Nutritionist Alla Manaykina explained why the “Sweet Sunday” rule is useful and explained how to correctly calculate the caloric content of the diet. Detailed weight loss plan for 4 months - on BeautyHack!
Alla Manaykina
Dietitian (@your_figure_designer)
20 kg in 4 months is a more than realistic figure. On average, you will lose 3-5 kg per month, and if you correctly build a weight loss plan, it is completely safe for the body.
According to statistics, a person can lose 200 g of pure fat per day. An important point: the more you weigh, the easier it is to lose weight (due to rapid fluid loss). If you weigh about 70 kg, losing weight will be more difficult because the body does not consider these kilograms to be extra and is reluctant to part with them.
But before you start losing weight, I recommend consulting with a specialist, because there are many individual characteristics. There are also diseases that require a certain diet.
Don't treat your new eating plan as a diet.
This is one of the main problems of those who want to lose a large number of kilograms in a short period of time. And it leads to the fact that immediately after losing weight, the weight returns.
There are even statistics: only 5% of those who have lost weight manage to maintain their new weight for 12 months.
There is no need to treat the new diet as something temporary: “I will eat so that I lose 20 kg, and then I will start eating as usual.” It won't work! Even if you lose weight and return to your normal diet, you will gain weight very quickly.
4 months is the time during which you must change your eating habits and reconsider your own nutrition philosophy. The new diet is the system that you will continue to adhere to.
Melissa Russkikh, 29 years old
Melissa used to weigh 115 kilograms, but now her weight barely reaches 70. It may seem strange to some, but the girl had no dream of losing weight. She felt quite comfortable, had no problems with communication and did not notice any sidelong glances at her. Melissa was prompted to lose weight by plastic surgery. The girl decided to have her breasts reduced - she experienced discomfort and great stress. And I had to lose weight simply to maintain proportions.
There was no confidence that it would be possible to implement the plan. In addition, relatives and friends perceived Melissa's plans as a joke. But the girl succeeded. How? First of all, she radically changed her diet. If before it was cola and burgers, now there are no sweets and mostly protein foods. Radically means radically. Even on holidays and birthdays, Melissa ate food that she brought with her in containers. At first it was not very comfortable, but then the girl got used to it. Still, seeing how the scale arrow points to lower and lower numbers with each weighing is not a bad motivation.
“I didn’t do sports because I was afraid that given my weight, physical activity could have a bad effect on my joints,” Melissa clarifies. The girl lost weight on her own. Without outside help. The only thing is that Melissa created an online community of people like her. Still, mutual support and competition work wonders in many matters. Losing weight was no exception. Melissa managed to lose 45 kg in five months. Fast. But such rapid weight loss did not cause any problems. The skin turned out to be elastic, and a medical examination showed that everything was fine with the body.
Daily calorie intake
There are a huge number of formulas for calculating the number of calories. They take into account weight, height, gender, age, physical activity rate, but do not take into account the most important thing - the speed of metabolic processes. And this is the most important thing in the process of losing weight. I recommend first calculating your metabolic rate using the Harris-Benedict formula.
For women: 447.593 + (9.247 x weight in kg) + (3.098 x height in centimeters) - (4.330 x age in years)
Then multiply this figure by the physical activity coefficient and get your daily calorie intake. But this is not the final number: you will eat taking into account a calorie deficit so that the body spends more than it takes in.
Important: the overall reduction in calories should not exceed 15-20%. Otherwise, you risk increasing levels of stress hormones, slowing your metabolism, and losing muscle mass rather than fat. You can't go hungry!
Fitness bracelets help in calculating the individual calorie content of the daily diet. I also advise you to keep a food diary at least for the first time in order to visually assess how much and what you eat. You can use apps for this: they discipline and show how many calories are contained in a certain amount of product.
Recalculate your daily caloric intake every month.
Slimming plan
It’s true what they say: when you really want something, circumstances develop in the most favorable way. The opening of a new fitness club next door to the office was the green light for the girl. One day during a lunch break, overcoming her inhibitions, Lyuda ventured into the gym to find out everything about the training and met an old friend there - it turned out that the guy worked there as a trainer. “I had nowhere to retreat and I bought a gym membership! - says Luda. “The fact that I will be studying under the guidance of a friend has given me confidence!”
The coach, even though he was a good friend, drove Lyuda in the gym for himself and for that guy - there was no talk of any concessions based on old friendship. “He drew up a nutrition plan for me and personally supervised everything so that I wouldn’t cheat,” the girl smiles. Luda is sure that her success in the struggle for harmony is largely due to her coach.
“In the process of losing weight, it is very important to have someone support you. I'm lucky. My coach, sometimes with jokes, sometimes with kicks, forced me to work even when I wasn’t in the mood.”
Focus on feelings of fullness and hunger
It happens that, according to all calculations, it turns out to be 1600 kcal, but for you this is catastrophically low, you experience hunger, not appetite. This means you need to increase your caloric intake. A normal meal should satisfy you for 2-3 hours.
Same with water: if you are thirsty, drink! If not, you don’t need to force yourself. It's good if you manage to drink 1.5-2 liters of water a day.
Three main meals a day + 1-2 snacks
This is more than enough. Try not to eat too often (with an interval of 1-1.5 hours). This provokes an increase in blood glucose levels and increases the production of insulin, which, in turn, slows down the fat burning process. Long intervals between meals (about 3-4 hours), on the contrary, trigger this process. During this time, you can drink water, but do not have a snack.
Breakfast is 25% of the total calories, lunch is 30%, dinner is 20%, snacks are up to 20%.
Breakfast
Choose dishes that fill you up well. For some it is protein food (omelet, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt), for others it is carbohydrate food (cereals). I recommend starting your morning with a glass of water and then making a fruit and vegetable smoothie (such as spinach, banana and kiwi). Then after 30-50 minutes you can start a full breakfast. After it, you won’t feel like eating for 2-3 hours.
Breakfast option: omelette with tomatoes and broccoli (you can add a little grated cheese), whole grain bread.
Snack
A good option is fruit. But it is better not to combine them with other products, otherwise digestion will be inhibited and the fermentation process will start. You can add half an apple to cottage cheese, but a fruit salad or smoothie is a separate snack.
You can satisfy your hunger with nuts and dairy products.
Dinner
Lunch should contain proteins, fats and carbohydrates. And it’s better to start it with salad, because it is a source of fiber (gives you a feeling of fullness). As a rule, after it you will eat less than usual.
If you are used to eating soup for lunch, then choose light vegetable dishes, avoiding fatty, rich borscht, broths, solyankas, etc. Also, be careful with cream soups - they are very high in calories.
As a side dish, I recommend dishes with animal or vegetable protein. Product compatibility is of great importance here. Red meat is best eaten with vegetables, brown rice or quinoa with fish.
After lunch, there may be a second snack, then you won’t have a wild appetite for dinner.
Lunch option: brown rice, fish and fresh salad dressed with unrefined vegetable oil.
Dinner
Dinner can be vegetables (cooked or raw) and poultry, fish or legumes - a mix of fiber and protein. I advise you to have dinner 3 hours before bedtime. Also at this time you need to give up carbohydrates so as not to increase insulin levels and interfere with the production of somatotropin - in adults it is responsible for fat burning. The peak production of this hormone is 1-2 hours after falling asleep.
Dinner option: turkey breast and vegetable stew.
how I lost weight - minus 15 kg in 4 months - personal experience
Many people lose weight using the minus 60 system, and I am no exception. The main advantage is that until 12 noon you can eat whatever you want. Even sweets, ice cream, sausage and so on. But then there are strict restrictions.
All my life I’ve been a little girl, and I really wanted to be a slender and beautiful girl, so that young people would look at you and look after you and simply admire you. Years passed and I kept getting fatter and fatter, I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror, I tried different diets, they worked, and when I returned to my normal lifestyle, I gained a lot more than what I had lost.
When I reached one hundred kg, I had to go to my friend’s wedding. You have no idea how I was amazed by the wedding videography. I looked absolutely terrible. And, in the end, I decided: enough is enough, I need to take care of myself. After all, I am a young girl, but I look like a forty-year-old woman. I was very ashamed to go out, much less appear in public places, and I began to spend more time at home. I was surfing the Internet trying to find something suitable for myself. But there were only different diets, from which the weight gradually returned, I had already gone through that.
Many people exercise and do not limit themselves in food and lose weight very well. I tried this method too, started running in the morning, doing some exercises and stopped eating after six in the evening, but this was not enough. Every two weeks I took control measurements, and video footage from a friend’s wedding reminded me that I shouldn’t give up. Then I decided to choose food for myself. I was greatly impressed by the minus 60 system and photographs of girls who lost 40-50 kg without special diets.
- The most important thing is that until noon you can eat everything without reducing the portions.
- This system provides three meals a day.
- Snacks are not allowed here.
For lunch, any cooking method except fried. If lunch is before two in the afternoon, then you can have one teaspoon of ketchup or mayonnaise. For lunch there is a certain combination of products. We must remember that meat and fish are not combined with potatoes, but only with cereals or vegetables.
For dinner you can only have specific ones, choose one of the options:
- {module Google in articles on the left3}fruit + milk
- fruits + vegetables
- fruits + cereals
- vegetables + milk
- vegetables + cereals
- meat or fish as an independent dish...
- cheese + crisps + milk.
But dinner must be before six in the evening, and after that you can only drink green tea and water. After four months on this system, I lost 15 kg and I’m very happy about it. I am just over 20 kg away from my ideal image. That's why I'm still working on myself and my body. Good luck to you all!!!
After two months, the rate of weight loss may slow down
This is called the “plateau effect” - the weight stops at one level. There are several reasons: you stopped adhering to the regime or your body is accustomed to physical activity, and your metabolism is accustomed to the energy consumed.
Reboot! For example, set up an “energy swing”: eat more than usual for a couple of days, and then eat less for a couple of days. Or practice protein and carbohydrate days.
The body will experience mild stress, and the weight loss process will resume.
Important: if the diet plan I described above suits you and you continue to lose weight, you do not need to experiment with nutrition.
Sample menu
Regina's diet:
- in the morning: a portion of buckwheat, chopped tomatoes and fresh bell pepper, a glass of yogurt;
- snack: several pieces of prunes;
- for lunch: seafood salad with boiled egg, cucumbers and arugula;
- afternoon snack: cottage cheese casserole with herbs;
- for dinner: vegetable stew of zucchini and cauliflower.
To lose weight faster, the TV presenter was actively involved in sports. Her favorite activities: choreography, yoga, jogging in the morning, swimming. Regina does not want to work on weight machines, as she considers them too exhausting for her modest muscles.
Workout
Aerobic exercise should be a priority. Cardio training increases calorie consumption, strengthens the cardiovascular system, and increases performance. During training, the heart rate should be at 60-70% of its maximum frequency. The latter is determined by the formula: 220 - (your age). This is necessary for normal fat burning.
The duration of classes is also important - 60 minutes (3-4 times a week). This could be a light jog or a brisk walk.
At 2-3 months, you can add strength training (start with circular training for all muscle groups) - 1-2 times a week. Losing 20 kg is stressful for the body, so to prevent stretch marks and sagging skin, I recommend regular massages.
How to quickly lose 20 kg in 2 weeks. Menu for 20 days
Based on the above list of acceptable foods, the following menu will help you quickly and effectively lose weight by 20 kilograms in 20 days:
The first week of an extreme diet to lose 20 kilograms of weight
First day
- Breakfast: a cup of unsweetened herbal tea and 250 g of low-fat cottage cheese;
- Lunch: 200 g of boiled chicken and 150 g of boiled rice;
- Dinner: none.
Second
- 200 ml natural yogurt with fruit;
- no food;
- 200 g of stewed white cabbage and a cup of green tea.
Third
- skip a meal;
- cucumber and tomato salad with a slice of whole grain bread;
- carrot-apple vitamin salad and 200 ml of low-fat kefir.
Fourth
- cottage cheese with raisins and a cup of tea;
- one avocado and 200 g of boiled rice;
- skipping meals.
Fifth
- apple and 200 ml of natural low-fat yogurt;
- no food;
- 200 g buckwheat with low-fat fish cutlets.
Sixth
- without breakfast;
- low-fat broth with vegetables;
- a glass of fermented baked milk and 200 g of baked trout.
Seventh
- grapefruit and a cup of unsweetened hot drink;
- buckwheat and 200 ml yogurt;
- there is no dinner.
Second week of extreme diet to lose 20 kilograms
Eighth
- oatmeal and a glass of warm milk;
- skip a meal;
- 200 g baked fish.
Ninth
- no food;
- stew of tomatoes, carrots and cabbage, washed down with orange juice;
- baked turkey meat - 250 g.
Tenth
- omelette with herbs and a glass of warm milk;
- 250 g of boiled rice and kefir;
- power skip.
Eleventh
- no food intake;
- vegetable salad with whole grain bread and a glass of freshly squeezed citrus juice;
- 150 g of buckwheat and a glass of kefir.
Twelfth
- oatmeal with milk and dried fruits;
- without food;
- applesauce and carrot juice.
Thirteenth
- green apple and kefir;
- buckwheat soup with low-fat meatballs;
- no power.
Fourteenth
- without breakfast;
- boiled chicken meat - 250 g and a slice of whole grain bread;
- vegetable salad and 150 g of baked fish.
The third week of an extreme diet to lose 20 kilograms of weight
Fifteenth
- oatmeal and two boiled eggs;
- without food;
- steam omelette with tomatoes and herbs, herbal decoction.
Sixteenth
- oatmeal with prunes and orange juice;
- buckwheat soup and a glass of kefir;
- skip dinner.
Seventeenth
- without eating;
- citrus and cottage cheese salad, herbal decoction;
- 250 g baked trout.
Eighteenth
- omelette with vegetables and kefir;
- skip lunch;
- boiled chicken meat - 200 g and a glass of yogurt.
Nineteenth
- apple jelly and 200 g oatmeal;
- buckwheat with low-fat fish cutlets;
- there is no food.
Twentieth
- without eating;
- boiled rice - 200 g and 100 g of baked veal;
- stew of tomatoes and chicken meat - 250 g.
Physical exercise
In order to maintain the weight loss effect for a long time and get rid of stretch marks forever, it is strongly recommended to engage in moderate physical activity during the period of following such an extreme weight loss technique.
When losing such a large number of kilograms, the following exercises are best suited:
- swimming in the pool;
- dancing;
- fitness;
- aerobics.
To quickly lose 20 kilograms at home, you should add exercises such as fast walking, running, abdominal crunches, squats and hula hoop exercises to an extreme diet.
