Every January, many people attempt a “detox” or “cleanse” to lose the holiday weight or just kick off the year with healthy habits. These fad diet plans, however, tend to be a bit inundating. Drinking only juice, for example, requires extreme self-discipline. And even after you’ve completed a grueling detox program, those days of deprivation may cause you to boomerang right back into eating processed, packaged, bad-for-you foods. New research published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that low-calorie diets may lead to binge-eating, which is not the way to lose those extra pounds.
Researchers at Loughborough University studied healthy, college-aged women on a calorie-restricted diet and discovered that they ate an additional 300 calories, on average, at dinner compared to the control group, who ate three standard meals. The reason for consuming more may be because they had higher levels of ghrelin (a hormone that makes you feel hungry), and lower levels of peptide YY (a hormone that suppresses appetite). Odds are, if you’re feeling ravenous, you will go hog wild when it’s finally time to chow down.
Every January, many people attempt a “detox” or “cleanse” to lose the holiday weight or just kick off the year with healthy habits. These fad diet plans, however, tend to be a bit inundating. Drinking only juice, for example, requires extreme self-discipline. And even after you’ve completed a grueling detox program, those days of deprivation may cause you to boomerang right back into eating processed, packaged, bad-for-you foods. New research published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that low-calorie diets may lead to binge-eating, which is not the way to lose those extra pounds.
Researchers at Loughborough University studied healthy, college-aged women on a calorie-restricted diet and discovered that they ate an additional 300 calories, on average, at dinner compared to the control group, who ate three standard meals. The reason for consuming more may be because they had higher levels of ghrelin (a hormone that makes you feel hungry), and lower levels of peptide YY (a hormone that suppresses appetite). Odds are, if you’re feeling ravenous, you will go hog wild when it’s finally time to chow down.