Knowing The Fat Brain Cycle Essential for Weight Loss

Most weight loss experts tell overweight people that all it takes to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more. This is true, but such a simple solution does not factor Fat Brain into the equation.

When you can't stomach the thought of food in the morning or if you have experienced an irresistible urge for chocolate, sweets, or other carbs in the midafternoon or at night you may have what Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz, M.D. and the author of The Big Breakfast Diet, calls The Fat Brain.

The characteristics of The Fat Brain are an aversion to breakfast and the lust for sweets that typically begins at around 3 P.M. continuing into the evening. This is why it's important to know The Fat Brain Cycle to combat it.

It is 7:00 a.m.: “Breakfast—yuck!” When you wake up in the morning, you’re not hungry. In fact, the thought of food makes you a little sick.

3:30 p.m.: “Must . . . have . . . chocolate.” You obsess about the jar of chocolate kisses on your coworker’s desk, or the honey bun in the office vending machine. You try to fight the craving, in the face of your afternoon “crash,” caused by your brain’s falling serotonin levels. Your good intentions crumble like a cookie.

3:31 p.m.: “Ahh.” Once you eat those kisses, or the honey bun, your brain is flooded with serotonin. Your sadness, moodiness, or anxiety disappears, and is replaced by calm and tranquility.

10:33 p.m., bedtime: “Why did I eat that?!” Once serotonin reaches high levels in the brain, the cravings vanish, but the guilt kicks in. All too often, the cravings resurface later in the evening. (If only you’d eaten a large, protein-packed breakfast!)

7:00 a.m.: “I will not eat bad foods today, no matter what.” You awaken, and with your brain bathed in serotonin, you vow to withstand temptation today. (And what do you mean, “bad foods”?) But you’re still not hungry, so you skip breakfast, and the cycle begins anew.

This is an excerpt from a book The Big Breakfast Diet: Eat Big Before 9 A.M. and Lose Big for Life
Written by Daniela Jakubowicz MD
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company (December 15, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0761154930

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