Every obese person, or gaining at least 4-5 kg, dreams of an effective weight loss diet. It seems simple, affordable and effective: you can eat anything, in any quantity, and the weight will disappear in no time. Too bad it was just a dream. According to experts, rapid weight loss is very dangerous for health, especially if you lose 10-15kg or more in a short time. This can lead to serious problems in metabolism, hormones and internal organs. Of course, there are some diets that are balanced, reduced in calories and full of nutrients, but they lead to gradual weight loss. Let's try to find out how a good diet differs from a dangerous one, and which is the most effective?
Rapid weight loss on a diet: Why is it dangerous?
Naturally, short-term dramatic weight loss is the most desirable outcome for any overweight person. But doctors do not tire of repeating that rapid weight loss can seriously harm both physical and mental health.
Firstly, the weight lost after the end of the weight loss program can be regained. Moreover, as a result, the weight may even become higher than the original. It is believed that the optimal rate of weight loss is no more than 1. 5-2 kg per week. Thus, to lose 10 kg, you need at least 5-7 weeks, even more.
Second, rapid weight loss is often achieved through severe calorie restriction, fasting, or a combination of both with grueling exercise. But these life changes are not permanent, and once the "ideal" weight is reached, the person returns to normal eating and living habits. As a result, the body weight comes back, and you need to lose weight again.
So, to achieve real success, you need to change your entire lifestyle, eating and living habits, creating conditions to consume calories continuously and eat less.
An effective diet for weight loss: does it exist?
If we talk about whether there is a popular and effective diet for weight loss that will help everyone, the answer is no. The reason for weight gain can be due to many different factors, from overeating, inactivity and inactivity, to serious endocrine disorders and neurological diseases, pathologies of internal organs. For example, weight gain is typical of type 2 diabetes, Cushing's disease or hypothyroidism, Pickwick's syndrome, a tumor of the pancreas (insulinoma), and many others.
Accordingly, for relatively healthy people, almost any balanced diet is appropriate, helping to limit the calorie content of the diet to some extent, while providing a full range of essential nutrients. for body. If you add regular exercise to this, expand your daily activities - the weight will gradually decrease. But for patients with serious diseases, a special therapeutic diet, taking into account the peculiarities of metabolic changes, as well as parallel treatment of the underlying disease - resection of the tumor, treatment ofhormone levels, blood sugar-lowering medications, or insulin injections for diabetes. .
Good diet: characteristics in men
In addition to health status, gender differences also play a role in weight gain and loss. In men and women, the body stores and metabolizes (breaks down) body fat in different ways, which involves evolutionary mechanisms. Therefore, a good and ideal diet for men may have no effect and not reduce a woman's body weight. But why is that?
The men, as happened in ancient times, had to hunt to provide food for their families. They therefore needed strength, endurance, and muscle mass so that they could run, pull mammoths, and escape predators. Although today's times have changed, the characteristics of the male body's metabolism have remained unchanged. As a result, they lose weight faster and easier if they reduce calories in food and exercise. Men's bodies burn fat faster than women's and build muscle mass. Testosterone helps do this. As testosterone levels decline with age, men also gain weight faster and lose weight more quickly.
Men need more calories, more protein and fat, they are consumed faster. But they can eat less sugar, it gives quick energy but not enough, long term will not be enough for muscle performance, it is better to prioritize complex carbohydrates from grains.
Diet "for women"
The main purpose of a woman, from the point of view of biology and evolution, is to bear children and have successful offspring. In order for the fetus to develop actively, you need a lot of energy and nutrients. Therefore, the female body initially stores fat in the hips, partly in the waist and chest, back and arms. In addition to the costs of pregnancy, the energy costs of breastfeeding are equally important. So all women gain extra fat during pregnancy. This is an emergency supply during lactation, if food is not enough.
Because of these characteristics, women need less protein - their muscle mass is lower, but the beautiful half of humanity has "evolved" cravings for sweets. It is from carbohydrates that you can easily and quickly get a lot of energy that can be stored as subcutaneous fat. The total calorie content of the women's diets was lower. Basically, women are engaged in gathering and doing housework, their bodies don't need as much muscle as men. A woman's diet should include saturated fat, some protein, and complex carbohydrates. If light carbohydrates prevail, the saving body immediately converts excess energy into a stored form - fat in problem areas.
Trendy diets: good or bad?
Each diet, no matter how good, has advantages and disadvantages, contraindications to use. So, for example, the keto diet popular today, according to researchers from Austria, can cause a psoriatic rash. Scientists have noted that a keto diet that includes medium-chain triglycerides, along with omega-3 fatty acids derived from nuts, seeds, and fish oils, can predict flare-ups of diabetes. Psoriasis. A study titled "Effect of the Ketogenic Diet on Psoriasis-Like Dermatitis" was published in August 2019 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. Therefore, people with a genetic predisposition to this disease should avoid losing weight by using today's trendy diets.