Every person who is obese, or who has at least 4-5 extra pounds, dreams of an effective weight loss diet. It seems simple, affordable and effective: you can eat everything, in any quantity and at the same time the weight melts quickly. It is a pity that this is just a dream. According to experts, rapid weight loss is dangerous to health, especially if you lose 10-15 kg or more in a short time. This can lead to serious problems with metabolism, hormones and internal organs. Of course, there are a number of diets that are balanced, reduced in calories and with adequate nutrients, but they lead to gradual weight loss. Let's try to figure out how a good diet differs from a dangerous one and which one is most effective?
Fast Weight Loss Diet: Why Is It Dangerous?
Naturally, significant weight loss in the short term is the most anticipated outcome for any overweight person. But doctors do not tire of repeating that rapid weight loss can cause serious damage to both physical health and psyche.
First of all, you can gain the lost weight again after stopping the weight loss program. Moreover, as a result, the weight may become even higher than it originally was. It is believed that the optimal rate of weight loss is no more than 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 a combination of strict calorie restriction, fasting, or both. But these changes in life are not permanent and after reaching the "ideal" weight a person returns to normal eating and active habits. As a result, the body weight returns and you still need to lose weight.
Thus, in order to achieve real success, you need to change your entire lifestyle, eating style and activity, create conditions for you to burn constant calories and eat less food.
An Effective Diet for Weight Loss: Is It Available?
If we talk about whether there is a universal and effective diet for weight loss that will help everyone, the answer is no. Causes of weight gain can be a variety of factors, ranging from banal overeating, inactivity and laziness, ending with serious endocrine disorders and neurological diseases, pathologies of internal organs. For example, weight gain is typical for type 2 diabetes, Cushing's disease or hypothyroidism, Pickwick syndrome, pancreatic cancer (insulinoma) and many others.
Consequently, almost any balanced diet is suitable for relatively healthy people, which to some extent limits the caloric content of the diet, at the same time supplying the body with all the necessary nutrients. If you add to this regular exercise, expand your daily activities - the weight will gradually disappear. But patients with serious diseases need a special therapeutic diet, taking into account the peculiarities of metabolic changes, as well as parallel treatment of the underlying disease - tumor removal, hormone level correction, hypoglycemic agents or insulin injections for diabetes. .
Good diet: features 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 distributes (breaks down) body fat in a variety of ways that are related to evolutionary mechanisms. Therefore, a good diet that is ideal for men may not work at all and will not reduce a woman's body weight. But why is that?
Men, as was the case in ancient times, had to hunt to provide food for their families. So they need strength, endurance and muscle mass to run, drag mammoths and get rid of predators. Although times have changed today, the metabolic characteristics of the male body have remained the same. Therefore, they lose weight faster and easier if they reduce the caloric content of food and exercise. A man's body burns fat faster than a woman's and builds muscle mass. Testosterone helps with this. Testosterone levels decrease with age, men also gain weight faster and lose it worse.
Men need more calories, more protein and fat, they consume faster. But they can eat less sugar, it gives fast energy, but it is not enough and will not be enough for active work of long muscles, it is better to give preference to complex carbohydrates from grains.
The "women" diet
The main goal of a woman, in terms of biology and evolution, is the successful birth and birth of children. In order for the fruit to develop actively, it needs a lot of energy and nutrients. Therefore, a woman's body initially stores fat in the thighs, partly in the waist and chest, back and arms. In addition to the costs during pregnancy, energy costs during breastfeeding are equally important. Therefore, every woman gains extra fat during pregnancy. This is an urgent supply for the duration of 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 an "evolutionary" craving for sweet foods. Evolutionarily, women were busy with assembly and household chores, their bodies did not need as much muscle as men.
Fashionable diet: good or bad?
Each diet, no matter how good, has its pros and cons, contraindications to its use. For example, the keto diet, which is popular today, according to Austrian researchers, can provoke a psoriatic rash. The scientists noted that a keto diet that includes medium-chain triglycerides, along with omega-3 fatty acids derived from nuts, seeds and fish oil, may be a predictor of psoriasis exacerbation. The study, entitled "Effects of a Ketogenic Diet on Psoriasis-Like Skin Inflammation, " was published in the August 2019 issue of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. Thus, people with a hereditary predisposition to this disease should avoid weight loss by using this diet, which is fashionable today.