How to Lose Weight? Don’t Use Sugar Substitutes

Is cutting out sugar a good thing if you want to lose weight? Well, you decide to do it anyway. No more sugar in coffee for a start – and what about ready meals and fast food? You’re going to take a good look at the labels and bin anything that has any sugar in it. You’re taking positive action and it feels good, but are you wasting your time?

Are you right about sugar? The answer is yes…and no. What do you think sugar is? Actually, it’s a chemical not a food. Although it comes from plants, it has no fiber, no carbohydrate, no protein and no enzymes. It is totally ‘empty’. It only has empty calories.

What happens when you eat sugar? Your body borrows vital nutrients from healthy cells to metabolize this incomplete food. It raises your insulin level and the signals the brain receives when this happens are often interpreted as hunger signals. Likely as not you’ll reward these signals with more high-calorie food – usually containing sugar.

You reaction to stop eating sugar isn’t a bad one. If you decide that you can’t do without that sweet taste and decide to use a sweetener like saccharin or aspartame and buy foods containing sugar substitutes, then you’re making a mistake.

What has been puzzling scientists is that the obesity crisis has continued to grow despite a massive increase in the use of sugar substitutes.

However, a recent study at Perdue University found that instead of helping you to lose weight, artificial sweeteners could actually be causing your weight to increase!

Scientists at Perdue University carried out experiments with animals, some of whom were fed food containing natural sweeteners and others with food containing artificial sweeteners. Over the same period those animals fed with artificial sweeteners consumed more calories and gained more weight than those fed with natural sweeteners. Why? Because our bodies have learned to associate sweetness with food loaded with calories. When the calories don’t materialize we continue to eat to make up for the shortfall in expected calorie intake – the result – weight gain. You can’t fool your body!

The message is very simple. If you want to lose weight, start to reduce your sugar intake: stop adding sugar to coffee etc., don’t eat sugary foods. Don’t use artificial sweeteners or buy foods containing sugar substitutes.

A well known speaker, writer and commentator on weight loss and health, Henry John’s particular interest is behavior change. He is a member of the Slim Habit team responsible for the Slim Habit weight loss program. Learn more about weight loss and behavior change and how to lose weight permanently by learning new habits – Slim Habits.