How to lose weight correctly? People often turn to doctors with this question, or they independently look for the answer in printed literature or on the Internet. This is a very popular problem in the modern world. There are many different diets and nutrition programs available. However, many of them turn out to be ineffective. Why? Most often, diets are not rational; they veto certain foods that a person is accustomed to. Often they are not physiological, not balanced and do more harm than good. After “staying” on such a diet for several weeks, at the end of it a person “breaks down” on foods that were prohibited. And the kilograms that were lost with difficulty come back. And often a person gains more than he weighed before the diet.
Physiological and rational nutrition is not a painful test and does not impose a categorical ban on “favorite delicacies”, but limits them. Although balanced nutrition does not lead to rapid weight loss, it is more effective than new-fangled diets. Weight loss occurs smoothly, in accordance with the physiology of the body, less often leads to “breakdowns” and gives a more sustainable weight loss.
Who needs to lose weight and why?
To determine whether you are overweight, calculate your body mass index (BMI) using the formula: BMI = weight (kg) / height (m)2.
For example, your weight is 80 kg and your height is 165 cm. Your BMI will be 80/1.65²=29.4 kg/m².
In accordance with WHO recommendations, the following classification has been adopted:
- 16 or less—severe body weight deficiency.
- 16–18.5 – insufficient (deficit) body weight.
- 18.5–24.99 is the norm.
- 25–30 – overweight (pre-obesity)
- 30–35 – first degree obesity.
- 35–40 – second degree obesity.
- 40 or more - third degree obesity.
The value obtained in the example corresponds to pre-obesity. Now calculate your body mass index. If the resulting value is equal to or more than 25.0 kg/m², you should think about changing your usual diet and lifestyle.
Why lose weight? Scientists have proven the connection between obesity and overweight with diseases such as diabetes, arterial hypertension, coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis, endometrial cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, arthritis, cholecystitis, and colon cancer. The higher the body mass index, the higher the risk of developing these diseases. With age, these risks increase even more.
Overweight and obesity are “unpleasant” because not only somatic (“physical”) health suffers, but also a person’s psychological state. People who are overweight are more likely to have depressive disorders and increased anxiety. Society is not always kind to overweight people. Social isolation may occur. It turns out to be a vicious circle: excess weight leads to decreased self-esteem and anxiety. A person seems to “eat up” these states, as a result of which the weight continues to grow.
Thus, losing weight if you are overweight is essential for our health!
If you are planning to lose weight, of course you are interested in knowing how much weight you can lose and in what time frame. This is a valid and very important question. Many people expect unrealistic results. For example, they plan to reduce their weight to an ideal weight for grade 3 obesity. You need to understand that losing weight by 10 kg or more, and then maintaining the success achieved, is not an easy goal, and you need to go to it long and hard.
Advice - to start, plan to lose 2-3 kg. Make “small” victories gradually, step by step approaching your cherished goal. Even a small weight loss will lead to a significant reduction in the risk of diseases associated with obesity, improving well-being, mood and self-esteem.
IMPORTANT! Discuss with your doctor (nutritionist, endocrinologist) how many kilograms you need to reduce your body weight and what BMI value you should strive for. Your doctor will advise you on nutrition for weight loss on an individual basis. Only a doctor at your appointment will be able to assess your health status, indications and contraindications for the use of certain products. For example, with gastritis, the consumption of raw legumes, vegetables and fruits is limited, with chronic kidney disease, the consumption of protein foods is limited, etc.
How quickly does weight loss occur with a balanced diet? As a rule, losing weight by 0.3–0.5 kg per week is the most physiological.
If you decide to lose weight, keeping a food diary will be necessary at the very beginning of your journey. It is needed in order to assess how many calories you actually consume per day, the composition of food in terms of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. It is important to record every bite of what you eat and drink in your diary. Very often we engage in self-deception, forgetting or not noticing what we have eaten. Before you eat something, think about whether you are hungry. This will help control your food intake and, therefore, avoid unconscious overeating.
Over time, you will learn to estimate the approximate calorie content of foods and dishes even without a food diary. There will be no need to keep a diary.
You can keep a food diary in a regular notebook, or in any Internet application. In the first column we write down the products and their mass (this is convenient to do with the help of electronic kitchen scales). In the second - we calculate the calorie content, in the third, fourth and fifth - the content of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the product. It is very important to count calories correctly. Information about the calorie content of any food can be found on the Internet or in calorie calculation applications.
There are programs in which you can accurately calculate the calorie content of a complex dish prepared according to your recipe. Keep in mind that the calorie content of the finished dish will increase if you cook in oil. For this reason, it is better to stew, bake, boil, or steam. It is better to use vegetable oil in its “raw” form, seasoning the salad with it. However, in this case, measure how many tablespoons of oil you used for dressing, because oil is the most high-calorie product of all, in 1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil about 90 kcal! Therefore, add no more than 1 teaspoon of oil to your serving of salad.
Keeping a diary will also help your doctor evaluate your diet, identify possible errors and make the necessary correction.
Calculate how many calories you need to consume per day to lose weight. First, calculate the daily energy expenditure required to maintain the basic
exchange:
- for women: 18–30 years: (0.0621×weight in kg+0.0357)×240
- 31–60 years: (0.0342×weight in kg+3.5377)×240
- over 60 years old: (0.0377×weight in kg+2.7546)×240
- for men: 18–30 years: (0.0630×weight in kg+2.8957)×240
- 31–60 years: (0.0484×weight in kg+3.6534)×240
- over 60 years old: (0.0491×weight in kg+2.4587)×240
If you have a sedentary lifestyle, multiply the resulting value by 1.1, if physical activity is moderate - by 1.3, for physical work or active sports - by 1.5.
Now subtract 500–600 kcal from the resulting value. This will be the number of calories that you should not exceed if you want to lose weight. One caveat - you should not consume less than 1200 kcal per day. In this case, the metabolism will slow down, which will negatively affect weight dynamics. If you actually ate more than 3000 kcal per day, limit your food intake gradually - by 300-500 kcal per week until you reach your individual calorie intake.
How to do it? A food diary will help you with this. By assessing the caloric content of your diet every day, you will be able to figure out which foods are best to reduce or replace with less caloric ones. There is another way - reduce the usual portion of food by 20%.
Divide your calorie intake over 3-6 meals.
Approximately: breakfast 25%, snack 15%, lunch 35%, afternoon snack 10%, dinner 15%.
Rational nutrition, first of all, is the correct balance of macronutrients (proteins, fats, carbohydrates) in the daily diet. The composition of food per day should contain approximately 15–20% proteins, 25–35% fats, 50–60% carbohydrates (mostly “complex”).
Proteins can be of animal or plant origin. Animal protein - meat, seafood, fish, eggs, dairy products, milk. Vegetable protein - soy products, legumes, corn, mushrooms, nuts.
Fats are of vegetable (vegetable oil, nuts, seeds) and animal (meat, fish, milk, dairy products, butter) origin. A lot of fat is found in cakes, pastries, cookies and many other baked goods.
Carbohydrates are conventionally divided into “complex” (digested slowly) and “simple” (digested quickly). Complex carbohydrates - pasta, cereals, legumes, corn, bread, potatoes and vegetables. Simple carbohydrates - honey, sugar, flour products, ice cream, chocolate, jam, juices, fruit drinks, boiled cereals/pasta, mashed potatoes, sweet dairy products, fruits.
IMPORTANT! Before going through all the rules of rational nutrition, I want to draw your attention to one point. You should not try to follow all the rules at once. It’s difficult to remember all the recommendations at once; you’ll get tired and confused. I recommend that you start small and gradually, in small steps, move towards your goal. For example, start by drinking the right amount of water, write down what you eat and drink in a diary, include vegetables in every lunch and dinner, and have dinner no later than 3 hours before bed. When these rules are easy to follow, start preparing proper breakfasts, lunches and dinners for yourself, and introduce snacks. If a rule is difficult for you to implement at the moment, omit it. However, strive to implement it in the future.
Excess weight from a psychological point of view
Excess weight from a psychological point of view
Today, the problem of excess weight interests many people. And this number is growing day by day. There is a lot of information about the possible causes of excess weight; on the one hand, this can be beneficial, on the other, it can be confusing. As a rule, people use all kinds of methods and diets to lose weight. Some people are lucky, but in most cases the weight is gained back. The fact is that often methods of getting rid of excess weight do not eliminate the reasons for its gain . This is the explanation for the temporary results.
First, let's understand what excess weight is. In medical sources this problem is called obesity. So, overweight is “a chronic, progradient metabolic disease, with an increase in body weight (due to adipose tissue), prone to relapse and having a psychosomatic nature.”
The word chronic means that a person who has lost weight still needs to monitor it and sometimes adjust it. Prone to relapses (breakdowns) - says that having formed even the most persistent new eating habits, people who are overweight neglect them (overeat, in other words).
The word psychosomatic reveals cause-and-effect relationships. The first root psycho means soul. Soma is the body. We get body disease from the “head”. This does not mean that it was invented, it is rather the result of long-term emotional experiences.
Causes of excess weight:
- Physiological prerequisites for excess weight.
From a physiological point of view, excess weight is a reserve of energy. A stock can only be formed when there is a surplus. If your body receives more energy from food and drink than it needs , excess weight appears. Accordingly, when you consume less, the body is forced to compensate for the lack by taking energy from fat - now you lose weight.
Secondary obesity, developing against the background of other complex diseases.
- Psychological prerequisites for excess weight.
The connection between food and mood.
Often, overweight people have connection between food and mood .
Why is this happening? It's simple. An abundance of delicious food evokes associations of a holiday, a cheerful company, meeting with friends, etc. Food is just a stimulus, a trigger for these memories and impressions. Stimulus leading to excess weight. After all, no one is stopping you from replacing it with another one. You can create other incentives for joy for yourself.
Evening, night food and excess weight.
Many studies have shown that overweight people suffer from heavy night and evening meals . The same studies find the only reason for this behavior - stress relief. Extra food acts as a way to put off household chores, thoughts about work, conflict situations, etc. This is a kind of relaxation, on the one hand, and avoiding problems, on the other. As a result, resting with food is not a complete rest, and avoiding problems is not a solution. Plus, I'm overweight.
Trying to get love, care and security through food.
This complex mental mechanism is revealed through an understanding of the development of the human psyche. In early childhood (up to 1 year), feeding for a child is not just an act of absorbing food. For the child, this is also an emotional experience of the mother’s care and love. After all, it is not always the case that when a mother gives breast milk, the child drinks milk. Her presence is important. This gives the child a feeling of security and care. The tension that has arisen goes away. If more mature defense mechanisms are not subsequently formed that will help relieve or cope with stress, the child returns to this again and again. In adult life, situations that cause discomfort only change, but the reaction remains the same - to eat.
Depressed mood and excess weight.
According to recent studies, about 70% of overweight people have hidden forms of mild depression. This is of course a double-edged sword. First: low mood leads to overeating - excess weight. Second: with a set of kilograms and a decrease in activity, mild depression appears. Both options are unfavorable, since food begins to replace familiar pleasures, and excess weight grows faster.
Escape from reality and excess weight.
For many, excess food acts as a barrier from the outside world. If you need to calm yourself down, give yourself a rest, or cheer yourself up, an overweight person, as a rule, goes to have a snack.
- Social prerequisites for excess weight.
The habit of extinguishing your stress and desires with food.
This habit is often formed in overweight people since childhood. When stingy in expressions of love and overprotective parents (usually the mother) praise and convey love to the child through food. They can also offer “yummy food” as an alternative to various activities. A child who has learned this way of showing sympathy for himself and replacing real needs with food continues to use this in adulthood. This behavior inevitably leads to excess weight.
Advice: determine your own time, 1 hour a day when you do only yourself. Every morning, plan what you will do in your free time today. It should be something that brings you pleasure. You can also plan your weekends. This must be done for at least 2-3 months.
Evaluation of others and excess weight.
For most overweight people, the assessment of others is very important. The tendency to think about the opinions of others before oneself is a consequence of upbringing. How does this relate to being overweight? Directly. Focusing on the often fictitious opinions of others, you have to deny yourself a lot. This increases internal tension, which is discharged by the refrigerator.
Psychologist of the Center for Children's Education "Unix" E.A. Goncharova
