How I Cut Weight in a Week By Cutting Refined Sugar

July 9, 2018 Ashley 0 Comments

After my ankle folded mid-run two weeks ago, I knew it was over.

And by “over”, I mean my love affair with too much food.

(If you can’t work it off, then don’t put it on. Unless you’re Zac Efron.)

The problem? Like most of us, I love food. And my plant based diet’s variety makes me so happy and fulfilled (and fit) that I’ve never have to deny myself much on it. However, that was when I could exercise regularly – like we’re all supposed to be doing. (Balance, am I right?) But nobody’s perfect. I have my vices. And among my few dietary vices is enjoying a caffeinated elixir with sugar in it, on a near daily basis. Has it added a few pounds? Maybe. Could I go without it? Probably. But I wasn’t willing to – until that fateful Friday when I knew something sinful had to go. Thus, after having a serious heart to heart with my inner fatty, we decided to give Starbucks’ mochas and pink drinks the pink slip – and stick to basic soy flat whites from here on out.

And how did that go? Awesome.

Why?

Well, for four reasons:

First: eating heaps of sugar all the time drives up your insulin. The result’s that the energy gets jettisoned from your blood, right into your fat cells, porking you up. Second: fructose (unlike glucose, which is easier to process) makes your brain resistant to leptin (the “I’m full; you can stop stuffing your face now, heifer”) hormone. When you’re resistant to that (as you may’ve guessed), your brain thinks your bod is starved – so you go into perma-peckish mode, munching long after putting away a full box o’ Papa John’s. The third reason? Again, it’s inimical fructose.( “Bad guy” level: Ray Liotta.) The problem is, fructose does a cruddy job at satiating you. Ever notice how that calorie packed cupcake fails to fill you up? How you’re still hungry, if not hungrier, after? When that happens, our nagging ravenous gastric cavity is nearly un-ignorable. So, we overeat. Granted, since my sugar fix is usually in coffee, the caffeine suppresses that appetite – but only for a while. Don’t fool yourselves. You bet your slowly widening from too many lattes bottom that the snacubus (like a succubus demon, but one that demands meals instead of men’s souls) awaits you later. Boom. More calories. Boom. The sound the neighbors in the apartment beneath you hear when you tiptoe.

And, last but not least is addiction. I’ve beaten this equine beast to death on this point, but I’m willing to reiterate for the newcomers: sugar’s addictive AF. And I don’t mean the way “Big Little Lies” is. I mean legit, hijack your reward center, send out a fleet of dopamine troops, devastate your brain thereafter, and make you crave more brand of addiction. Pair that with the leptin resistance we talked about that’s already making you hungry, and you’re super doomed. I mean, not only are you gonna reach for more calories, you’re gonna actively seek out the sugary kind that shoot up your insulin and store porky fat masses. Knowing this alone should make us avoid processed sugar. But the problem is, half of us are already addicted to it by the time we learn what it’s doing to us. So, like any smack addict or alcoholic, we do two things: deny and downplay. We deny that we’re having as much as we actually are. (No, just because you ate them at the sink or in the car doesn’t mean food Zeus didn’t see it and won’t strike you with a bolt of belly fat.) And then we downplay the gravity of its maliciousness. (Which is simple to do when something’s legal and doesn’t usually alter your ability to work or drive.)

(“Usually”)

And, while some fruits are indeed higher in fructose than others, there’s a big diff when it comes to fruit. First, no fruit is gonna come close to having as high a fruc content as the fake stuff you’ll see on the shelves or shoved into your confections. (Remember: it’s the high amounts that eff you over.) The yes-and to that is that fruit’s got not only just the right amount of fructose, but also the right amount of everything else to satiate and fill you – thanks to the high fiber and water content. Among refined sugar’s shortcomings is that it does the opposite of that.

Granted, it doesn’t hurt to see which fruits are higher in fructose versus glucose and balance ’em out. But it pales in comparison to knocking off the processed sugar. In fact, getting back to me, I’m a prime example of how – if you wanna lose weight – you’re gonna get there far faster by eradicating the cake and cola than the mangos. Because you bet your butt I’ve been enjoying both mangos and cherries all week long. (Both higher fructose fruits.) Just like I always have. But ya know what? Dismissing the daily mocha was the move that made my scale move. And fast. Even though not all’ve it has been fat loss, ridding the retained water (caused by high insulin levels) and ending that gastric backup (#sugarcancauseconstipation) felt so good. I felt lighter. I was lighter. I felt it in a few days.

And I saw it within a week.

(Day of the injury.)

(By the end of the week, after a full bottle of water. Please ignore the ratchet talons…)

Granted, the little bit of processed, high fructose sugar I was having before didn’t make me obese or even overweight. (On a plant based diet, I only ever really range from super-slender to basic-slender.) But, if we’re trying to say fake sugar doesn’t make a diff (in either your quantity of pounds or quality of life), I can confidently scoff at that and provide some facts. In the end, the scale (and my currently sagging pajama pants) won’t lie. Cutting the fake – not nature’s – sugar made me lose weight almost too quickly.

Almost 😉