Your bowling ball of appetite

Imagine that you hold in your hands a bowling ball. If a crane lifts the ball to a certain height and drops it, you have to catch it, or you get given a bigger ball. Obviously you would prefer if the ball gets dropped reasonably close to your hands.

When you eat food, your blood sugar goes up, and then down again. Eating carbohydrates makes your blood sugar go up very high very quickly. Refined and simple sugars are the worst, but even a slice of whole grain bread will do it. On the other hand, eating protein and fat will have less of an effect on your blood sugar, and the effect will be slower, since it takes your body more time to break those two macronutrients down.

After your blood sugar goes up, it must come down again. If it started very high, it will crash, leaving you quickly craving food again. On the other hand, if your blood sugar is following gradual peaks and valleys, you will only slowly get hungry again.

Eating a carb-heavy diet is like having the bowling ball dropped from above your head. Some people are able to catch it anyway, but a lot of people will drop the ball--meaning they will not have the will power to resist snacking. Of course, snacking usually entails more sugar and more carbs, since those kinds of foods take least preparation and are immediately satisfying. The "ball" gets bigger because the more spikes your blood sugar has, the more it takes to satisfy your cravings, and the harder you get hit on each crash. The more carbs you eat, the hungrier you feel, and the more likely you are to indulge and eat even more carbs.

Eating a fat and protein heavy diet, on the other hand, is like having the bowling ball only dropped from a few inches up. If you are used to a high carb diet, your ball will still be very heavy, and it may be difficult to transition from the huge spikes in blood sugar. But if you stick to it, your ball will shrink, and you'll be able to go all day without crashing and without having to indulge. You'll find yourself even able to go long periods of time without eating at all.

I'm not saying you can't survive on a high-carb diet. People do. But you need an extraordinary amount of willpower and strength not to overeat and not to indulge your cravings. Do you have it?