Why is the regular diet dangerous?

Forgive the tediousness, but no diets ever lead to permanent and stable weight loss. None and never. If you are lucky enough to be in the unique 5% of the sample that do it, rejoice, but don’t convince others that calorie deficits and dietary restrictions lead to weight loss. They don’t bring.

At some point, I realized that as a specialist I should voice at least a few important things, which are extremely important to think about for all those who rely on strict diets and grueling workouts.

1. If you tend to be overweight, dissatisfied with your body and make periodic attempts to change something through diet and exercise, the result can be disastrous not only for weight. Not only are you more likely to regain weight, but you’re also more likely to develop insulin resistance (“pre-diabetes”) and, eventually, type XNUMX diabetes.

This is due to the fact that many living organisms really do not like sharp and long jumps in insulin in the blood.

While our pancreas is quite capable of handling brownies and even cake, in the case of a diet, you put the body into a mode of prolonged low blood sugar. And then you have a Sunday yummy / sister’s birthday / well, as much as possible, tired. And your sugar flies to the heavenly heights, and then falls into hell. Studies show that this is even worse for the body than consistently high sugar.

2. Insulin resistant and diabetics need to be extremely careful about physical activity. More and more data is accumulating confirming the destructive nature of popular high-intensity training (interval training, spinning, sprinting) for people without appropriate sports training.

Damage occurs at the cellular level: formally, a person feels good, endurance increases, but mitochondria – our cellular energy stations – begin to “sick” and cannot perform their function.

3. As a result, excess free radicals accumulate in the body. And the body has nowhere to put them. Free radicals are fatigue. This is the risk of oncology and the acceleration of the aging process.

4. In the event that training leads to weight loss (fat burning), energy expenditure quickly plateaus and metabolism slows down. And this is simply dangerous for people with a tendency to diabetes. An active, “live” metabolism is the chance for a person with insulin resistance to live long and healthy.

5. What to do? Listen to the body, not the coach. Training should bring energy, not fatigue. There shouldn’t be any pain. The body is very smart and tells you when to stop. Movement is one of the powerful sources of dopamine and serotonin, the “happy hormones.” A half-hour walk in the fresh air at a brisk pace can give much more joy than a 45-minute cardio.

6. For diabetics, a general purpose diet based on the glycemic index is meaningless. An Israeli study has shown that the rise in blood sugar is an individual reaction of the body, there are people whose sugar rises from celery, but remains in the same place after ice cream.

This means that the model of intuitive and conscious eating is not only safe for diabetics, but also shown to them (with regular use of a glucometer) to develop an individual style of eating that is optimal for this disease.

7. Weight loss with diabetes can be deadly. With any severe somatic health disorder, whether it is diabetes, oncology or cardiovascular diseases, a longer life expectancy is observed in people with overweight and non-morbid obesity (body mass index up to 40).

8. Depression and weight gain are extremely related. Taking antidepressants and gaining weight too. The most effective approach to the treatment of depressive disorders throughout the world is psychotherapy, with a fairly severe course – in combination with antidepressants. Depression has a lot to do with overeating. Without curing depression, it will be difficult to cope with overeating.

9. Flexible control (“you can eat anything, everything that seems tasty to you, but within certain limits”) It has nothing to do with intuitive eating. Research from Australia shows that “doing nothing at all” is more effective for long-term weight management than controlling portion sizes, cooking with low-calorie versions of favorite foods, or using other forms of flexible control. Research shows that in the long run, flexible control tends to turn into rigid control—an obsessive obsession with food, that is, an eating disorder.

All of the above is the opinion of an individual professional, based on a thorough study of research results and extensive own practice. It can be ignored, it can be listened to, and skeptics can read the research and think for themselves.