Only two months until summer - it's time to take care of yourself! But you need to get in shape wisely. Together with an expert, we will find out how many pounds you can lose in a month, why extreme diets are harmful and how to eliminate the feeling of hunger by changing your diet.
We will tell you the basic rules that will help you get rid of excess weight.
Basic rules for safe weight loss
Everyone dreams of a "beach figure", and it is entirely possible to sculpt it, even if you have dozens of extra pounds. But it's not a quick thing. Why won't it be possible to lose more than 8 kg in a healthy way by next summer? What health problems can be caused by extreme diets? And how, ultimately, to lose weight correctly? Nutritionist and gastroenterologist Svetlana Kovaleva answers all these important questions.
"If we are talking about good weight loss, then you should immediately prepare for the fact that it will not be quick, " our interlocutor noted. — Because the body accumulates certain components for a long time and to reset them also requires enough time. The speed of metabolic processes in humans does not increase sharply.
The main recommendations of the doctor concern the main components of any diet: calorie content and the ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
Calorie problem
— The diet should not be too low in calories. Sometimes people not only begin to introduce fasting days into their diet, but practically switch to fasting. This is incorrect, the body will not perceive this as a physiologically correct diet, it will only be stressed and will not understand what to do in this situation. Therefore, reducing the volume of food should be done gently, " said the nutritionist.
Separately, it is worth mentioning the calorie content of each meal.
- If it turns out that you cannot have breakfast, you skipped lunch, the entire calories should not be lost before going to bed. Because we have circadian rhythms in the body and in the evening the body prepares for sleep and not for processing the calories received.
Proteins, fats and carbohydrates
However, reckless reduction of calories, even within normal limits, can be harmful to health if you do not take into account the amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the diet. What should it look like?
Proteins: counting correctly
Most people, when losing weight, should consume an amount of protein that is in the normal range or slightly higher, the doctor noted. But how to calculate it? It's actually very simple:
— Usually, at first, depending on the level of excess weight, the amount of protein is estimated between 1 and 1. 5 grams per kilogram. This means pure protein. In other words, let's say a person weighs 90 kg.
This means that he should not eat 90 grams of chicken, but should count the amount of poultry, fish and meat he needs so that they provide him with the required amount of protein. We have many calculators for this purpose on the Internet.
In this case, the chicken will weigh 450 grams. In addition, other products also contain protein, so you can calculate here in detail based on what a person eats in general.
Fats: healthy and not so good
"Excess fats should definitely not be in the diet, " the nutritionist noted. - They are provided in large quantities only in certain dietary options. When discussing fats, their qualitative characteristics are important. You can use vegetable oils, or eat hearty beef, in which we get the protein, but also eat lots of fats along the way. Although beef is not the worst option. There is often pork.
Or you can use cold-pressed vegetable oils, with cakes, with bitters. All beneficial substances are retained in it, and these oils are exchanged in a completely different way, unlike butter and some dairy products, for example, cheeses, where there is more fat or oil.
Carbohydrates: going from simple to complex
— Most often, diets are based on reducing the amount of carbohydrates. But a more correct approach is simply to qualitatively change their structure.
First of all, we need to reduce simple, or so-called added, sugars as much as possible: sugar itself, cakes, ice cream and other confectionery products dear to our hearts, noted Svetlana Kovaleva. Anything made from flour, soft wheat pasta, refined rice and other simple carbohydrates should be eliminated from your diet. What to replace them with?
— These are more complete cereals which require long cooking. Even oatmeal can be cooked in five minutes, or it can be cooked for much longer. In addition, to the side dishes where carbohydrates will predominate, proteins can also be added - we are talking about legumes.
Simplicity and regularity
Correctly calculating the calorie content and the ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in diet nutrition will not be difficult at all if you adhere to another basic principle of good nutrition: make up your diet from the simplest products andthe most understandable. A long composition on the packaging is not our option.
"It's just cereals, just chicken, not meatballs, meatballs, sausages or sausages, " Svetlana Kovaleva emphasized.
In addition, the frequency and regularity of meals are very important.
— There are many different opinions on this subject. But practice shows that multiplicity is necessary. As a gastroenterologist, I cannot ignore this topic. You need to eat at least three times a day, otherwise many of us like to eat once or twice - this won't work.
Drinking regime
"You also cannot ignore the drinking regime, " noted the nutritionist. — People who drink three glasses a day come more and more often. And it’s also okay if it’s water, not tea or coffee. And all metabolic processes occur in the aquatic environment.
In addition, very often the feeling of hunger is misinterpreted. That is, it could be thirst, so the drinking regime needs to be adjusted.
How much water should you drink per day? Those same eight notorious glasses? No. As with other nutritional components, the required amount of water is calculated individually.
— There are also many calculation formulas, but to start I recommend this formula: 25 ml per kilogram of weight. The daily rate of water appears, other drinks are conditionally, for simplicity, taken for half of the volume drunk, and the calculation is made.
If a person consumes much less and suffers from related problems, such as high blood pressure, there is no need to reach this volume all at once. You can add 200 ml every 2-3 days to assess your condition, pulse, blood pressure and analyze if there is an increased amount of salt in your food, as this is the simplest option that helpsretain water and increase blood pressure. Water itself generally does not contribute.
Don't forget training
Changing your diet is the basis for losing weight, but you should not forget about physical activity, the expert noted.
— In rare cases, it is possible to achieve the desired rate of weight loss without physical activity, because reducing calories is one thing, but maintaining muscle mass is another. We always want a beautiful figure, and in addition, the more muscles we have, the more intense the rhythm of metabolic processes in the body will be.
The choice of a training program is also an individual matter, not to mention that it is necessary to increase physical activity gradually and carefully. But that's a topic for another discussion.
Extreme weight loss and its dangers
Do you dream of losing a few dozen kilos before summer? Ask yourself if you are ready to sacrifice your health for such a dubious achievement. How much weight can you lose per month without harming your health?
"In terms of health, the medical community has accepted a rate of 4 kg, " replies the nutritionist. — This represents approximately one kilo per week. Of course, there may be individual differences: a little more, a little less, but with excess weight, fatty liver usually occurs.
In addition, if there have been repeated attempts to lose weight, there may be stagnation of bile or already formed stones in the gallbladder. It is therefore important to provide the necessary support and ensure that weight loss is not too rapid.
What will happen if you go to extreme lengths and go on an extreme diet or even starve?
— First, the muscles will "melt" and the water will leave the body. Because of this, you will feel bad - at a minimum, your mood will not be very good either. Additionally, questions will arise regarding the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract: it is always a complex of organs that must function regularly and correctly, otherwise problems may arise.
There may also be problems with the biliary system, and the consequences of a malfunction in its functioning can be many: from gastritis to impaired motility of the gastrointestinal tract, constipation, bloating due topoor functioning of the intestinal microflora, etc.
If you decide to sit on mineral water or a minimum of calories for a few weeks in order to put on an evening dress for the holiday, keep in mind: after such a diet you cannot avoid yourselffeel bad, headaches and other ailments, against the background of which even hunger itself will not be so terrible. Therefore, the doctor recommends that you always prepare in advance for an important event - or honestly buy a dress in your size.
Minimum number of calories in a diet
We've all heard that the average person needs around 2, 000 kilocalories per day. But, of course, this amount is very average: for some it is too much, while others will starve with such a calorie intake.
"All this is calculated individually, because people have different initial parameters, different types of activities, different ages, different options for playing sports, " Svetlana Kovaleva emphasized. — Therefore, I cannot comment unequivocally on the upper limit.
The number of kilocalories needed to maintain and lose weight varies and also depends on how many people actually eat "at first, " the nutritionist noted. But if you abruptly "cut" 500 kilocalories from the "starting" calorie intake, the person will feel terrible hunger - and such a diet will not lead to healthy weight loss.
— We now have many calculator applications that efficiently calculate the number of kilocalories required using certain formulas; this will be the easiest to use.
As for the lower calorie limit, the doctor emphasized that one should not resort to diets with a calorie content of 1000-1200 kcal per day - nothing good will come of it.
How to deal with hunger while losing weight?
Giving up heavy meals and switching to a healthy diet is not an easy task. Often on this path you can encounter not only an aversion to oatmeal and broccoli, but also extreme hunger. Even if the diet itself is balanced, the stomach, accustomed to large quantities of food, will send desperate signals to the brain about the need to eat another half a can. How to be? A Nutritionist Shares Tips:
- First of all, you should try to gradually move away from a large amount of calories so that the body does not feel this hunger too much.
The second point is to distribute meals fairly. That is, if we have calculated a certain amount of calories using an app and we eat it three times and in between we feel terrible hunger, we try to distribute the same amount of food intofour meals. Because if before a person could eat a bun or nibble a sandwich, now we try to take a more systematic approach to meals.
Hunger does not only appear on an empty stomach: sometimes we have eaten, but we have the impression of not having eaten. Then you just need to wait for some time. You can walk the dog, just take a walk, distract yourself with something.
The fact is that the gastrointestinal tract needs time for the stomach to contract. If a person has eaten a lot, their stomach is simply bigger. Here we will wait longer for this effect.
But, in general, I recommend spreading meals evenly throughout the day, or offering some kind of healthy snack that will not disrupt our overall diet and lead to a larger increase in caloriesprovided that.