If you’ve ever wondered whether sugar makes you fat, you’ve come to the right place.
I have been training people for over 15 years and the biggest thing I’ve noticed about the people that can’t seem to lose weight is the un-Godly amounts of sugar they put into their bodies.
I’ve had clients who put down 20 cokes a day.
For others, it’s the candy, the donuts, the cookies, the cakes, the dressings, the ice cream, and the almost unlimited number of processed foods that are out there.
They would come to me because they were gaining weight and couldn’t stop.
So, I started them on one of my training programs, and they immediately stopped gaining weight, and even lost some to begin with.
In the end, the people that wouldn’t change their sugary diets plateaued in their weight loss efforts, often remaining overweight or obese.
I was able to help these people maintain or slowly lower their weight with exercise but could not consistently help them lose weight over time.
For these people, mindset changes for improving their diet never occurred, no matter how much I stressed it to them.
They would be good one week and fail the next.
Why was this happening? Was it the amount of food they were eating or type of food they were eating? Was it the contents of the food?
It was probably a combination of the three, with one common denominator, sugar.
In my experience, the people that could not lose the weight were often the ones addicted to the food they were eating and couldn’t give it up, no matter how hard they tried.
What made these foods so addicting?
As most of us know fat adds flavor to a dish. Is it the fat?
One study showed that diets high in fat are not the primary cause of the high prevalence of excess body fat in our society.
Furthermore, another study found no association between saturated fat consumption and the risk of heart disease.
So far, fat’s not the culprit.
Is it the sugar?
From my observations over time, it is, and here I will answer the question:
Does Sugar Make You Fat?
1. Sugar Leads to Weight Gain
The first way sugar makes you fat is because sugar leads to weight gain.
Sugar is running rampant in our food supply.
Little is being done and people are consuming sugar at astronomical rates leading to high rates of obesity worldwide.
According to the New England Journal of Medicine, almost 1/3 of the world’s population is either overweight of obese.
How do you combat this?
You need to remove sugar from your diet.
One study showed that people who drink sugary beverages weigh more than people who don’t.
It’s a well-known fact that a large intake of sugar over time also leads to elevated blood sugar.
High blood sugar levels impair normal cells ability to function properly, causing inflammation and insulin resistance.
One study shows that elevated blood sugar can also lead to an increase in weight gain.
Remove sugar from your life and weight loss will become much easier over the long run.
Your blood sugar has a much better chance to normalize, reducing stress, reducing your fluctuations in hormone levels, and giving you a chance to maintain and lose weight more easily.
2. Foods High in Sugar Are Less Filling
Sugar makes you fat because they are less filling.
Ever notice that you could eat an entire bowl of cereal or ice cream (or many other sweets for that matter) without having any effect on your fullness?
Ice cream has always been my sweet escape. I would eat 2 – 3 cartons per week.
I gave it up about a year ago and lost about 15 pounds almost immediately.
The thing is, I would start eating, and would never get full, so I would continue eating until the carton was eventually gone.
I did a little bit of research and discovered it is primarily due to the fact that there is typically little to no fiber or protein in sweets.
One study shows that protein helps reduce levels of the hormone ghrelin, a hormone that drives your appetite, allowing you to decrease the amount of calories you take into your body.
Eating protein also stimulates certain hormones associated with feelings of fullness.
I know anytime I drink a protein shake before a meal, I always have a hard time completing the meal.
Another study shows that a diet high in fiber stretches the stomach, slows the emptying rate and stimulates your body to release hormones that promote fullness.
Apples are great way to get your body feeling fuller faster. Try eating some apple slices before your meal.
3. Sugar Leads to an Increase in Visceral Fat
If you’re worried about putting on a little bit of weight, you should be more worried about the visceral fat that comes with high sugar intake.
Visceral fat or “active fat” actively increases the risk of serious health problems like diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer.
One study showed that drinking a lot of sugary beverages increased the amount of visceral fat in the body.
The good news is visceral fat is receptive to diet and exercise.
So, stop eating sugary foods, hit the weight room and get rid of the excess amounts of visceral fat in your body.
Read my article: The Best 8 Minute Fat Burning HIIT Workout at Home + 7 Bonus Tips and use HIIT training to combat the added visceral weight.
4. Sugar Takes the Place of Healthy Foods
If you’re eating cakes, cookies, and candies, you’re obviously not making healthy eating choices.
Instead of indulging in the goodies, replace them with alternatives.
Eat berries or a bit of dark chocolate instead of ice cream.
Have a protein smoothie instead of the milkshake or soda.
Try sugar free Greek yogurt instead of pudding.
There are endless replacements to what’s put in front of you face daily. You must make the effort to make the switch.
Check out my article: 15 Super Healthy Super Foods for some great sugar replacements.
5. Sugar is Addicting
Sugar is thrown in our faces during Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and people’s birthdays to name a few holidays and events.
We love it, we crave it and we can’t get enough of it.
Researcher Cassie Bjork says that “sugar can be even more addicting than cocaine.” This statement blew me away.
How can something so dangerous be so available in our society?
One research article on rats says that Oreo cookies activate more neurons in the brain’s pleasure center than cocaine does.
Every time we eat sweets, we reinforce neuropathways causing the brain to be hardwired for sugar, creating a drug-like tolerance.
Stop allowing sugar to dictate your life. Remove and replace the volatile substance with something healthy.
With addiction, it’s a hard journey to overcome.
Try your best to get rid of sugar in your meals. If you don’t, you’re destined for a lifetime of health risks that may make you more miserable than you can imagine.
And worst of all, sugar does make you fat.
Summary: Does Sugar Make you Fat?
Sugar has been added to nearly all processed foods. It’s imperative that you restrict the amount of sugar and processed foods you eat daily. Focus on fresh and frozen foods and you’ve won half the battle. Your body will start to look and feel healthier. Your risks for certain health risks will begin to dwindle. Sugar is pulling you down the path of least resistance and it puts a stranglehold on you that’s impossible to get out of. Give it up now before it’s too late.
Do you struggle with sugar addiction? Is sugar making you fat? What can you replace your processed foods with to get out of the trap? Let me know below!
