March 29 2024

WEIGHT LOSS STRATEGIES

Strategies to lose weight and keep it normal

Obesity is a chronic disease. Once a person becomes overweight or obese, the disease tends to persist and it is unlikely that unusual events, miracle diets or wonderful pills will do disappear extra kilos without much effort and at the desired speed.

In contrast, control and reduce the weight becomes for most people in a series of sacrifices and renunciations, exercise of self-control that seem to never end, of falls and relapses that ultimately convey the impression that the person will never be able to overcome that obstacle. The good news is that it IS POSSIBLE TO FIGHT AGAINST OBESITY AND OVERWEIGHT WITH SUCCESS . In other words, it comes to choosing a winning strategy, beyond quackery and half-truths so frequent

The notion that obesity and overweight are chronic type phenomena is important for to understand that the disease's nature carries to the patient to a continuous and lasting effort in time. Beware of those who promise a significant reduction in weight in no time. Maybe it's easy to get (in most cases leaving practically eating), but more likely it is that sooner or later the patient returns to restore the initial weight. if not widely higher. Regardless that rapid weight loss is achieved losing water and muscle mass and not fat, which is the desired outcome.

Apart from other factors that could influence the disease, obesity is the result of a long process in which the patient eats more than he spends, in terms of calories. It is true that a single large meal does not converts a normal person in an obese, but the accumulation of small daily excess is what makes these calories progressively accumulate transformed in fat that are added to previously formed fatty tissues.

An example will clarify this concept. If you eat 100 calories more than you need each day, after a year, you will have accumulated an excess of 36,500 calories, which represents more than 4 kilos stored in the fatty tissue of your body. Remember every 9000 calories are stored as 1 kilo of body fat.

Why obesity is a chronic disease?

Often we hear talk about diets, pills or massages that can melt the fat. If so, obesity would be cured with only one specific action that would melt the fat, as if it were a block of butter. By contrast, weight loss do not removes adipose tissue where fat accumulates.

Fat accumulates inside the millions of fat cells of all people. When you are obese, the fat cells are full. When thin, cells contain a lower amount of fat, but do not disappear or merge. From this simple fact it is easy to understand that people keep their ability to return to store energy as fat as soon as circumstances permit.

It is important to remember that obesity apart from other factors, is the result of your own behavior: how much and what you eat and what your lifestyle, especially the degree of physical activity.

An explanation on this concept allows to clarify this. Of the total number of calories your body uses each day, only 14-16% is modifiable; is the percentage that corresponds to the physical activity of the person. The rest of the expenditure of calories of your body is not changeable from one day to another, and includes the so-called basal spending (what your body consumes at rest) and the calorie that your body spends in the process of digestion and absorption of food. Therefore you can modify these three elements

- The amount of food you eat
- The composition of what you eat
- The physical activity you have

Searching for a winning strategy

Unfortunately, there is no action that can guarantee permanent weight control at long term. However, the analysis of the behavior of patients who managed successfully have such control over their own weight have identified several common strategies to all of them, that we listed as advice:

1st Take regular weight control and better yet, your body mass index (BMI). You can use Medizzine tool for calculating the body weight Click here.

2nd Take note of the quantities of food that you eat. It is desirable to keep records as detailed as possible of what you eat and how much you eat, either as a list or diary.

3rd Be aware of the calories you take every day. From the record of the previous section can be calculated quite closely the total calories you eat. Certainly both indicated in these two paragraphs can be cumbersome, but certainly, the end result will far outweigh the inconvenience. As you gain fluency in the calculations and annotations do not need to do it daily. Medizzine has a tool that allows you to perform calculations of the calories consumed, Clicking here.

4th Avoid fasting, especially for long periods. This is because fasting gives the stomach the necessary stimulus to secrete ghrelin , a substance that sends a powerful signal to the brain to induce food intake, even in amounts beyond what is necessary.

5th practice a physical activity regularly

6th Seek psychological support among those most close to you (family, friends, colleagues) or self-help groups. Ask for help from family and friends to get involved in and encourage to you to perform your plan.

It is not mandatory start your plan taking all measures at once. Learn gradually when and where you will find difficulties and obstacles that will encounter when developing your plan. When you feel sure of what steps to take and where to find the problems, set your plan. Note that most of the measures that will be put in place will be permanent.

Formulate reasonable and attainable goals

As a first step, consider goal in stages . Each stage of weight reduction should cover a period of 3, 6 or 9 months. If you are going to succeed and achieving weight reductions at each stage, you will gain confidence. This is much more important and decisive that getting down a lot of weight in the first stage, since you have the risk to go back more easily. In the early stages, it is preferable to try to gain healthy habits before large weight reductions.

Most experts agree to consider for each step a reduction of maximum of 10% of body weight, not exceeding in any case 10 kilos in total. Avoid excessively rapid thinning, which occur mostly by water loss from the body or, what is worse, loss of muscle mass. This is one reason by what is not recommended a fast slimming.The second most important reason is that any plan likely to achieve success is based on more of a healthy style of living and eating that weight reduction and this takes time. Without this self-education of the person probably any plan is doomed.

Here's an example. If your ultimate goal is to lose 10 kilos in a time of 6 or 9 month, you need to reduce your daily intake of calorie in this manner:

To reduce 10 kg in 6 months: 10 kg = 90,000 calories; 90.000/180 days = 500 calories a day of reduction.

To reduce 10 kg in 9 months: 10 kg = 90.000 calories; 90.000/270 days = 333 calories a day of reduction.

You can estimate your daily calorie expenditure with the tool available in Medizzine Clicking here.

Once you have successfully completed the first stage, you can carry out a second or even a third cycle of weight reduction.No matter that you have not covered all of your target. It is enough to have reduced your weight, albeit be modestly, to return to reformulate your plan. If, however, your weight not decrease or even increase during the last stage recently, consider that part of your plan is not followed correctly and then reformulate it. Although you cannot lose weight in the first attempts, you must consider what have you achieved with positive value, as a change in your lifestyle (if you have carried out a physical activity not previously practiced), a change in eating or in respect of the amounts you eat. There is always some element in your favor, which should serve as a stimulus to try again.

Start your plan

Before starting your plan, start to make your daily food list. Also you can write a weekly list, but it may be to rely too much on memory.

When it have elapsed 7-10 days since you started writing your list food, watch it and write on a separate sheet

A.- 10 most common foods in your food
B.- 10 foods you eat in greater quantity
C.- 10 foods that provide more calories to your diet

There are probably quite a few similarities between the three lists,so the task is often quite simple, consisting in most cases on a list of no more than 18 food, that will be your workbench.

On the list of 15-18 more usual foods comes the work of pruning that only you can make. Remember that the plan must take into account your preferences. Only thus can be carried out with chances of success.

REDUCE: The most thankless task, but perhaps with the greatest impact, is to modestly reduce the maximum quantities of 5 of the food from the final list.

CHANGE: The second task is to change five of foods on your list for other such as fruits and vegetables, particularly fatty foods (certain meats, sausages, fried foods, etc..).

COOK: Third, it must change the way you cook food. Those capable of eating raw, you should eat this way. What is no possible, preferably boiled or roasted, in preference to fried or cooked in sauces.

ELIMINATE: Eliminate three or more foods you can not change by others with less calories or fat or cannot be cooked healthier. Note that in no case should give up those foods that you like more, which would make your plan very thankless.

When you have decided the changes to the list and you are ready to start, you can schedule a physical activity that allows you to get a caloric expenditure that exceeds calories you eat and allows reduce your weight. In Medizzine there is available a tool to select a daily physical activity to help to reduce weight Clicking here.

Assess your plan

After the first month you can have a clear idea about where are the obstacles to achieve your goal.

First question: Have you been able to lose weight during the first month of the plan?

Review your notes and recalculate how many calories ingested daily.If, after re-do the calculations, what you eat is more than what you spend, you should consider whether you have reduced enough amount of food. If not, proceed with further reductions focused on the most common foods from your diet.

Second question: Have you done physical exercise as proposed?

Do not worry if this is the reason that things have not gone as expected. Persevere in a physical activity at least five days a week. Consider that this can not only lose weight but improve your health, reducing risks of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

Rectify what has not worked well and continue your plan to complete the entire stage set.

Evaluate your plan at the end of the period and do a new plan to replace that the already finished, with a weight proportional reduction to the problem of excess weight that you have now. Keep physical activity although you have achieved your purpose.

Do not forget to expose to your doctor the plan of your choice and consider his judgment. He is who best knows you and who can provide the best advice.

WARNING ABOUT THIS CONTENT

The information contained in this website does not replace professional advice and guidance from the attending physician, to whom you should consult before making decisions about your health problems. MEDIZZINE cannot warrant or assume any responsibility for the accuracy or comprehensiveness of the information provided. Conversely, MEDIZZINE recognizes that the information provided is not exhaustive and, therefore, does not expose all of the available information and, in any case, cannot replace information and criteria that your doctor may provide you.