How Snacking Prevents Weight Loss

Is your weight creeping up or are you at a weight loss plateau? Do you have low energy or food cravings? You might think that eating several small meals per day will help to improve self-control, but think again. Snacking is actually a challenge to metabolism.

When you eat, you influence hormones that regulate metabolism, energy and weight. This is independent of the number of calories eaten. If you eat too often it creates a “repetitive strain injury” to hormonal efficiency and metabolism, reducing calorie-burning.

How Your Liver Helps You Lose Weight

The main metabolic organ is the liver. It is well-known that our fat cells act as a storage tank for extra energy in the form of fat, but the liver is another important energy storage tank. One job the liver has is to store and regulate the use of energy in the form of glycogen – a quick-burning sugar for energy when we need it fast. About 60% of the calories from any meal may be stored by your liver in the form of glycogen, so the liver could rightfully be considered the primary storage tank for energy. The body likes to use glycogen for energy primarily because it likes to save fat in case of a famine. This means, in order to enter a fat-burning state, you must empty the tank in your liver first.

Cleanse Your Liver with Time

Basic knowledge of metabolism tells us exactly how our body uses up glycogen stores and enters a fat burning state: time. Following a meal you tend to burn calories for energy mostly from sugar (60% glucose/40% fatty acids). After three or four hours you will start burning higher amounts of fat, which is why it is important to go 5-6 hours between meals, as the Leptin Diet recommends. At this point you have entered a fat-burning state. Exercise creates a demand for energy that can speed up the process and shorten the amount of time it takes to enter this state.

The process of burning up glycogen and entering a fat-burning state takes at least several hours and will vary based on the number of carbohydrates eaten, the size of your last meal, and energy demands. Every time you snack, you start this process over and begin filling your primary storage tank again.

Without adequate time to clear out the glycogen and fat from the liver, your liver becomes like a bucket that is being overfilled and begins spilling over. The extra energy that “spills over” gets sent to the overstock storage tank: your fat cells.

In the course of a 24-hour time period your prime fat burning opportunity is at night while you are sleeping but only if you allow it to happen. Once you are sleeping, and around 7-8 hours after your last meal, if your liver is working right, you will now burn 60% of your calories from fatty acids and 40% from glucose. If you eat a huge dinner, snack after dinner, or get up during the night to snack, you are missing out on valuable time in a fat-burning state.

The Secret to Losing Weight for Good

If you want to start burning fat for energy instead of storing more, you need to stop snacking! Give your body the chance to use those calories before you bombard it with more. Make sure you eat three meals a day, go 5-6 hours between meals, and no snacking. While the first few days can take some getting used to, over time this should not be hard and you should not feel deprived as you improve the fitness of your liver. This is meal timing like our grandparents used to eat. This is the secret to successfully losing and maintaining a healthy weight for good.

What is Leptin? 

The Five Rules of the Leptin Diet 

Leptin Diet Weight Loss Challenge #6 - Unclog Your Liver and Lose Abdominal Fat

Snacking Associated with Increased Rates of Injury, Stress, and Cognitive Malfunction 

Snacking on the Rise 

Snacking and Skipping Breakfast Linked to Type 2 Diabetes