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There is a better way to lose weight.

By Tim Lundeen  Beginning Noozer
Published: 20 January 2008 04:05 pm

- I've personally lost 40 pounds by just monitoring and managing my blood sugar, without feeling hungry or deprived. I've kept this weight off for about 2 years now.

The problem with "watching your weight" is that it is a very slow measure of how you are doing. Your weight doesn't change very quickly, and a lot of rapid weight gains and losses come from water retention from salt.

Weight changes also don't necessarily reflect actual fat gain or loss. If you exercise and build muscle mass, you might actually be losing fat even though the scale says you gained weight or stayed the same.

So, when you "watch your weight", it is hard to know how you are really doing, whether your diet and exercise are doing what you want them to do. If you aren't losing weight, you don't know why, and it is hard to figure out what to do.

Instead of watching your weight, you can manage your blood sugar to lose weight, and also be healthier, with less risk of heart attack, stroke or cancer.

This is becase there is a direct connection between your blood sugar levels and your weight. This connection means you can monitor and manage your blood sugar to lose weight.

The real benefit of watching your blood sugar is that it gives you immediate, real-time feedback on how you are doing. If your peak blood sugar goes over 120, you know you need to cut back on carbohydrates or switch to lower-glycemic-load carbs. If your fasting blood sugar is over 85, you know you have to reduce your evening carbohydrates.

Why does controlling your blood sugar cause you to lose weight?

The reason this works is the connection between blood sugar and insulin, and the connection between insulin and weight gain. When your blood sugar goes up, your pancreas puts out more insulin to tell your cells to absorb nutrients from your blood. The insulin tells your fat cells to take in nutrients (blood sugar is adsorbed and converted to fat, and fat is adsorbed directly), and you get fatter. When your blood sugar drops, your insulin levels fall as well, and your fat cells will start to return their accumulated fat to your blood, so you can use if for energy, and you get thinner.

How much fat is stored in your fat cells is directly tied to average and peak insulin levels, which (in most people) are directly tied to blood sugar levels.

When people eat fewer calories and exercise more, they (most people, anyway) lose weight. The reason they lose weight is because their average blood sugar levels go down, and their peak/average insulin levels go down, and their fat cells give up fat.

By managing your blood sugar, you get the same effect but with much more control and visibility as to how you are doing.

Here's my article on how to manage your blood sugar.