Slow and steady wins – will continue
The optimal weight loss rate is 2 kg per month. The maximum that is permissible to lose in the first month () is 3-4 kg. If you force the body to lose weight faster, it will be severe stress for it. The body in this situation begins to vigorously produce hormones in the adrenal cortex to “hide” from stress. These hormones can increase blood pressure, worsen skin conditions, and even slow down the actual weight loss process.
In addition, a loss of more than 4 kg per month indicates that the body is “consuming” proteins. That is, there is a breakdown of muscle, and not just adipose tissue, which we do not need at all. Losing weight more than 4 kg per month is possible only with a daily diet of 800 – 1000 calories (). Approximately so much the body spends on vital functions – breathing, digestion, the activity of the heart muscle, the work of the liver and kidneys, and so on. If you reduce the daily calorie intake to 800 calories and below, the body will literally begin to eat itself. That is why pure fasting is not only not beneficial, but generally harmful to the body.
During fasting, the metabolism slows down somewhat – “less important” functions are turned off, the rate of tissue renewal decreases, which are usually renewed quickly. Trees shed their foliage in the fall to conserve vitality. The body “sheds” hair, keeps skin and nails on the “starvation diet”. Anemia (), hypovitaminosis develops. Even if you take multivitamin complexes, then due to the altered state of the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines, vitamins will be absorbed worse. When the amount of fat mass in the body is less than 17%, the reproductive function is turned off, and menstrual irregularities appear even earlier.
It is much wiser to gradually and slowly change your lifestyle so as to consume 1100 – 1200 calories per day during the weight loss stage (), and then go to the level of 1500 – 1700 calories to maintain the taken height (). In the first months of losing weight, you can allocate two days a week with an average daily calorie intake of 600-800 kilocalories – to increase the effect, but no more.
Hard diets are also possible. But only if they last no longer than a few weeks under medical supervision – and are carried out in order to initiate the process of weight loss. After that, be sure to switch to subcaloric diet, which is more correctly called rational nutrition and which can be observed for as long as you like.
Sisyphean labor
It is impossible to lose weight “once and for all” with the help of a one-time action. As long as the extra calories continue to flow, the body will store them.
Therefore, in the therapy of excess weight, there is no concept of “treatment”. There is a concept of “lifestyle change”.
If, having lost ten kilograms thanks to physical activity and diet, a person happily returns to his previous lifestyle and again begins to eat 4000 calories daily, he very quickly gains back the weight that he managed to get rid of. One extra candy – 75 calories. One extra candy every day – and we get 4 kg plus in a year.
It’s not that difficult to lose weight one-time, much more willpower is needed to then hold it. That is why the diet and those physical activities that you are switching to should be such that this new way of life could be followed for as long as you like. And this is only possible if the changes are gradual and consistent.
In any diet there are two key words: “adherence to the diet” and “hypocaloric”, although there may be nuances. For example, some people just need to forget about chocolates and reduce the amount of carbohydrates (), someone needs to reduce the amount of proteins (), someone – fats.
A rigid diet without a subsequent radical change in lifestyle is Sisyphean labor.