Only two months until summer - time to take care of yourself! But you have to be fit wisely. With an expert, we will understand how many kilograms you can lose in a month, why extreme diets are harmful and how to get rid of the feeling of hunger by changing your diet.
We will show 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 quite possible to sculpt it, even if you have tens of extra pounds. But this is 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 types of diets? And how, in the end, to lose weight correctly? Dietitian and gastroenterologist Svetlana Kovaleva answers all these important questions.
"If we talk about proper weight loss, then you should immediately prepare that it will not be fast, " our interlocutor noted. — Because the body has accumulated some components for a long time, and to restore them, it also takes a sufficient time. The speed of metabolic processes in humans does not increase significantly.
The main recommendations of the doctor concern the main components of any diet: the calorie content and the ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
The calorie issue
- The diet should not be too low in calories. Sometimes people begin not only to include fasting days in their diet, but practically switch to fasting. This is incorrect, the body will not perceive this as physiologically correct food, it will only be stressed and will not understand what to do in this situation. Therefore, reducing the volume of food should be smooth, " said the dietitian.
Separately, it should be said about the caloric content of each meal.
- If it turns out that you cannot eat breakfast, you skipped lunch, then you should not lose the entire amount of calories before bed. Because we have circular rhythms of the body, and in the evening the body prepares for sleep, and not for processing the calories received.
Proteins, fats and carbohydrates
However, thoughtless reduction of calories, even within normal limits, can be harmful to health if you do not take into account the amount of protein, fat and carbohydrates in the diet. How should it be?
Proteins: the correct count
Most people, when losing weight, should consume the amount of protein within the normal range or slightly higher, the doctor noted. But how do we calculate it? It's actually very simple:
— Usually at the beginning, depending on the level of excess weight, protein is considered to be from 1 to 1. 5 grams per kilogram. This means pure protein. That is, let's say a person weighs 90 kg.
This means that he should not eat 90 grams of chicken, but should calculate how much poultry, fish and meat he needs in order to give him the necessary amount of protein. We have many calculators for this online.
In this case, the chicken will be 450 grams. Plus, other products also contain protein, so here you can calculate in detail depending on what a person eats in general.
Fats: healthy and not so good
"Excess fats, of course, should not be in the diet, " noted the dietitian. - Available in large quantities only in some diet options. When we touch on the issue of fats, their quality characteristics are important. You can use vegetable oils, or you can eat hearty beef, in which we get the protein, but you also eat a lot of fat along the way. Although beef is not the worst option. There is often pork.
Or you can use cold pressed vegetable oils with bitters. All the useful substances are stored there 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: the change 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, it is necessary to reduce as much as possible simple, or so-called added sugars: sugar itself, sweets, ice cream and other sweet products dear to our heart, 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 whole grains that need to be cooked for a long time. Even oats can be cooked in five minutes, or they can be cooked much longer. Plus, from the side dishes where carbohydrates will prevail, we can also add protein - we are talking about legumes.
Simplicity and regularity
Accurately calculating the calorie content and the ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in dietary food will not be difficult at all if you adhere to another basic principle of proper nutrition - compile your diet from the simplest and most understandable products. A long composition in packaging is not our option.
"It's only cereal, only chicken, no meatballs, meatballs, sausages or sausages, " emphasized Svetlana Kovaleva.
In addition, the frequency and regularity of meals is very important.
- There are many different opinions on this issue. But practice shows that multiplication is necessary. Especially 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 will not work.
Drinking regime
"You also can't ignore the drinking regimen, " noted the nutritionist. — People who drink three glasses a day started coming more and more often. And it's also good if it's water, not tea or coffee. And all metabolic processes occur in the water environment.
In addition, the feeling of hunger is often misinterpreted. That is, it may be thirsty, so the drinking regimen should be adjusted.
How much water should you drink per day? What about those infamous eight cups? No. As with other nutrients, the required amount of water is calculated individually.
— There are also many calculation formulas, but at the beginning I recommend this formula: 25 ml per kilogram of weight. The daily rate of water is displayed, other drinks are assumed, for simplicity, as half the volume drunk and the calculation is performed.
If a person consumes much less and has related problems, such as high blood pressure, then there is no need to suddenly reach this volume. 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, because this is the simplest option that helps to maintainwater and increased blood pressure. Water itself usually does not contribute to this.
Do not forget about training
Changing the diet is the basis for losing weight, but we must not forget physical activity, the expert pointed out.
— In rare cases, it is possible to achieve the desired rate of weight loss without physical activity, because cutting calories is one thing, but still having to maintain muscle mass is another. We still want a beautiful figure, and plus, the more muscles we have, the more intense the rate of metabolic processes in the body will be.
Choosing a training program is also an individual matter, not to mention the fact that it is necessary to gradually and carefully increase physical activity. But this is a topic for another discussion.
Extreme weight loss and its risks
Do you dream of losing a few tens of kilos before the summer? Think if you are ready to sacrifice your health for such a dubious achievement. How much weight can you lose in a month without harming your health?
"In a healthy regimen, the medical community has accepted a norm of 4 kg, " answers the dietitian. - This is about one kilogram per week. Of course, there may be individual differences: a little more, a little less, but when there is excess weight, fatty liver usually appears.
Also, if there have been repeated attempts to lose weight, then there may be stagnation of bile or stones already formed in the gallbladder. Therefore, it is important to provide the necessary support and ensure that the rate of weight loss is not too rapid.
What will happen if you go to extremes and go on an extreme diet or even starve yourself?
— 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 also not be very good. Plus, questions will arise about the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract: it is still a complex of organs that must function regularly and properly, otherwise problems may arise.
There can also be problems with the biliary system, and there can be many consequences from the disruption of its functioning: from gastritis to damage to the motility of the gastrointestinal tract, constipation, abdominal bloating due to the poor 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 fit into an evening dress for the party, keep in mind: after such a diet you cannot avoid feeling bad, headaches and other ailments, against the background of which even hunger itself will not be so terrible. Therefore, the doctor recommends, you should prepare in advance for an important event - or honestly buy a dress in your size.
The minimum number of calories in a diet
We've all heard that the average person needs about 2, 000 kilocalories a day. But, of course, this amount is very average: for some this is too much, while others will starve from such a calorie consumption.
"Everything is calculated individually, because people have different initial parameters, different types of activities, different ages, different opportunities to play sports, " emphasized Svetlana Kovaleva. — Therefore, I cannot say unequivocally about the upper limit.
The number of kilocalories for weight maintenance and weight loss varies and also depends on how much people actually eat "to begin with, " the dietician noted. But if you harshly "cut" 500 kilocalories from the "initial" calorie intake, the person will experience terrible hunger - and such a diet will not lead to healthy weight loss.
— Now we have many calculator applications that effectively calculate the required number of kilocalories using certain formulas; this will be the easiest to use.
As for the lower limit of calories, the doctor emphasized that you should not resort to diets with a calorie content of 1000-1200 kcal per day - nothing good will come of it.
How to cope with hunger during weight loss?
Giving up heavy meals and switching to healthy food is not an easy task. Often on this path you can encounter not only an aversion to oats and broccoli, but also extreme hunger. Even if the diet itself is balanced, the stomach, accustomed to large volumes of food, will send desperate signals to the brain about the need to eat even half a can. how to beA nutritionist shares the tricks of life:
- First, you should try to gradually get away from a large amount of calories so that the body does not feel this hunger too much.
The second point is the distribution of meals equally. That is, if we have calculated a certain amount of calories using any application and eat it three times, and in between we feel terrible hunger, then we try to distribute the same amount of food in four meals. Because, if before a person could eat a bun or a snack in a sandwich, now we are trying to take a more systematic approach to meals.
Hunger doesn't just appear on an empty stomach: sometimes we've eaten, but we feel like we haven't. Then you just have to wait a certain 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, then his stomach is simply larger in volume. Here we will wait longer for this effect.
But, in general, I recommend spreading the meals evenly throughout the day, or finding some kind of healthy snack that will not spoil our entire diet and lead to the fact that the number of calories will increase morethan was planned.