Not only do you get to eat after 7 PM on this plan, but you also have a license to cheat if you want to. I’m talking about treating yourself to pizza and ice cream or your other favorite indulgent foods (for me, it’s my mom’s famous chocolate chip cookies or my grandma’s mac ’n’ cheese). That’s right—after you complete the 14-day Acceleration Phase, each week you are encouraged to enjoy your favorite foods.
How’s that for breaking the rules? And best of all, you will still burn fat, achieve a flatter belly, and drop pounds, even if you periodically cheat, or “overfeed,” as it’s technically called.
I know you’re wondering, “How in the world can I cheat and still get to my ideal weight?” Well, it all has to do with a weight control hormone called leptin.
LEPTIN: THE HORMONE THAT LETS YOU CHEAT
The major player in fat burning and fat storing is the hormone leptin. Its name is derived from the Greek word leptos, meaning “thin,” and it’s without a doubt the most important hormone you’ve probably never heard of.
While other hormones play a role in regulating fat metabolism, leptin is the master hormone, regulating all other collateral hormones involved in fat metabolism (such as insulin, thyroid hormone, adiponectin, cortisol, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone).
Sometimes called “the fullness hormone,” leptin is one of the two primary hunger hormones, the other being ghrelin. Released primarily in the stomach, ghrelin increases your appetite and plays a role in regulating your body weight. Normally, ghrelin rises dramatically before you eat; this signals hunger. It then goes down for about three hours after your meal.
Produced in your fat cells, leptin is the bigger player of the two. In fact, some researchers believe that leptin regulates ghrelin. Leptin sends signals to your brain to tip you off that you can stop eating, that you’re full. At the same time, leptin sends signals to your brain to “turn on” your metabolism and thus start converting food to energy.
As leptin levels rise, you experience a diminished appetite; as leptin levels decrease, the result is a feeling of hunger. Likewise, rising leptin levels will increase your rate of metabolism, while falling levels will slow your metabolism.
In short, leptin regulates both your appetite and your metabolism. When leptin levels are in a normal range, your brain gets the message that your food intake is adequate. Your metabolism stays in gear, and your body is primed to burn fat.
Leptin levels are regulated by two factors. The first is the amount of body fat you carry. All else being equal, people with more body fat have higher leptin levels than those with less body fat. The second mediator of leptin levels is your calorie intake. Unfortunately, when you diet to lose fat and cut calories, your body responds accordingly by lowering your leptin levels (levels plummet by 50 percent or more after only one week on a calorie-restricted diet). Because leptin is the number-one fat-burning powerhouse, metabolism then slows down. This slowdown thwarts weight loss. (Hello, belly fat.)
Then your thyroid hormones, which are extremely important to metabolism, respond by taking a nosedive, and the fat-storing stress hormone cortisol skyrockets measurably.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, ghrelin and two other appetite-stimulating hormones, neuropeptide Y and anandamide, all hop on board to make your life even more miserable. If all that sounds too technical, just remember that when leptin drops, you get seriously hungry.
There are other hormonal problems related to leptin: insulin resistance and leptin resistance. If you’re in the habit of eating a lot of sugar and sugary junk foods, you might develop insulin resistance, meaning your cells can no longer accept glucose for energy. Insulin then just hangs around in the blood, wreaking all kinds of havoc on cells and tissues. High insulin levels block leptin signals to the brain, and leptin resistance ensues. If you develop leptin resistance, your body’s ability to “hear” that it is full and should stop eating gets blocked and your metabolism slows down. There are a number of ways through which we become leptin resistant—poor diet, depression, stress, dehydration, and a sedentary lifestyle. A lack of sleep is another factor in leptin resistance. Leptin resistance is believed to be the leading driver of fat gain in humans.
HOW TO BOOST LEPTIN PRODUCTION AND BURN MORE FAT
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could banish hungry feelings, balance your hormones, and create a metabolism geared for fat burning while dieting? It would seemingly solve all your problems. In order to do this, you’d have to somehow maintain your leptin levels.
So, how about “supplementing” with leptin?
Not so fast. Leptin is a protein-based hormone. If you took it orally, it would simply be digested. So that rules out a leptin supplement.
What about leptin injections? Well, they do exist, and they work mainly by reversing the metabolic adaptations to dieting and “starvation” even while a person continues to restrict calories.
But there’s a big problem here too. Daily leptin injections are super pricey, costing thousands of bucks a week. Not to mention, the treatment requires giving yourself an injection daily. So we can pretty much rule out supplemental leptin as a solution.
The good news—no, the great news—is that you can manipulate your leptin production naturally. In fact, we’ll swap the injections and mounds of cash for a more budget-friendly (and tastier) option: more calories and more carbs.
A LICENSE FOR (STRATEGIC) CHEATING
There is a direct, linear relationship between leptin levels and the amount of food you eat. As I mentioned, leptin levels decrease by about 50 percent after only one week of dieting. Fat loss slows down, and you feel bad psychologically. But because the relationship is linear, the opposite is also true: an increase in calorie intake results in an increase in leptin levels. And fortunately, it doesn’t take nearly as long for leptin to bump back up with a substantial increase in caloric intake—only about 12 to 24 hours. That’s right. It takes only one day of overfeeding or “cheating” to bring levels back up to baseline.
So the solution to our leptin dilemma is this: every seventh day, enjoy one “cheat day” or “cheat meal” that is rich in both carbohydrates and fats. This alternation of foods increases your sensitivity to leptin, and your fat burning will be more sustained. Cheat meals also provide a much-needed mental break from dieting. Essentially, the sanctioned cheat days on Always Eat After 7 PM are everything “typical” dieting isn’t. And the fact that the program uses pizza and other cheat foods to strip away fat faster certainly hasn’t brought in any complaints!
Don’t worry, either. You won’t stall your progress. Each week, you start fresh with baseline levels of leptin and a hormonal environment primed for burning fat. And forget about psychological feelings like guilt, failure, anxiety, or discouragement. Best of all, you need not feel guilty when you cheat. Instead, you can feel good about choosing to cheat—because you know that when you do, you’re accelerating your progress.
CHEAT DAY GUIDELINES
1.Employ a cheat day or cheat meal only after you’ve completed the 14 days of the Acceleration Phase.
2.Exercisers are allowed one cheat day per week and non-exercisers are allowed one cheat meal per week with a dessert. You can cheat any day of the week as long as you have completed six clean-eating days in a row.
3.Avoid alcohol during the Acceleration Phase. During the other two phases, you may add it, but do it in moderation (1 to 2 drinks) with your cheat meal. Sidestep excess beer, and try to stick with red wine or clear liquors (vodka, tequila, rum, or gin).
4.Don’t binge or stuff yourself while eating your cheat meal or when having a cheat day.
5.Drink extra water before, during, and after your cheat meals. Staying well hydrated helps digestion, prevents overeating, and stimulates glycogen replenishment from the extra carb intake.
6.Perform some type of low-intensity cardio or 15-minute high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout an hour or two before your cheat meals to help minimize fat storage and enhance absorption of nutrients.
There are other natural ways to boost leptin, and these involve specific food choices to combat leptin resistance.
FOODS THAT FIGHT LEPTIN RESISTANCE
Recent scientific literature published in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research tells us that there are potentially valuable nutrients and food components in what we eat that can reverse leptin resistance. These nutrients just happen to be very prevalent in Always Eat After 7 PM. This means that the program itself, day in and day out, is fueling your body with food that makes your cells more sensitive to leptin and thus more prone to burning fat. These nutrients and food components include:
Resveratrol. Found in red grapes, wine, blueberries, and cranberries, resveratrol is an antioxidant that helps restore leptin in the body and assists in breaking down fat.
Taurine. This is an essential amino acid found in all dairy products, meat, poultry, and fish. In studies, taurine has been shown to battle leptin resistance.
Vitamin A. Foods such as sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, fish, and dairy products are excellent sources of vitamin A. Sufficient amounts of this vitamin ensure high leptin concentrations in the body.
Vitamin D. Available from sunlight and found in mushrooms and fortified dairy products, vitamin D is an extremely important nutrient and is vital for the prevention of many diseases, from heart disease to cancer. A lack of vitamin D interferes with leptin, leading to an out-of-control appetite and cravings, and as a consequence, weight gain.
In the recipe section of this book, you’ll find a selection of delicious Cheat Day Treats (pages 205–210)—which are healthier versions of typical breakfast and snack foods. Choose these when you’re looking for smarter choices, even when indulging!
Pectin. One animal study (such as the one reported in 2015 in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research) has shown that pectin—a fiber in apples—may be effective in fighting leptin resistance. Adult rats were given pectin supplements for one month; the pectin decreased body fat and improved insulin and leptin resistance, overall contributing to better metabolic health. Whether the same holds true for humans, we’ll see—stay tuned.
All of these leptin-stimulating foods and nutrients are allowed, and encouraged, on this plan. Because they can have a dramatically positive effect on leptin levels, incorporating more of these foods in your diet gives you a better chance of burning fat, including stubborn belly fat.
REVERSE CARBOHYDRATE TAPERING: KEEP YOUR LEPTIN LEVELS UP EVEN AFTER CHEAT DAY
A downside to cheating is that the bump in leptin doesn’t last long. Leptin levels again decline once you return to the plan. That being the case, what can be done to combat falling leptin levels throughout the week?
Make sure you do not eliminate Super Carbs as you resume the plan after your cheat day. Of any nutrient, carbohydrates have the greatest net effect on leptin levels. After a cheat day, when leptin starts to decline, eat a few additional Super Carbs—like 10 to 20 grams—each day until your next cheat day. (Twenty grams of Super Carbs is equal to a few bites of rice or oatmeal or half of a medium baked potato.)
This introduction of a small amount of Super Carbs into your diet is called “reverse carbohydrate tapering.” It keeps leptin levels from falling too fast.
The extra leptin is more beneficial if you also take steps to continually improve your body’s sensitivity to this hormone. As mentioned previously, leptin resistance is extremely common if you’ve been overweight or obese for a long time or have habitually eaten lots of processed foods. Leptin resistance makes your body unresponsive to leptin, even at high levels. This is like having a car with a full tank of gas and a broken starter; it won’t run as it should.
Fortunately, you can immediately begin repairing this situation as soon as today by eating the leptin-stimulating foods I listed on page 55.
Now before we launch into the plan, let’s talk about key thought patterns and characteristics held by people who are in phenomenal shape—and how to adopt these patterns to create your own amazing transformation.