Motivation for losing weight: facts that will make you change

Books about effective weight loss and various diets constantly appear on the bestseller list published in the authoritative publication The New York Times. This suggests that they are indeed very popular among those losing weight. Their authors (medics, psychologists and simply people with experience) invite their readers to adhere to strict rules, enjoy any dishes and count calories. Thus, each of us has the opportunity to choose our own path to great health and a new figure.

Of course, to lose extra pounds correctly and stay in good shape, mechanical dieting will not be enough. You need to learn to understand your body. Let's look at the best books about losing weight that will help you do this.

“I don’t know how to lose weight” Pierre Dukan - about his nutrition system

Dr. Dukan describes in his book a nutritional system that instantly gained popularity due to its effectiveness (fast and serious weight loss) and reasonable dietary restrictions. It is clear that all the author’s recommendations are mandatory, but the Dukan system is quite within the capabilities of every woman. The first two stages of the system are a harsh impact on excess weight, the next two are consolidation of the results obtained. Dukan diet products are available in all Russian stores - this is one of the undoubted advantages of the diet. The second advantage is the variety of dishes.

Health

Many overweight people refuse to lose weight just because they feel more or less normal. Well, just think, it’s a little hard to bend over, shortness of breath is sometimes tormenting and sweating is slightly increased - you can live with this. But they simply do not know the real state of affairs. It's time to open your eyes to what happens to the body if you have even 10 kg of excess weight and what this means in the future.

The cardiovascular system

Weight gain requires the heart to pump blood faster. With age, he would do the opposite - to rest, but no, people force him to work to the limit, because every extra centimeter of his body needs to be supplied with a sufficient amount of oxygen. Don't want to lose weight? No, but then get ready in a few years to hear such diagnoses as:

• heart attack (fatal in 40% of cases);
• stroke (ends in death in 25%, paralysis in 45%, disability in 90%);
• hypertension (you will have to sit with a blood pressure monitor in your hands all your life);
• angina pectoris (constant chest pain that cannot be relieved by any pill);
• atherosclerosis (at any time it can result in thrombosis and death);
• obesity of the heart (if there is too much fatty tissue, the organ simply will not be able to continue to perform its function and will stop).

Metabolism

Most of the fat is deposited in the abdominal cavity. Now imagine what it’s like for the organs located there to work in such conditions. The gastrointestinal tract cannot digest food normally, and the liver cannot cope with the volume of waste and toxins that it needs to filter and remove. Glucose, which is vital for cells, cannot be transported to the necessary points in the body, which leads to an increase in insulin. The consequences of all these processes sound together with diagnoses:

• diabetes (are you ready to measure your blood sugar levels several times a day, inject insulin and go on a strict diet for the rest of your life?);
• cholecystitis;
• pancreatitis;
• gastritis;
• urolithiasis disease;
• hepatosis;
• constipation

Did you know that all of these diseases require you to follow a very strict diet for the rest of your life? Then isn’t it easier now to normalize nutrition and reduce the risk of these diseases to a minimum?

Spine and joints

How much excess weight are you? Have you calculated your BMI (we have already told you how to do this)? 10 kg? Then imagine these 10 kg of yours in the form of a bucket of white, unpleasant fat. And wear it all day. How long can you stand it? Hardly. Now understand that this burden is carried by your joints, bones, and spine 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. It is not surprising that they wear out quickly, and within a year or two you will have to deal with diseases such as:

• gout;
• osteoarthritis;
• osteochondrosis;
• spondylosis.

Read at your leisure what symptoms accompany these diseases: back pain is often compared to women’s labor pains, and their legs are also lost because they can no longer bear this weight. And all this is only 1 bucket per 10 kg of fat. What if you have more?

Respiratory system

It is very difficult for the respiratory system to cope with excess weight. Fat puts pressure on the diaphragm from the peritoneum and prevents you from breathing fully. The lungs are one of the first to fail. And here are the results:

• hypoventilation of the lungs (leads to lack of air and attacks of suffocation);
• hypoxemia;
• apnea (during sleep, breathing can stop and... in 10% of cases the lungs cannot open up - the person dies);
• cyanosis (problems with the lungs lead to an unpleasant bluish tint to the skin, so that people around you may mistakenly think that you are abusing alcohol).

It is unnecessary to mention shortness of breath, because even with 5 extra kilos it is already detected. Want proof? Take the stairs to the 5th floor or walk a couple of stops. Can you not lose your breath? That's the same!

Reproductive system

Adipose tissue likes to interfere with hormonal processes. If there is a lot of it, sex hormones are the first to suffer. The activity of estrogen and testosterone decreases. Firstly, this is fraught with a decrease in libido. Secondly, it leads to a whole bunch of unpleasant diseases.

For girls:

• irregular menstruation;
• lack of ovulation;
• polycystic ovary syndrome;
• ovarian, endometrial, mammary gland cancer;
• miscarriages;
• infertility.

For men:

• early androgen deficiency, which is also called male menopause: impotence is one of the main symptoms of this condition;
• erectile disfunction.

Nervous system

It is believed that overweight people are much more balanced and kinder than thin people. If you think about this phenomenon and look at it from the perspective of the processes occurring in the body, a sane person will become truly scared. Why does excess weight lead to such imaginary peace?

Fat tissue attacks nerve fibers, and they simply cannot transmit signals to the brain normally. Hence the absence of ordinary human reactions to current events: there is no surge of emotions, joy, sadness. All this is lost under the thickness of growing fat.

Staying healthy is the best motivation for losing weight. Unfortunately, people understand this too late, when the doctor has already pinned them to the wall with a diagnosis and reported that further inaction is a risk to life. But you are a literate person and you know that it is better not to bring things to such a critical point? Then get to work on your bucket of fat right now and don't stop until there's not an ounce of it left.

Willpower: how to develop and strengthen

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Author: Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., psychologist and professor at Stanford. Recipient of Stanford University's highest teaching award.

About the book: this book gives hope to those who really can do anything, but just don’t know how willpower works. When you know how it works and where you can expect a catch, it is easier to resist temptations. If you were asked what the only book everyone should read, without exception, would be “Willpower.” Just read and you'll understand why there are no empty seats in Professor McGonigal's Willpower course at Stanford.

This book is the best instructor on how to force yourself to start or continue losing weight, playing sports and leading a healthy lifestyle!

Who is this book for: We recommend this publication as mandatory reading for absolutely everyone, regardless of age and gender.

One habit per week. Change yourself in a year

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Author : Brett Blumenthal is a wellness expert, bestselling author of A Whole New You and A Year Lived Well, and a regular participant in change and health conferences.

About the book : in this book you will find 52 steps towards new habits, health, excellent memory and high productivity. You'll learn how you can improve your health and well-being by developing your brain. The author suggests making one small but important change per week - from developing an ear for music to eating brain-healthy foods and stopping multitasking. Together, these small changes will lead to big results—you can improve your memory, be more productive, feel less stressed, and be happier.

Who is it for : for anyone and everyone who wants to get a lot done, use the capabilities of their brain 100% and get rid of stress.

Psychology of bad habits

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Author : Richard O'Connor is a psychotherapist with 30 years of experience and the author of popular books about treating depression, happiness and bad habits.

About the book : the book will tell you how to get rid of destructive habits and teach your brain to work in a new way. We tend to repeat our mistakes: returning to not the best partners, unsuccessfully adopting an unsuitable diet for the hundredth time, indulging in one of the bad habits, being unable to cope with it. The book will teach you how to get rid of bad habits and addictions and change your life for the better.

Who is it for : for everyone, without exception.

Techniques

Motivation by Beck Judith

Beck Judith is a professional psychologist, author of cognitive psychotherapy for eating disorders. This woman has already helped hundreds of people lose weight, convincing them that all the reasons for extra pounds are in their own head and on their plate, and not in genetics, heredity and diseases.

She suggests working on motivation in the following ways:

• Day 1 - make a list of what is inaccessible to you due to excess weight (wearing your favorite dress, undressing to an open swimsuit on the beach, getting pregnant, getting married);
• Day 2 - calculate how long and by how many kg you can actually (!) lose weight (on average, you can lose 4-5 kg ​​per month without harm to your health);
• Day 3 - write down a weight loss plan: a menu for the period that you set for yourself yesterday; training in the gym; schedule of visits to the pool or dances, etc.;
• Day 4: Start putting your plan into action.

Every day you need to write down the results in a notebook: you lost so many kg, missed a fitness class for such and such a reason, achieved the desired effect before the designated time, etc. At the same time, the list compiled on the first day should be constantly in front of your eyes.

Beck Judith's motivation method is for sale, it can be ordered for relatively little money: believe me, the advice of a psychologist for every day, which will accompany you throughout the entire period of losing weight, is worth a lot!

Kovalkov's technique

Motivation according to Dr. Kovalkov is called one of the toughest. After it, even those who had not previously thought about diets and sports lose weight. Here's what the scientists who developed this technique suggest doing:

1. Pass a medical examination.
2. With the results, go to a nutritionist and say the cherished words: “I want to lose weight according to Kovalkov’s method.”
3. Listen carefully to everything he tells you.
4. Do everything he advises.

What is the essence of the technique? Based on the results of your examination, the nutritionist will describe in vivid detail what is happening to your health at this stage and outline the immediate prospects if you do not force yourself to lose weight. Believe me, after you feel scared for your life, you will definitely want to get back to normal. After this, the nutritionist will give recommendations regarding diet and physical activity that you will need to follow.

Sviyash and Hay technique

This is a visualization technique, one of the tools of positive psychology. You will need to take the following steps:

1. Come up with your ideal image with a slim figure in your head and imagine how happy you will be.
2. Put it all on paper in the form of a 1st person story.
3. Accompany the story with clippings from magazines or printouts from the Internet with real stories of people who lost weight.
4. Look in the mirror every day and imagine yourself losing weight, convincing yourself that you deserve a more beautiful body and can achieve it.
5. As soon as you feel like you’re ready to lose your temper (you want to eat some cake or you’re too lazy to go for a run), re-read your story.
6. Buy something a couple sizes smaller, look at it every day and dream about how you will wear it.

This motivation is more suitable for dreamy and creative girls, but it works well and allows you to achieve your goals.

Psychology. People, concepts, experiments

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Author: Paul Kleinman is a blogger, writer, screenwriter and author of popular books on philosophy, psychology and more.

About the book: everything you wanted to know about psychology - simple, clear and interesting. This book is not a boring textbook for a university, stuffed with theories and concepts - with evidence, justification and other scary terms. You will learn about the most famous psychologists who made an invaluable contribution to science: Ivan Pavlov, Sigmund and Anna Freud, Alfred Adler, Hermann Rorschach, Jean Piaget, Kurt Lewin and more than 30 other personalities.

Explore key ideas - theories of intelligence and personality, cognitive dissonance and leadership, understanding emotions, love, stress and dreams. You will read about fascinating experiments, basic concepts and directions - cognitive and Gestalt psychology, behaviorism and art therapy. Learn to understand dissociative, anxiety and mood disorders.

Who is it for: for curious people who are open to knowledge.

Allen Carr "The Easy Way to Lose Weight"

Allen Carr has helped millions of people quit smoking. And he wrote about being overweight. Or rather, about how to avoid our entire modern cultural tradition in the process of discarding it. What will a nutritionist advise us? Download the app on your smartphone, buy a culinary scale and start, at a minimum, counting calories. As a maximum, hang a fitness bracelet on your wrist and count your steps.

READ ALSO: Economical menu for the week

And why don't we do this? Yes, it's just difficult. The squirrel doesn't know how to lose weight. She eats nuts. And the hare doesn’t know - he eats grass and escapes from predators. Allen Carr convinces us to become vegetarians. Yes, not just, but radical vegans who eat only “grass,” vegetables, fruits and nuts. I must say, it convinces brilliantly. Even if we are not from this category of people at all, it is still interesting to read.

SUPERCHAMPION OF INDEPENDENT WEIGHT LOSS ACCORDING TO THE BOOK BY V. I. MIRKIN

Starostin Alexander Yurievich, 48 years old, Krasnodar region, Minusinsk. I lost 161 kg in two years (1999-2000) after reading my book “How to lose 10 kg in a month.” He was particularly impressed by the chapter “Weight Loss Record Breakers,” which describes weight loss records among members of the “Former Fat People’s Club.” He believed in the very possibility of defeating obesity, even for people with enormous weight. From his letter it became known that he began to gain weight from the age of 25, which he associates with the developed habit of overeating in the evening and at night.

At the age of 27, he weighed 100 kg, and had no intention of losing weight, because he believed that he was healthy and that excess weight did not bother him.

In 1992, due to military operations in Chechnya, he was forced to move from the city of Grozny, where he was born and raised, to the city of Minusinsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory. I had a hard time moving to another city, my mood dropped, and irritability appeared. However, eating a lot of food, especially at night, distracted from painful thoughts and lifted my spirits. As a result, he began to gain weight catastrophically and already in 1993 he weighed 180 kg, and in 1994 - 200 kg.

In 1994, he was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of IV degree obesity, where he was given the third group of disability.

In 1998, Alexander already weighed 278 kg, his general condition worsened significantly, joint pain, severe shortness of breath, and weakness appeared. The abdominal circumference was 220 cm! Body mass index – 86 (the norm is 25)! He could hardly move, hardly left the apartment, and did not work.

Following the recommendations of my book, I lost 161 kg in two years (1999-2000) and in 2000 already weighed 117 kg! At the same time, his shortness of breath and joint pain completely disappeared, and his blood pressure normalized. And most importantly, he began to move easily, lead an active lifestyle, play sports, and got a job.

Alexander Yuryevich Starostin lost 161 kg in two years

This is not the first time that a book helps a person believe in himself and break out of fat captivity. And Alexander Starostin’s record weight loss result is a vivid example of the victory of the human spirit and will over illness and adversity. Lately, readers often call me not only from Russia and neighboring countries, but also from Germany, Belgium, Italy, the USA and other countries and report that they are successfully losing weight using my books. Some of them consult with me by phone.

BE the best version of yourself

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Author : Dan Waldschmidt is a business strategist, renowned speaker, and owner of the consulting company Waldschmidt Partners International. Participates in ultramarathons and daily running.

About the book: The stories from this book will not leave you indifferent and will inspire you to new achievements at work, in sports and in any other areas of life. The book will tell you about the true ingredients of success.

This book is simply the best motivation for women and men on how to force themselves psychologically to exercise and lose weight.

Who is it for: for those who want to achieve outstanding results in anything; those who love bright books and inspiring stories that evoke a storm of emotions; those who want to give a friend or loved one a book that can change their life.

Psychology of nutrition for weight loss

Quotes, books, films

We offer you a list of motivations shared by our readers. Perhaps they will help you decide on your goal.

I want to lose weight so that:

• improve health, reduce the risk of life-threatening diseases;
• get married;
• return the love and affection of your husband/wife;
• improve the quality of sex;
• get rid of complexes;
• get a position that requires a presentable appearance;
• get a good job where there is a dress code for the appearance of employees;
• don’t be shy about posting selfies on social networks;
• not to hear behind your back unpleasant words like “fat cow”, “fat woman”;
• wear tight clothes / fit into your favorite jeans (dress);
• to look like some star;
• show off your figure in a beautiful swimsuit on the beach.

Motivational Quotes:

• Dieting is the only game you win when you lose;
• A minute in the mouth - and years on the hips;
• Don't dig your own grave with your own knife and fork;
• Junk food satisfies you within a minute - a beautiful figure will satisfy you throughout your life;
• You need to decide what you want more: sausages or size 40;
• Those who think that they have no time for exercise will sooner or later be forced to waste time in illness;
• What you eat in private will be seen by the whole public;
• If you feel like you're giving up, remember why you were holding on before;
• Darling, if you want to lose weight, eat naked and in front of a mirror;
• Take care of your body. This is the only place you need to live;
• Buy a new refrigerator magnet with the inscription “Happiness is not in grub!”;
• With your constitution, you need to go to the kitchen like to a museum: don’t touch anything and just look;
• The body is baggage that you carry throughout your life. The heavier it is, the shorter the journey.

Movies:

• “Food Corporation” (USA, 2008, documentary);
• “The Subtle World of Fat People” (Russia, 2010, documentary film);
• “Fast Food Nation” (USA, UK, 2006, drama);
• “The Mirror Has Two Faces” (USA, 1996, romantic melodrama, Barbara Streisand in the title role);
• “My Mom’s New Boyfriend” (USA, Germany, 2008, comedy, Antonio Banderas and Meg Ryan starring);
• “Treasure” (USA, 2009, drama, Mariah Carey in the title role);
• “School for Fat Women” (Russia, 2010, detective comedy);
• “200 Pounds of Beauty” (South Korea, 2006, melodrama).

Books:

• A. Kovalkov “Lose weight wisely”;
• A. Carr “An easy way to lose weight”;
• D. Kessler “The End of Gluttony”;
• D. Austin “Women's problem areas”;
• E. Mirimanova “Minus 60. System and recipes in one book”;
• E. Mirimanova “Positive weight loss. The most important secret of success";
• Justine “This morning I decided to stop eating”;
• L. Moussa “3,000 ways not to interfere with harmony”;
• M. Koroleva “Easy path to slimness. Lose weight forever";
• M. Montignac “Montignac method especially for women”;
• M. Trifonova “Negotiations with sausage, or we are what we eat”;
• P. Dukan “I don’t know how to lose weight”;
• Y. Pilipchatina “And I know how to lose weight! A notebook for easy walking and unearthly beauty.”

“Calorie counter. Basics of proper nutrition", Yulianna Pliskina

“Calorie Counter” is another interesting book about weight loss that contains a lot of useful information. There are detailed tables of nutritional and energy value, glycemic index of foods, vitamin and mineral composition and much more.

Thanks to the book, you will finally learn what proper nutrition is, how you can balance your diet, what calories you need to exclude, and how not to harm your own health in pursuit of an ideal body.

Yulianna Pliskina’s work contains many ready-made tools that will help you create your own diet and stick to it throughout your life. And if you don’t know where to start creating a menu, then this book will help you understand the basic principles of this process and the possible results.

The selection of books is quite diverse, so you will certainly find something suitable for yourself. If you wish, you can try several weight loss methods or come up with your own based on the materials you have read.

And if you want to share your ideas with others or are trying to find out reviews from other users on the books presented, then you can do this by participating in the “Two Carrots” games. We hope that our TOP will help you better understand your body and learn how to maintain proper and healthy nutrition.