Author Peter Deryabin
Updated: 04/28/2020 16:31 Published: 06/13/2007 06:12
Health » Health and prevention » Diet
Diets for weight loss are a dime a dozen, but, according to psychologists, only 23% of all those who start eating “according to science” can withstand any of them to the end. Another 37% partially maintain the diet, while the rest start and fail. Here are some tips to help you survive dietary restrictions.
The Magic Diet and Other Medicines for Weight Loss
I can offer my own magic diet. You need to buy yellow ascorbic acid at the pharmacy and charge each of them with magical power with your own hands. To do this, the tablet is wrapped in a candy wrapper bought in a village store 20 km from the nearest road, and buried for an hour in a five-meter heap of natural gifts that correspond to the season - in snow, in leaves, in hay or in the ground. Of course, each ascorbic acid requires a separate new pile. You can eat anything and in any quantity, provided that there is one activated ascorbic acid per plate of food.
While eating, you need to say a magic spell: “Abracadabra, stop eating - your pants won’t fit anymore.” Continue until you reach your desired weight. If all ascorbic acids are processed properly, the result is guaranteed. Otherwise, I am ready to return your money for the book.
Science also does not stand still and is actively developing various exotic ways to combat excess weight. Today there are medications that suppress the feeling of hunger, mechanical methods of mocking the stomach and intestines (for example, you can put a silicone ball inside the stomach so that it just takes up space there), as well as antidepressants (so that being hungry doesn’t feel so sad) and drugs that disrupt absorption food in the intestines...
There is even a vaccine against hunger - in this case, a person is injected with antibodies against the hormone ghrelin, it is neutralized and does not reach the brain, so the person does not understand that he is hungry. But the most promising drug of the future is brown fat.
How long should the diet last?
Is there any secret to getting rid of those pesky pounds forever? And in general, is this possible? To answer these questions, the researchers put 20 obese people on a strict low-calorie diet for eight weeks, then put them on a gentler 12-month weight maintenance program.
During this period, participants met regularly with a dietitian, followed professional advice on lifestyle changes, and kept a diet calendar.
Rescue from excess weight - brown fat
The point is this. We have not only regular, white adipose tissue, which stores nutrients, but also brown adipose tissue, which produces heat. More precisely, we have very little of it; it is more typical for brown bears or newborn babies.
Brown adipose tissue is densely filled with a special type of mitochondria. Normally, mitochondria should produce ATP, energy for biochemical reactions, but in brown fat cells they are defective, leaky, and therefore they spend a lot of food, but practically do not produce ATP: a lot of energy is dissipated in the form of heat. And, in general, everyone has long thought that it would be great to learn how to increase the amount of brown fat in the body of fat people so that it converts their fat reserves into heat, but until recently no one knew how to approach this.
And in 2012, an international team of scientists finally discovered a new hormone, irisin. It is produced during active muscle activity and acts on white adipose tissue cells, turning them into a kind of brown fat - “beige fat”. So far, no medicine based on it has been developed, but while you are working out in the gym, let you be warmed by the knowledge that you are also developing brown fat, which will help you both not to freeze and not to gain weight.
Reasons for the ineffectiveness of proper nutrition
Excessive eating
Many people, having switched to proper nutrition, take into account only the quality of food, but not its quantity. Even if your diet includes fresh vegetables and fruits, steamed meat and fish, nuts, dried fruits and grains, and you have completely given up fried foods, fast food, sweets and carbonated drinks, it is also important to consider portion sizes. After all, natural and healthy foods are often high in calories. And if you consume them in too large quantities, the weight will remain the same.
Malnutrition
If everything is clear with excess nutrition, then when following strict diets, bewilderment often arises. You sharply reduce the number of calories you consume per day, but the weight does not go away. This phenomenon occurs quite often. It is explained by the following reason. With such a sudden change in diet, the body experiences stress. He tries in every possible way to maintain stability and stores fat deposits for future use. At the same time, your vitality quickly runs out, you constantly feel weak, and you cannot force yourself to do even light physical exercise.
Therefore, you should not make sudden movements. Eating too little is more likely to undermine your health than help you lose weight. In addition, if you follow strict diets, the chance of failure increases.
Expecting quick results
It also happens that you choose a moderate diet based on healthy foods, follow it for several days, but there is no result at all. Every day you step on the scale and see only minor fluctuations in the needle. In this situation, many people have a logical question: “Why am I not losing weight by eating right?” There's nothing to worry about. Firstly, as mentioned above, the body always tries to maintain stability, including in weight. If you continue to eat properly, keeping a balance and not restricting yourself too harshly, he will gradually get used to the new conditions. Then the weight will begin to gradually decrease.
Secondly, every woman’s body goes through a number of different stages over the course of a month. Depending on the specific day of the cycle, weight may increase for no apparent reason, then it returns to its previous value. Therefore, it is best to weigh yourself once a week and record the results to track the overall trend.
Lack or lack of physical activity
When wondering, “Why am I not losing weight by eating right,” think about physical activity. If you have a sedentary job, and at the same time you prefer to travel everywhere by car, and spend the evening on the couch or in a cafe, then do not be surprised that the diet does not bring results. For a beautiful figure, regular movement is simply necessary. Moreover, you can start with very little - 5-minute morning exercises, a pleasant evening walk, active games with children. In addition, there are many sports that will help you spend your time with pleasure and benefit. These include swimming, cycling, skiing, roller skating, skating and much more. Choose what you like most and do it for your own pleasure. Even minimal activity will be beneficial.
Slow metabolism
The most dangerous reason that you are not losing weight is metabolic disorders. You can talk about it when you eat right and maintain physical activity, but there are no results. Most often, this phenomenon is observed a week or two after starting the diet. As a rule, in the first days the weight decreases, and then suddenly stops. This is called the "plateau effect." It is not dangerous and goes away on its own with continued adherence to a healthy diet and physical activity.
But sometimes metabolic disorders are caused by health problems.
Therefore, if you observe any other alarming symptoms in addition to weight loss, it is better to consult a doctor as soon as possible. Losing weight: to achieve your cherished goal you need a perfectly thought-out diet
Why being fat is bad for you
One of the most touching American business ideas is stores for fat people, which sell rope loops to help you lift your leg into the car, scissors with meter-long handles for trimming toenails, supports for toilets (so as not to turn them out of the wall under your weight). ), extenders for airplane and car seat belts and, of course, oversized coffins. Such stores at first make you laugh, but then make you think: in fact, it’s very cool when society cares about the needs of each of its members (not to mention the fact that such devices, with the exception of large coffins, are useful not only for fat people, but also elderly or pregnant).
However, it is clear that being very fat is harmful. Firstly, morbid obesity is almost always associated with certain endocrine disorders - even if they were not the cause of weight gain, they will arise as a result of it. Secondly, carrying this ballast is difficult, and it greatly increases the load on the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems.
One of the most common health problems in fat people is type 2 diabetes. With this disease, cells lose the ability to adequately respond to insulin and take glucose from the blood. As a result, the cells themselves starve, and the blood becomes viscous, sweet and sticky, which destroys the walls of blood vessels. 90% of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight.
In general, there is an interesting story with endocrine disorders. The fact is that adipose tissue is not just a stash of nutrients, a protective cushion for internal organs and a way to store water (especially if you are a camel), store vitamins or immobilize toxic substances. It is also an internal secretion organ. Adipose tissue is capable of producing hormones itself, and their quantity directly depends on the mass of fat accumulated in the body.
When to go on a diet
Don’t rush to tell yourself: “I want to lose 10 kg.” To begin with, try to assess your own well-being as objectively as possible. Decide - does being overweight negatively affect your health and how serious psychological discomfort does it cause you? If shortness of breath appears even after minor physical exertion (for example, ordinary climbing the stairs), you should think about choosing the optimal system for combating extra pounds. It is quite possible that your usual clothing size no longer fits you, and friends began to look at your sides or stomach - this is also an incentive to work on yourself.
At the same time, you should not strive to lose 10 kilograms or more if such a desire is dictated by the following reasons:
- The whim of your significant other (you should be accepted and loved for who you are).
- With the fashion for thinness, you can’t keep up with all the fashion trends, and you don’t need to do that. Just be yourself.
- Thirst to buy something you like that doesn’t fit in size. You can always find beautiful clothes that perfectly complement your look and style.
Who is more important to lose weight: men or women?
There is a difference between men and women here. For men, fat is practically useless, but for women it is absolutely necessary. Leptin, a banal “satiety hormone”, the concentration of which in the blood plasma directly depends on the amount of fat deposits in the body, is necessary to maintain the normal functioning of the female reproductive system.
This makes biological sense: if the supply of nutrients in the body is too small, then there is little chance of a successful pregnancy - especially in the wild with its irregular supply of food. And therefore, if leptin levels fall below a certain critical value (1.85 mcg/l), the woman’s menstrual cycle stops and the ability to conceive a child disappears. Conversely, hypothalamic amenorrhea, in which the production of gonadotropic hormones in the central nervous system is impaired, can in many cases be cured with leptin injections.
But that's not all. Adipose tissue also serves as an additional source of female sex hormones - estrogens. It contains the aromatase enzyme, which builds female sex hormones from androgens, male sex hormones.
This is not very good even for a woman (on the one hand, the additional estrogen released after menopause slightly reduces the risk of osteoporosis, but on the other hand, it increases the likelihood of developing breast cancer), but for a man there are no advantages at all in excess adipose tissue. The conversion of male sex hormones to female ones can impair erections and interfere with normal sperm production.
Moreover, fat deposits in the lower abdomen also purely mechanically shorten the penis; they can drown a couple of centimeters of the working surface under them. In fact, the length of the penis is not of fundamental importance for the quality of sex; the main erogenous zones of the vagina are still located in the first third of it - but purely psychologically, it’s probably nice to play sports, knowing that this also makes the penis grow. And it’s even more pleasant to tell a man who wants you to lose even more weight that it’s actually much more important for him to lose weight.
I don’t lose weight on pp, I hate it
You can talk about it when you eat right and maintain physical activity, but there are no results. Most often, this phenomenon is observed a week or two after starting the diet.
As a rule, in the first days the weight decreases, and then suddenly stops. It is not dangerous and goes away on its own with continued adherence to a healthy diet and physical activity.
But sometimes metabolic disorders are caused by health problems. Therefore, if you observe any other alarming symptoms in addition to weight loss, it is better to consult a doctor as soon as possible. In order for the weight loss process to proceed smoothly and smoothly, you must approach the issue calmly and not be impatient. Keep in mind that the normal pace of weight loss is an average of 7 to 10 days.
It allows you to gradually return to normal without stress and harm to your health.
