A friend asked me to write an article on this topic because she is exasperated with a niece who keeps all the unhealthy diets she finds online and is tired of picking her up off the floor every time she gets sick, but about losing weight, she only loses weight for a while, then puts back everything she lost, even with interest. Knowing that I am the “mother of diets”, that I have kept them all, or almost all of them, even the unhealthy ones (well, I was young and crazy too), she asked me that from my vast experience in the field, I would also share to others. So let’s proceed, point by point.
1. Starvation. So you’ve gained weight. You haven’t gained weight in a month or two, have you? And then why do you want to lose in 2-3 months all the weight you put on in 2-3 years?! Do you think starving yourself will make it? No, on the contrary. You’ll lose a few pounds, mostly tissue water and muscle mass, not fat, then after a while your body will go into “crash feeding,” that is, it’ll learn to handle what you give it. Do you think you can stay hungry for long? If the answer is yes, congratulations, you’ve got yourself a beautiful anorexia, which is a disease, which brings with it a lot of dysfunctions in the body and you will be thin but pale, with dark circles, with constant states of malaise and anxiety, and in the end this can also bring death. Not a pretty prospect, is it? And if the answer to the question is no, then congratulations again, the body has learned to “crash feed”, and when you start eating normally, it will think that it has reached Nirvana, and it will accumulate more pounds than you struggled with to put down.
2. Dissociated diet. Let’s be serious. Eating fruit for a day, milk for a day, fish for a day for a while, maybe you’ll lose 5 pounds in a week, but you’ll feel like shit, and can you do that for the rest of your life anyway? Because when you start eating normally, the 5 pounds will come back, happy to be back and bringing some girlfriends with them. Better learn the rules of healthy eating and food combination. Oh yeah, and all the sites promoting this diet say it has “no major adverse effects” or “doesn’t do much good”. Even they admit it, half-heartedly, obviously.
3. The Dukan and Atkins diets. In short, no-carb diets are just as unhealthy as no-fat diets. I think I will never be able to forget how I passed out after 5 days of such a cure because my blood sugar had dropped.
4. The time of day we eat certain foods. A lady was bragging that she had started a weight loss regimen. I asked her what she ate the night before. She, very proud, tells me yogurt with nuts and flax seeds. I was sorry to break her bubble of happiness when I told her that nuts and seeds are very healthy, but eaten in the evening, they make you fat. Unhappy, she said that from now on she would only eat fruit in the evening. Again I was sorry to twist the knife in the wound, but the fruit is also fattening in the evening. They are eaten only in the morning on an empty stomach. “And then what shall I eat in the evening?” she says exasperated. Have you thought about a steak with salad? Or vegetable stew with a hint of meat, possibly? Or a mixed salad with only one type of carbohydrate, ie some traces of potato, rice, kidney beans or lentils? Certain otherwise healthy foods are fattening in the evening, eg eggs, fruit, nuts, seeds, candied fruit. Eaten until 12 o’clock bring a benefit to the body and do not deposit on the thighes.
5. Processed foods. For God’s sake, what’s wrong with the poor fats? They are good for the body, even the saturated ones, according to the latest studies. We only have to avoid trans fats, i.e. those results from frying. Fats help strengthen the immune system, keep arteries supple and joints healthy, and many other benefits. And, yes, they don’t make you fat, that is, more correctly, they keep you full longer. You can eat a piece of fatty meat with a salad without feeling hungry for a long time. So why buy processed “fat-free” products? What do you think fats are replaced with, air? No, with carbs, sugars or other unhealthy or dubious additions. And guess what? These are more fattening than fats. Partially valid for “sugar-free” products as well. Sugar itself is not healthy, but in these products it is substituted with chemical substitutes, which are very harmful to the body and are like a drug, they make us want more sweets.
6. Sports. Don’t get me wrong, sport is good, it’s very good, but in moderation. I see girls at the gym running for an hour on the treadmill, pulling weights until they pass out, hoping to lose weight. A few days ago a teenage girl admired my abs in the locker room and asked me how long I ran on the treadmill. In addition to the fact that my ego rose to the sky, at the age of 44, having a high school girl envy your abdomen is not out of place, I wondered about the question. So what, I go to the gym to strain my muscles and joints? I walk on the incline like I’m going up a hill, no running, just panting a little bit, I pull light weights, because I don’t want to compete in Mister Universe, to put on muscle, and I do floor exercises , abs and other exercises learned in physical therapy. Sport is good, but without a healthy diet, it only adds muscle under the fat and thus makes you even bigger. I don’t want to think that teenage girl got a Shaworma after she left the gym because she was hungry after all that running.
7. Adaptation time. Let’s say that you have understood what I have told you so far, you have shed tears of emotion, you have also read my article “Tricks for an ideal weight” and you have decided to apply all my advice. If you expect to look like Mihaela Rădulescu in a month, then you have not understood anything. It takes time for the body to adapt to the changes, physically and mentally, but the result will be permanent, you will feel much better, you will have new concerns, you will look for new and new health tips and you will learn to distinguish good from bad advice. Miracles exist, but they are rare, otherwise there would be no miracles, you cannot go to bed at night fat and sick and wake up in the morning supple and healthy, everything in life requires work, even health.