How to lose weight through nutritional adjustments and physical activity? What to give preference to? Such questions are mostly thrown at the thematic women's forum, where those who want to lose excess weight communicate. True, if you thoughtlessly apply any advice received there, you can cause irreparable damage to your health. Nutritionists and trainers often face the consequences of fanatical and dangerous weight loss. To reduce their waistline by a few centimeters, women are ready to do anything - starve, take little-known drugs, make themselves faint in the gym. And the result either does not live up to expectations or is short-lived. How to lose weight correctly and forever? There are ways, and it’s quite possible to use them.
Proper weight loss is incompatible with fasting and excessive physical activity. The most important thing is to follow certain rules. We'll tell you about them.
Use different plates
A simple way to lose weight in a week without dieting. Serve healthy foods (vegetable salad or steamed vegetables) on large plates. And the unhealthy one, if you can’t refuse it, go for small ones.
The size of plates has changed in modern society. Today, it is common to use larger plates to serve food, which increases the portion size and encourages you to eat more.
Food and sports
Working on your appearance and creating a sculpted body is very popular today. Not only boys and girls, but also mature men and women are interested in how to lose weight and build muscle.
When it comes to bulking and cutting, you need to understand that these two opposing processes must occur cyclically. How to lose weight and get pumped up if you're fat? At the same time - no way. If your goal is to get not only a slim, but also a beautiful body, you need to follow a clear sequence.
First, your body weight will have to be increased slightly - due to muscle volume. And only after this can you begin directly burning fat, or, as this process is also called, “drying.”
Nutrition
To ensure that your calorie intake is ideal for both weight loss and muscle gain, you need to increase the amount of protein in your daily diet. But the consumption of carbohydrates and fats will have to be reduced. Then the total daily caloric intake should decrease.
Since proteins are considered the main building material for muscles, they will promote muscle growth. There is no need to worry about increasing your fat reserves.
Reducing carbohydrate intake has an adverse effect on training - there is not enough energy. It is recommended to replenish its reserves, but from other sources.
Workout
How to lose weight for a guy at the gym? Is it possible to pump up and lose extra pounds at the same time, and even without a training program? It is forbidden. Random training on exercise machines will not give the expected results. By the way, this also applies to girls.
It is very important to properly organize the training process. If you are a guy and you need to lose weight while building muscles, you need to clearly separate your gym activities.
Schedule strength training for one day, this way you will ensure that you build muscle mass. And on the second - interval or cardio training, working on burning fat deposits.
Eat foods with fiber
Fiber is a coarse or sticky fiber found only in plant foods. Products with fiber are always low in calories, but quickly saturate and fill the intestines. Fiber is not digested, so it remains in the intestines for a long time. And along with it - a feeling of satiety.
Sources of fiber are legumes, oatmeal, cabbage, oranges, apples and pears, berries, asparagus, flax seeds, tomatoes.
Cook with olive oil
Scientists have repeatedly conducted studies related to the benefits of sunflower, butter, flaxseed and olive oils. The latter took the first position in terms of saturation. This was expressed in a high level of serotonin in the blood after consuming olive oil. Therefore, it is especially useful for those who are trying to lose weight. Only when purchasing should you pay attention to the quality of the oil.
Eat less
This seems strange, but when it comes to how to lose weight without a diet, few people think about the portion size. But this is actually one of the main points. People started eating too much. Portions in restaurants, cafes and at home have become very large. A person does not need a lot of food for normal functioning. Food should only cover energy costs.
Try reducing your serving size. Just put less food on your plate. Chances are you won't even notice the difference. But by consuming fewer calories, you will noticeably lose weight.
After childbirth
New mothers often besiege thematic women's forums, trying to get information from there on how to lose weight after childbirth. From the information collected, a conclusion emerges - you don’t even have to try to go on a diet. At this point it will be a waste of time and effort. In addition, breastfeeding requires adequate nutrition. But what to do then?
Reviews indicate that to get your weight in order, you just need to control your diet. Dishes should be not only tasty, but also healthy.
During lactation, the body experiences a serious lack of three substances important for its proper functioning - proteins, calcium and iron. You need to make sure that they are present on your menu for every day.
By the way, iron activates the production of a special enzyme that affects fat burning. Therefore, a deficiency of this microelement prevents weight loss. Since you still want to lose weight after giving birth, a nursing mother needs to enrich her diet with seafood, lean meat, liver, eggs, nuts and whole grain bread.
Don't drink sugary drinks
This also seems strange, but drinks can be higher in calories than regular food. The problem is that they contain too much sugar. In 0.5 liters of sweet soda, its amount can reach 10 teaspoons. And these calories are not usually counted or paid attention to.
Avoid sugary carbonated drinks. Put less sugar in tea or coffee. Even with these simple rules you will reduce your total calorie intake during the day by 20-30%. This means you can lose weight without dieting.
Limits without limits
If you are losing weight, this does not mean that you have to chew the hated salad and shed tears. Choose food to your liking. If just the thought of broccoli spoils your mood, cook yourself something more tasty and filling. A person’s weight loss program is laid out in their head. Scientists have proven that people who convinced themselves that their portions were large and the food was delicious became full faster than those who ate forcefully. This is one of the most important rules for losing weight.
The first 6 weeks of the diet
You can eat as much as you want:
- All raw vegetables (target 500g per day)
- Cooked leafy greens and other vegetables: tomatoes, eggplants, mushrooms, peppers, onions, carrots, any cabbage, etc. (goal - another 500 g per day)
- Beans and all legumes in any form, including green beans and tofu (goal 1 cup per day)
- Fresh fruits (at least 4 per day)
You can eat limited:
- Pumpkin, corn, any potatoes, rice, bread (whole grain only), whole grain breakfast cereals (no more than 1 serving, or 1 cup, per day)
- Raw nuts and seeds (no more than 30 g per day)
- Avocado (no more than 60 g per day)
- Dried fruits (no more than 2 tablespoons per day)
- Flaxseed (no more than 1 tablespoon per day)
Absolutely prohibited:
- All dairy and animal products
- Snacks between meals
- Fruit juices
- Oils and fats
The most convenient meal plan:
Breakfast : fresh fruit.
Lunch : salad, legumes and fruit.
Dinner : salad and two boiled vegetables (500 g), fruit dessert.
To enhance the taste, use natural spices and seasonings without salt. You can make a sauce from tomato paste, onions and garlic, but without oil and salt.
Critical weeks
The most important role in the diet is played by the first 6 weeks, during which a person gets used to a new eating style and new tastes. These 1.5 months must be very strictly fulfilled all the requirements (see By the way). But at the same time, this is also a time of brilliant achievements - the fastest weight loss occurs in these weeks (sometimes up to 500 g per day).
After 6 weeks, you can eat more variedly and with fewer restrictions. But they exist. Otherwise, all your achievements will go down the drain and you will gain weight again, perhaps even more than before. This is a common diet story.
One of the main rules of nutrition for life is the 90% rule. Your diet should consist of 90% unrefined foods of plant origin. Only 10% of calories can come from animal products (meat, all dairy, poultry and fish). Let's be honest, this is very little. Let's consider this using the example of an average woman. Her daily diet should be 2000 kcal, and therefore 10% is only 200 kcal. It should be borne in mind that 100 kcal is contained in only 60 g of white poultry meat, or 45 g of red meat, or 90 g of fish, or a thin slice of cheese, or a small cookie. That is, you can consume no more than two servings from this list per day.
Article on the topic
An extra kilogram means less life. Does being overweight lead to cancer? If someone is not ready for this, they should not give up on the diet. Even if you give up processed foods, ready-made foods, sweets and flour, but follow the rules for consuming plant foods and eat some animal products made from real meat, poultry and fish, and not from semi-finished products, the benefits will still be there.
Train your willpower
Always remember that all your efforts to organize a balanced diet will pay off with interest. Scientists have proven that people who are overweight are more unable to resist even minimal temptations than others. Therefore, your task is to train your willpower for the sake of your own health. If you are thinking about how to learn to limit yourself in food, then try to study psychology and self-control, be stronger than your weaknesses.
How not to overeat: measuring portions using your palm and fist
I offer you a more effective strategy for maintaining or achieving healthy physical fitness.
Concentrate on the quality of the products. They must be fresh, tasty and safe.
Try to diversify your diet as much as possible: to do this, try to visit different stores and markets, look for different recipes, cook with your family, coming up with more and more new combinations, add herbs, spices, and don’t be afraid to try new things.
Eat 5 food groups daily: vegetables, fruits, whole grains (cereals, pasta, bread), protein products of animal and plant origin, dairy products. As you can see, there is no group of vegetable oils here, since it is impossible to separate them into a full-fledged group, but the presence of fats in the diet is mandatory.
Don't overeat. In order to eat in moderation, in America they came up with a plate system, which we visually divide into 3 parts: fill 1/2 of the plate with fruits and vegetables, 1/4 of the plate with complex carbohydrates and 1/4 with proteins. Plus a serving of dairy product. For clarity, I really like to use a similar picture. Here the group of dairy products is represented by milk, but it can be cottage cheese, cheese, or anything else.
It helps to navigate very well in the size of portions... your own palm! And this applies to both children and adults. For example:
1 fist = 1 serving of fruit
1 handful in the palm of your hand - a serving of cereal
palm without fingers - portion of meat/fish
phalanx of the thumb - a portion of oil
Of course, this, like counting calories, does not provide 100% accuracy, but it allows us to navigate, and we don’t need more. Just please don’t stuff cereal into your fist to determine the portion; it’s enough to do it “by eye.”
