Many people dream of losing excess weight quickly and without hassles. Statistics say that about eighty percent of the population of our country are dissatisfied with their body weight in one way or another. Moreover, by the age of twenty, many of them have already tried one or more diets. However, the same weight loss methods are not suitable for every body. How to make the fight against excess weight at home effective, and the “losses”, in the form of discomfort or a constant monstrous feeling of hunger, minimal.
Diet for weight loss
Diet is one way to lose weight. But provided that it is chosen correctly. Various sharp restrictions that many people practice, such as diets for 3 days, 5 days, a week - these are not the options. “Let's start with the fact that a diet is not only and not so much limiting oneself in food. With the right approach to nutrition, factors such as the processing of foods eaten, intake intervals, and the physical properties of foods are important. This creates certain rules of eating behavior, individual for everyone and depending, among other things, on a person’s gender, age, and type of activity,” says acting director. O. chief physician and head of the outpatient department of the Medincenter hospital (branch of GlavUpDK under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia), endocrinologist of the highest category, candidate of medical sciences, member of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes Mellitus Elena Mamontova .
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It is important to use the correct gradation of dietary nutrition. And not in terms of the number of days, or even in terms of food restrictions. “In its structure, the diet can be rational, traditional, personalized and therapeutic. A rational diet is a balanced diet that should contain nutrients essential for the normal functioning of the body, a traditional diet is restrictions on the consumption of certain foods, a personalized diet is selected taking into account characteristics and preferences. The therapeutic diet is aimed at eliminating metabolic and enzyme disorders in the body of a person with a specific disease,” explains the endocrinologist.
In addition, as the specialist notes, diets can be divided according to duration. Some are short-term (up to 7 days), others are long-term and can take up to several years. Also, as Elena Mamontova notes, they are divided into constant and interval. Everything must be selected individually. In this case, the effect can be achieved only if the diet is selected by a specialist, taking into account the individual characteristics of a person, as well as his lifestyle and health status (chronic pathologies are important).
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For quality weight loss, as the specialist notes, two types of weight loss are used. “With the help of a certain diet, a calorie deficit is deliberately created so that the body uses resources, or the consumption of carbohydrates is limited (in this case, metabolic processes change),” says the endocrinologist.
A diet that excludes carbohydrates is more effective. “This diet normalizes insulin production and reduces the level of ghrelin and leptin (an appetite hormone produced by fat cells). For example, the ketone diet is based on the use of ketone bodies, formed as a result of the breakdown of fat, as a source of nutrition for the brain. The principle of the diet is this: when carbohydrate consumption is reduced, the level of glucose in the blood drops sharply, and the body starts producing alternative energy from fat cells,” says Elena Mamontova.
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Here, the human diet includes meat, fish and eggs, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and spinach, nuts and seeds, dairy products, as well as fruits and berries with a low glycemic index. Products containing sugar or low fat, processed grains are prohibited. The downside, as the doctor says, is the fact that this is an unbalanced diet. “Eliminating carbohydrates from the diet is harmful to health, particularly for the liver and kidneys, promotes gastrointestinal disorders and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. A low-carbohydrate diet is contraindicated for pregnant women and people with chronic diseases, including diabetes,” advises Elena Mamontova.
Of course, it is necessary not only to achieve results, but also to maintain them. There are problems with this. “In addition to the psychological burden on the body, when you gain weight again, visceral obesity can develop (fat is deposited on the internal organs). Therefore, the stability of the result depends on the duration of a particular diet, the correct choice of this diet (a specialist should select the number of calories or foods consumed), as well as lifestyle. So, playing sports will help speed up metabolism and blood circulation,” notes the endocrinologist.
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Additional procedures
Losing weight is not just about eating right and exercising. In fact, this is a complex process that requires a thorough approach, willpower, endurance to achieve the goal, as well as various additional procedures. They will help not only quickly get rid of those annoying extra pounds, but also improve your quality of life, become healthier, and stay young and attractive longer.
Before starting any procedures, you should first make sure there are no contraindications. Therefore, it won’t hurt to visit your doctor first. After a full examination, analyzes and tests, he will be able to recommend one or another effect. It is not recommended to prescribe something like this to yourself.
Reflexology
When all the usual actions give way in the face of excess weight or the result does not suit you, you can turn to different techniques, a good example of which is acupuncture (acupuncture). It affects special nerve nodes and centers responsible for appetite, lipid accumulation, and their release. In addition, there is acupressure, cryotherapy, thermopuncture and many similar procedures.
Bath (sauna), wraps, massage, water treatments
There is a lot of material on our website about how different types of baths help get rid of excess fat; it would be good to read it in more detail. In a nutshell, a sauna stimulates metabolism, blood circulation, and saturation of all tissues and organs with oxygen. At the same time, mechanisms for getting rid of toxins are launched. To make the process more active, you can supplement the steaming process with wraps, high-quality, for example, anti-cellulite massage with a dry brush or other options.
Positive emotions
Often, losing weight is impossible due to prolonged depression, which a person falls into due to negative thoughts. This kind of attitude is unacceptable. A cheerful, cheerful struggle with excess weight prevails over concentrated persistence or gloomy determination.
You need to communicate more with friends, relatives, those people who support your desire to get back to normal. If you are surrounded by skeptical people, critics, then at least for the time of losing weight it is better to stay away from them.
Cleansing the body
The poor environmental situation that has developed especially in big cities, poor-quality food products, non-compliance with proper healthy nutrition, minimal physical activity - all this leads to the accumulation of toxins in the body. At the same time, most of them accumulate in lipid layers.
Therefore, in order to cleanse ourselves of the real toxic substances that are gradually destroying our body from the inside, it is important to use any methods from detox drinks to the right sets of exercises and therapeutic exercises.
Sports events
Sports activities will not bring the expected effect without nutritional correction. Therefore, they must be combined together and in close relationship. “To maintain a figure or maintain the result achieved by a diet, you need to exercise at least 2-3 times a week, with a small number of repetitions, with weight (each workout is at least 45 minutes). The load must be increased gradually. It is important to consider that only with regular exercise can you control your weight and maintain it at the desired level,” says acting director .
O. Head of the Department of Physical Therapy, Doctor of Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine of the highest clinical and diagnostic category (branch of GlavUpDK under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia) Larisa Sorokina.
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But there are also advantages - all my work is starting to produce pleasant results, and I feel that my hormones have activated. I have more energy, I am more optimistic, my libido has increased. It seems that testosterone is to blame for this.
I seem to be less tired after exercise than in the past. I recover faster after physical activity. I think this is due to the activation of growth hormones. My muscle mass has increased and I have become more resilient.
But, unfortunately, all my efforts to lose weight take a lot of time. I still think about food too often. My fat continues to slowly recede. I feel like I can lose 250 grams of excess weight per week if I stick to my plan.
Many people consider themselves weight loss experts
When I tell people about my struggle with fat, most of them think I'm crazy. They think the reason I have such a hard time losing weight is because my body is in “star eating mode,” which causes my body to consume fewer calories. Some people say that even the small amount of carbohydrates I eat is too much for me.
And my favorite reaction from others: they tell me that I’m lying. You can't eat so little and not lose weight. I’ve already heard all this and I’m no longer going to listen to the opinion of “homegrown” experts. I tried every method they talked about and none of them worked. Now I'm losing weight using my own method.
And by the way, if you really think that I am “out of this world” with my weight loss plan, take a look at what some models and actresses decide to do to stay thin - and yet they are held up as an example to us.
Models Natalia Vodianova and Kira Dikhtyar, as well as actors Patricia Heaton, Marcia Cross and Matthew McConaughey are just a few of the people who have detailed the extreme lengths models and actors go to to look thin.
Some fast for days, eating cotton balls soaked in juice to fight hunger (this is undoubtedly a real challenge for the microbiome!). They use laxatives and induce vomiting. Some of them limit their calorie intake to five hundred per day.
In an interview Patricia Heaton gave at age fifty-one, she said that she fasted to lose weight and drank three bottles of water every day during such periods.
What's much worse is that some models take various drugs, both legal and illegal, to stay thin. Are you offering me all these “star” ways to lose weight? No thanks! Compared to these methods, my thousand calories a day and intermittent fasting look like sheer “indulgence.” So be it, but I will remain true to my weight loss plan.
Gradually you will learn to control your hunger
For another three months, I stick to my plan, with exercise, meal timing, and calorie counting. Any German could envy my pedantry. And guess what happened? By the summer I had lost another five kilograms. I won! Fat has given up its territory. I was able to wear my favorite skinny jeans again.
This battle was not easy for me, but I did it. And do you know what I noticed? My fat doesn't make me feel miserable and defeated. It seems to me that we have begun to get along with him. Over time, I stopped feeling constantly hungry. I don't get it that easily even when I break it from time to time. My body has changed. It has learned to go without food for certain periods of time.
I feel calm before the next “window” of fasting. Now my body does not require food in the evenings. I feel unusually full after a family or business dinner. I still crave certain foods right before bed, but it doesn't bother me that much. I have learned to manage my hunger, and my diet helps me with this.
Over time, you will enjoy exercise
When I started losing fat, I hated exercise. They were very difficult for me. Now I'm starting to feel anxious if I miss a workout. It makes me want to get on the treadmill as soon as possible. It was as if my body had adapted to the new reality. The fat began to feel comfortable and accepted that the amount of fat in my body had decreased.
But I have no special illusions about him:
- I know that my fat is waiting patiently, and is ready to take revenge if I just relax too much.
- I cannot give up my diet and exercise if I want to maintain the results I have achieved.
- I will continue to keep a food journal, recording everything I eat, because it gives me material for further analysis.
I will probably increase my eating window to seven hours, but I will continue to restrict my diet and exercise much more intensely than most people my age. This is what my body requires. But I don't regret it. The fat and I left each other alone, recognizing that we were equal competitors.
For anyone trying to lose fat, I wish you not only strength and determination, but to try to understand your fat. There are many reasons why you are overweight, and poor eating habits are just one of them.
Surgery
Today there is such a method as surgical intervention. Such operations are the responsibility of bariatric surgeons. Their principle is that they reduce the stomach to a certain volume, because the organ is already stretched by overeating.
The indication for such intervention is severe obesity, when the body mass index exceeds 35. It is also prescribed if, along with excess weight, there are also serious diseases such as cardiovascular pathologies - coronary artery disease, hypertension, acute vascular events, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome , problems with the musculoskeletal system, dystrophic problems in the liver.
Naturally, the operation is prescribed exclusively by a doctor. It is important to take into account that it is quite expensive. And after the intervention, you will need to strictly follow all the doctors’ instructions so as not to lead to a worsening of the condition.
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Celiac obesity
This type of obesity is characterized by the accumulation of excess fat in the hips and legs. Often, people who are celiac obese have hormonal problems (hormonal imbalance) or are going through menopause.
What to do with this type of obesity:
– Quit smoking and alcohol, which worsen hormonal correction.
– Contact an endocrinologist to check your hormonal balance, and begin treatment prescribed by your doctor if any problems are detected.
– Stop being nervous, since nerves always cause disruptions in the production of hormones.
– Start leading an active lifestyle, which will help “restart” your metabolism and correct existing problems with obesity.
The importance of body fat for human life
Fat is a source of energy. During the breakdown of this substance, energy and free water are released. Adipose tissue performs the following tasks:
- Participates in temperature regulation;
- Protects internal organs, foot, hands, pubic area from various types of damage;
- Prevents the rapid spread of inflammation during purulent processes;
- Provides a synthetic function, takes an active part in the synthesis of biological active components;
- Participates in mineral metabolic processes of muscle and bone mass.
Manifestations of weight gain
A clear sign of excess weight is a bulging belly with thin limbs. This body type resembles an apple. However, it is not always possible to recognize pathology only by visual appearance. You need to be wary when there are:
- Shortness of breath with a passive lifestyle;
- Malfunctions of the digestive tract;
- Feeling of chronic fatigue;
- Presence of depression;
- Decreased sexual activity;
- Increased blood pressure;
- Unpleasant discomfort in the limbs and back.
Manifestations of obesity, as they grow around the internal organs, provoke symptoms that indicate negative changes in their functioning.
No fat can resist diet and physical activity!
You've read this biography article and now know (at least in general terms) that genetics, bacteria, gender, age, heredity, hormones and your own weight loss experience are factors that work for you or work against you when you trying to change your weight.
If you have been overweight for more than a year, then fat controls your internal resources, and getting rid of it will be a difficult task.
Don't be afraid, you will succeed in losing weight. Many people who adhere to a diet, like Natalya, are living evidence of this. Mobilize your competitive spirit, healthy anger, assertiveness and determination - all the feelings that will help you “attack” fat.
Fat is very tricky and you need to outplay it. Be smarter than fat to win. But even in the midst of battle, remember to love and respect your fat. Fat may get a little stuck up when you accumulate it in large quantities, but it still plays a vital role in our body.
Once you are able to reduce your fat stores to a “healthy” level, and remove them from undesirable habitats, the fat will return to its job of maintaining your health. And he will play on your side. Making you healthy and beautiful!
