Why does weight loss slow down over time and what to do about it? Anyone who has been on a diet for a long time notices that over time it becomes more and more difficult to lose weight. The more weight you lose, the slower your body gives up its “last”. This makes evolutionary sense, otherwise anyone could literally lose weight until they die. Although, none of those losing weight are happy with this internal fuse.
Posted by Lyle McDonald
Translation:
When planning a diet, it's tempting to use simple math. A typical approach: cut food by 500 calories per day, which in a week will give you a 3,500 calorie deficit and minus a pound. Unfortunately, this almost never happens. In the real world, weight loss rates don't match math-based plans.
Over the first few weeks, weight comes off quickly due to not only fat loss, but also muscle glycogen depletion and water loss. And then the rate of weight loss decreases. This happens for various reasons. The most common and simplest is self-deception in the amount of food eaten per day and inaccurate tracking of food. But for simplicity, we will assume that a person receives exactly the amount of calories needed to lose weight, but does not lose weight or does it very slowly.
Genetic features
“Each of us at birth received a set of genes that determine all the processes occurring in the body. Including fat formation (lipogenesis) and its consumption (lipolysis). Depending on the genetic characteristics, all people can be divided into fat-storing, fat-burning and balanced, in which the process of formation and breakdown of fat is balanced.
BUT! Genes are not a death sentence. Anyone can be slim. It’s just that some people need to put in less effort, while others need to put in more. And when studying genetic tests, sometimes one has to deal with excess weight in people with genetically predetermined active lipolysis. This means that a person, even despite his excellent genes, managed to ruin everything because he lived and ate incorrectly.
And to find out the peculiarities of your fat metabolism and how to properly organize your life and lose weight, you can take genetic tests. They are valid once and are valid for life.
In addition, the activity of genes, both “bad” and “good”, is determined by the general condition of the body. Therefore, if a person smokes, eats something unknown, sleeps poorly, and so on, then sooner or later all his “bad” genes turn on, and the “good” ones can no longer save the situation. And problems accumulate like a snowball.
What to do:
It is necessary to regularly see a doctor, even if nothing bothers you, in order to identify emerging problems in a timely manner and solve them.”
How much weight do you lose with proper nutrition? Is it possible to lose weight with proper nutrition without exercise?
For those who are in a hurry, I will answer right away - you can. And even without sports. It's all about the subtleties of the process. And for those who are in no hurry, I’ll tell you the subtleties.
Nowadays the concept of proper nutrition is very fashionable and popular. Nowadays the concept of proper nutrition is very fashionable and popular. It even has its own abbreviation - PP. It is not surprising that PP has become popular - since it is a rather general concept and everyone by it means what they like.
What is proper nutrition on the Internet? In general terms, something not very fatty, not very sweet, without additives or preservatives, and definitely not fried. And a great variety of products fall into this category - cereals, muffins, muesli, nuts, pasta, cheeses. This is all mixed with no less proper cucumbers and zucchini, and consumed no less correctly five times a day.
That is, a cake from a store is not a PP, but a homemade pie with cottage cheese is quite a PP. And to turn it into a storehouse of usefulness, you can also add honey and sprinkle nuts and fruits on top. A handful of nuts.
Do you know what handful a person who is losing weight has? It won't seem enough. I once weighed these handfuls. The norm is 20 grams of nuts, or even less. It's only 5 nuts. It turns out to be such a miniature handful that it becomes quite sad.
And 30 grams of the same grapes fit into exactly three grapes! Three!
And if you approach it from this point of view, then a pie with cottage cheese is, of course, better for the body than the same store-bought cake with the taste of cottage cheese.
Okay, let's leave the pie and move on to the soup. Soup is also a favorite dish for those losing weight - there is only water there. I am showing you a very healthy soup.
Important!
The cheese in the soup, and even in such quantities, covered in oil, really confused me, and out of curiosity I armed myself with a calculator. I just couldn’t reach the stated 40 kcal per hundred grams. 400 grams of cheese, almost half a kilo of potatoes and half a kilo of shrimp for good measure. I tried asking the experts for the recipe, why is this so? But the expert was adamant - there are exactly as many calories as written.
I will not be too lazy to calculate and show you the absolute non-dietary nature of this dish, which contains almost 400 kcal of oil alone:
- processed cream cheese 400 grams - 292 kcal * 400 grams = 1168 kcal;
- potatoes 400 grams - 86 kcal * 400 grams = 344 kcal;
- onion 1 piece -42 kcal*100 grams = 42 kcal;
- 1 carrot – 41 kcal*100 grams = 41 kcal;
- peeled shrimp 500 grams - 91 kcal * 500 grams = 455 kcal;
- vegetable oil 40 grams - 899 kcal * 40 grams = 360 kcal;
- salt, herbs - let it be 10 kcal.
Total 2420 kcal for the whole soup. And then, if you haven’t put a little more delicious cheese and a little more potatoes somewhere, don’t throw it away, and you didn’t pour the oil by eye. Now the entire soup must be weighed in fact and divided by the calorie content in one hundred grams, since it is useless to calculate according to the recipe - during the cooking process the soup is boiled down and the volume decreases.
And so you prepare this wonderful soup and pour yourself a bowl. A plate contains from three hundred grams, if the plate is very small - miniature. And then you remain hungry. After all, it’s just soup—water, so to speak. And with the soup you also need a second dish and compote. By the way, many people losing weight on PP cannot do without absolutely proper whole grain bread.
Is it possible to lose weight on such a program? Can! Provided that you maintain a balance of calories - that is, the number of kcal received should be less than the amount spent. It turns out that you ate a bowl of soup and go for walks until the evening.
Is it possible to lose weight on PP without sports? It is possible if you maintain the same calorie balance. What about sports? This is also possible if you maintain a balance of calories.
I would like to mention that sport is currently a panacea. Finally, face the truth. These two hundred kcal spent will not cover the energy intensity of even a piece of pie prepared according to all the canons of proper nutrition. The fact that you are sweaty and tired in most cases indicates poor physical fitness, and not a kiloton of kcal burned.
So let's be objective! If by proper nutrition you only mean home-cooked food, not cooked in a frying pan, then you won’t just lose weight. To lose weight, proper nutrition must also be balanced in calories! And here, honestly, it doesn’t matter whether the diet is healthy or not - a person will lose weight with a deficit of any calories, whether the right ones or not.
Insulin resistance
“Insulin is a hormone necessary to maintain normal blood glucose levels. It converts sugar into energy reserves - glycogen. But the body cannot store glycogen indefinitely. And if the previous portion of energy has not yet been used up, then insulin will convert excess glucose into fat. And first of all, this fat will accumulate at the waist.
By the way, measuring your waist circumference is more informative for your health than weighing yourself. A woman's waist circumference should not exceed 79 cm, and a man's 93 cm.
Each time, in response to an increase in blood glucose levels, a new portion of insulin is formed. At a certain point, there is a lot of insulin, but due to excess adipose tissue, it ceases to perform its functions of transporting glucose into the body's cells, and blood sugar may begin to rise. This condition is called insulin resistance. High levels of insulin provoke inadequate weight gain, even with diet and exercise.
What to do:
To confirm insulin resistance, it is necessary to donate blood for insulin and fasting glucose. Based on the results of the examination, a diet will be recommended aimed at normalizing insulin levels, and, if necessary, treatment.”
Why don't you lose weight when you're on a diet? At a low start
When going on a diet, many expect, if not instant results, then at least obvious changes. And this is really a very important psychological component. By denying ourselves our favorite foods, we step on the scale and want to see our well-deserved “reward.” But it’s still not there... Few people have enough motivation to endure hardships. Try a different route. Start your weight loss journey with active weight loss. Let’s make a reservation right away - this is not pure fat mass, not the weight that will leave you forever. In a short period of time, you will lose mostly water. But the feeling of lightness and the treasured numbers on the scales will help instill self-confidence and inspire further, more painstaking work.
One of the phases of Pierre DUCAN’s weight loss system, “Attack,” is suitable for this task. During it, the menu consists exclusively of protein: meat, fish, eggs, low-fat processed foods. The duration varies from 1 to 10 days (no more!) and depends on how many extra pounds you plan to remove. For example, excess weight up to 5 kg - 1-2 days, from 5 to 10 kg - 3-5 days, from 10 kg or more - 5-7 days. Weight loss during this period can be up to 6 kg
Allowed products on "Attack"
- Lean meat: veal, beef (with the exception of entrecote and beef sirloin), rabbit Pork and lamb are prohibited!
- Offal: beef, veal and poultry liver, kidneys and veal tongue tip of beef tongue
- Poultry (I think you can’t eat it), and duck
- Lean ham (no pork skin). Fat content from 2 to 4%
- All fish, without exception: fresh or smoked, fatty, canned in its own juice
- Any crustaceans and molluscs
- Eggs. Up to two yolks per day. Protein - unlimited per day. If you have high cholesterol, eat no more than 3-4 yolks per week
- Low-fat dairy products: cottage cheese, natural yoghurts, kefir, skim milk, skimmed milk powder (do not exceed 3 tablespoons per day).
All these products must be prepared without fat. You can consume them without any restrictions in quantity and at any time of the day.
Hormone deficiency
“Our body constantly uses energy, even when we sleep. The amount spent on maintaining vital functions (basal metabolism) depends on many factors. Including the level of so-called lipolytic hormones that help reduce fat reserves. These hormones include thyroid hormones, sex hormones - estrogens and testosterone, as well as adrenal hormones.
When the production of thyroid hormones decreases (hypothyroidism), metabolic activity decreases and fluid accumulates in the body. Due to this, weight increases and swelling appears.
Deficiency of sex hormones can be associated with various diseases (PCOS, ovarian dysfunction, etc.), but is most often observed after 40 years in both men and women. This is due to the aging of the gonads - ovaries and testes. In women, this process proceeds quite quickly and ends with menopause (the last menstruation in life) at the age of 50–53 years. After menopause, estrogen levels decrease dramatically, which causes fairly rapid weight gain. On the other hand, a deficiency of sex hormones quite quickly provokes the development of insulin resistance, which aggravates the situation with weight gain. In men, the decrease in the level of sex hormones does not occur so sharply and depends more on lifestyle and health. But a deficiency of sex hormones causes a similar decrease in metabolism and provokes insulin resistance.
The reduction in fat under the influence of adrenal hormones is largely determined by genetic characteristics. Therefore, some people lose weight quite quickly in a stressful situation. But on the other hand, many people tend to eat away stress with abundant and not at all healthy food, which ultimately leads to weight gain.
In addition, with chronic stress, the phenomenon of “pregnenolone theft” occurs. Sex hormones and adrenal hormones are formed from the same starting substance - pregnenolone. With constant stress, all pregnenolone is used to form the stress hormone cortisol. As a result, there is no longer any left for the synthesis of sex hormones. A deficiency of sex hormones occurs with all the ensuing consequences. Therefore, stress in most cases negatively affects the figure.
What to do:
To exclude hormonal deficiency, it is necessary to undergo an examination. An ultrasound and blood tests for hormones may be needed.”
Insufficient or inadequate sleep
“It is known that people who live in a constant sleep deficit are more likely to gain excess weight compared to those who sleep enough. However, not only the duration of night sleep matters, but also its quality.
The most complete night's sleep begins before midnight, in complete darkness and without waking up. The fact is that restoration of the body occurs fully only with the participation of the hormone melatonin, which is produced exclusively during the deep sleep phase. And if a person wakes up every 2-3 hours, he may never enter this phase and remain without melatonin.
Melatonin deficiency reduces the activity of energy processes in the body, impairs the production of thyroid hormones, sex hormones, and, as you understand, it does not get better.
What to do:
To assess the quality of sleep, you can use a sonogram, which allows you to differentiate sleep phases and estimate their duration.”
