Everyone who is obese, or who has at least 4-5 extra pounds, dreams of an effective diet to lose weight. It seems simple, affordable and effective: you can eat everything, in any quantity, and at the same time the weight will quickly melt away. Too bad it's just a dream. According to experts, rapid weight loss is dangerous to health, especially if 10-15 kg or more is lost in a short time. This can lead to serious problems in metabolism, hormones and internal organs. Of course, there are some balanced diets, reducing calories and adequate in nutrients, but it leads to gradual weight loss. Let’s try to think about how a good diet differs from a bad one, and which one is most effective?
Rapid weight loss during the diet: why is it dangerous?
Naturally, significant weight loss in a short period of time is the most expected outcome for any overweight person. But doctors are not tired of repeating that rapid weight loss can endanger physical and mental health.
First, the weight lost after the weight loss program is terminated can be regained. Moreover, as a result, the weight can be higher than originally. It is believed that the optimal rate of weight loss is no more than 1. 5-2 kg per week. Therefore, to lose 10 kg, you need at least 5-7 weeks, or more.
Second, rapid weight loss is usually achieved through severe calorie restriction, fasting, or a combination of both with strenuous exercise. But this change in life is not permanent, and after the "ideal" weight is reached, the person returns to normal eating habits and activities. As a result, the weight returns, and you have to lose weight again.
Therefore, to achieve real success, you need to change your entire lifestyle, eating style and activities, creating conditions for constant calorie expenditure and less food intake.
An effective diet for weight loss: does it exist?
If we talk about whether there is a universal and effective diet for weight loss that will help everyone, the answer is no. The causes of weight gain can be a variety of factors, ranging from overeating, inactivity and laziness, ending with serious endocrine disorders and neurological diseases, pathology of internal organs. For example, weight gain is typical of type 2 diabetes, Cushing’s disease or hypothyroidism, Pickwick syndrome, pancreatic tumors (insulinoma), and more.
Therefore, for relatively healthy people, almost all balanced diets are suitable, which somewhat limits the calorie content of the diet, while supplying the body with all the necessary nutrients. If you add regular exercise to this, expand your daily activities - the weight will gradually disappear. But for patients with serious diseases, a special therapeutic diet is required, 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: 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 are linked to evolutionary mechanisms. Therefore, a good diet suitable for men may not work at all and not reduce a woman’s weight. But why is that?
Men, as was the case in ancient times, must hunt to provide food for their families. Therefore, they need strength, endurance and muscle mass so that they run, drag mammoths and run away from predators. Although times have changed today, the metabolic characteristics of the male body remain the same. Therefore, they lose weight faster and easier if they reduce the calorie content of food and exercise. Men’s bodies burn fat faster than women’s and build muscle mass. Testosterone helps with this. As testosterone levels decline with age, men also gain weight faster and lose it more severely.
Men need more calories, more protein and fat, they are eaten faster. But they can eat less sugar, it gives fast energy, but it is not enough, and it will not be enough for active muscle work in the long run, it is better to give preference to complex carbohydrates than cereals.
The "women's" diet.
The main goal of a woman, from a biological and evolutionary point of view, is the success of childbirth and childbirth. For active fetal development, 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 costs during pregnancy, energy costs during breastfeeding are equally important. Therefore, all women gain excess fat during pregnancy. This is an emergency supply for the lactation period, if food is not enough.
Because of these characteristics, women need less protein - their muscle mass is lower, but the beautiful human half has an "evolutionary" craving for sweet foods. 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 women's diet is lower. Evolutionarily, women are involved in gatherings and housework, their bodies don’t need as much muscle as men. Women's diet should include saturated fat, little protein, and complex carbohydrates. If light carbohydrates prevail, the frugal body will immediately transfer the excess energy into a stored form - fat in the problem areas.
Stylish diet: good or bad?
Every diet, no matter how good, has pros and cons, contraindications to use. So, for example, the keto diet that is popular today, according to researchers from Austria, can trigger 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, may predict psoriasis flare-ups. A study titled "Effects of Ketogenic Diet on Skin Inflammation Like Psoriasis" was published in August 2019 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. Therefore, people with a hereditary predisposition to this disease should avoid weight loss using today’s fashionable diet.