It happens like this: you go on a diet, do aerobics and – hurray!– began to decrease.And then suddenly this wonderful process stopped.There is both diet and physical activity, but you don't gain an ounce less, even if you get a bang!Plus, you'll gain weight again.
Why exactly is this happening?Scientists only recently received an answer to this question.It turned out that when you suddenly stopped losing weight, your body reached the weight that it, your body, “likes” the most.Well, it's convenient for him to live like this!When you try to lose more weight, your body counteracts: metabolism slows and appetite increases.This will continue until you are back to the weight that your body deems optimal for itself.The fact is that the weight of your body is determined by genetics.
genetics
Every person has their individual “factory settings” – pressure, blood sugar level, cholesterol.Some people have high blood pressure, others have low blood pressure.Some people suffer from diabetes, others tolerate sugar well.It's the same with weight: for some it's natural to weigh 50 kilograms, for others unfortunately all 90. These parameters, given by nature, are very difficult to adjust.The body resists any, especially hasty, attempt to change its indicators and responds to it with hostility.
What is happening?If fate told you to be fat, then so be it?Not at all!There are still chances to improve the genotype.True, then you have to maintain your “unnatural” weight with training and diet until the last day.Life sentence?!Yes, but what is that?There is nothing worse than being short of breath and wearing an XXL dress.
What are your natural settings?To more accurately determine your “genetic” weight (which determines the weight loss limit), honestly answer the following questions:
- What weight seems to be the most “comfortable” for your body (in other words, what number has the pointer on your private bathroom scale fluctuated around for many years?)
- How much weight do you gain one and a half to two months after stopping the diet?
- What was your maximum weight?
Approximately the same weight will appear in all your answers (after age 25) - that's what genetics determined for you.How many kilograms does it differ from your current one - after aerobics and diet?If the difference is 10 pounds or more, you will have to work tirelessly to maintain your gains.What if you want to lose even more weight?This is a completely prohibitive task!
By the way, about 10% of women give different answers to all three questions.This means that nature has not set strict limits for them.Such “lucky women” lose and gain weight at will and amaze mere mortals with supernatural metamorphoses.For example, from an oversized fat woman to a model.And back.Are you not one of them?
Lose weight once and for all
So each of us (no exceptions count!) has our own target weight and it is very difficult to lose more weight than we are naturally “allowed”.What happens if you try to change the weight loss limit yourself?Let's say you "convince" the body that your "native" weight is 60 kg, and not 90 kg?At first glance the task seems impossible.Arguing with nature?Yes, it's the same as turning back the sun!Fairy tale?Endocrinologists have definitely determined that this is possible.
The secret is to maintain your desired weight for 2-4 years with the help of a diet.Imagine that the body gets used to the new weight, no longer sees it as an “emergency” and then maintains it itself as if it were “natural”.
You can also try to deceive your own body.A small catch: how do you last for several years?Believe me, it is not so difficult if you live according to the algorithm developed by science.
In any case...
Tasteless but great.So your body tirelessly protects its fat by lowering your metabolism and increasing your appetite.In addition, you are currently attracted to “harmful” high-calorie foods, such as sweets and rolls.On the contrary, you have to limit yourself at the table.How?Very easy.Choose foods that don't arouse your emotions or appetite.In short, it seems tasteless to you.
Experiments have shown that the “natural” weight of rats fed unappetizing food is guaranteed to decrease.In addition, they do not gain weight even when fed fatty, high-calorie foods.Conclusion: The less you like what you eat, the fewer extra pounds you will gain.According to an incomprehensible law of nature, “harmful” (high-calorie, fatty and sweet) products always taste better.This means you will inevitably eat more of it.Healthy products are out of luck.Most of them cannot be described as tasty.So eat them!
Eat every 2.5-3 hours.Long breaks between meals are perhaps the most common mistake when losing weight.The fact is that rare meals (every 4-5 hours) stimulate increased insulin and leptin secretion.And it is precisely this pair of hormones that is responsible for the fat deposits under our skin.When you eat frequently, insulin and leptin release are at a minimum.If you are serious about losing weight, you need to break your traditional diet plan and replace it with snacks.To do this, you need to carry food in boxes so that it is always within reach.
The formula for a healthy diet looks like this: 4-6 meals per day, each containing 300-400 calories.
Eat more!It sounds inflammatory, but this method really works.If you eat less than 1200 calories per day, the body switches to a very thrifty, energy-wasting emergency mode and the metabolism “goes to sleep”.To “destroy” it, try to eat 100-200 calories more than your individual norm dictates.By consuming excess calories, the body loses alertness and easily sheds subcutaneous fat.
It sounds like an impossible paradox, but a person on a hungry diet actually loses fat more slowly than on a reasonably balanced diet.Science has accurately calculated the difference in rates.If you suddenly stop eating, you will lose weight 10% slower than those who exercise and maintain their calorie intake.
Vegetables
Load up on veggies!This is your first ally in the fight against excess weight.They contain very few calories, but above all they are “voluminous”.For this reason, you should start every meal with a large bowl of vegetable salad.It will fill your stomach and there will be less of everything else in it.
fruit
Be careful with fruits.They have a lot of calories.To avoid overeating, it is better to chop the fruit and add it to the porridge.Fruit juices are completely contraindicated for you.There, the calories from fruit are highly concentrated and manufacturers add additional sugar to the juice to improve the taste.
The formal basis of your diet should be carbohydrates with a low glycemic index - these are cereals and other cereals, rice, legumes.You need to serve them with vegetables and add proteins to them three more times a day: lean beef, chicken, fish.
Fats
Fats should be healthy.Don't make the fatal mistake of completely avoiding fats.Animal fats are harmful, but vegetable fats are healthy.Fats are common “lubricants”, “raw materials” for the production of hormones.Lack of fat leads to psoriasis, hair loss, joint diseases and brittle nails.Don't eat anything fried in animal fats, but you can safely add a spoonful or two of peanut or sesame oil to a vegetable salad.
And you should take fish oil without restrictions.It contains omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.They will help you lose weight.During aerobic exercise, they “burn” with the formation of special compounds that prevent the accumulation of subcutaneous fat.
Don't eat chocolate candies.They contain so-called trans fats.They are added to help the candies stay soft longer.Trans fats have been proven to be carcinogenic.
Drink water
Another important point on the way to losing weight is plain water.Water is removed from the body via the kidneys.When you drink a lot, the kidneys begin to work actively and at the same time the adrenal glands - the hormonal glands on top of the kidneys - are activated.They release more hormones and all serve to “burn fat”.The more you drink, the more weight you lose.There is no such thing as too much water!In addition, water carries metabolic byproducts with it.The less “garbage” there is in the blood, the lower the strain on the liver and it can then start burning fat undisturbed.
For those who have forgotten school biology: During aerobics, increased blood flow causes fat molecules to be torn from the surface of the fat deposits, which “burn” and give the muscles energy.But not all.The rest travels through the bloodstream and ends up in the liver, which destroys it so that the blood does not thicken with fat and lose its ability to flow.Together with the kidneys, the liver is busy neutralizing the metabolic “waste” mentioned above.If the kidneys do most of this work, the liver will destroy more fat.Drink more!
Running to lose weight
Aerobics?But only interval!Cardio training at a constant intensity is of little use.Riding an exercise bike at the same pace for an hour is not only boring, but also pointless: such an activity can only help in the initial stages of sports, and then it stops working.Modern science knows only one effective method of burning fat, called “interval training” or circuit training.
What is that?This is called training according to the principle “now fast, sometimes slow”.For example, 30 seconds of incredibly high exercise are followed by 60 seconds of low speed.And so on throughout the entire 25-30 minute workout.The effect is breathtaking!The secret is that this type of aerobics greatly increases the release of the most powerful "fat burning" hormones - norepinephrine and growth hormone.
Interval training is the only way to shake up a body tired from losing weight.
Don't overestimate aerobics.Physical activity actually helps you lose weight.This is an indisputable, scientifically proven fact.When scientists in an experiment forced rats to switch from a sedentary lifestyle to physical activity, they began to lose weight.But!If the rats were already moving a lot, there was no point in increasing physical activity - it had no effect on their weight.Conclusion: Aerobics is not omnipotent.
Yes, if a woman starts doing aerobics after many years of a sedentary lifestyle, she will lose weight.However, if you have been exercising for a long time, increasing aerobic activity may be useless.What should we do?A fundamentally different anaerobic load must be added to aerobics.Simply put, you need to start doing strength exercises.Do interval aerobic training for 25-30 minutes at least three times a week and do serious exercise on the machines two more times.
Why do you need muscles?The fact is that muscles are a living biosystem that needs nutrition.Muscles actively “use” calories, even when physically resting, when you watch TV and sleep.Gaining an additional kilogram of muscle mass leads to an automatic acceleration of metabolic processes by 2.5-3%.So strength training will certainly speed up your metabolism and therefore fat burning when aerobics cannot.
Breathe deeper
Some people are genetically predisposed to be fat while others are thin.The reasons for this injustice lie in the difference between the natural amounts of the two types of hormones.Some accumulate fat, others break it down.It seems that you need to analyze your own hormonal background in order to identify a genetic predisposition and take action.For example, if everything is fine with your hormones, then the “wrong” diet or lack of physical exercise are to blame for being overweight.However, all this work is too complicated and can only be done by a professional at the highest level.
There is a simpler parameter that allows you to accurately determine, even in a district clinic, who is at risk of becoming fat and who is not.This is the so-called breathing coefficient, that is, the ratio of the volume of carbon dioxide when exhaling to the volume of oxygen when inhaling.Thanks to this coefficient, you can understand where your body “prefers” to get its energy from – from carbohydrates or fats.
People with a high respiratory quotient “burn” carbohydrates.Fats as an energy source are in the background and physical activity therefore does not bring a quick return.On the other hand, those who have a low coefficient gain energy from fat and lose weight quickly.Women with a high respiratory coefficient gain extra pounds even if they restrict their diet.
Let's change our lifestyle!
Losing weight isn't just difficult because of the damn "fixed weight."Habits and lifestyle play a huge negative role.For example, don't eat anything for breakfast, eat too much in the evening, or add a lot of fat to everything - "to make it tastier."Consequently, the speed of weight loss largely depends on your general culture.
The following argument can be made in support of this.Among women in the lower social classes, around 30% are obese, among representatives of the middle class it is 16% and in the upper social classes only 5% of women are overweight.Be sure to buy popular books on nutrition and finally find out all the proteins, fats and carbohydrates.You need to know exactly what is good and what is bad in the diet.And teach this to your children.Otherwise, they will suffer from the same problems.
Let's say you break your diet.We need to sit down and figure out why.Each of us has our own list of “dangerous” situations.Here are examples: sitting at a desk - putting candy in your mouth, watching a movie on TV - crushing chips ... All this needs to be carefully analyzed and a safe replacement for “dangerous” products should be prepared - apples, dry bread and the like.
Psychologists believe that transference rarely occurs consciously.It is caused by hasty eating, when you eat in a hurry or want to get rid of food quickly and then eat automatically.Exactly such situations must be completely banned from life!Very often, automatic eating is triggered by eating in company.For this reason, psychologists advise developing the habit of eating alone.You can't watch TV and read at the same time!
When you're alone, it's easier to teach yourself to eat slowly.And this is another secret to successful weight loss.The signals from the stomach to the brain rise very slowly – about 20 minutes.And all the time it will seem to you that you are hungry and have not eaten much, although perhaps your stomach has been full for a long time.Diploma?Eat slowly.After 20 minutes, the brain gives the command to your appetite to “turn off,” even if you have eaten less than half of your calorie intake.
So you have to spend the next two to four years on a unique “genetic” experiment.Your family and friends will be shocked: you will change beyond recognition.It seems that there is a hellish job ahead of us - maintaining a constant diet for years and exercising regularly.However, fitness professionals say that none of this is a feat.A person quickly gets used to good things.In a few months, all those who are choking on junk food and don't know the fun of training will seem like aliens to you... How can you do without fitness?