There are many reasons why being overweight harms your health. For example, it can cause or worsen type 2 diabetes. Obesity is also a risk factor for heart disease and other cardiovascular problems.
So what to do to lose weight?
Eating less and moving more is the trivial response that an overweight person usually receives.
Of course, you can lose weight by reducing the food you eat (energy intake) or by increasing the amount of exercise you do (energy expenditure).
But the problem with effective weight loss is much more complex than simply changing the balance between the calories you eat and the calories you spend in your daily activities.
Finding an effective weight loss formula requires answers to these four questions:
Do genetics play a role in your weight problems, and if so,
what can you do about it? How many calories do you need to eliminate from your diet to lose a pound or kilogram? What are the best types of foods (carbohydrates, fats, or proteins) to reduce for weight loss? Is exercise very good for helping you lose or maintain weight?How your genes affect your weight
Many people go to great lengths to lose weight without much success. In particular, once they lose a few pounds, it is extremely difficult for them to maintain their weight ... it just goes back up.
This suggests that the problem is genetic.
In fact, over 30 genes have been linked to obesity. The one with the strongest link is the gene associated with body fat and obesity (FTO).
The obesity risk variant of the FTO gene affects one in six people in the population. Studies suggest that people with this gene are 70% more likely to become obese.
According to a study published in the UK in 2013 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, people with this gene have higher levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin in their blood. This means that they start to feel hungry again soon after eating.
Additionally, real-time brain imaging shows that variation in the FTO gene alters the way the brain responds to ghrelin and food imaging in areas of the brain related to diet control and reward.
These findings explain why people with the obesity risk variant of the FTO gene eat more and prefer higher calorie foods ... before they are even overweight ... compared to those with the low risk version of the gene. .
The FTO gene is not the only genetic cause of obesity, which is probably due to the sum of several genes working together.
However, if you have these "bad" genes, you might not be overweight ... but you are more likely to become obese if you overeat.
Having these genes also means that you will need to be more disciplined in your diet throughout your life, especially when you have successfully shed a few pounds and want to keep them down.
How many calories should you cut to lose weight?
The big question for dieters has always been ... how many calories should I remove from my diet to reduce my weight by a certain amount, say a pound or a kilogram?
Once upon a time there was a clear answer to this question.
In 1958, Max Wishnofsky, a New York doctor, wrote an article in which he summarized everything we knew at the time about how calories are stored in our bodies. He concluded that if your weight was stable, it would take a 3,500 calorie deficit to lose one pound (454 grams) of weight.
You can create a calorie deficit by eating less or exercising more (to consume more calories).
For example, if you maintain your weight on a 2,000 calorie per day diet and reduce your intake to 1,500 calories per day, you will lose one pound (almost half a kilo) in a week, or 52 pounds. That is 24 kg per year. .
Alternatively, you can burn an additional 500 calories per day (through exercise) to lose the same amount of weight for the same amount of time.
For years, Wishnofsky's rule has been accepted as a verified fact. It is the basis of a wide variety of diets.
The only problem is that the rule is wrong. It does not take into account the changes in metabolism that occur during a diet.
Wishnofsky's rule really works in the beginning. But after a week or two, your weight hits its lowest point, much to the frustration of thousands of dieters as their metabolism adjusts to their declining body mass and reduced food intake.
Until recently, there was no way to predict how consuming fewer calories affects how quickly you lose weight, especially when your goal is to lose more than a few pounds or kilograms.
However, there are now complex new weight loss formulas that take into account the drop in metabolic rate that occurs over time as body mass decreases. The US National Institute of Diabetes, Kidney and Digestive Disease Body Weight Planner is one example.
What Kinds of Foods Should I Cut Out to Lose Weight?
What Kinds of Foods Should I Cut Out to Lose Weight?
Should you reduce your calorie intake from fat, carbohydrates, or protein? What will help you lose weight faster?
The number of calories in one gram of each of the staple food types is as follows:
Fat ... 9 calories per gram
Drink alcohol ... 7 calories per gram
Protein ... 4 calories per gram
Carbohydrates ... 4 calories per gram
Dietary fiber ... 2 calories per gram
Since fat contains more than twice as many calories as carbohydrates and protein, reducing the amount of fat you eat will work twice as fast as reducing either of the other two types of food, gram for gram. .
This is why diets that focus on reducing the fat you eat, such as the Diabetes Diet and the Mediterranean Diet, are effective in reducing weight.
But if you want to reduce your calorie intake by a certain amount per day (say 500 calories), will that make a difference in the types of foods you cut back?
For example, will it make a difference in the amount of weight you lose if you reduce 55.6 grams of fat (500 calories) or 125 g of carbohydrates (500 calories) or 125 g of protein (500 calories) ) of your diet?
The answer is that there is little difference in the amount of weight people lose, whether they reduce their calories from carbohydrates or from fat.
But calories from protein are different ... according to researchers, high protein diets tend to increase the amount of calories you burn. It is not clear why this is so.
However, when people lose weight, they lose both muscle and fat. The more muscle you lose, the slower your metabolism will slow down, reducing the rate at which you lose weight.
Because it preserves muscle, a protein diet can reduce the rate at which your metabolism slows down.
The problem is, if you eat too much protein, you could end up damaging your kidneys. The generally accepted recommendation is to limit your protein intake to a maximum of 35% of your total daily calorie intake.
So as long as you don't eat too much protein, it's best to lose weight by reducing fat (for your heart, etc.) and refined carbohydrates which raise your blood sugar (especially if you have diabetes).
Does Sport Help You Lose or Maintain Weight?
Cutting down on the food you eat is the best way to lose weight. Exercise is less important, at least in the initial stages.
Exercising when it comes to losing weight can be difficult. This of course burns calories, but not as much as not eating those calories in the first place.
And exercise increases your appetite, making it easy to consume all the calories you burn during intense training.
The recommendation, when reducing your food intake for weight loss, is to focus on moderate physical activities like gardening or brisk walking, rather than going to the gym.
But once you've shed those extra pounds and hit your ideal weight, exercise becomes important to keep your weight at its new, healthier level.
Researchers have found that most people who lose weight and keep it off for at least a year exercise regularly for up to an hour a day.
No comments:
Post a Comment