What is wrong with dieting? Healthy eating - how to diet and not go crazy. Diet – carbohydrate component

It’s not enough to just choose a plan for losing extra pounds that interests you: you should learn everything about how to go on a diet in order to lose weight and maintain the result. Moreover, do this in such a way as not to pay too high a price for a new figure. After all, the difficulty of almost any fat elimination scheme is to achieve harmony between all the requirements.

And in order to help all women who are concerned about correcting their body, this article will tell you how to go on a diet correctly, go in and out of it, how long to go on a diet, what mistakes are made while losing weight, and how to insure yourself against them.

How to diet to lose weight and not lose weight?

The first stage of the diet is preparation for it. It is no less important than everything else, because it allows you to prevent possible breakdowns, and it is simply easier to endure the new regime. One or two days before you start losing weight, you should eliminate all sweets and baked goods from your diet, and also put aside the frying pan with vegetable oil. In any case, these products will be excluded during the period while you have to go on a diet.

Then, depending on how strict the method is chosen, you will need to discard the first, second and compote, replacing them with one less voluminous dish. Try to break your menu into several meals and eliminate late-night snacks.

The second stage is the diet itself. The main recommendations for it are usually indicated in the description, in the same place where acceptable and prohibited products are listed. But you can give a couple of tips on how to implement it.

• Try to eat 5-6 times a day. Even if there are three meals on the menu, it is advisable to divide each into two more, although the portions will be smaller. This will allow you not to feel acute hunger during the day, as well as speed up your metabolism and not overload the pancreas.
• Choose the most pleasant menu for yourself, where most products evoke positive associations. If you don’t love cottage cheese, why go on a protein or fermented milk diet?

And, of course, the main assistant in losing weight without failure is serious motivation. Without it, any business is doomed to failure.

How long to diet without harming your health?

The time period required to adhere to the weight loss method can vary from three days to thirty or more. This depends primarily on how gentle the system is chosen, how the menu is arranged, what products are included in it, and how nutritious the diet is. The speed of weight loss will also depend on this.

Diets focused on one to three days refer to fasting days and are usually based on eating one or two foods over the entire period. It is not recommended to carry out such schemes more than once a month, and you should adhere to them only for a clearly indicated period, without extending them at will. Such systems greatly deplete the body of nutrients. A one-sided menu over a long period of time has a negative impact on health.

Diets designed for three to seven days are also included in the category of express diets, but their diet is more varied. This could be a combination of several mono-diets, or simply a strong reduction in calorie intake to 500-700 kcal/day. Such power systems are slightly less destructive if you do not work with them for more than a week, and then make the right exit. You can go on a diet of this type once or twice a month, but the break between approaches should be at least two weeks.

A period of two to four weeks usually involves weight loss techniques with a fairly balanced menu, whose calorie content usually does not decrease more than 1000 kcal/day. The predominant products in them are vegetables and fruits, as well as lean meat and low-fat dairy products. Cereals, flour, confectionery groups, and some elements of the vegetable and fruit category are removed from the diet. By and large, you can go on a diet of this type with a break of a week, since here the diet is composed most competently and almost does not deprive the body of necessary substances. In this case, weight loss usually occurs smoothly, but since the diet is slowly adjusted and addiction develops, a new weight gain may not occur in the future.

When wondering how long to go on a diet, you should remember one thing: if during weight loss you experience severe weakness, deterioration in health, and decreased performance, then it is undesirable to follow such a system for more than a couple of days. Such symptoms usually accompany low-calorie methods aimed at a very short term. Otherwise, you can pay for being slim at the cost of your health.

How to get out of a diet?

The most universal answer to constantly arising questions about the correct completion of a diet is the phrase that the exit period should be equal to the duration of the weight loss system itself. This does not apply only to gentle long-term methods, since after them you just need to switch to proper nutrition in a couple of days and stick to it for the rest of your life, occasionally allowing yourself unhealthy dishes and products if you really want to.

For all other schemes, in addition to knowing how to diet properly, you also need to understand how to complete it correctly. As for the timing, the direct dependence on the duration of the diet has already been said; now we should talk about the diet at this time.

If you had to go on a diet, the menu of which was largely reduced and consisted of one or two products, the first days after it look like that of a person who has suffered a serious illness. Hot low-fat broths, some day-old bread, and grated apples appear in the diet. The next day you can add porridge cooked in water: oatmeal, rice, buckwheat. Vegetables that do not have coarse fiber are also designated here. Then pasta, lean meat and fish are introduced.

Excess weight can negatively affect a person's emotional state, as well as health. The person may lose self-confidence and motivation. It is good for your health to adjust your diet by replacing unhealthy foods with healthy ones and reducing portion sizes. For the diet to give the desired result, you need to get enough nutrients from food and not limit your diet too much. Any diet will be more effective if you also acquire healthy habits and have a positive attitude.

Steps

Planning

Think about why you need a diet. If you clearly understand what your goals are, it will be easier for you to choose a nutrition system that you can stick to and that will lead you to the result you want.

• Fighting diabetes. If you have diabetes, you definitely need to take care of your diet. Reducing or eliminating sugar is the key to living a healthy life with diabetes.
• Reducing the risk of heart disease. Foods that normalize blood cholesterol and help reduce belly fat help prevent cardiovascular disease.
• Losing excess weight after pregnancy. Everyone gains weight during pregnancy, but chances are you'll want to lose it and get back to your old figure.
• Preparing for the beach season. With the arrival of warmer weather, many people begin to lose weight in order to look better in beachwear. Sometimes small changes in your diet are enough to lose weight “to the sea”.

1. Pump up your body. Perhaps you would like to strengthen your muscles and gain weight through muscle mass. In this case, you will need to eat more protein since protein is responsible for building muscle.

   Make sure you can limit your diet. Before making dietary changes, discuss your diet with your doctor and ask whether it will be harmful to your health.

   Analyze your eating habits. Before you change your habits, you need to understand what they are. Track what, when and where you eat to better understand your routine.

   • Keep a food diary. Keep it in the kitchen or on your bedside table and write down everything you ate (full meals, snacks, and even those few spoons of something you just wanted to try), the time and place where you ate (at the kitchen table, on the couch) , In the bed).
   • Keep a diary on the Internet. There are apps and websites you can use to track your nutrition. If the application is on your phone, it will be convenient for you to enter all the data there on time.

2. Find out what you have problems with. We all have different eating habits and different triggers for overeating. If you know what makes you eat more than you need, it will be easier for you to break the habit.

   • Stress. One of the main reasons for overeating is stress. When a person is tense and restless, he often tries to eat stress. If this is an issue for you, you may want to learn to cope with stress in other ways or buy healthier foods.
   • Fatigue. A tired person tends to choose junk food. If you know that you often eat when you're tired, try to take more time to rest and go shopping feeling rested and calm.
   • Boredom or loneliness. Have all your friends left? Can't find anything to do? If you overeat when you're on your own, try to find new activities and hobbies that get you out of the house more often and that take your mind off food.
   • Excessive hunger. If you put off eating because you're busy, by dinnertime you won't be able to think about anything but food, and you'll probably eat more than you need. If this problem is familiar to you, try to find time to snack during the day.

   How to choose healthy foods

   1. Learn more about what calories are. Most people who lose weight count calories, but many do not know how many calories their body needs. We think the fewer calories you eat, the faster you can lose weight, but it's important to consider not only how many calories you consume, but also where you get them from.

      • Men eat on average 2,600 calories a day, while women eat about 1,800. If you want to lose weight, you'll need to cut back on calories, but you should eat at least 1,200 calories a day. If you eat less, the body will go into starvation mode and will cling more tightly to fat deposits.
      • Contact a nutritionist or trainer to calculate your caloric intake for weight loss. Consider your physical activity level.
      • Try to get your calories from healthy sources. Eat more foods with fiber (whole grains) and protein (lean meats). This way you will feel fuller longer and have more energy.
      • Avoid "empty" calories. For example, alcohol and potato chips do not saturate the body, but at the same time they bring extra calories.

   2. Follow the generally accepted recommendations of nutritionists. A person must receive all the nutrients he needs and eat a balanced diet. This means that you should eat a certain amount of foods from all groups, without giving preference to any one of them. You should also eat a varied diet (for example, eat not only apples, but also other fruits). It is important that added sugars and saturated fats account for no more than 10% of the calorie intake for each item. Try to consume no more than 2,300 milligrams of salt daily. In addition, there are recommendations regarding the amount of certain foods that you should try to eat every day. For example:

      • Eat 9 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. One serving of fruit is half a cup of chopped fruit or one small piece of fruit. One serving of vegetables is a cup of leafy vegetables or half a cup of chopped vegetables.
      • Eat 6 servings of grains daily, with at least half coming from whole grains. One serving of grains is a slice of bread or half a cup of cooked rice or pasta.
      • Eat 2-3 servings of dairy products per day, preferring low-fat products. 1 serving of dairy products is half a glass of milk.
      • Eat 2-3 servings of protein per day. One serving of meat is 85 grams, or the size of an adult's palm. One serving can also be considered one large egg, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, 30 grams of walnuts, 50 grams of beans.
      • Try to eat foods of all colors of the rainbow: blueberries, red apples, asparagus. Different colored foods contain different nutrients and vitamins.

   3. Eat more lean meat and fish. The body needs protein to build muscles, properly function the immune system and metabolism. To get the most benefit from protein, choose foods that are high in protein and low in fat.

      Eat whole grain cereals. In whole grain cereals, all parts of the plant are preserved: the sprout, the hull and the endosperm. During processing, the sprout and shell are often removed, causing the plant to lose 25% of its protein and at least 17 nutrients. To get the most benefits from grains, look for whole grains.

      Eat healthy fat. Not all fats are harmful - some should definitely be present in the diet. Monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fats are beneficial: they reduce the level of “bad” cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein) in the blood and increase or maintain the same level of “good” cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein), and also normalize insulin and sugar levels.

      • Monounsaturated fatty acids are found in avocados, canola oil, nuts (almonds, cashews, pecans, macadamia nuts, and nut butters), olive oil, olive oil, and pistachio oil.

   4. Avoid trans fats. Trans fats are oils saturated with hydrogen, so these fats are often called hydrogenated on product packaging. These fats increase the level of "bad" cholesterol and reduce the level of "good" cholesterol in the blood, increase the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke and can lead to infertility.

      Read the information on the packaging. Pay attention to the nutritional value of the product - this way you can choose healthy products. The packaging often lists the serving size and nutritional value per serving.

      Prepare your own food. Eating in a cafe or buying semi-finished products is very convenient and simple, but this way you do not control the quantity of food and the quality of the products. To lose weight, you need to cook your meals at home. This way you can choose a healthier cooking method (baking instead of frying) and fresh ingredients.

      • Plan your meals in advance. Making a plan for the week will make it easier for you to stick to your plan and avoid excess food. It will be easier for you if you prepare healthy meals in advance and store them in the freezer.
      • Make cooking fun. Buy yourself new knives or a nice apron. This will motivate you to spend more time in the kitchen.

   5. Have snacks between meals. Yes, you can have a snack! Eating frequently keeps your metabolism level and forces your body to burn more calories. Healthy snacks will curb your hunger and keep you from overeating.

      • It is important to choose healthy foods. Buy fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, low-fat dairy products. For dinner, you can make hummus and eat it with sliced ​​cucumber.
      • Keep snacks on hand at work. If you have roasted almonds on your desk, you are unlikely to decide to snack on cookies in the office kitchen.

   6. Add flavor to your products. You will want to eat something if it tastes good. To make your food tastier, you can add salsa to it. Drizzle sauce over baked potatoes and you won't have to put butter on them. This way you will not only get rid of excess fat, but also add some vegetables to the dish.

   What foods should you avoid?

   Avoid extreme diets. You might want to try out some fad diets for yourself. There are always news in the media about celebrities who have managed to lose weight on some kind of diet, but it is important to remember that such diets do not always work and, more importantly, they can be dangerous to your health.

   • Many of these diets require the elimination of an entire food group - for example, carbohydrates. However, a complete diet must include all nutrients. Avoid diets that prohibit a specific food group.
   • Some extreme diets can cause problems with health and well-being. Crash diets often involve eating extremely few calories, which is very unhealthy. Eat as many calories as your body needs and choose healthy foods.

   1. Avoid processed foods. Processed foods and fast food contain large amounts of substances that you shouldn't eat: salt, saturated fat, sugar. Of course, if you occasionally eat a burger or processed food, nothing bad will happen, but you should not abuse such food.

      • Saturated fat should account for more than 10% of your calories for the entire day. If you eat no more than 1,500 calories a day, that means you can eat no more than 15 grams of saturated fat. Fast food burgers typically contain 12–16 grams.

   2. Avoid sugary drinks. Sugary drinks, especially soft drinks, lead to weight gain and obesity. Liquid calories are still calories - they need to be counted in your total calories for the day, so try to eliminate sugary drinks from your diet.

      If necessary, avoid certain foods. If you have a medical condition that requires you to limit certain foods, you will have to be even more responsible with your food choices.

   Lifestyle changes

   Don't demand too much from yourself. Of course, everyone wants to lose weight faster, which can lead to severe calorie restriction and unrealistic expectations. However, a slow and relaxed approach to losing weight will be more effective. This will make it easier for you to lose weight and maintain your new weight.

   • Start by replacing just one meal per day. To avoid drastic changes, try eating just one healthier meal a day at first. Since the changes will be smooth, you won’t feel like you’ve been robbed of all the best things, and it will be easier for you to adjust.
   • Eliminate or replace one snack per day. If you always drink coffee and cookies at three o'clock, try replacing the cookies with a peach or skipping this meal altogether. You can simply replace the fatty coffee drink with green tea with lemon.

   1. Start moving more. Proper nutrition is the key to a healthy lifestyle, but results will appear faster if you also start exercising. Research has shown that changes in diet combined with exercise have a positive effect on overall health and help you lose weight.

      • Try to exercise at least 60 minutes a day. You can divide this hour into several intervals. For example, you can walk to work instead of driving, or take the stairs instead of the elevator.
      • Go outside. People who exercise outdoors enjoy physical activity more. Find a place to exercise near your home, go for walks, or find a sports ground in your local area and exercise there.
      • Call a friend. It will be easier for you to stick to your plan if you have company. Invite a friend to join you for a yoga class or a walk after work.

   2. Try to get more rest. If you don't get enough sleep, your body may begin to gain weight. When a person sleeps little, his body produces more of the stress hormone cortisol. Because of this, a person begins to eat more junk food to calm down.

   3. Fight stress . There is a connection between stress and weight gain. If a person is nervous, the body produces cortisol, which causes weight to accumulate. Typically, fat deposits appear in the abdominal area. For the diet to be effective, it is important to get rid of stress.

      • Exercise regularly. Physical activity releases endorphins in the body and improves your mood.
      • Take deep breaths. Conscious breathing is a very effective method of dealing with stress. Take a deep breath and exhale slowly. This will slow your heart rate and help you calm down.

   4. Pamper yourself from time to time. An effective reward system will help you stay enthusiastic and stick to your plan.

      • Plan a day when you can afford to deviate from the plan. Try eating what you want once a week. This will give you something to look forward to and won't make you feel like you're completely limiting yourself.
      • Don't ban yourself from any food completely. A person always wants to get what he cannot. Don't tell yourself that a certain product is prohibited. Small deviations from the diet can even be beneficial.

   5. Track changes. To make it easier to track changes, consider a rating system.

      • You can use the same food diary that you kept at the very beginning, only now you can record healthy foods there. Compare weeks, track dangerous moments and progress.
      • Use the online application. Enter all the data (initial weight, desired weight, daily meals) into the application, which will calculate everything for you. Many apps offer healthy recipes and the ability to connect with like-minded people.
      • Weigh yourself every week. It is important not only what is written in the diary, but also the number on the scales. Select a day for weighing and record the data.

   6. Set realistic goals for yourself. If the goal is unrealistic, you will quickly become disillusioned with the diet. Don't demand that you lose 7 kilograms a month. It’s better to set small goals for yourself - no more than a kilogram per week.

      • Goals should be achievable, for example: “I will exercise 6 days a week.” Such goals will be easy to control, and you will always be able to reward yourself for a certain result. But don't reward yourself with food - it's better to buy yourself new sportswear or shoes.

How to diet?

In this article we will talk about the most important aspects of getting rid of subcutaneous fat and learn how to diet. About those aspects that no one talks about, you can find a lot of recommendations about certain diets, some of them are worse, others are better, but most often they are not people get it not because one is better and the other is worse than the other, but because a person cannot follow it.

After some time, a person violates the conditions of the diet and ceases to restrain himself, and in the end everything returns to normal.

There are a large number of opinions on how to diet, and a huge number of these diets, and absolutely each of them comes from one simple rule: “every day you need to take in fewer calories than you burn.” Thus creating a deficiency that is covered by subcutaneous fat.

Even the most mega-effective diet will not work if you do not follow it to the letter, do not restrain yourself and limit yourself according to the restrictions that it imposed on you. On the other hand, even the weakest diet will bring you much more benefit than the most effective one if you can effectively limit yourself and follow the recommendations of this diet.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work out for people, a person goes on a diet, sits on it for a week or two and begins to come up with a lot of excuses for himself and starts eating what he shouldn’t eat. And accordingly, everything goes down the drain, and the point is not that the diet is not effective, but that the person’s psyche turned out to be ineffective in order to understand how to go on a diet.

Is there a problem with self-restraint in principle? We are sure that most people need to restrain and limit themselves in food. Look around, how many beautiful people you see around, go into any store and look at the people who buy something there, look at what they eat.

And everything will immediately become clear to you, you will understand that there are very, very few beautiful people. Mostly people around are overweight and therefore not beautiful.

Why are there so many unattractive people around?

Because they eat too much and move too little, they get too much excess calories (food/nutrients) and they do not spend this excess, so they begin to store excess in the form of subcutaneous fat. It is subcutaneous fat that makes people unattractive, and such people are the majority.

Initially, our human body is configured to accumulate nutrients, for the reason that before food was in short supply, before food had to be obtained much more difficult than now and a situation could arise that you ate, and the next time you eat 3 days later or even later .

Throughout our evolution, food has been hard to come by, and over countless centuries this adaptation has become ingrained in us. It is at the subconscious level, an instinctive desire to constantly eat and create a certain supply.

Now, over the past 100 years, the situation has changed dramatically; for the first time in the history of mankind, it is possible to eat as much as we want and learn how to diet. We may not limit ourselves, but our unconscious instinctive behavior is not in the know; it changes over many centuries/tens or even thousands of years.

Our consciousness is aware of what is happening around us, our mind/brain knows that there is enough food. When you look in the mirror, you realize that instead of a 6-pack belly and a saggy belly, you understand that you need to limit yourself in calories. You understand this intellectually, but instinctively you want to eat endlessly.

And the next time you sit down at the table and there are a bunch of fatty dishes with excess calories, you understand with your mind that you don’t need to eat it, but your unconscious wants to eat everything. Due to the pleasure you get from food, excess accumulation of nutrients occurs.

When the person received a large excess of calories, nature has developed reward mechanisms, i.e. you get pleasure from it, you ate something tasty and you feel good, endorphins have been produced and you feel good.

The main problem with dieting

The problem is not at all in the selection and distribution of products, the problem is in the instinctive reluctance to do this, and the more you you limit yourself in food, the creature inside you screams louder, and the creature inside you screams so not because it is hungry and it is dying, not because there are not enough calories in your diet for your survival, but because it is greedy.

Our instinctive unconscious behavior forces us to do not only what is useful to us, but what harms us, i.e. follow not the conscious useful, but the unconscious - harmful. In practice it usually looks like this:

A person goes on a diet, has read a certain effective diet, and thinks “now I will become handsome”; he keeps it for a while, for some it may be a couple of days, for others it is a couple of weeks and breaks down. Why? Because the longer the restrictions go on, the longer the creature inside him screams “I want to eat!” The more time passes, the more thoughts a person has about food.

After some time, a person finds an excuse and breaks down. The justification comes from our conscious mind, but it is not an independent decision. Because when instinct tells you “I want to eat, more, more,” your brain begins to come up with excuses for your unconscious instincts.

At some point, a person, under the influence of this unconscious, breaks down, forgets how to diet and begins to eat. The diet goes to hell, and in the best case, he returns to his original state, and in the worst case, due to the fact that he had a deficiency for several weeks and instinct forces him to eat more than he needs, and the person does not return to his original state, but gains more more than it was at the start.

Animal instincts give you motivation and desires, but the mind does not give this, so the mind cannot honestly defeat animal instincts, because it does not have any weapons for this. The mind can only manipulate animal instincts.

Imagine that you want to lose weight, why? You want to lose weight and get rid of subcutaneous fat in order to get abs and improve your waist. You want to become better than other people, or better than you are now, in other words, you want to raise your status in society and this is already an instinct of dominance (pride). It is this instinct that can motivate you and limit himself and goes on a diet.

When a person has an instinctive motivation, he wants to become better, or to win a good partner, then he can limit himself in nutrition and more easily achieve the final goal. If it works, then it is effective and should be used.

How professionals don't freak out

This is why professional athletes lose weight so easily before competitions. Ordinary people do not understand how a person can so easily, in a couple of weeks/months, radically change his external shape. Because ordinary people don’t succeed, namely because they don’t have such powerful motivation as a professional athlete.

After all, when an athlete prepares for a competition, he prepares to fight for a higher hierarchical status - dominance in its purest form. To prove that you are better than others, this dark desire to dominate, very easily completely suppresses weaker dark desires such as “to devour”. Because he understands how to diet, and that he will enjoy it more if he occupies a high hierarchical status.

The desire for superiority is of a much higher rank than the desire for satiety, so if you have such a desire, it is easier for you to override the desire to be full (to eat) and it is easier for you to diet.

Perception while dieting

Any events in the surrounding reality can be perceived differently as positive and negative. And depending on your perception, the surrounding reality will change. In order to achieve success, we need to strive for a positive perception, life only 10% comes from events/actions/phenomena and 90% depends on how we react to these events.

Various things that happen to you and those around you you make you stronger or weaker, respectively, it is easier for you to do those things that make you stronger - consciously. Diet has both a negative and a positive side, when you go on a diet, on the one hand it is bad because you limit yourself in nutrients and get less.

But on the other hand, this is good, because as a result of such restrictions you become better looking, your status changes in a positive direction. So when you go on a diet, you should focus on what makes you stronger and better. To do this, you need to perceive the diet not as a restriction, but as an improvement, an opportunity to become better.

How to diet effectively:

See the possibility of improvements (that will make you stronger)

Do not see that this is a restriction (the point is that we need to think that we can eat anything, and nothing is forbidden to us in food, but at the moment we do not need it, since we are engaged in fat burning, and when you understand this, you won’t feel like something is limiting you)

If from the very start of the diet you perceive it as a set of severe restrictions, then sooner or later you will break down, since we constantly strive to get rid of restrictions when we see them, this is a feature of our psyche.

And in order for our diet to be effective, we simply stop seeing restrictions, and the best way for this is that we can eat whatever we want, we have this opportunity, but we deliberately do not use it all the time, because we are better than others, better than others.