How to Lose Weight With Avocado
Amongst many important other things, insulin is the powerful hormone that removes excessive glucose from the blood. It signals to store excess glucose, in small amounts in the liver and muscles, but once those are full, in the adipose fat cells.
To make matters worse, this process of storing carbohydrates as fat regularly leads to low blood sugar. This stimulates more hunger for carbs and the process repeats itself again. It has been named the insulin rollercoaster for obvious reasons. But are those short sugar highs really worth the constant hunger and resulting tiredness and weight gain that so many of us are putting ourselves through on it each day?
The only good time for a big carbohydrate meal is the night before heavy exercise, if your fitness level is already high. For most of us, there’s a more steady energy level and a natural and effective weight loss in an eating plan low in high glycemic carbohydrates like grains.
Instead, base meals around nutritious vegetables, healthy sources of protein, and beneficial fats like those found in avocado.
Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day, especially for weight loss. By making low-carbohydrate and high-protein avocado recipes, start off the morning with hunger satisfied and not feeling the need to eat for much longer than if it had been toast or cereal. It’s eating like this, not counting calories, starving oneself or trying to avoid all fats, that is the real key to effective weight loss.
This extremely versatile fruit can be used in salads, sandwiches, and guacamole. Besides these foods you can use avocados in variety of healthy foods, such as these 5 healthy recipes .
Filled with heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, avocado is a healthful alternative to mayonnaise and can help lower “bad” LDL cholesterol levels. Keep it to around a quarter to a half of an avocado per day.
Picking out the perfectly ripe avocado is crucial. If the avocado is too ripe, then it will have an unpleasant softness and squishiness to it. If the avocado is not ripe enough, it will be too hard to work with. To check how ripe the avocado is, place it in the palm of your hand and gently squeeze it. If it feels like squeezing a potato, then it is not ripe. If it feels like squeezing a tomato, then it is too ripe. The avocado should feel firm, but at the same time have a bit of give to it.
While avocados are relatively high calorie food with 100 grams of the fresh fruit providing around 160 calories, more than two thirds of those calories come from monounsaturated oleic acid. Studies have demonstrated that monounsaturated fats like oleic acid are much more likely to be utilized by the body as a slow burning energy source than saturated fat. Increasing one’s intake of monounsaturated fats, versus both polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates, has also been shown to provide a marked improvement in insulin sensitivity and glycemic control – a major factor in weight gain and developing diabetes.
As an additional health benefit, eating a diet high in the omega-9 fats, of which avocado is one of the best sources, has been shown to have the potential to reduce blood levels of ‘bad’ low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, at the same time as raising ‘good’ high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
Avocado seeds also contain many healthy nutrients. There are different ways to use avocado seeds, i.e. in your smoothies. More information about avocado seeds can be found here.
Also make sure to check out these 5 amazing healthy recipes you can make with Avocado.
SOURCES
Source 1– Source 2– Source 3– Source 4
By Khrystyana Kirton
Edited By Stephanie Dawson
Reviewed By Nima Shei MD
