While leptin and other exotic hormones are years
off, the ability to curb hunger using your own CCK hormone is here today. As a
side benefit, harnessing CCK is cost effective because you save on the food you
don’t eat. But best of all, this effective strategy is 100% natural and can be
used for pre contest preparation to shed a few pounds, or year round to remain
lean.
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