With this article I appeal to you who have been fighting with the extra pounds for years. Every two months, do you go on impossible diets based on boiled carrots alone? Have you made your best friends with shaved salad and rice? All things with a low calorie content, yet why do you lose a little weight or buy back all the kilos as soon as you slow down your diets? Let's start from the base.
Our organism is an exceptional machine, capable of reacting or adapting to everything that happens around it. Each person has his own point of equilibrium, it allows you to maintain a balance between fat mass and lean mass.
After years spent with the usual lifestyle, the body will have become accustomed to a certain body weight, so any sudden drop will be felt as a threat to their homeostasis (the natural tendency to maintain a relative state of internal balance of the chemical-physical properties of an organism).
For this reason it is recommended a moderate intervention, which does not go to make us lose more than 2-3 kg per month, and without affecting the lean mass.
A bit of biology
Specialist" magazines or nutrition gurus sometimes also recommend periods of fasting to promote weight loss. Nothing could be more wrong. Prolonged periods of fasting are detrimental to our goal, we are only at risk of stunting our basal metabolism.
The level of Leptin, an "anorexic" hormone, would drop in our body, warning the brain that we have had the right amount of nutrients for the body's physiological functions. As a result, we would have more hunger and reduced calorie consumption. At the same time they would increase the values of Grelin, a hormone that stimulates the sense of appetite.
Fat mass -Vs- lean mass
Eat a little and see a nice -5 kg on the scale gives satisfaction but have you ever thought about what you really lose?
Mainly liquids and lean mass.
A practical example: two friends with a similar weight start a slimming process. One only has two light meals and runs 10km a day. After a month the scale scores -6Kg. The other is guided by a nutritionist (who has done a lot of diets) and a personal trainer. After a month his balance scores -3.5Kg. Apparently the first subject was better, yet in the mirror you can see less in shape than your friend.
Why? As I said before, drastic diets are seen as threats and our brain, instead of adapting, reacts accordingly, slowing down metabolism and sacrificing lean mass in favor of fat.
Both have lost a couple of kilograms of fat mass but the second has maintained the lean mass. So you see more tonic, less appetite and a healthy basal metabolism (and only he will maintain this lifestyle because he will not be perceived as a burden!)
Slimming = losing fat mass
I personally am not a lover of the scale, it distorts reality. I always use circumferences and bioimpedance as a yardstick. The latter is the best tool to know if you are doing a good job: The "fat mass" occupies more volume than the "lean mass", so if I lose one kilogram of fat mass and take one kilogram of lean mass the scale will mark the same weight however ... I will be slimmed and I will have less cm in circumference!
The way forward in low-calorie diets
The weight must be lowered intelligently and to do so we must follow the guides and diets that indicate the associations of professionals, such as the ADI (Italian Association of Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition):
- - Carbohydrates must be 50-60% of the daily caloric intake.
- - Simple sugar levels should not exceed 10-20%.
- - Predilitate foods with a low glycemic index
- - Every week insert at least two portions of fish (especially those rich in omega3)
- - Minimize pre-packaged products rich in fatty acids
- - Take at least 25-30 g of fibre per day.
- - Reduce alcoholic (high-calorie) and sugary substances
Get help from professionals
If you haven't lost hope of finding a quick solution to the extra pounds so far, I'll tell you clearly: There are no shortcuts!
As soon as you stop a do-it-yourself diet, you'll regain your lost pounds, lose your motivation and end up taking more pounds. That's why the help of professionals is essential, leave the magazines that boast incredible results in a few weeks.
What you need is guidance, a person who can educate you on the right eating and sporting style. Only turn to nutritionist biologists, doctors and dieticians (they are the only recognized figures) and let a personal trainer guide you in the right training.
These figures work in parallel and can guide you into a new lifestyle that suits your schedule and is not frustrating. Because that's all it's about. There are no magic wands and fast roads, only commitment and constancy.