How do you realize your diet isn’t working?

Oksana Lishchenko, a doctor of the highest category, nutritionist, cardiologist, candidate of medical sciences, member of the National Society of Nutritionists, Russian Society of Cardiology, WORLD CLASS Romanov doctor, opens her column on “Championship”. Look for more useful materials by the tag #DietologistTalks.

Today, together with Oksana, we will try to answer the most common question of people who have recently decided to change their body: how to realize that your diet is not working?

Oksana Lishchenko: To conclude that the diet does not work, you need to understand what result you want. As a rule, the main goal of any diet is to solve the problem of “lose weight” or “reduce weight”. Why does it fail? Let’s break it down.

The most common questions and misconceptions when losing weight:

Question 1: “I only eat the right foods, no junk foods, why am I not losing weight?”

Answer: you can name three reasons why you are not losing weight on the right diet.

• Reason 1: among the right foods there are “dangerous” foods, in which there is a catch, because they contain a lot of calories, although they have useful properties. If you exclude them from your diet or significantly reduce their amount – you will start to lose weight. What are these products: nuts, cheese, avocados, sweet fruits (figs, dates, persimmons, grapes, bananas), various sauces. It is also very important to call alcohol – thinners need to absolutely exclude it for the time of weight correction. Alcohol of any strength and in any quantity is forbidden!
• Reason 2: you eat the right foods all week, and on weekends you organize “chitmil”, or “loading day” (chitday), or in some other way arrange yourself a “reward” in the form of sweets, fast food, sushi, pizza, dumplings, hamburgers and so on. Eliminate such meals from your diet, and you’ll notice the effects much faster just from following a proper balanced diet every day.
• Reason 3: medical problems, when weight cannot be reduced in any way, and you need additional consultation of specialists: endocrine pathology (thyroid disease, obesity of 1-3rd degree, hypothalamic syndrome, etc.), gastrointestinal problems (pancreatitis, peptic ulcer disease, colitis, etc.), male or female health problems (hormonal failures, when you need to consult a gynecologist or andrologist).

Question 2: “I eat so little, and why am I not losing weight?”

Answer: it is a misconception that you need to eat very little to lose weight! It is important to get enough calories from food (only 20% less than you spend) and a normal balanced composition of proteins, fats and carbohydrates! If you create a very large calorie deficit (50% or more) – then you will definitely lose weight the wrong way: you will lose muscle and water, but not fat, as it is a strategic energy reserve in the body just for such “hungry” periods of life. As soon as you keep a proper balance of calories, proteins, fats and carbohydrates – the body will start to work “like clockwork” and get rid of excess fat, not muscle.

Question 3: “I lost weight on … diet, but then gained even more, the diet does not work?”

Answer: first of all, nutritionists are against diets! Diets remain only for the treatment of hospitalized patients. Secondly, the vast majority of people help to create a slim and healthy body simply balanced rational varied diet! If you lose weight and then gain weight again – then you are definitely doing something wrong! In dietetics it is called “yo-yo syndrome”, when after too much calorie restriction (eating 500-700 kcal a day) – a person switches to a normal diet and gains even more weight than it was originally. Consult a nutritionist, do a body composition analysis (bioimpedance) and choose the right diet in terms of calories and composition of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.

Question 4: “At what rate does fat burning occur?”

Answer: a weight loss of 1 kg of fat per week (or 4 kg of fat per month) is considered normal for the body! Note that the calculation is in kilograms of fat, not just in kilograms of weight loss. These are absolutely real numbers that can be easily achieved with proper nutrition and regular exercise. At this rate of fat loss, you will definitely not starve or break down, there will be no hormonal disruptions or complications, no hanging skin or unsightly folds will form.

What factors to pay attention to in order to lose weight faster:

• Consult a nutritionist to accurately calculate the calorie content of your diet and the required protein content of fats and carbohydrates.

The right calorie calculation will help you actually lose weight, and the right amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates will help you lose weight precisely at the expense of fat, while preserving muscle! As a result, you will get a high-quality, slim, relief body! We will talk about the correct calculation of calories next time – for now we will say that the basic (basic) metabolism depends on gender, weight, height and age (approximately, 1200-1500 kcal for women, 1500-1800 kcal for men). To this figure is added the motor activity, which is conducted by a person – someone walks a maximum of half an hour a day, and someone trains 5 times a week, so the calorie consumption in the usual mode of life can be different for people of the same weight and height, for example. And already from the calorie consumption we calculate the diet – how many calories should be in the food (for weight loss it is minus 20% of the calorie consumption).

• Take into account the importance of drinking and eating.

You should eat at least 4 meals a day, every 3-4 hours. These will be full meals – breakfast, lunch dinner – and 1-2 snacks (yogurt, fruit, vegetables, nuts, a proper sandwich, etc.).
Calculation of drinking regimen: you determine the ideal body weight (note, this figure is needed to calculate fluid, not to achieve this weight when losing weight) – calculated by the formula: for men – height in cm minus 100, for girls – height in cm minus 110. The obtained figure is multiplied by 30 ml and you get the amount of liquid consumed in a normal day, and if you multiply by 40 ml, you determine the amount of liquid in the days of training or exercise. This amount includes all the liquid you consume – water, coffee, tea and soups. Preferably, more than half of this amount should be pure drinking water (ideally all of this amount could be water).

• Keep up regular physical activity.

What is the norm of physical activity? You can choose the type of activity that is easier for you in your real life:
– or walk a lot (at least 10 thousand steps, for weight loss 13-15 thousand steps),
– or do moderate exercise (yoga, exercise, light dancing, etc.) – 30 min at least 5 days a week,
– or exercise (gym, swimming, running, group exercises, game sports) at least 2 times a week.
Choose according to your time and your health. The main thing is that you should enjoy it and that it should be regular exercise.

• Get plenty of sleep and rest.

You should get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep and a maximum of 10 hours. Watch what kind of bed you sleep on, what pillow you use, how quickly you fall asleep, whether you wake up rested and so on.
A comfortable psychological state is very important for weight loss: pursue your hobbies, spend time with friends, rest, meditate, switch and relax.

• Monitor your health and body composition data.

Let’s take a look at some of the simplest but most important health indicators that everyone should know about themselves.

1. Body Mass Index (height/weight ratio): all people should be under 25kg/m2 – calculated as follows: weight in kg twice divided by height in meters. Above 25 is overweight, above 30 is obesity! If the body mass index is less than 18.5, then immediately stop in the process of weight loss and start gaining weight (at the expense of muscles) – this is an indicator of insufficient weight, and it is as dangerous to health as obesity! Overweight is dangerous with cardiac problems, stress on the spine and joints, diabetes mellitus, and underweight is associated with an increased risk of cancer, immunodeficiency conditions and frequent infections.
2. Waist circumference: the norm in women is less than 80 cm and in men less than 94 cm. If the figures exceed 88 cm in women and 102 cm in men – this is the most dangerous for health variant of obesity – abdominal obesity, a sign of metabolic syndrome (when, as a “lifeline”, visceral fat accumulates in the abdomen, around the internal organs.
3. Blood cholesterol and glucose levels: cholesterol norm is less than 5 mmol/L, glucose norm is less than 6 mmol/L (or better to know the level of glycated hemoglobin – it should be less than 6%).
4. Blood pressure figures: the norm is 120/80 mmHg, the boundary between norm and pathology is 140/90 mmHg – if you often fix the pressure figures above this figure – a reason to be examined.
5. Percentage of body fat according to bioimpedance (a method of determining body composition): the norm for women is 20-25%, for men – 15-20% (fitness norm for men and women who train is 5% lower). This is the main indicator of the quality of your body, it is what is important to monitor during the weight loss process!

The path to slimness without determining your body composition is impossible or undesirable! You should determine your body composition once a month and monitor what is going on inside your body – whether fat is decreasing (which means you are doing everything right), or only water and muscle is going away (and then it will be a reason to reconsider and change your diet and training).

In all such situations, we recommend that you consult a nutritionist, analyze your body composition and health indicators, and choose the right diet that you can easily follow to achieve the body of your dreams).