To lose weight, we usually choose the easiest way and this is following a low-calorie diet. We can starve, refuse our favorite foods, count calories, but the result on the scales does not change: the difference is less than a pound with the last weight, but it seems that you have lost four pounds. Why does it happen?
When choosing a diet, we constantly forget about the simplest rule – a low-calorie diet causes only a decrease in energy consumption, not weight. The body needs to consume energy, and there are only two sources for this: either external (food) or internal (reserves of fat and carbohydrates). When we follow a diet, the body can no longer extract the necessary amount of energy from consumed food and is forced to use the reserves of fats and carbohydrates. As a result, the body begins to save energy for the future. Weight decreases slowly, but you feel sad and feel weak.
Here are the 8 most common mistakes we make when losing weight:
No meat thing
Eating fruits and vegetables is necessary, but a complete avoiding of meat is undesirable. Fruits and vegetables do not have the necessary proteins and vitamins that only foods of animal origin contain. Moreover, meat helps build muscle mass that absorbs fat. If the muscles become thinner, they cannot consume fat cells, which means a vicious circle is obtained.
Men are recommended to eat 150-200 grams of lean meat (chicken, turkey, lean beef), women – 100-150 grams.
Do not eat after six in the evening
It has long been proven that this is a myth. You can’t go to bed on an empty stomach, but you can eat at least four to five hours before bedtime. Otherwise, the body does not have time to digest the food received. Dinner should consist of proteins and vitamins (for example, boiled chicken breast and vegetable salad or low-fat cottage cheese with greens – vegetable acids help break down fats and proteins), but not carbohydrates.
And always, not only in the evening, try not to eat potatoes as a side dish for meat – starch binds proteins and prevents the meat from being digested. It is better to eat cabbage or other vegetable snacks with potatoes.
Heavy gym loads
It is better to begin fitness classes with medium-intensity loads while combining cardio training and strength exercises. But unnecessarily heavy loads from the very beginning are unlikely to give the desired effect. They will “burn” muscles, including the heart, and not fat.
Lack of physical activity
Yes, increased loads will not benefit, but do not forget about sports at all. Even the simplest exercises will help: aerobic exercises of medium load, walking at least 40 minutes a day, swimming or dancing.
Express diet
The most common mistake of losing weight is to regard diets as a way to get perfect shape quickly, for example, losing 10 pounds in one day. It does not bring any benefits to the body. Discarded mass returns in just a couple of days. It is necessary to change the diet, reconsider the consumed foods – to perceive the diet as a new lifestyle.
Calorie Count
Often losing weight is paid too much attention to counting calories, forgetting to take into account the need for a balanced diet. According to nutritionists, low-calorie diets are necessary if the weight is overweight and significant. If your goal is to get rid of a few centimeters on the hips or waist, then strict low-calorie diets can even be dangerous. Their result will be the loss of muscle mass and the energy necessary for the body.
Forget about breakfast
Breakfast is the most important part of the day. Before lunch, you can consume any protein and carbohydrate, but keep in mind that if the products are absorbed by the body for a long time, it will receive all the nutrients only after a while, at least two hours later.
Smoking
Surprised? Smoking is known to dull hunger, but it works only for a while. And after that, because with the breakdown of nicotine, the center of hunger in the brain is activated.
The myth is that smokers gain weight immediately. This is a matter of willpower: to reduce cravings for cigarettes, most smokers quit constantly eating something.
Thus, you can add up to 1000 extra calories per day! It is not surprising, because for a snack instead of a cigarette, as a rule, we use nuts (450-600 kcal in 100 grams, seeds – 580 kcal in 100 grams).
