Everyone who suffers from obesity or weighs at least 4-5 kilograms, dreams of an effective diet to lose weight. It looks simple, affordable and effective: you can eat everything, any amount, and at the same time the weight will melt quickly. Unfortunately, this is just a dream. According to experts, rapid weight loss is dangerous to health, especially when you lose 10-15 kg or more in a short time. This can cause serious problems with metabolism, hormones and internal organs. Of course, there are a number of diets that are balanced, low in calories and adequate in nutrients, but they lead to gradual weight loss. Let's try to understand how a good diet differs from a dangerous one and which ones are more effective.
Rapid weight loss in the diet: why is it dangerous?
Of course, significant weight loss in a short period of time is the most expected result for any overweight person. But doctors do not tire of repeating that rapid weight loss can cause serious damage to both physical and mental health.
First, the lost pounds can be regained after the weight loss program is stopped. In addition, the weight may be higher than before. It is believed that the optimal rate of weight loss does not exceed 1. 5-2 kg per week. Thus, it takes at least 5-7 weeks or even longer to lose 10 kg.
Second, rapid weight loss is usually achieved through severe calorie restriction, fasting, or a combination of both with strenuous exercise. But these changes in life are not permanent, and after reaching the "ideal" weight, a person returns to normal eating and working habits. As a result, body weight returns and you need to lose weight again.
So, to be truly successful, you need to change your whole lifestyle, diet and activity, create conditions for constant calorie expenditure and eat less food.
An effective diet to lose weight: is it?
There is no answer as to whether there is a universal and effective diet for weight loss that will help everyone. The causes of weight gain can be a variety of factors, from unusual overeating, inactivity and laziness to serious endocrine disorders and neurological diseases, pathologies of internal organs. For example, weight gain is characteristic of type 2 diabetes, Cushing's disease or hypothyroidism, Pickwick syndrome, pancreatic tumor (insulinoma) and many others.
Accordingly, for a relatively healthy person, almost any balanced diet is suitable, which somewhat limits the caloric content of the diet, while providing the body with all the necessary nutrients. If you add regular exercise to it, expand your daily activities - the weight will gradually disappear. However, patients with severe disease require a special therapeutic diet, taking into account the characteristics of metabolic changes, as well as parallel treatment of the underlying disease - tumor removal, correction of hormone levels, hypoglycemic drugs or insulin injections for diabetes. .
Good diet: features in men
In addition to health, gender differences also play a role in weight gain and loss. In men and women, body fat is stored and metabolized in different ways, which is due to evolutionary mechanisms. Therefore, a good diet, which is ideal for men, may not work at all and may not reduce a woman's body weight. Why is that?
Men, as in ancient times, had to hunt to feed their families. Therefore, you need strength, endurance and muscle mass to run, drag mammoths and escape predators. Although times have changed today, the metabolic characteristics of the male body have not changed. Therefore, if they reduce the caloric content of food and exercise, they lose weight faster and easier. The male body burns fat faster than the female and builds muscle mass. Testosterone helps with this. As testosterone levels decrease with age, men gain weight faster and worsen.
Men need more calories, more protein and fat, they are consumed faster. However, they can eat less sugar, provide fast energy, but this is not enough and will not be enough for active muscle work in the long run, it is better to prefer complex carbohydrates from grains.
"Women's" diet
From a biological and evolutionary point of view, a woman's main goal is to give birth to a successful child. You need a lot of energy and nutrients for the active development of the fetus. Therefore, a woman's body first accumulates fat in the hips, and partly in the back and chest, back and arms. In addition to the costs during pregnancy, energy costs during breastfeeding are equally important. Therefore, all women gain extra fat during pregnancy. This is an emergency supply for lactation if food is not enough.
Because of these characteristics, women need less protein - they have less muscle mass, but the beautiful half of humanity has an "evolutionary" desire for sweets. It is from carbohydrates that you can easily and quickly get a lot of energy that can be stored in the form of subcutaneous fat. The total caloric content of a woman's diet is lower. By evolution, women were engaged in gathering and housework, and their bodies did not need as much muscle as men. A woman's diet should include saturated fats, some proteins and complex carbohydrates. If light carbohydrates predominate, the frugal body immediately transfers excess energy to a reserve form - fats in problem areas.
Fashionable diets: good or bad?
Each diet, no matter how good, has both advantages and disadvantages, as well as contraindications for use. Thus, for example, according to researchers from Austria, the keto diet, which is popular today, can cause psoriatic rashes. The researchers noted that keto diets containing medium-chain triglycerides, omega-3 fatty acids derived from nuts, seeds and fish oils, may be a prognosis for psoriasis. A study entitled "The effect of ketogenic diets on skin inflammation such as psoriasis" was published in August 2019 in the journal Research Dermatology. People with a genetic predisposition to this disease should avoid using this diet, which is in vogue today.