It happens like this: you follow a diet, do aerobics and - hooray!- began to lose weight.And suddenly this wonderful process stopped.There's diet and exercise, but you're not losing an ounce even if you're cracking up!Also, you start gaining weight again…
Why exactly does this happen?Scientists have only recently received an answer to this question.It turns out that when you suddenly stopped losing weight, your body reached the weight that it, your body, "likes" the most.Well, it is convenient for him to live like this!When you try to lose more weight, your body countermeasures by slowing down your metabolism and increasing your appetite.This will continue until you return to a weight that your body considers optimal.The fact is that your body weight is determined by genetics.
Genetics
Each person has their own individual "factory settings" - blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol.Some people have high blood pressure while others have low blood pressure.Some people have diabetes and some have diabetes.The situation is exactly the same with weight: it is natural for some to weigh 50 kilograms, and for others, unfortunately, all 90. It is very difficult to adjust these parameters set by nature.The body resists and hostilely accepts any, and especially hasty, attempts to change its indicators.
What will happen?If fate told you to be fat, you will be fat?Not at all!There is still room for improvement in the genotype.True, then you will have to maintain the "unnatural" weight until the last day by training and dieting.Life imprisonment?!Yes, but what is it?There's 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 your weight loss threshold), answer the following questions honestly:
- What weight feels "comfortable" for your body (in other words, what number has the needle on your home bathroom scale been hovering around for years?)
- How much weight do you gain one and a half to two months after the end of the diet?
- What was your maximum weight?
All your answers (after 25 years) will have about the same weighting - that's what your genetics have made you.How many kilograms is it different from the current one - after aerobics and diet?If the difference is 4.5 kg or more, you will have to work tirelessly to maintain your gain.Well, what if you want to lose even more weight?This is an absolutely incredibly difficult task!
By the way, about 10% of women will answer all three questions differently.This means that nature has not set strict limits for them.Such "lucky women" lose weight and gain weight at will, surprising ordinary mortals with supernatural metamorphoses.For example, from an oversized fat woman to a fashion model.And back.Aren't you one of them?
Lose weight once and for all
So, each of us (exceptions do not count!) has our own set weight, and it is very difficult to lose more weight than nature "allowed" you to begin with.What if you're trying to change your weight loss threshold itself?Suppose to "convince" the body that your "born" weight is 60 kg instead of 90?At first glance, the task seems impossible.Arguing with nature?Yes, it's the same as turning the Sun backwards!Fairy tales?Endocrinologists have certainly found that it is possible.
The secret is to maintain the desired weight for 2-4 years with the help of a diet.Imagine that the body gets used to the new weight, stops considering it "emergency", and then keeps it as "natural".
You can also try to trick your body.A small obstacle: how to last a few years?Believe me, it is not so difficult if you live according to the algorithm created by science.
By all means...
Not tasty, but great.So, your body stubbornly stores its fat, reducing metabolism and stimulating appetite.In addition, you are attracted to "harmful" high-calorie foods, such as sweets and muffins.On the contrary, at the table you need to limit yourself.How?Very simple.Choose foods that do not arouse emotions or appetite.In short, you find it tasteless.
Experiments have shown that the "natural" weight of rats fed an appetitive diet will decrease.In addition, they do not gain weight, even if they are given fatty, high-calorie food.Conclusion: the less you like what you eat, the less you will gain extra pounds.According to an incomprehensible law of nature, "harmful" (caloric, fatty and sweet) products are always tastier.This means that you will inevitably eat more of them.Healthy products are not doing well.Most of them cannot be called tasty.So eat them!
Eat every 2.5-3 hours.Long breaks between meals are probably the most common mistake of slimming people.The fact is that eating infrequently (every 4-5 hours) increases the secretion of insulin and leptin.And this pair of hormones is responsible for the deposition of fat under our skin.If you eat often, insulin and leptin are released to a minimum.If you're serious about losing weight, you need to break your traditional eating schedule and replace it with snacks.To do this, you will need to carry food with you in boxes so that it is always at hand.
The formula for a healthy diet looks like this: 4-6 meals a day, 300-400 calories each.
Eat more!It sounds annoying, but this method really works.If less than 1,200 calories are consumed per day, the body switches to an emergency, very economical, energy-consuming mode, and the metabolism "sleeps".To "crush" it, try eating 100-200 calories more than your individual allowance suggests.After receiving an excess of calories, the body loses alertness and easily gets rid of subcutaneous fat.
It sounds like an impossible paradox, but a hungry dieter actually loses fat more slowly than a properly balanced dieter.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 overweight.They are very low in calories, but most importantly, they are "big".For this reason, you should start any meal with a big bowl of vegetable salad.This will fill the stomach and less of everything else will go into it.
Fruits
As for fruits, be careful with them.They have a lot of calories.In order not to overeat, it is better to chop the fruit and add it to porridge.Fruit juice is absolutely contraindicated for you.Fruit calories are very concentrated there, and manufacturers also add sugar to the juice to improve the taste.
The official basis of your diet should be carbohydrates with a low glycemic index - these are cereals and other grains, rice, legumes.They should be served with vegetables and add protein three more times a day: lean beef, chicken, fish.
Fats
Fats should be healthy.Don't make the fatal mistake of ditching fat altogether.Animal fats are harmful and vegetable fats are healthy.Fats are the "lubricants" of the joints, the "raw materials" for the production of hormones.Lack of fat causes psoriasis, hair loss, joint disease and brittle nails.Don't eat anything fried in animal fat, but feel free to add a tablespoon or two of peanut or sesame oil to your vegetable salad.
And you should consume fish oil without any restrictions.It contains omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.They will help you lose weight.During aerobic exercises, they "burn" with the formation of special compounds that prevent the accumulation of subcutaneous fat.
Do not eat chocolates.They contain so-called trans fats.They are added to keep the candies soft for longer.Trans fats have been shown to be carcinogenic.
Drink water
Another important point on the way to losing weight is plain water.Water is removed from the body through the kidneys.When drinking a lot, the kidneys begin to work actively and at the same time the adrenal glands, the hormonal glands located on the tops of the kidneys, are activated.They release more hormones and they all "burn fat".The more you drink, the more weight you lose.There is no such thing as too much water!In addition, water carries with it metabolic by-products.The less "garbage" there is in the blood, the less the load on the liver and then it can start burning fat without interference.
For those who forgot school biology: during aerobics, the increased blood flow tears fat molecules from the surface of fat deposits and "burns" them, providing energy to the muscles.But not all.The rest travel through the blood and eventually end up in the liver, which destroys them to prevent the blood from thickening with fat and losing fluidity.Together with the kidneys, the liver is involved in the neutralization of the already mentioned metabolic "garbage".If the kidneys take on most of this work, the liver will destroy more fat.Drink more!
Running to lose weight
Aerobics?But only an interval!Regular intensity cardio is of little benefit.Pedaling the bicycle at the same pace for an hour is not only boring, but also pointless: such activity can only help in the initial stage of the sport, and then it stops working.Modern science knows only one effective way to burn fat, called "interval" or circuit training.
What is it?This is what they call "now fast, now slow" training.For example, 30 seconds of insanely high intensity is followed by 60 seconds of low tempo.And so the whole 25-30 minutes of training.The effect is amazing!The secret is that this type of aerobics dramatically increases the secretion of the most powerful "fat burning" hormones - norepinephrine and growth hormone.
Interval training is the only way to get your body tired from losing weight.
Do not overestimate aerobics.Physical activity really helps with weight loss.This is an indisputable, scientifically proven fact.In one experiment, when researchers 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, increasing physical activity was useless - 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.But if you train for a long time, increasing aerobic activity may not be beneficial.What should we do?It is necessary to add a fundamentally different anaerobic load to aerobics.Simply put, you need to do strength exercises.At least 3 times a week, do interval aerobic training for 25-30 minutes, and seriously train twice more on the machine.
Why do you need muscle?The fact is that muscles are a living biosystem that needs nutrition.Muscles actively "consume" calories even in a state of physical rest, when you watch TV and sleep.Adding an extra kilogram of muscle automatically speeds up the metabolic processes by 2.5-3%.So strength training will definitely boost your metabolism and fat burning if aerobics refuses to do it.
Breathe deeper
Some people are genetically destined to be fat, while others are thin.The reasons for this injustice lie in the difference between the natural levels of the two types of hormones.Some store fat, others break it down.It would seem that in order to determine the genetic predisposition and take action, you need to analyze your hormonal background.For example, if everything is fine with hormones, then the "wrong" diet or lack of physical movement is to blame for obesity.However, all this work is too complicated and can only be done by a specialist of the highest level.
There is one simpler parameter that allows you to accurately determine who is at risk of obesity and who is not, even in the district polyclinic.This is the so-called respiratory coefficient, which is the ratio of the volume of carbon dioxide during exhalation to the volume of oxygen during inhalation.Thanks to this ratio, you can understand where your body "likes" to get energy from - from carbohydrates or fats.
People with a high respiratory rate "burn" carbohydrates.Fat as a source of energy is in the background, so physical activity does not give quick returns.Well, those who have a low coefficient, on the contrary, get energy from fat and quickly lose weight.Women with a high respiratory quotient gain extra pounds even when they restrict their diet.
Let's change our lifestyle!
Losing weight isn't just about your damn "set" weight.Habits and lifestyle play a huge negative role.For example, don't eat anything for breakfast, eat too much at night, or add a ton of fat to everything - "to make it taste better".Hence, the rate of weight loss will greatly depend on your overall culture.
This argument can be substantiated.About 30% of women in the lower social classes are obese, 16% in the middle class, and only 5% of women in the upper classes are overweight.Anyway, buy the popular nutrition books and finally figure out all these proteins, fats and carbohydrates.You need to know exactly what is good and what is bad in nutrition.And teach it to your children.Otherwise, they will suffer from the same problems.
Let's say you break your diet.We need to sit down and find out why.Each of us has our own list of "dangerous" situations.Here are examples: sitting at the desk - putting sweets in your mouth, watching a movie on TV - crunching chips... All this needs to be carefully analyzed and a safe substitute for "dangerous" products - apples, dry bread and the like - must be prepared.
Psychologists believe that transference is rarely conscious.It is provoked by eating in a hurry, when you eat in a hurry or want to get rid of food quickly, and then eat automatically.It is precisely such situations that need to be completely removed from life!Very often, automatic eating is triggered by eating in company.That is why psychologists advise to develop the habit of eating alone.You can't watch TV and read at the same time!
It's easier to learn to eat slowly when you're alone.And this is another secret to successful weight loss.Signals travel from the stomach to the brain very slowly - about 20 minutes.And all this time you will feel as if you are hungry and have eaten little, although your stomach may have been full for a long time.The conclusion?Eat slowly.After 20 minutes, your brain will tell your appetite to "turn off the lights" even if you've eaten less than half your calorie intake.
So, you will have to spend the next 2-4 years on a unique "genetic" experiment.Your family and friends will be shocked: you will become unrecognizably different.It would seem like a hell of a job ahead - years of constant dieting and regular exercise.But fitness professionals say it's no mean feat.A person quickly gets used to good things.After a couple of months, all those who choke on fast food and do not know the joy of training will seem alien to you... Well, how can you do without fitness?