Diet, the 13 INFALLIBLE tricks to lose weight

 

Losing weight doesn’t mean following a diet for a few weeks and then giving yourself crazy joy again. To really lose weight you need to identify the wrong habits, change them and maintain them over time, even after reaching the goal

The infallible tricks to lose weight

The 13 tips for weight loss were developed with the advice of Valentina Chiozzi, Nutritionist Biologist, and Gabriele Piuri, a Ph.D. student in experimental and clinical nutrition, both from the team of Attilio Speciali, scientific director of Eurosalus.

1. You don’t need to go on a diet, you need a new lifestyle
2. Play sports, the one that suits you best
3. Pay attention to the scale. Losing weight means losing fat mass
4. Learn to read labels when shopping
5. One calorie is not the same as another
6. No to high-protein diets, but proteins are important
7. Choose the right fats
8. Avoid artificial sweeteners
9. Avoid fructose
10. Eat fruit, but don’t drink industrial juices
11. Dark chocolate is good for you, but not a whole bar
12. Eat calmly and chew well
13. Studying: makes you lose weight if you combine sport

1. You don’t need to go on a diet, you need a new lifestyle

Losing weight doesn’t mean following a diet for a few weeks and then giving yourself crazy joy again. To really lose weight you need to identify the wrong habits, change them, and maintain them over time, even after reaching the goal. If you don’t change your lifestyle, the lost kilos are easily recovered and you will soon be back to where you were before, with a ‘yo-yo’ effect that never ends.

2. Play sports, the one that suits you best

Everyone tells us to exercise if we want to lose weight. It is very true, but which one and how? Maybe you could try Zumba: it is an aerobic type sport, which allows you to consume several calories while having fun, but you have to see if it is suitable for your constitution.

Physical activity must be customized according to your conditions: if for some prolonged aerobic work, such as step, running or Zumba, will be suitable, for others short and more intense jobs will be indicated, for others it will be important to work first on muscle mass, with weights and tools, and then on weight loss.

Always evaluate the level of training and any problems, for example in the back or knees. In short, sport is an integral part of the lifestyle of those who want to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight, but at least at the beginning, it is good to rely on an expert.

3. Pay attention to the scale. Losing weight means losing fat mass

Losing weight not only means losing weight but losing fat mass. If the scale goes down, it may be that we have lost only water or even muscle mass, which happens easily when you are on a very low-calorie diet.

It is true, in the mirror we see ourselves a little slimmer and more deflated, but it is an apparent and short-lasting loss of weight. For this reason, especially if the kilos to lose are many, it would be useful to rely on a serious professional, who, in addition to making us get on the scales, measures the circumferences of certain critical points, determines the body composition (fat mass, lean mass, water) through tests. such as bioimpedance analysis and evaluate the results of a diet over time.

4. Learn to read labels when shopping

Those who want to lose weight must acquire a food culture, and this means first of all reading the labels of what they buy and not trusting only advertising.

For example, if a product is defined as wholemeal, the wholemeal cereal must be at the top of the list of ingredients; in food that prides itself on being ‘lean’, fats cannot be second.

5. One calorie is not the same as another

A tomato ripened in the summer sun contains the same calories as a greenhouse tomato, but the former is much richer in micronutrients which are not only good for the body but also have a greater satiating and slimming effect; ditto for white flour and wholemeal flour, good quality oils, and hydrogenated vegetable fats.

The body cannot say ‘I lack zinc or selenium’, but it says ‘I’m hungry’: if the food then provides the nutrients it needs, it receives satisfaction, otherwise it will be led to look for food again. An over-caloric food with poor quality ingredients is poorly nutritious, not very filling, and therefore provides empty calories.

Therefore, for the same calories, the effect of foods on the brain can be different. Following the seasonality and varying foods is also essential to avoid monotony, which is one of the reasons that lead to abandoning diets.

6. No to high-protein diets, but proteins are important

While it is true that high-protein diets are unbalanced, it is also important to ensure adequate protein intake. Proteins are essential for maintaining muscle mass, stimulating the metabolism to ‘burn’, having a good tone, both physically and mentally, feeling more efficient.

A healthy person needs on average 1 gram of protein per kg of body weight: for a 65 kg woman this means for example a handful of dried fruit (it is also allowed in diets, just don’t overdo it!) Or an egg in the morning, a 100–120 gr steak or a plate of pasta and legumes for lunch, and a little fish in the evening.

7. Choose the right fats

They are always demonized, but according to the latest guidelines they must represent 25–30% of the daily income. Fats are precursors of hormones, that is, they serve the balance of our endocrine system so they should not be abolished even when following a diet.

And all types of fats are needed, as long as they are of quality: more than half of the daily requirement should derive from monounsaturated fats, mainly from extra virgin olive oil, while the remainder should consist in equal parts of saturated fats, such as butter and the other fats of animal origin, and polyunsaturated, that is the omega 6 contained in the seed oils and the omega 3, contained in oily fish and nuts.

Our body is perfectly capable of metabolizing fats, just avoid fried and sautéed, increase physical activity, and drastically reduce simple sugars, which are the real culprits of fat. Finally, fats give flavor to foods, make the diet more enjoyable and compatible with the family kitchen.

Remember that no food makes you lose weight or gain weight at all, it depends on how much you eat and how it combines with other foods during the day.

8. Avoid artificial sweeteners

It is proven by several scientific papers that artificial sweeteners, far from making you lose weight, contribute to fat. The problem is not given by the number of calories (which in sweeteners is zero) but by the signal that reaches the body. The sweet taste of sugar, as well as sweeteners, activates signals in the brain that lead to the search for more sugar and other food, with the result that we tend to eat more at the next meal.

Studies from 2013 also showed that artificial sweeteners cause an alteration of glucose metabolism similar to that of diabetics since they favor the transformation of what has been eaten into fat.

As if that weren’t enough, another study from the same year found that saccharin and acesulfame, two of the most common sweeteners, block lipolysis, the mechanism that allows us to dissolve fat. In short, it could be said that they make you more fat than lose weight.

9. Avoid fructose

We are not talking about the fructose naturally contained in fruits and vegetables, but about fructose as an industrial sweetener, such as corn syrup.

Until recently it was thought that having a lower glycemic index than sugar, made you fat less. On the other hand, fructose has, so to speak, a preferential path of metabolism, which increases triglycerides and liver inflammatory levels that interfere in an important way with weight loss.

Already since 2004, scientific studies had shown that fructose, taken continuously, increases insulin resistance like sugar and facilitates the onset of diabetes and metabolic diseases, such as obesity, while a 2013 study showed that corn syrup induces obesity and cognitive decline, even favoring the development of diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Damage that would already begin in the belly, because it seems that if the expectant mother consumes fructose in large quantities, there is an activation of obesogenic mechanisms in the baby.

10. Eat fruit, but don’t drink industrial juices

It is one thing to eat a complete fruit, with its content of micronutrients and fibers that have satiating power, it is another thing to drink liters of juices which, even when they are 100% fruit, are deprived of the precious substances contained in the whole fruit.

Fruit in a diet is welcome, but don’t forget that it is still sugary, especially if we are talking about grapes, bananas, or figs. But even fruits made up largely of water such as watermelon cannot be defined as ‘slimming’: a nice slice as a snack is refreshing, remineralizing, and detoxifying, but you cannot eat half a watermelon instead of lunch in the illusion of losing weight!

11. Dark chocolate is good for you, but not a whole bar

What about the common belief that chocolate makes you lose weight? First of all, let’s distinguish pure cocoa from chocolate. Cocoa has undisputed properties, it is protective for the liver, contains precious polyphenols and substances that can activate certain lipolytic mechanisms, but we are talking about pure bitter cocoa.

Chocolate, on the other hand, is a delicious dessert that contains sugar and cocoa butter, which provide a lot of calories.

Goodbye chocolate then? No: a small square of good quality dark chocolate with at least 75–80% cocoa fits perfectly, even in a weight loss diet, but not a bar of milk chocolate!

12. Eat calmly and chew well

Raise your hand if you have never eaten standing up or in front of the TV, PC, and smartphone. Instead, if you want to lose weight, food must be looked at, smelled, tasted, chewed slowly.

Bear in mind that already during chewing a series of signals are activated that reach the satiety centers of the brain, while the first signals in the blood arrive after 20 minutes when certain nutrients begin to be absorbed. If you eat quickly, you risk finishing an entire meal before realizing you are full!

Not only that: eating slowly allows you to gradually dilate the stomach, better assimilate what you eat, digest it more easily and empty the intestine better. If you chew badly, whole pieces of food reach the stomach, requiring more intestinal work, with fermentation and swelling.

13. Studying: makes you lose weight if you combine sport

That studying makes the brain work and that activating the brain increases glucose consumption is true, but from here to say that studying makes you lose weight … you should study while walking! Instead, not only do you sit down but often fall into the temptation to nibble on something. Just look at our students, who are not exactly skinny on average. In short, studying can make you lose weight if during the afternoon you have the opportunity to disconnect with an hour of sports, otherwise, it is useless to delude yourself!