Proper nutrition for weight loss begins to interest us at the moment when we understand that diets do not help. Diets don't help - that's a fact. Why? The answer lies in those prohibitions and restrictions that abound in both modern and well-known, "proven over the years" diets. Proper nutrition for weight loss should be varied, healthy and nutritious, no matter how strange it may sound. There are several fundamental principles of such nutrition. And also a bunch of misconceptions, misjudgments, stories of fantastic superfoods, blacklists of "junk foods", as well as stories of their miraculous rehabilitation.
Before starting a conversation about nutrition, you need to understand that in recent years, more precisely, over the past 25-30 years, the balance of basic nutrients - proteins, fats and carbohydrates - has been quite skewed towards the carbohydrate component. At the same time, you do not need to strain and calculate too much - just go to any store and look at the showcases with sweets. They take up almost a quarter of the store's space! And the first step to switching to a proper diet for weight loss will be a complete rejection of sugar in the daily diet. Sounds scary, right? Do you know why? Because sugar addiction is akin to drug addiction.
- Well, it started . . . - someone will say in disappointment, - Again prohibitions and restrictions!
A couple of minutes of your attention, and you will agree that giving up sugar can be a giant breakthrough in improving the body's health and, as a consequence, losing weight.
We need carbohydrates, of course. But which ones? We've all heard about fast and slow carbohydrates. We need slow ones. Dishes made from cereals, wholemeal flour, vegetables . . . Fruits and berries are full of fast carbohydrates, but it is better to eat fruits and berries than to buy sweets in pastry departments. Many nutritionists suggest decisively and abruptly giving up carbohydrates, and of any kind, reducing their consumption to 20-50 g per day. Such a sharp transition from the habitual to the useful can lead you to dizziness, loss of energy, bad mood and the conviction that it is not so useful and that it is proper nutrition.
Proper nutrition for weight loss will bring much more benefit and joy if you switch to it gradually, consistently and do not go astray. But first you need to understand why our body so stubbornly resists any changes, especially a decrease in the amount of sugar.
Sugar is truly the scourge of our time. Few products offered to us in supermarkets lack even a teaspoon of sugar. We're not even talking about sweets right now! Juices, yoghurts, marinades, sauces, semi-finished meat products, sausages and sausages, fish preserves, instant soups, instant noodles . . . The list is almost endless! The more terrible the upcoming transition to new principles of nutrition - it turns out that we have almost nothing to eat !? Don't panic, there is a way out, and it is quite peaceful.
Proper nutrition for weight loss starts with three steps.
Step one:remove sugar in its pure form. Tea, coffee, compotes without sugar. We refuse preserves, jams, sweets, chocolates, cookies and other joys of tea drinking with friends or during a work break. Ice cream, cakes, even low-calorie marshmallows are excommunicated from our table! All carbonated drinks are prohibited. Try to go sugar-free for two weeks, just two weeks - you will be surprised. Tea, it turns out, tastes different. Coffee too. Cocoa with milk, but without sugar, charges better than any stimulant. And what should be served with tea? At this stage, nuts (not salted), dried fruits, energy mixtures with honey (a mixture of nuts and dried fruits, passed through a meat grinder, you can add lemon), sandwiches with butter (yes, yes! ), Cheese and normal sausage, and better withhomemade boiled pork, with caviar, salted salmon, etc. At the same time, tea with all these goodies should be included in breakfast, lunch or dinner, and not be a habitual snack. However, about snacks a little later.
Step two:When the body switches from fast to slow carbohydrates, it is time to eliminate foods that have a high glycemic index: premium wheat flour, white rice, and potatoes. That is, all buns, loaves, pies, porridge made from peeled rice, semolina porridge, as well as everyone's favorite manna pies and potatoes in all kinds are automatically transformed from everyday food into a delicacy. Yes, and soups will now also be without potatoes. At the same time, rye bread and bakery products made from wholemeal flour (without sugar, remember? ), Buckwheat steamed or simply doused with clean water overnight, instant oatmeal, they are very well mixed with fermented milk products, as well asall exotic or forgotten cereals like spelled, quinoa. In addition, you need to remove frankly sweet fruits from the diet - bananas, grapes, pears. Berries are not included in this list due to their high acid content.
Step three:at this stage, you should abandon any carbohydrates, leaving only natural carbohydrates that are part of vegetables and sour berries. However, sometimes the first two steps are enough to significantly reduce the weight. And if you fulfill a few more conditions in parallel, then you will not have to look for a new diet for yourself - you will move to a completely new level, where proper nutrition comes first, and for life.
Proper nutrition for weight loss should be varied.This means that the balance should include not only the notorious BJU (proteins, fats and carbohydrates), but also vitamins and microelements. And if carbohydrates bring us energy in a pure, accessible form, then it is much more difficult for the body to get this energy from proteins, and even more so from fats. But, as is often the case, what is difficult to get is usually the most useful. Calories from carbohydrates are usually excessive, our body spends almost no effort on their processing, which is why "sugar calories" so quickly fit into cozy fat rolls.
Proteins are vital for our body.Protein is important throughout life: in childhood it is a building material, in adulthood it is an element that helps our body to function and maintain itself at its best for as long as possible. Judge for yourself: protein performs a protective function, helping in the production of antibodies, transport, the most famous protein hemoglobin supplies oxygen to every cell, regulatory - normal hormone production is impossible without protein, motor - all types of movement are provided by the proteins myosin and actin, plastic - the collagen protein is responsible forthe condition of the connective tissue, the appearance of the skin, etc. , energy - proteins supply the body with energy. But perhaps one of the most important tasks of a protein is the preservation and transmission of gene information. It is believed that the increasingly common terrible disease "Alzheimer's disease" is directly related to insufficient protein intake (not only with it, but the second most important component just below).
How much protein does the average adult need? Many nutritionists, doctors and supporters of proper nutrition adhere to the norms of protein intake, deduced more than a hundred years ago by the German scientist Max Rubner, and this norm was 0. 33 g of protein per 1 kg of human weight. Much has changed since then, science has moved forward, and recent studies have deduced a highly average rate of 1. 2 - 2. 0 g per 1 kg of weight. An impressive difference. Moreover, these 1. 2 - 2. 0 g is not the weight of the product, say, a piece of meat or a portion of beans, but the content of pure protein in the product. A sample table of high protein foods is available on our website. Our site has written about the benefits of protein products more than once, but it never hurts to repeat these common truths.
Despite the great popularity of vegan, raw food and vegetarian diets, we still need at least 50% animal protein to keep the body healthy and not in a state of survival. These are eggs, dairy products, fish and seafood, meat and offal. It is these proteins that have a complete set of amino acids, unlike plant foods. Although they must be eaten, if only because variety is the essence of proper nutrition!
It is clear that there are few products on our planet that consist of any one substance. Almost any food is a combination of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. And here with the last ingredient - fats - happened, perhaps, the biggest criminal story in the history of the science of nutrition. At one "perfect" moment, fats were declared the enemies of health. Everyone has heard horror stories about cholesterol, plaques in blood vessels and other horrors. And looking at how stores replenish their assortment with low-fat or completely low-fat products at an enviable speed, you begin to doubt the sincere desire to feed us "correct", "healthy", "live" food, because there is nothing correct and useful in the absence of fat in the diet.
So what is the function of fats in our body? You will say - help in the assimilation of fat-soluble vitamins. Is that all? From biology lessons from school days, someone will remember the heat exchange function of fats. So, the most important function of fats in the body is a suffractant metabolism, that is, in simple terms, ensuring the exchange of oxygen in the alveoli of the lungs. Fat lines the walls of the alveoli in a thinnest layer and allows us to breathe and . . . live. My grandmother's methods of treating lung diseases immediately come to mind: badger fat, dog fat, goose fat, hot milk and butter - everywhere there is fat, inside and outside, and it helped! And, by the way, it still helps, just drugs for the treatment of hypoxia (oxygen starvation), which are now sold for wild money, in fact, is a fat emulsion. Another important function of fats is the synthesis of membranes. The cell membrane consists of 70-85% fats, and the function of the membrane is to ensure the protection of cells, their thermal insulation and selective permeability (since not everything that seeks to enter the cell is useful and necessary for it). The myelin layer, this insulating sheath of our nerves, is 70-80% saturated fat. No myelin - get Alzheimer's disease, senile (pretty much younger) sclerosis and dementia. Fat is one of the most important substances vital for the construction of membranes, the myelin sheath, ensuring their work, as well as the functioning of the central and peripheral nervous system. Remember this when choosing between 0. 5 and 3. 2% fat milk.
Another important function of fats is hormonal. It is fats that are sources for the synthesis of hormones, and there are a great many of them in our body. These are growth hormones, protein hormones, thyroid hormones, hormones of the digestive system, steroid hormones, adrenal hormones, sex hormones, etc. It is clear that the slightest bias, underproduction of any hormone threatens with huge disruptions in the work of the whole organism. A sudden attack of blackheads and acne, all kinds of skin rashes are a sign of low androgen levels. Frequent headaches "for no reason" can be a sign of low estrogen levels. Constant insomnia - not enough progesterone. Fatigue, exhaustion and even exhaustion even during rest can be a sign of a violation of the production of thyroid hormones. Hair loss is also a sign of this disorder. The dramatic weight gain can be due to high levels of the hormones estrogen, cortisol, and insulin, coupled with low testosterone levels. Forgetfulness and distraction are indicators of low estrogen and cortisol levels. How everything is connected!
Fats are responsible for heat regulation. That is why men who are not on diets are often hotter than women who are always losing weight. Constantly freezing hands and feet are most likely a sign of fat deficiency, if it is not some kind of congenital peculiarity. The most famous function of fats is to dissolve and help in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins: A, E, D, K. Sitting on a low-fat diet and drinking vitamin complexes- not an option, vitamins simply will not be absorbed.
And finally, last but not least - vitamins, minerals, macro- and microelements. These substances are found in different quantities and combinations in all products, but special attention should be paid to fresh vegetables, roots, fruits and berries. One of the most valuable vitamins - vitamin C - is not synthesized in our body, and we can get it only from fresh plant products. Our site has filled a whole section about vitamins, read it, it's useful! Plant foods contain enzymes and flavonoids, all kinds of minerals, without which we simply cannot function normally. For example, potassium - the work of the heart without it will be disrupted. Magnesium is responsible for the health of the brain, nervous and hormonal systems and is involved in metabolic processes. And also in plant products there is fiber - without it, the processes of digestion and peristalsis are almost impossible!
Proper nutrition for losing weight and improving the body includes the following principles:
Eat no more than three times a day. Unexpected, right? But what about 5-6 meals a day, advertised in many recommendations? Such fractional meals are perfect for children, athletes and seriously ill citizens. If you are not in any of these categories, eat three or even twice a day.
Eat only when you feel hungry, but not at night. Breakfast is optional! If you don't feel like eating in the morning, reschedule breakfast a couple of hours later. Don't cram food into yourself just because someone said breakfast is the most important thing.
Learn to listen to yourself and understand the difference between hunger and the usual habit of mixing something in between. The following recommendation will help with this.
Drink water. Not in liters, as it is sometimes advised. Not boiled. Ideally bottled or spring. The drinking regimen is simple to disgrace: 2 glasses of lukewarm (not cold and not boiling water) in the morning, 1-2 glasses during the day and 1 in the evening. Sometimes it is enough to drink water to understand that it was just thirst, not hunger.
Get in the habit of buying all kinds of nuts and seeds more often. In addition to fats, they contain a huge amount of macro and microelements.
Eat whole foods. That is, not fat-free! Cottage cheese - 9% fat, not less, but with sour cream, coffee with cream, butter sandwiches, fatty cheeses, fatty sea fish, exotic avocado, bacon! This is not a typical skew "from fire to fire. "A measure is needed in everything, of course.
Don't forget about proteins! But no less important is what to combine it with. And this recommendation will be the last.
Eat vegetables. Lots of vegetables and herbs. Fresh, pickled, pickled, steamed, boiled and even fried in oil! But fresh salads are of course preferable. It is not difficult to calculate the amount of vegetables: mentally divide your plate into two parts - half will be occupied by vegetables, and the second will fit proteins, fats and the same allowed minimum of carbohydrates.
Proper nutrition for weight loss is not strict tables and recipes. This is a deliberate approach. All these tips will only work if you almost completely cut off carbohydrates. If you combine proteins with carbohydrates (mashed potatoes with a cutlet) or fats with carbohydrates (bacon with bread) in one plate, you're finished. More precisely, no, of course, you will not die immediately. You will just live on, sighing doom over every new kilogram and complaining about the injustice ("I'm literally sitting on the same water, where does the fat come from??? "). No need to sit on the water, no need to torment yourself with starvation, dietary products. Just start with three steps and walk, without turning anywhere, to health and beauty.