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" Tame your sweet tooth  When you eat simple, sugar-filled foods like white bread, pasta, cakes and cookies, insulin \u2014 known to regulate metabolism \u2014 spikes, and then drops dramatically. As a result, you find yourself hungry again before you should be, says Holly Wyatt, M.D., associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences Center.  &amp;quot;You eat to satisfy the hunger, and eventually wind up gaining weight.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s better, she notes, to make sure your diet&amp;#039;s rich in foods like whole wheat bread, brown rice and multigrain pasta, which contain complex carbohydrates. Rather than causing the dreaded spike-and-dip, they keep insulin levels stable, meaning you feel full until it&amp;#039;s really mealtime again.  Don&amp;#039;t cut too many calories  If you let yourself get too hungry, your body decides you&amp;#039;re &amp;quot;starving.&amp;quot; Once that happens, your metabolism slows, and the chemical leptin \u2014 which regulates appetite \u2014 stops signaling your brain that you have enough fat; you then go into fat-storing mode. Instead of torturing yourself, says Scott Isaacs, M.D., author of The Leptin Boost Diet, try eating small but frequent meals. You&amp;#039;ll stabilize metabolism, and leptin will start doing its job again. To maintain your weight, strive for about 1,800 calories a day. And if you&amp;#039;re trying to lose, shoot for no less than 1,200.  Eat every few hours When you skip meals \u2014 or wait too long in between \u2014 levels of the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin start to rise. And once those hunger pangs really kick in, you&amp;#039;re likely to scarf down the first thing in sight. The key to keeping ghrelin levels low, says Dr. Isaacs, is to maintain as satisfied a feeling as possible.  &amp;quot;You need to eat foods that will make your belly feel full. When the stomach fibers are stretched, ghrelin levels go down.&amp;quot; Of course, that&amp;#039;s not a license to load up on high-calorie treats. Fiber-rich fruits and vegetables \u2014 as well as whole-grain breads and pastas \u2014 will keep you feeling sated and your calorie count in check. Stress less  Although your brain knows the difference between the stress induced by a major car accident and the kind you feel after, say, a little tiff with your sister, your body isn&amp;#039;t quite as clever. Instead, it sees any type of stress as a threat to your survival, and releases cortisol, a fat-storing hormone, in response.  To make matters worse, cortisol sends most of that stored fat directly to your middle \u2014 just to ensure your vital organs are safe! The key to keeping cortisol levels low is simply building a little stress-busting exercise \u2014 like yoga, walking or Pilates \u2014 into your daily routine. Get plenty of rest  Burning fat while you sleep may sound like a dream, but experts say otherwise. Serotonin, the chemical responsible for your overall sense of well-being, and growth hormone \u2014 both of which boost metabolism \u2014 do their best work during your first two hours of deep sleep.  &amp;quot;The majority of fat \u2014 98 percent \u2014 is burned in the middle of the night,&amp;quot; notes Eric Berg, author of The 7 Principles of Fat Burning and founder of bergdiets.com. To become a true pound-shedding machine, however, it&amp;#039;s important that you&amp;#039;re really sleeping, as opposed to tossing, turning or just dozing. Ensure you&amp;#039;re nice and drowsy before you turn out the lights by relaxing in a warm bath or doing a little reading first. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/cooking/nutrition/a860/outsmart-fat-hormones/>