Tame your inner cavewoman - the weight-loss tips

Learn a slimming trick or two from our prehistoric ancestors

  Raquel Welch in 'One Million Years BC'Read more about how we're programmed to eat too much

 

Here's how to tame those basic instincts to find your way through the dietary jungle of 21st century life?

 

Recognise true hunger
That gnawing feeling in the pit of your stomach that signals your body's need for food was essential to our ancestors' survival, but many of us have lost touch with how hunger feels. Now that we can eat as much as we want, when we want, we often eat not because we're hungry but because we're tired, sad, lonely or bored. It's vital to learn to recognise the difference between emotional hunger (a sudden craving for comfort or to escape difficult feelings) and genuine physical hunger pangs, a
grumbling need for food that builds gradually.

● If you're genuinely hungry, a piece of fruit will stave it off - if it's an emotional hunger, only something like a chocolate muffin will do!
● Don't confuse thirst with hunger: drink a glass of water and wait 10 minutes before snacking.
● Follow your ancestors' example and focus on the food. Snacking in front of the TV, for example, means that we don't notice what, or how much, we eat, or register our feeling of 'fullness'.
● Food was in such short supply for early humans there was no danger of ‘forgetting' calories. But most of us discount the odd biscuit and sugar in tea - write everything down to identify when you eat for comfort rather than hunger.

 

Beware of triggering famine fears

Our ancestors didn't know where their next meal was coming from, so they ate as much as they could when food became available. Missing meals - which sends your body the message that there's no food available - plays directly on that primitive fear of hunger and the need to lay down reserves in case of famine. Skip breakfast and you are likely to eat far more at the next meal or reach for a croissant and milky latte midmorning.

A study at Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge found that people who ate most of their calories (up to 50% of the total energy intake) at breakfast actually put on the least amount of weight. What's more, missing breakfast means we're much more sensitive to cravings and our body senses a period of starvation and starts to store its energy supplies as fat.

 

Go back to basics

‘What cavewomen had that we don't was direct access to food in its most natural state,' says Professor Katz. ‘Eat food that's as unprocessed as possible and you will avoid all the hidden extras - the fat, sugar and salt that confuse your appetite mechanism and lead you to overeat. In general the closer you are to nature, the fewer calories it will take to make you feel full.'

● Choose single ingredient foods where possible. If buying processed foods check the ingredients list - the longer it is the more likely it is to be nutrient poor, calorie dense and packed with hidden extras.

● Our ancestors quenched their thirst with water: now our drinks contain hundreds of hidden calories. A Starbucks, a can of Coke and a large glass of wine can add up to more than 600 calories - a huge chunk of your daily intake.

● Follow a more stone-age diet and eat fresh fruit rather than drinking it in juice form so you get extra fibre.

● Berries and seeds were an important part of our early diet. Snack on nuts and seeds - they may be rich in oils but they're the right sort and provide plenty of other health benefits if you eat them in small quantities.

 

Plan ahead

Our ancestors' main preoccupation was finding the next meal, but in our toxic food environment we need to focus on forward planning to negotiate dietary pitfalls. ‘Will power alone can't compete with millions of years of evolutionary biology. It takes thought, effort and skill,' says Professor Katz.

● Take lunch and snacks to work with you to avoid temptation.

● Control the variety of food you eat at one sitting and avoid buffets where the range of food will make it far harder to say no. There's evidence that limiting your food choices makes you less likely to overeat.

● Be aware of your basic instincts before you open the fridge. When hungry, decide what you're going to eat and stick to it. If you cruise the fridge to see what takes your fancy you may end up trying several tastes - and eating more.

 

Keep night-time for sleeping

In the days before artificial light we would sleep when it was dark and get up with the sun - but now melatonin, the chemical that controls our sleep/wake response, is over-ridden by artificial light and our 24-hour lifestyle. But there is increasing evidence that lack of sleep directly affects how much you eat.

Recent studies show that chronic sleep loss triggers hormones that can lower the ‘appetite control' hormone leptin, which tells the brain when the body is satisfied. When leptin levels fall through lack of sleep, the cells lining the stomach produce ghrelin, which stimulates appetite. Research shows that two nights' sleep deprivation can alter people's food choices to crave high calorie, high carb foods.

● Around 7-8 hours a night is considered normal for most people and establishing a routine is crucial.

● Make your bedroom cave-like. It's hard to escape artificial light, but even the glow of a street light or a mobile phone can affect your sleep.

 

Move more

‘Our bodies were made to move but technology has created machines that do everything we once used our muscles for,' says Professor Katz.

‘We now use fewer calories so need to go out of our way to replace those activities that were once part of daily life.' Exercise is key to maintaining a strong, healthy body and healthy weight. Build muscles and you will burn more calories - muscle burns more energy than fat does, so the more exercise you do, and the more muscle you have, the more efficient your body becomes at burning calories.

● Go back to basics and walk whenever you can. Use a pedometer to check how many steps you walk every day - aim for around 10,000.

● Our ancestors expended most of their energy just surviving, so capitalise on the calories you can burn on everyday activities. Half an hour's gardening or house painting, for example, burns around 170 calories; cooking and ironing will burn around 80 each in 30 minutes.

 

Control stress

Cavewomen lived in a hostile environment, under constant threat from predators - hence the ‘fight or fliight reaction' - a surge of cortisol and adrenaline that prepared their bodies to fight off wild animals or run away. Once the danger passed, hormone levels subsided but in our modern world we're more likely to suffer from chronic stress with permanently raised hormone levels and no ‘fight or fliight' to rebalance our bodies. Raised cortisol levels affect the communication between fat cells and insulin, so the body stores fat for emergency use. Higher levels also induce cravings for the instant energy provided by sugary, fatty foods, which is why we reach for the biscuits when under stress. Cortisol peaks in the morning to get us up, then declines during the day but women facing stress often have high cortisol levels until later in the evening, which is when the appetite for high calorie snacks kicks in.

● Create your own ‘fight or fliight': simulate the fliight from danger with regular, moderate exercise, which works just as well at lowering the levels of stress hormones.

● Modern-day stress is more often the result of brain rather than body overload. Learning to relax can help you shed pounds - so take time out and learn to say ‘no' to things

 

 

 

 

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