The problem of losing weight is one of the most pressing today. Extra pounds not only cause a person to be dissatisfied with his appearance, but also cause dysfunction of the body and the development of various diseases. Therefore, many people try to bring their weight to optimal numbers.
However, not everyone does it correctly. The wrong approach quickly returns to the body the kilograms lost with difficulty and is harmful to health.
How to quickly lose weight without harm to the body?
What you need to know before you start losing weight
An easy way to lose weight has not yet been invented. Bringing your weight back to normal will take some effort.
The main conditions that must be met:
- make sure that you have no health problems and no exacerbations of chronic diseases;
- do not quickly introduce food restrictions, change the caloric content of your diet over several days;
- If you have problems with the nervous, musculoskeletal or cardiovascular systems, be sure to take them into account and inform a nutritionist or trainer;
- stop the diet if you feel worse;
- review your eating habits in advance, this will help you maintain weight after losing weight.
By following these simple rules, you can get rid of excess weight without harming yourself. Let's look at the main 5 ways to lose weight that can really help you lose extra pounds.
Unfortunately, an easy way to lose weight has not yet been invented, so you will have to work hard.
Define your goals and intentions
To begin, talk through the reasons why you want to lose weight in a short period of time. Whether it's because you're preparing for an event, or you're just tired of constantly carrying around extra pounds - write it all down on paper. No matter how trivial this all may sound, it will formalize your intentions and allow you to objectively assess your goals, whether you want to lose 20 kilograms in 8 weeks or reduce volumes very quickly.
If your goal is to fit into a size 38 dress in order to wear it to a high school reunion, you can clearly visualize what you want to achieve in a specific period of time - urgently lose weight, so that later everyone will ask: tell me, did the buckwheat diet help you or the Japanese diet?
On the other hand, if you're simply tired of being overweight and want to get rid of it forever, perhaps your goals should be reconsidered. It often happens that when you jump into a weight loss plan, your enthusiasm begins to fizzle out if you don't quickly reach some milestone, for example, in 12 days.
After all, healthy weight loss happens at a rate of half a kilogram to a kilogram per week. Most experts will tell you that trying to lose weight urgently is unwise, provokes the risk of deficiency of substances necessary for the body, loss of muscle mass, hair loss and menstrual irregularities, affecting the stomach and affecting the kidneys.
By setting goals from the beginning, you can evaluate how achievable they are and whether you need a strict diet or celery soup to achieve them.
Nutrition
One of the fastest ways to lose weight is to reconsider your diet. In pursuit of a slim figure, many women often go on a strict diet. But very often radical measures lead to dire consequences.
A strict diet can cause:
- dehydration – due to fluid loss, weight decreases very quickly in the first days. But often you have to pay for this with headaches and cramps. And over time, the lost kilograms return again;
- Metabolic disorder - you cannot sharply limit yourself in food. This is a lot of stress for the body, to which it can react with the most unpredictable consequences, for example, weight may, on the contrary, increase;
- lack of energy – we get energy from food. A low-calorie diet will cope with this task poorly. As a result, during the diet you will experience apathy and lack of vitality;
- a decrease in the body's defenses - the immune system suffers from a lack of nutrients and will not be able to resist bacteria and viruses.
The most effective and fastest way to lose weight is to limit your carbohydrate intake and introduce low glycemic index foods into your diet. Limiting carbohydrates reduces the production of insulin, which promotes fat storage. Therefore, one of the quick ways to lose weight at home is to exclude potatoes, polished rice, sugary drinks, as well as fast food and alcohol from the menu. Do not limit yourself to lean meat, fish, and avocados.
Without proper nutrition, losing weight is extremely difficult.
Along with proper nutrition, you can use dietary supplements and medications that will help you lose weight. For example:
- Turboslim Day;
- the “Modelform” line of drugs, which includes a number of drugs for different ages;
- Phytomucil Slim Smart;
- Racionika Diet.
In addition, you can supplement your diet with vitamin-mineral complexes. There are also drugs that enhance the burning of subcutaneous fat, but you should treat them with caution (they can cause congestion and other side effects) and you should consult your doctor. Among these drugs are:
- Xenical;
- Reduxin;
- Goldline;
- Orsoten.
These drugs are taken in extreme cases when other methods are ineffective and are not used as monotherapy for obesity.
Physical exercise
Moving more is a fairly effective way to lose weight, which can include simple exercises or a complex of hard workouts. You should exercise in parallel with proper nutrition and then the effect will be better and come faster.
Physical activity will help:
- maintain muscle tone;
- train the heart;
- tighten sagging skin;
- improve physical condition.
For exercise, morning exercises, short jogging, and dancing are sufficient. But if you want a greater effect and some gain in muscle mass, then turn your attention to calisthenics classes or gyms.
The degree of load can be determined independently or together with a trainer, since it all depends on your goals.
How to train properly
Why do you need training?
Exercising helps you lose weight faster for several reasons:
1. Burn more calories during activity. This point is self-explanatory: the harder and longer you move, the more calories you burn.
2. Increase calorie consumption after exercise due to oxygen debt (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, EPOC). For a certain period of time after exercise, the body consumes more oxygen to return to normal levels and burns more calories at rest.
In 2011, researchers found A 45-minute vigorous exercise bout increases metabolic rate for 14 hours. that after 45 minutes of intense exercise, metabolism remained elevated for 14 hours. At rest, the subjects burned an average of 190 kcal more than on days without training.
3. Increase the amount of brown fat, which burns calories . In 2012, Dr. Bruce Spiegelman, as part of a Major fat-burning discovery study on mice, discovered that during exercise, working muscles produce irisin. This hormone travels through the body in the blood and turns white fat cells into brown fat cells, a unique tissue that uses energy instead of storing it.
Since humans also have reserves of brown fat, Spiegelman decided that the hormone irisin performs similar functions in the human body.
Scientists have calculated Brown Fat: A Fat That Helps You Lose Weight? that 50 grams of brown fat can burn about 20% of your total daily calories.
The adult body contains about 20–30 grams of brown fat, but the amount can increase with exposure to cold and exercise.
How to exercise to lose weight
If you only want to lose weight, choose cardio exercises. The Aerobic exercise alone results in clinically significant weight loss for men and women: Midwest Exercise Trial-2 study by Professor Joseph E. Donnelly from the University of Kansas showed that cardio exercise promotes weight loss even without dieting.
For 10 months, five days a week, overweight people spent 400–600 kcal on a treadmill. As a result, they lost about 5 kg without any diets.
The study Effects of aerobic and/or resistance training on body mass and fat mass in overweight or obese adults by Leslie H. Willis and his colleagues from Duke University showed that aerobic exercise is better for losing weight, and for increasing fat-free mass - strength exercises.
Combination workouts help reduce fat and maintain muscle.
At what intensity to train?
The Effects of Fitness Level and Sex on EPOC Following High Intensity Interval and Moderate Intensity Aerobic Exercise study by Rachel Simmons found that in the first 10 minutes after high-intensity interval training, oxygen debt is significantly higher than after moderate-intensity exercise. However, over the next 30 minutes, the EPOC readings become approximately the same.
The study Effect of exercise intensity on 24-hour energy expenditure and nutrient oxidation by Edward Melanson from the University of Colorado confirmed that calorie expenditure during the day after exercise does not depend on its intensity. The same conclusions were reached Substrate oxidation differences between high- and low-intensity exercise are compensated over 24 hours in obese men at the University of Massachusetts.
High-intensity workouts help you burn more calories faster. But if you have time and don't want to die in the gym, choose moderate-intensity cardio and strength training.
Here are a few activities that will help burn about 600 kcal for a 70 kg person:
- An hour of running at a speed of 9 km/h and a heart rate of 140–150 beats per minute.
- Two hours of walking at a speed of 5–6 km/h.
- Two hours cycling at 10-12 km/h or an hour riding at 20 km/h.
- Two hours of calm swimming (1–1.5 km/h) or an hour of fast swimming (1.8 km/h).
For interval training, burpees, double jumping rope, medicine ball throws and other weight loss exercises are suitable.
How many times a week to train
Scientists from the University of Alabama at Birmingham found out Combined Aerobic/Strength Training and Energy Expenditure in Older Women that you need to exercise in moderation. Those study participants who exercised four times a week began to spend 200 kcal per day more in everyday life. And those who had six workouts per week received 150 kcal less.
Four workouts per week is suitable for those who want to burn calories not only in the gym, but also at other times. With this frequency, you can do both strength and cardio exercises.
High-intensity interval training should not be done too often: twice a week will be enough. On other days, you can do moderate-intensity cardio exercises.
You shouldn't overdo it with running either. Experienced running coach and exercise physiologist Susan Paul advises How Often Should I Run? start with three running workouts per week and, if desired, supplement the program with two more cross-training sessions. For example, dancing, yoga, Zumba and others.
Stress
And again we will talk about hormones. According to research, chronic stress can cause excess weight gain. During stressful situations, the body activates hormones, in particular cortisol and neuropeptide Y. They tell the body to store fat. They also increase cravings for foods rich in saturated carbohydrates. Therefore, when stressed, many people experience a feeling of hunger and a desire to eat something sweet.
Dealing with stress is not easy and it is impossible to give universal advice for all occasions. If you feel that you cannot cope with the situation on your own, seek help from a psychotherapist.
Many people, even knowing how to lose weight at home, do not always successfully cope with this task. In such cases, it will be safer and more effective to contact specialists.
Drink enough water to lose weight quickly without dieting
People have been writing about water everywhere for a long time now. I think you know that you need to drink a lot not only in order to lose weight, but in order to feel good and stay young longer. To lose weight quickly, drink at least 2 liters of water a day, and preferably 3 liters. This is the case if there are no kidney diseases.
Be sure to drink a glass of water (250 ml) 15-20 minutes before meals. Also drink throughout the day.
There is even a popular diet called the “lazy diet”, which is based on drinking water. I wrote in detail about this diet here.
How to lose weight quickly - drink at least 2 liters of clean, non-carbonated water per day.
