Are you snacking to help with weight loss? It might not be as effective as you think. Let's discuss why.
So many nutritionists and health/food coaches recommend snacking as a way to avoid overeating, but in reality, snacking can increase your appetite and sabotage your weight loss efforts.
1. Insulin
Your body releases insulin every time you eat, which can increase hunger 1.5-2 hours later. So, snacking frequently can trigger insulin production more often, making you feel hungrier more frequently. While we do need insulin in adequate amounts, it's important to control its production if you want to manage insulin resistance or burn fat.
2. Hormone IGF-1
One of the fat-burning hormones IGF-1 (which stands for "insulin-like growth factor", very similar and closely related to the growth hormone) is triggered during clean intervals between meals when insulin levels go down. This hormone helps use fat for fuel, aiding weight loss. Snacking between meals and eating frequently can reduce the production of IGF-1, making weight loss more difficult. That is one of the reasons why many people swear by intermittent fasting.
3. Unbalance of Nutrients
Snacks typically consist of ingredients high in carbohydrates, salt, and fat (think of a sandwich, for example, or hummus with crackers, apple with peanut butter, etc), which can add up over the course of your day and make your diet unbalanced. Commercial snack options are also likely to contain added sugar and other unhealthy ingredients.
Snacks can also spoil your appetite for the main meals, which should be the focus of your diet. As a result, you might miss out on essential nutrients like vegetables, fibre, and protein while consuming excessive amounts of starches, carbohydrates, fats, and salt.
4. Digestive issues
The human body did not evolve to handle constant grazing. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors didn't have a constant supply of food and often had to endure periods of fasting or food scarcity. Our bodies have evolved to adapt to these conditions, and have developed mechanisms to store energy and use it efficiently during times of need. Excessive grazing and snacking may not align well with this evolutionary heritage.
Our digestive system needs clean periods of rest between meals to function optimally and to fully and properly digest the food that we ate. Frequent snacking can lead to overstimulation of the digestive system, which can disrupt the balance of gut bacteria and cause inflammation in the gut lining. For that reason snacking negatively affects digestion and causes issues like bloating, IBS, SIBO, and other digestive problems.
Conclusion
While snacking may seem like a great idea, it can actually hinder your weight loss efforts and affect your digestion in the long run. Instead, focus on consuming well-balanced meals that provide all the necessary nutrients to fuel your body, reverse or avoid insulin resistance, lose weight and keep you satisfied until your next meal.
I would like to invite and encourage you to go and try cutting out snacks and focusing on more nutritious main meals to see how it affects your hunger, weight loss, digestion and overall well-being. After giving it a go, please share your experience and results in the comments below. I would love to hear how it goes from you!
Would you like me to share some tips on how to reduce snacking in my next blog post? If yes, please let me know in the comments.
