'You: On a Diet:' Fool Your Brain to Eat Less

Jan. 19, 2007 — -- There's a biological basis behind gaining weight, and Drs. Mehmet Oz and and Michael Roizen say you can't fight biology.

What you can do, though, is learn to work with your body to get cravings under control. There are two hormones that determine whether you fell hungry or full -- ghrelin and leptin.

Ghrelin sounds like gremlin, and it's the hormone that makes your stomach churn and says, 'Hey, you gotta eat.'

The second, leptin, sends message from fat that tells your brain you are full. Oz and Roizen say that learning the timing of these hormones can help you eat less.

When you're really hungry, ghrelin sends those messages every 20 or 30 minutes. It takes 30 minutes to turn those signals off, so unless you take 30 minutes to eat, you'll probably eat too much.

If you have eaten some food and can wait 20 minutes, leptin will send the message that you're full and you'll get over the craving to keep eating.

How to Keep the Grumblings Quiet?

Breakfast: Eat a high-fiber breakfast like oatmeal or a high-fiber, low-sugar cereal. Omelettes with spices and vegetables are good also. Or you can make the magic breakfast blaster, which takes three minutes to make and is filled with fiber and vitamins.

Snack: Apple or carrots in the morning whenever you feel hungry. A good time to eat these foods is a half-hour before lunch.

Lunch: Automate it. If you have to think too much about it, the ghrelin will start churning, and you'll get desperately hungry. You'll grab whatever and won't make a good decision, so it's ok to have the same three or four things all the time if you know they are healthy.

For example, a good lunch would be a meal-sized salad with chicken, oil and vinegar, a garden harvest soup and water with lemon or lime wedge.

Snack: Around 4 p.m., have a snack. There are some foods that give you calories but they don't turn leptin off. Have some nuts -- they contain "good" fat, which sends the signals to your brain that there's some fat there.

Dinner: You don't want to miss meals throughout the day and get super hungry, or your ghrelin levels will get high and you'll overeat.

The doctors recommend a dinner of salmon and you've got brown rice, which is a good carb. And for dessert, eat some dark chocolate, which you can dip it in fruit. Or, if you want an alcoholic beverage, you can have it as your dessert, after the meal.

Final snack: Popcorn.

Where you eat matters: You eat more in a cold, dark place. That's why restaurants have the lights low and the air conditioning up, often. So to eat less, make sure the dining room is well lit and warm.

More From 'YOU: On a Diet'

How much do you really know about weight loss and dieting? Click here to take the Fat Facts Quiz.

Get the abridged version of Oz and Rozien's advice. Click here for the 99-Second Diet Guide.

People are often more successful when they diet with a friend. Click here to find a diet buddy.