Does Sugar Make You Fat?
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How To Eat Sugar In A Healthy Way
On today’s episode of Live Lean TV, I’m answering the often asked question, does sugar make you fat?
When you look at the nutrition label on a box of sugar, and it show’s zero grams of fat, don’t be fooled.
Even if there’s no dietary fat in that food, it doesn’t mean you can’t get fat by eating it.
If you’re floored by this statement, you my friend are focusing on the wrong thing, and this post is for you.
But don’t worry, many people, including my former self, don’t understand this.
When I first started my journey to Live Lean over 10 years ago, I remember making this same mistake.
I focused on eating low fat foods, because let’s be real, eating fat must make you fat right?
I was so wrong.
Last week I shared an example of the “perfect refrigerator”, when I showed you what’s in my fridge.
If you missed it, my fridge was filled with healthy low sugar foods.
Why Do I Focus On Low Sugar Foods?
That sweet tasty ingredient we all love, called sugar, doesn’t just cause cavities.
In studies done on rats, sugar was shown to be even more highly addictive than cocaine.
Even though the rats were turned into cocaine addicts, the rats still chose the sweet taste of sugar over cocaine.
By the way, I hate rats.
The over consumption of sugar is one of the main reasons why our society is fat.
Are Your Sugar Levels Overflowing Into Fat?
Here’s a step-by-step analysis of what happens to your body when you consume a bowl of sugary cereal.
- Once the cereal makes contact with your tongue, an immediate release of endorphins occurs to make you feel awesome.
- The sugar then enters your bloodstream very quickly.
- Since only a minimal amount of sugar can be in the bloodstream at one time, insulin is released from the pancreas to remove the sugar, and stores some of it in the muscle and liver cells, as glycogen.
- While all this is going on, insulin also stimulates the release of a fat storing enzyme called LPL. LPL is a bad ass because it can convert excess sugar into stored body fat, when it has not been burned for immediate energy or stored as glycogen. Since your muscle and liver glycogen storage levels are limited, once they become full and reach their capacity, the excess sugar spills over. Thus, the sugar has no where to go other than being stored in your fat cells.
- After this happens, let’s not forget about the quick collapse of your blood sugar, which triggers you to then crave even more sugar to raise your blood sugar levels back up again. This is why you can never just eat a small handful of M&MS. It’s just a crazy cycle which makes you keep eating and eating.
Bottom Line: Does Sugar Make You Fat?
Too much sugar is a major cause of obesity, and one of the main reasons why your abs are covered with that stubborn layer of belly fat.
The overconsumption of sugar may cause diabetes and raises your bad cholesterol (LDL) and lowers your good cholesterol (HDL).
And don’t be fooled, sugar is described as many different things on food labels, including:
- sucrose
- table sugar
- dextrose
- high fructose corn syrup
- as well as many other names
2 Tips To Consume Sugar In A Healthy Way
Here are a couple tips on how to consume sugar in a healthy way.
#1. Employ The 5 Gram Rule
Besides fruits and vegetables, only eat carbohydrates that contain more than 5 grams of fiber and less than 5 grams of sugar.
If any form of sugar appears before the 5th ingredient on the food label, it means there is a lot of sugar in the food, and you should avoid it.
#2. Plan Your Sugar Consumption After Your Workout
If you are going to have sugar, plan it so you consume sugar after your workout.
When you workout, you create more room to store the sugar as glycogen in the muscle and liver cells, rather than the fat cells.
You have to earn your sugar by working out like a beast.
It’s Time To Take A 2 Week Sugar Vacation
I want you to take a 2 week vacation from consuming refined sugar.
When you do this, I promise after the initial 4-7 day adaptation period, you will experience an incredible feeling of health and vitality.
If you’re wondering what you should be eating during this 14 day refined sugar free vacation, I have over 200 sugar free recipes in my Eat Clean Live Lean Cookbook.
Eat Clean Live Lean Cookbook System
Check out my Eat Clean Live Lean Cookbook for over 200 quick, healthy, easy, affordable, and delicious meals that are high in protein, low in fattening carbohydrates, and higher in super healthy fat.
This also comes with an 8 week meal plan, recipes, and grocery lists to supercharge your results faster.
Take the guess work away and just execute on the plan people.
It’s all done for you.
It’s amazing how many tasty snacks and meals you can come up with, using all real healthy ingredients.
I pity those “dieters” ruining their sustainable chances of Living Lean by eating boring foods.
CLICK HERE TO GET OVER 200 QUICK, HEALTHY, EASY, AFFORDABLE, & DELICIOUS RECIPES
In the comments below, tell me the sugary food you love to eat.
If there is an overwhelming choice, I’m going to challenge myself to see if I can create a healthy substitute recipe video for you.
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Question Of The Day:
- What is the number 1 sugary food you love to eat?
- Would you like me to try and “Live Lean-ify” a recipe for that sugary food?
Share your experiences in the comment section below.
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Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.
I really enjoy your quick tips, I like to look at them first thing in the morning when I get to work it helps me stay focused on my eating during the day, my sugar comes from too much chocolate, I’ve fooled myself thinking that the minis are ok but of course if your eating five to six pieces a day that adds up, I’ve stopped but your right sugar is very addictive, thanks for all your info I’m determined to eat better and stay consistent because I know my daughters enjoy watching me work out and on track, thanks again Brad.
Love your video, but don’t ever eat sugar for a video. I bet it was horrible! Thanks a lot, anyway. I’m vegetarian, more ovo than lacto. I cook every meal of my diet, and try very to do it low fat. However, I’ve been struggling with sugar my whole life. Now worst because I’m far from my family, and feel depressed. I love frozen yogurt. It started to be once a month to every weekend, and now I feel like I can’t live without some every night… sometimes after every meal. I’m trying to get conscious this problem, but it’s horrible addicted. I don’t even drink alcohol or coffee, but now I guess I know how an cocaine addicted person feels like. It’s very embarrassing. I just realized my problem about a month ago. I need some help. I need to believe in a change. It’s going to make me sick. Hate to depend on something. Help 🙁
all great advice; thanks Brad. I’m one of those people who is afraid of fat but am coming around to eating more avocado, almonds, walnuts, egg yolks…I would buy egg whites, make only egg white omelettes, but at night eat sweets! Very counter productive. Your videos on good fats from fish/nuts/fruits and avoiding high sugar content has helped me stay disciplined.
LMAO! I love how you take something people don’t really understand and break it down so people who have no base knowledge can understand. I have been recommending you to my nephews who are athletic, but still eat like fat kids