How to really lose weight
Mark Twain, when asked if it was easy to quit smoking, answered: nothing is easier, I’ve already done it a hundred times! It’s about the same with losing weight. How to stop “starting to lose weight” and actually lose excess weight?
How to lose weight?
Sometimes you wake up, look in the mirror and get so angry with yourself that, without leaving your seat, you decide: that’s it, it’s time to go on a diet!
But this has probably happened before: on another Monday you hated yourself for being overweight and were ready for exploits and achievements… And if it didn’t work, it means you were doing something wrong. Therefore, before we rush into the embrasures again, let’s slow down and try to understand: what mistakes ruined everything last time and how not to repeat them?
how to lose weight? strict food restrictions
How to lose weight?The first rake that many people step on is strict food restrictions. The stereotype “if I want to lose weight, it means I have to suffer!” very tenacious. That is why all kinds of mono-diets and refusal of dinners are so popular among people. This is indeed difficult, but we are not joining a club of masochists, we need something completely different!
Common mistakes
Often we believe that the root of problems is in one product. For example, in sugar. And those losing weight drink empty tea, forgetting that a glass of sweet tea contains only 40 kcal, which, by and large, does not do us any good.
It’s a similar story with dinner refusals. Not only is this fraught with breakdowns, but the body very quickly learns to compensate for the lack of “evening” calories with an excess of them at other times of the day. And without noticing it, you begin to have breakfast or lunch in the Gargantua style. The total caloric content of the diet does not decrease. And why was there any need to suffer?
As scientific studies have shown, tactics based on strict calorie restriction lead to a slowdown in energy expenditure and a slowdown in the rate of weight loss.
It’s simple: if you eat too little, the body is unable to extract energy from fat reserves!
What to do?
The most effective diets are those with moderate restrictions – at least 1500-1800 kcal per day. Focus on your feelings. If you are hungry and cold all the time, weakness and apathy appear, most likely your menu is too meager. And vice versa, if you feel a surge of strength and increased performance, then everything is going right.
how to lose weight? losing weight is working at the limit of human capabilities
The logic of traditional weight loss says: everything should be at the limit of human capabilities. Don’t just exhaust yourself with diets, but also train hard! Nobody promised that it would be easy.
How to lose weight?
Common mistakes
Those who rely on exhausting fitness should be disappointed: in an untrained person, intense exercise does not stimulate a decrease in fat reserves. Carbohydrates will be consumed, and their reserves in the body are already small. Moreover, your appetite increases, and you want sweets and fatty foods first of all. That is, there is no benefit in terms of weight loss.
What to do?
Avoid extremes. Proper training should not lead to fatigue: the tone after exercise should be higher than before it. By the way, moderate exercise reduces appetite. The “fat burning” mode is activated if during training the heart rate is 100–110 beats per minute. It’s optimal to start walking at a fairly fast pace, but without pushing yourself, for half an hour a day.
How to lose weight?
how to lose weight? motivation for losing weight
If a person really needs to lose weight, he can easily answer the questions:
Why does he need this?
Why does he want to lose so many pounds?
Why does he need to lose weight by this specific date?
For example, a girl has a meeting with classmates in 2-3 months. Naturally, at this meeting she wants to look as elegant as she did in her senior year. The 5–6 kg gained over the past years is getting in the way. All conditions are known: how much, by when, why.
If a person cannot answer all these questions clearly, it means that he does not have a specific motive for losing weight. And without this it is impossible to lose weight.
How to lose weight?
how to lose weight? a few wishes
First wish . Try to find the motive and answer these three questions: how much? When? For what? This is not as easy a job as it seems. The participation of a psychologist may be required.
Second wish. Take a break from the numbers on the scales – anyway, they are of no interest to anyone but you. Consider losing weight as part of a healthy life. Walk more, eat low-fat foods. In this mode, you will painlessly lose 1–2 kg per month, and this is against the backdrop of increased performance and good mood. Not bad, right?
How to lose weight?How to lose weight?
how to lose weight? realistic goals
How to lose weight?
When advertising promises us to “get rid of belly fat forever” in a couple of days, and the Internet is replete with stories of happy weight loss of 20 kg per month, then the planned loss of 1 kg per week may seem like a very modest achievement. Throwing and breakdowns may begin. Doubts can kill any, even the strongest motive.
Therefore, do not set unrealistic goals. Remember, the normal rate of fat loss rarely exceeds 1 kg per week. A loss of 2–3 kg per month is considered optimal. Such weight loss is physiological, achieved without extra effort, which means the result will be lasting.
Doubts can engulf a person if, say, in the first few days of losing weight, he lost weight quickly, and then the matter suddenly stalled. We must keep in mind that this is normal. At first, water is actively removed, due to which kilograms are lost. And then, the goal of our enterprise is not weight loss as such. It is important to reduce fat mass while maintaining muscle mass.
We cannot consider weight loss due to fluid removal an achievement.
The effect of losing weight will suit us only if the decrease in fat mass is accompanied by a healthier body and an increase in the quality of life.
how to lose weight? what is water?
Water is perhaps the main weight loss masker. The fluid is either released by the body or accumulated. Naturally, the weight fluctuates – within 1-2 kg per day. I will give examples of several situations when fluid leaves the body at an accelerated rate.
Experiments with the use of diuretics and laxatives . First, while taking them, there is a loss of fluid, and weight decreases. However, then the water begins to accumulate again. Taking such drugs for weight loss is completely pointless.
Sweatshop workouts . Lost a whole kilogram in one session? Make no mistake: it’s the water that’s gone, not the fat. Even with very intense training, energy expenditure rarely exceeds 900 kcal per hour. And this is a maximum of 100 g of fat.
Sauna . The principle of weight loss is the same as in fitness. Sweating profusely has nothing to do with the breakdown of fat.
Not enough salt . Loss of fluid due to a decrease in salt content in the body. This can happen if the diet is low in table salt – NaCl.
How to lose weight? How to lose weight?
how to lose weight? slimming concealers
And, of course, you need to know the situations when fat mass decreases, but weight remains almost unchanged or even increases.
How to lose weight?Salty and spicy food . 10 g of salt can retain 1 liter of water in the body. For reference: this amount of salt is contained in 200 g of salted and 100 g of dried fish.
Alcohol consumption . The body “dilutes” alcohol and its breakdown products with water to less toxic concentrations. And the weight may temporarily increase.
Menstrual cycle . For many women, water is retained in the body during the second phase of the menstrual cycle. Weight fluctuations can reach 3–5 kg! By the way, the result of a short (for example, a week) course of weight loss very often depends on the phase of the cycle in which this weight loss began: immediately after the end of your period, the effect can be 2 times more noticeable than if you took care of yourself a week before they started.
Intense workout . Overtrained muscles swell after exercise, and the water content in the body increases. And despite superhuman efforts, the weight either does not decrease at all or decreases very slowly.
how to lose weight? self-control
