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Minimum calories per day to survive: Approximately How Many Calories Do You Need to Survive?

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Approximately How Many Calories Do You Need to Survive?

The number of calories you need to survive depends on your age, weight, activity level and gender.

Image Credit: OksanaKiian/iStock/GettyImages

Determining the minimum calories needed to survive is not an exact science. However, it is possible to get pretty close to an ideal range you can aim for most days of the week. Eating in this range can help power you while performing daily tasks, when you’re on the go, at work or during a workout.

Tip

The number of calories you need to survive depends on your age, weight, activity level and gender. For long-term health, most people will need a minimum of 1,200 calories per day.

Minimum Calories Needed to Survive

While surviving on very few calories for a brief time might be possible, it’s not sustainable. The minimum calories needed to survive depends on a variety of factors including your weight, age, activity level and being male or female.

The UCLA Center for Human Nutrition says that eating fewer than 1,000 calories per day has the same effect physiologically as total starvation. With that in mind, it makes sense that the USDA Dietary Guidelines recommend a much higher calorie level for health.

According to their calculations, sedentary females aged 26 to 50 need 1,800 calories per day and sedentary men aged 26 to 40 need 2,400 calories per day. When men get 40 and above, their calorie needs decrease by 200 calories. Add in some moderate activity, and that same female is now needing 2,000 calories and an active man needs 2,600 calories.

Reducing calories below what is recommended for general health is sometimes referred to as a very-low-calorie-diet or VLCD. A VLCD is defined medically as a diet of 800 calories per day or less. These programs are medically supervised and are primarily used for individuals who have obesity and want to lose three to five pounds a week.

Read more:​ Minimum Amount of Calories Needed Per Day to Survive

Negative Effects of Low Calories

If you’re not fueling your body with enough food, and consequently not enough calories, you might not be getting the nutrients you need for optimal health. Vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients are key to helping your body and brain perform at peak levels. In an attempt cut calories, many people limit or even reduce carbohydrates from their diet.

When you restrict carbohydrates in an effort to only eat the bare minimum calories to survive, you miss out on the health benefits of fiber, which is a type of carbohydrate the body can’t digest. In addition to making you feel fuller for longer, fiber also regulates the body’s use of sugars, lowers blood cholesterol, helps to promote regularity and prevent constipation, and it may even lower the risk of heart disease, according to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Another downside of only eating the minimum calories to survive is the impact it has on your metabolism. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says if you’re not taking in enough calories, your body goes into survival mode and your metabolism slows down in an effort to conserve energy. You also risk not getting enough calcium, which increases your risk for osteoporosis and hip fractures.

Read more:​ Negative Side Effects of Eating Less Than 1,200 Calories a Day

Spending a few days eating the minimum calories needed to survive is not going to cause any long-term damage. That said, designing an eating plan that focuses on lifestyle modifications rather than a restrictive diet, is going to help you make permanent changes that can last a lifetime.

To get started on a healthy eating plan that meets your needs, the first step is to determine the number of calories you need to eat each day. You can do this by using the USDA Dietary Guidelines chart. Once you have the baseline number, of the number of calories you need to eat when sedentary, you can factor in your activity level. Remember, these amounts represent what you need to eat to maintain your current weight.

If you want to lose weight, the Mayo Clinic suggests reducing your calorie level by 500 a day. Doing this can help you lose one pound per week. To increase weight loss, even more, consider adding in daily exercise. Not only does exercise help you lose weight, but it also helps you keep it off, according to a March 2019 study from the University of Colorado Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, published in ​Obesity​.

Calories: How to Know if You Go Too Low – Weight Center

Cutting calories is the approach most dieters must take to meet their weight-loss goals. But every once in a while people take calorie restriction too far, ultimately making weight loss slower and more difficult by slowing your metabolism.

Figuring out the right number of calories for you on a daily basis depends on your age, gender, and activity level. In general, the younger and more active you are, the more calories you can consume. And men are able to eat more calories daily than women. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines says that women 19 to 30 years old should consume 2,000 calories if they have a sedentary lifestyle or 2,400 calories if they have an active one; for men of the same age the range is 2,400 to 3,000 calories.

Defining the Low-Calorie Diet

It seems logical that if calories are the problem, you would want to eat as few of them as possible to speed weight loss. As a general rule, people need a minimum of 1,200 calories daily to stay healthy. People who have a strenuous fitness routine or perform many daily activities need more calories. If you have reduced your calorie intake below 1,200 calories a day, you could be hurting your body in addition to your weight-loss plans.

“The big picture is to consume enough calories with a balance of nutrients and engage in physical activity for good health management to achieve one’s weight goals. Consuming less than 1,200 calories per day may make it difficult to meet vitamin and mineral needs via food,” says nutrition therapist Andrea Spivack, MA, RD, LDN, with Penn Behavioral Health at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Tempting as it may be to continue with your low-calorie weight-loss plan and simply take a supplement, Spivack points out that there are some key nutrients which are only available through your diet.

Occasionally, obese people will go on a very low-calorie diet — 800 to 1,000 calories per day — for a brief period of time in order to achieve a specific weight-loss goal, but then will switch to a diet with more calories to reach and maintain their desired weight. Such a diet is usually supervised by a doctor or nutritionist so that it is nutritionally balanced. Unfortunately, weight regain is common after these restricted calorie diets end.

Why Low-Calorie Diets Slow Your Metabolism

If you are on a very low-calorie diet, you may wonder why the numbers on your scale aren’t budging, but your diet buddy is slimmer by the month.

The reality is that different people respond differently to low-calorie diets. When your body senses that food may not be in plentiful supply, it may slow down your metabolism as protection against the possibility of starvation, even if you are obese and deliberately trying to lose weight.

How Many Calories Should You Eat Per Day?

The amount of food we consume daily has a significant impact on bodily function. Most adults need a minimum of 2000 calories to sustain metabolism, muscle activity, and brain function. However, too many calories can lead to weight gain and a variety of diseases. This article examines the daily calorie intake based on a person’s sex, age, physical activity and overall health and lifestyle.

photka | Shutterstock

The right balance between the different nutrients that compose our daily diets (carbohydrates, fats, proteins, water, vitamins, and minerals) is just as significant as the overall food intake. In simple terms, if we consume more calories than we need on average, we will gain weight and if we consume less than we need on average, we will lose weight in fat, as well as muscle mass.

What is a calorie?

A calorie is a unit of energy. In physical terms, one calorie (“small calorie”, symbol: cal) is defined as the amount of heat energy needed to increase the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius (1°C) at a pressure of one atmosphere (101. 325 kPa).

In terms of nutrition and diet, kilocalories (“large calories”, symbol: kcal) are more commonly used to express the amount of energy value of particular foods. In the context of nutrition, the kilojoule (kJ) is the SI unit of food energy.

The total number of calories within a particular food is the sum of the amount of energy released by each of the components (protein, carbohydrates, and fats), minus the fiber content. Fiber is removed as humans are not able to fully digest it.

Basal metabolic rate (BMR)

The basal metabolic rate (BMR) is useful in estimating the required daily energy expenditure of an individual. The BMR is defined as the rate of energy expenditure per unit time at rest. This is the amount of energy that a person needs at any given time to maintain physiological function at rest.

A number of crucial processes are constantly at work in the body and require a constant supply of energy. These include breathing, blood circulation, body temperature maintenance, cell growth, brain and nerve function, as well as muscle contraction. The BMR accounts for around 60-75% of the daily calorie expenditure and declines by around 1-2% for every 10 years after the age of 20.

Several formulas can be used for estimating the basal metabolic rate, one of which is the Mifflin-St. Jeor formula. It suggests the following values for BMR:

  • Men: 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) + 5
  • Women: 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) – 161

Recommended daily caloric intake

The recommended daily intake of calories will vary between individuals, depending on the basal metabolic rate (BMR), which in turn differs with the body mass, height, and age of the person. The amount of food energy required will also depend on the gender and the extent of physical exercise.

Increased mental activity has been linked with moderately increased brain energy consumption since the brain consumes around 20% of the energy used in the human body. In general, older people and those with sedentary lifestyles require fewer calories (or energy-containing foods), while children and physically active people require more.

Recommended daily calorie intakes in the US are around 2500 for men and 2000 for women. However, this will range from around 1000 kcal daily for an infant to as much as 3200 kcal daily for a young male of 16-18 years who leads an active lifestyle. The minimum recommended calorie intake is 1800 for both sexes.

For a child aged 2-3 years, the recommended caloric intake ranges between 1000 kcal and 1400 kcal depending on the amount of daily physical exercise. For adults, the recommended daily calorie intake is generally higher for men compared to women.

It is important to remember that the calories consumed must come from a variety of different nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, and fats in order to ensure that the body receives all the nutrients required for its proper function.

Calories and physical exercise

Lifestyle choices have a significant impact upon the number of calories required to maintain a healthy weight. In simple terms, a person’s lifestyle falls into one of three categories depending on the extent of daily physical exercise: sedentary, moderately active or active.

The Harris Benedict Equation is a formula that uses the BMR and then applies an activity factor. For example, the recommended activity factor for a person with a job that requires moderately physical work and who engages in light exercise daily is 1.6. Multiplying the basal metabolic rate (BMR) by the activity factor can aid in calculating the daily energy expenditure, depending not only on the age and sex, but also the daily activity.

Further Reading

How Many Calories A Day Do You Need To Survive?

Survival Based Calorie Needs

Let’s be clear here. How many calories a day you need to survive is very different from the number of calories you currently eat on a normal day-to-day basis. Having enough food to stay alive doesn’t mean that you’re getting all of the nutrients your body needs to grow strong and be healthy. It’s all about staying alive until you can better your situation and find more enjoyable foods. 

When starting your food storage it’s important to base your initial purchases on what you need to stay alive. The minimum amount of food you need to not die. After you have a decent amount of that type of food, then you jump to foods that are nutrient-packed. Then you can move on to foods that are more enjoyable to eat.

A lot of people get overwhelmed when they’re starting their food storage journey because they imagine having to buy one years worth of food to help carry on their current lifestyle. In most cases, that’s impossible. If people would focus their efforts on survival first, more people would have food storage.

My Recommended Food Survival List In Order Of Priority

  1. Survival food first (Rice, beans, and wheat)
  2. Nutrient packed food second (Fruits and vegetables)
  3. More enjoyable food third (pre-packaged meals and sweets)

 

Determining The Number Of Calories You Need To Survive

Determining the exact amount of calories that your body needs to survive is not easy to do. It differs from body to body depending on metabolism, weight, age, sex, and activity level.

The UCLA Center for Human Nutrition says that eating less than 1,000 calories per day has the same effects on the body as total starvation, so this survival information should be used only for that: survival.

Most of us consume between 2,000-3,000 calories per day right now. However, in emergency situations, most humans will be able to survive for short periods of time with 500-800 calories per day.

What Are The Best Calorie And Nutrient-Packed Foods?

In a real emergency situation, you will definitely want to consume whatever food is available.

However, when there are options, you will want to eat foods that offer the most amount of calories and nutrients. In other words, leafy greens probably aren’t going to sustain you. At the same time, just eating high-calorie food–such as chips and candy–also won’t give you the energy you need to thrive.

The following foods are calorie-dense, nutritious options for when you’re trying to stretch your energy as far as you can:

  • Protein smoothies
  • Milk
  • Rice
  • Red meat
  • Nuts
  • Nut butter
  • Potatoes/Sweet potatoes
  • Beans
  • Protein supplements and bars
  • Salmon
  • Avocado
  • Whole grain bread
  • Chicken leg
  • Tofu
  • Dark chocolate
  • Oats
  • Cheese
  • Whole eggs (yolk plus whites)
  • Yogurt (full fat)

Do The Calories Required Differ From Male To Female?

Generally, males require more calories than females. Females are recommended to eat 1,600-2,400 calories per day, while males are recommended to eat 2,000-3,000 calories. This is very general and can look different from person to person.

In an emergency situation, males will probably require 100-200 calories more than their female counterparts to align with the numbers given above.  

Does It Matter What Variation Of Foods You Eat To Keep Your Calories Up?

As mentioned earlier, your body will best respond to calorically dense, nutrient-packed food. However, this won’t always be an option.

Your body will respond very differently to 500 calories of meat than to 500 calories of candy than to 500 calories of cheese. The macronutrients that make up all of the food that we eat change our energy levels and body composition.

However, if you are literally trying to survive, a calorie is a calorie, and you will want to eat whatever you can.

What Is the Bare Minimum of Food You Can Eat? | Healthy Eating

By Jill Corleone Updated December 02, 2018

To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories, which means eating less food. When eating the bare minimum, it’s imperative that you make the right food choices so you meet your all your nutrient needs on fewer calories. Consult your doctor before starting any weight-loss diet.

Bare Number of Calories

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases says that when eating real food, women may be able to meet their needs eating as few as 1,000 to 1,200 calories a day, and men can do the same on 1,200 to 1,600 calories a day. Very-low-calorie diets of 800 calories or less typically include specially designed meal-replacement shakes and foods to help you meet nutritional needs. You should not follow a very-low-calorie diet unless closely monitored by your doctor.

Nutrient-Dense Foods

When limiting your calorie intake, eat mostly low-calorie, nutrient-dense foods so that you get all the nutrients you need for good health. Good options include brussels sprouts, bell peppers, mushrooms, avocados, berries, melon, sweet potatoes, legumes such as beans and lentils, nuts and whole grains such as barley and quinoa, as well as seafood and poultry. The one nutrient you may have a difficult time getting on your low-calorie diet is vitamin D, according to Harvard Health Publications, and you may require a supplement. Talk to your doctor about vitamin D dosage.

Suggested Food Plan

You need to carefully plan your menu when eating the bare minimum. While it’s safe for both men and women to limit their intake to 1,200 calories a day, women may have an easier time meeting their nutrient needs than men, says Harvard Health Publications. Based on this information, limiting your intake to 1,200 to 1,500 calories may help you lose while eating the bare minimum. A healthy and balanced food plan should include 1 to 1 1/2 cups of fruit, 1 1/2 to 2 cups of vegetables, 4 to 5 ounces of grain, 3 to 5 ounces of protein, 2 to 3 cups of dairy and 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of oil. For reference, a 1-ounce grain portion is equal to one slice of bread, 1 cup of cold cereal or 1/2 cup of cooked grain or cereal.

Sample Diet

For breakfast on your bare-minimum diet, you might enjoy 1 cup of oatmeal with 1 cup of raspberries and 1 cup of nonfat milk. A healthy lunch might include 1 cup of mixed greens topped with 1/2 ounce of walnuts, 2 ounces of grilled chicken, 1 teaspoon of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, served with 1 container of nonfat yogurt and a small apple. For dinner, a 3-ounce serving of grilled salmon with 1 cup of roasted brussels sprouts tossed with 2 teaspoons of olive oil and 3/4 cup of cooked quinoa makes a nutrient-rich choice. This meal plan contains 1,205 calories.

How Many Calories Do You Need In A Day To Stay Healthy And Lose Weight?

You should not consume less than 1200 calories in a day

Highlights

  • Your level of physical activity determines your calorie intake
  • Your overall health is also a determinant
  • A calorie-deficit diet for weight loss might not be good for your health

Calorie-counting is considered to be one of the most effective ways for shedding extra kilos. On an average, a woman requires around 2000 calories in a day to maintain certain weight and 1500 calories per day to lose around half a kilo a week. Males on the other hand need around 2500 calories in a day to maintain weight and 2000 calories in a day to lose around half a kg in a week. A simple way to do this is by eating healthy and nutritious food and regular exercise including both cardio and strength training.

How many calories do you need in a day for good health?

Celebrity nutritionist Nmami Agarwal says that daily recommended intake of calories is going to be different from person to person. The number of calories a person should consume in a day will depend on the level of physical activity. It is different for males, females and kids. “Someone with a lifestyle which includes more physical activity than usual will require more calories in a day to stay fit and healthy. Going on a calorie-deficit diet for weight loss is not recommended as it cannot be sustained in the long run,” she says while adding that it is not recommended that a person compromises on health in the name of weight loss.

Also read: Bad Calories: All You Need To Know

When going ahead with your daily intake of calories, your level of energy and your overall health needs to be given consideration. According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, your daily calorie intake should never go below 1200. If it goes below this count, you will begin losing muscle mass and will starve of energy or fuel for doing your daily activities.

Your daily recommended calorie intake is dependent on the level of physical activity
Photo Credit: iStock

Healthline reports that United States Department of Agriculture guidelines say children between ages 2 to 8 years need around 1,000 to 1,400 calories. Girls between 9 to 13 years of age need around 1,400 to 1,600 calories, boys of this age need 1,600 to 2,000 calories.

A woman aged between 14 to 30 with an active lifestyle would need at least 2,400 calories, a sedentary woman belonging to the same age group needs nothing more than 1,800 to 2,000 calories.

Active men aged between 14 to 30 need 2,800 to 3,200 calories while sedentary men of the same age group need 2,000 to 2,600 calories. Active men and women above 30 years need 2,000 to 3,000 calories while sedentary men and women above 30 years of age need 1,600 to 2,400 calories.

Also read: Did You Know How Many Calories These Foods We Consume Daily Have?

Eat a healthy and balanced diet

A healthy balanced diet is one which gives your body enough nutrients to function correctly. Majority of your daily calories should come from eating fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes and lean proteins. You should include all kinds of seasonal fruits in your diet along with dark leafy green vegetables, seasonal vegetables, beans, lentils, almonds, peas, sunflower seeds and walnuts to name a few.

Now, those who want to lose weight can do so by including more physical activity in your daily routine over and above exercising. This can be done by making small changes like walking to your walk, playing sports, doing some yoga, drinking lots of water, and focusing on calorie-burning cardio exercises in the gym. Make sure that the calories which you consume come only from healthy food sources and not from junk food or unhealthy deep fried food.

Also read: 6 Exercises Which Burn Maximum Calories In Minimum Time

Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.

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How Many Calories per Day Do You Need to Survive?

How many calories a day does a person need to survive? It’s a serious question. Chances are if you’re on this website, you’re not looking for diet advice. You’re probably wondering how low you can go on calorie intake so you can stretch your food budget, and make the most of dwindling supplies.

It is grim to consider, but it’s a good idea: shortage, lack and loss of food may have you stretching already meager reserves to the breaking point for as long as you can.

According to USDA dietary guidelines, a relatively sedentary man aged anywhere from 26 to 40 years old requires 2,400 calories per day. A relatively sedentary female aged 26 to 50 years old will require 1,800 calories per day. In a survival situation, you may need up to 50% more calories to stay alive.

Other Factors

There are many other factors to consider when calculating calorie consumption besides age, gender, and activity level. Your genetic makeup has a certain effect on this; resting metabolism varies from person to person.

Existing muscle mass makes a big difference, and requires plenty of calories for repair and operation. Someone with greater muscle mass will always require more calories than someone with less.

Calorie “Floor”

Keep in mind the bigger survival picture if you are forced to cut food intake during a crisis. The UCLA Center for human nutrition discovered in their research that an average person eating fewer than 1000 calories per day is, in effect, starving.

That’s right, you can be gobbling down up to 1,000 calories and your body may as well be running on empty, and will react accordingly.

That means it’s going to be turning to fat stores first pretty easily to process energy supplies, and, after that, it’s going to turn on your muscles. It is because your body has immense energy requirements just to stay alive.

Your brain, organs, every single cell in your body need fuel constantly for operation and repair. At 1,000 calories or less, you’re already running at a deficit.

When you’re eating only around a thousand calories or less, you’ll notice your physical and mental performance start to suffer. Many of us will emotionally and mentally suffer even eating a fair amount above that, since much of our mental well-being is tied up in food intake.

Nutrition Concerns

Food isn’t just calories. Our food contains all kinds of necessary vitamins, minerals and fiber required for health and physical performance. As you cut calories, chances are you’re also cutting the percentage of those needed micronutrients.

This means even if you can sustain a low calorie diet for a long time, riding the needle you might say, you may yet incur the wrath of malnutrition.

Constipation, scurvy, the inability to regulate blood sugar, fragile bones due to lack of calcium and low metabolism may all be side effects of a low calorie diet deficient in ample nutrition.

You may be robbing Peter to pay Paul health-wise by trying to stretch your rations as long as you can.

Physical Activity Demands

Preppers who are working hard day in and day out to survive in the aftermath of a crisis will need more calories than a couch potato prepper holed up in a bunker. Strenuous levels of activity may increase your calorie demands upwards of 25%.

Someone who is extremely active for hours upon hours every day may have a 40% net total increase in needed calories compared to someone who is sedentary.

Aging Decreases Calories Needed

Aging diminishes your body’s need for calories. All things being equal, every 10 years a person ages will reduce their bodies calorie demand by anywhere from 150 to 220 calories a day.

This simply because our body’s natural life tempo slows down as we get older, in addition to things like reduced capability to repair, reduced performance of organs and tissues, and shrinking muscle mass, not to mention our gray matter slowing down a little bit.

If a computer isn’t humming along at high speed, it doesn’t need as much power!

Start the Clock

It is entirely possible to starve while still consuming a diet of real food if calories are insufficient.

Your body’s calorie demands are exactly that, demands, and those demands must be met. Survival on very low or no calories for a short period of time is possible thanks to your body’s built in reserves of energy in the form of fat and, in an emergency, muscle tissue.

While a few calories will prolong your lifespan compared to eating zero calories, the end result is still the same: death by starvation. It is a terrible, painful and grueling way to die.

Make sure you’re considering all factors before you decide to cut intake of rations to minimal levels. It might be a better idea to eat more calories so you can work harder and think smarter on a solution to the problem in the short-term.

Conclusion

Leaders in nutritional science have determined the most sedentary males will require around 2,400 calories per day to survive. Females require around 1,800 calories a day to survive, but keep in mind in a survival situation, you’ll need considerably more.

Use this information to plan your food stores accordingly, and take care of the plan for additional Calorie intake when activity levels must be sustained for a long time.


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We will not spam you.90,000 8 facts about calories that everyone should know

1. A calorie is a unit of energy from food

Technically, one calorie is the amount of energy required to heat one gram of water by 1 ºC. There are 1,000 calories in one kilocalorie (kcal), and in this case we are not talking about a gram, but about a kilogram.

What does the food have to do with it? The proteins, fats and carbohydrates that make up it contain energy. This energy is measured in calories.

2. Calories allow us to survive, create new tissues and provide energy to move.

Every time you eat, your body disassembles the incoming energy for a variety of purposes.It is primarily used to support vital functions such as regulating breathing and pumping blood.

The minimum energy required to survive is called the basal metabolic rate. Its value for adult women with normal weight is about 1,330 kcal, for adult men with normal weight – about 1,680 kcal .

Remaining calories and nutrients are used to build and repair tissue. That is why a high-calorie diet is prescribed for burns.Building muscle also requires energy: new tissue won’t build itself.

Any additional calories are expended during physical activity. Moreover, any movement is considered. But if you don’t burn the residue, it will be stored as fat.

We are used to thinking of fat as the enemy, when in reality it is our strategic reserve of energy in case of an emergency. True, an excess of it harms the body, increasing the risk of developing diabetes and other diseases.

Finally, there is also digestion: 10-15% of the incoming calories are spent on this process.

3. Your body may not need 2,000 kcal per day at all.

Two thousand kilocalories is an average. Individual energy needs depend on age, gender, weight, activity level and goals: lose weight, gain weight, stay fit. To find out your rate, use this calculator.

4. The quantity and quality of calories are equally important

You can also lose weight on sweets if there are few of them, as one American professor did.But calorie count is only one side of the coin. Nutrients in food are also important.

Let’s say you decided to have a snack. Low fat biscuits with only 100 calories are not the best choice because they are low in nutrients and a lot of sugar. Peanut butter with 190 kcal will bring more benefits: it has less sugar, more protein and vitamins.

5. There are no foods with negative calories

It is believed that some fruits and vegetables are so low in calories that they require more energy to digest than they can provide.Lie. As already mentioned, the body spends 10-15% of the incoming calories for food processing. So all the rest, albeit in an insignificant amount, remain with you.

6. Calories from carbohydrates are not a universal evil

Some diets are based on a limited intake of carbohydrates. But the weight does not increase because of them, but because of the excess of calories. So you can gain extra pounds on chicken breast, if you absorb it without measure.

In general, carbohydrates differ in carbohydrates.Harmful things like candy and soda are devoid of nutrients. Healthy grains like whole grains and fruits, on the other hand, are rich in nutrients and fiber.

7. The rule of 3,500 kcal is not true

In dietetics, it is a common statement that 3,500 kcal are equal to 0. 5 kg (that is, if you consume 500 kcal less during the week, you will lose half a kilo). Such numbers first appeared in 1958, but now they are already out of date .

The bottom line is that weight loss is individual and depends on metabolism and other factors.So 3,500 kcal, as well as the consumption rate, can be considered only an approximate average value.

8. Calorie counting does not work for everyone.

Obsession with calories can be harmful to your health. Say, in the event that you prefer to take pretzels instead of almonds just because of their lower calorie content.

On the other hand, calorie tracking really helps you maintain a healthy weight. True, not for everyone.

In general, the advice is simple: if life is easier and better for you with a calculator, continue; if not, then stop harassing yourself.

How much you need to eat to live longer and better

  • Alex Riley
  • BBC Future

Photo by iStock

By reducing your daily calorie intake once and for all, you can seriously change your life for the better, as stated in a number of scientific studies.

Imagine a scene like this from the near future. A restaurant. A man and a woman on a first date. When you finally manage to cope with some of the nervousness, everything goes well.

The man says that he is 33 years old, he has not yet been married and, apparently, is not averse to finally starting a family.

The woman tells him the story of her life: she is 52, she was married, divorced, and she has children who are already over 20.

The man is surprised: the woman looks no older than himself, or even younger.

This scene is a dream come true for Julie Mattison of the US National Institute on Aging (NIA). As she suggests, the time will come when a person’s biological clock will count down completely different years, which are now called age.

Now this sounds unlikely, but thanks to the advances in medicine and the general improvement in living conditions, mankind has already made quite a few steps towards this goal.

For example, in 2014 in the United States, according to a statistical report (United States Health Interview Survey), 16% of Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 suffered from chronic diseases every day. And just three decades ago, there were 23%.

In other words, we not only live longer, but also, in comparison with our ancestors, are healthier in the last phase of our life.Moreover, achieving the latter seems to be easier than trying to increase life expectancy.

So what do we need to do to increase the duration and quality of life even more? Researchers around the world have a wide variety of ideas on this subject.

However, for Matthison and her colleagues, the answer is: make very simple changes to your diet. According to them, the main thing is to reduce the amount of food on your plate, what scientists call “calorie restriction.”

The proposed diet is not limited to simply avoiding fatty foods or periods of self-restraint. The point is that gradually and carefully reduce the portions of the normally eaten food and never increase them again.

Research since the early 1930s has shown that a 30% decrease in the amount of food eaten each day leads to a longer and more active life – albeit in worms, flies, rats, mice and monkeys.

In general, it is well established that in the animal kingdom, restricting calories is the best cure for the devastating effects of age on the body.Perhaps the same could work in humans as well?

Author of the photo, Getty Images

Pidpis to the photo,

Nowadays it is difficult to avoid high-calorie food

Back in ancient Greece, Hippocrates, being one of the first doctors who considered illness a natural thing, noticed that many diseases are associated with gluttony. Obese Greeks died younger than skinny Greeks — this was obvious.

At the end of the 15th century, the feeble Venetian aristocrat Luigi Cornaro managed to do the seemingly impossible to himself. If self-indulgence is only harmful to health, then perhaps asceticism will be useful?

Cornaro, who was 40, began to eat only 350 grams of food a day (about 1000 calories by modern estimates). He ate bread, eggs and broth. From meat he chose veal, goat, beef, partridge, thrush and chicken. From fishermen, he bought fish caught in local rivers.

Thus, by limiting himself only in the quantity, but not in the variety of food, Cornaro, according to him, achieved ideal health.He lived for another 40 years.

Although at the end of his life he claimed to be 98, it is believed that he was 84 when he died – and this is a very impressive age for the 16th century, when 50-60 years old were considered old.

In 1591, his grandson published his grandfather’s posthumous essay in three volumes entitled Discussions on Sober Living, in which Cornaro insisted on introducing calorie restriction in the daily life of all people in order to change the aging process and give older people the opportunity to lead a fulfilling life for the benefit of society.

Experiments to extend life

Cornaro was, of course, an interesting person, but serious science is not enough of his statements to come to the same conclusions. Even if he did feel great during the nearly 50 years that he limited himself to food (which is highly questionable), his case is just the story of one person.

In 1935, a fundamental study on white rats showed that dietary restrictions by 30-50% led to an increase in longevity and delayed death from age-related diseases.

Of course, what’s good for a rat and any other laboratory animal doesn’t necessarily work for humans.

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It may be commonplace, but what you put in a shopping cart in a supermarket has important consequences for your health and your life expectancy.

life is a rarity. “It’s hard for me to imagine that someone would finance a program like this,” says Matthison. “Even if you start your research at the age of 40 or 50, you still have 40 years ahead.” ill health, etc.

Therefore, in the late 1980s, it was decided to conduct two independent long-term studies of the effect of calorie restriction, one at the National Institute of Aging and the other at the University of Wisconsin.Rhesus monkeys were selected as test subjects.

The fact is that humans with these primates have 93% of their total DNA. And we are aging very similarly.

In rhesus monkeys, after they overcome the middle age barrier (for them it is about 15 years old), the back begins to droop, the skin and muscles begin to grow decrepit, and the coat turns gray. What’s more, like humans, these primates have an increasing incidence of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease with age.

“They are a great model for aging research,” says Rosalyn Anderson, a gerontologist at the University of Wisconsin.

In addition, they are easy to keep under control. A diet was developed for 76 rhesus monkeys at the University of Wisconsin and 121 at the NIA. They are fed special cookies in which the primates receive all the nutrients and minerals they need. At the same time, half of the macaques included in the restriction group eat 30% less.

None of them are starving. Take, for example, Sherman, a 43-year-old male from the NIA lab. Since the 16-year-old Sherman was “enrolled” in the calorie restriction (CR) group in 1987, Mattison said he has not shown any signs or effects of hunger.

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Rhesus monkeys that have been artificially restricted in food intake live longer

Sherman is the oldest rhesus monkey we know of. He has already lived 20 years longer than the average captive primate. Younger primates fell ill and died, and he seemed not subject to aging. Even 10 years ago (by age) he could be ranked among the old macaques, but even now he does not look old at all – both in behavior and in appearance.

The same – of course, to varying degrees – applies to the rest of the test subjects in the laboratories of the National Institute of Aging. “We have fewer cases of diabetes and cancer in the calorie-restricted group,” says Mattison.

In 2009, researchers at the University of Wisconsin published a report with equally impressive results: their food-restricted macaques looked younger than their peers, and their coats were brown rather than gray. Their body was healthier, without internal pathologies typical of age.

Oncology cases – for example, adenocarcinomas – were reduced by more than 50%. The risk of heart disease has also been cut in half.

And while monkeys that ate ad libitum developed diabetes or were in a pre-diabetic state, all the primates in the restricted diet showed no signs of diabetes.

Overall, in 20 years, only 13% of the monkeys in the CR groups died of age related causes.In the “as much as you like” group, 37% died from such reasons – almost three times more. In a more recent 2014 report from the University of Wisconsin, this percentage has not changed.

“We have demonstrated in primates that aging is manageable,” Anderson notes. “Which means that aging in itself is a perfectly valid target for clinical intervention and care.”

In other words, if aging can be postponed, then this applies to all diseases associated with it.

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Calorie restriction means reducing the amount of food eaten every day

Reducing the amount of food, of course, had a positive effect on primates. However, it will be much more difficult for a person to comply with such restrictions. To begin with, high-calorie food lies in wait for the modern person literally everywhere. In addition, for some people, gaining excess weight is quite natural, as they are arranged.

“There is a lot of genetic makeup in this, and for some it is very difficult to stay thin,” notes Anderson. – We all know people who, without any damage to their bodies, can eat a whole cake at a time. But there are others who only need to eat one cake and have to buy larger jeans. ”

It would be ideal if the amount and type of food we eat were adjusted to what we are – with a genetic predisposition to gain weight , with our metabolism and other physiological features inherent in us.

However, a predisposition to be overweight is not necessarily a sentence, but rather an indication of what choice we face in life.”The genetic history of my entire family suggests that I am prone to fatness,” says Susan Roberts, a nutritional scientist at Tufts University in Boston. “So I am using a flexible form of calorie restriction.”

“I am trying to keep my BMI (body mass index) around 22. I calculated that for this I need to eat 80% of the amount of food that I would eat if my BMI was 30, like the rest of my families”.

Roberts emphasizes that it is not difficult – the iDiet program helps her to control her weight without feeling hungry. I would not comply with these restrictions if it was uncomfortable for me, she emphasizes.

Roberts knows the benefits of calorie restriction firsthand. For more than 10 years she has led the study, which is abbreviated as Calerie (Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy).

218 healthy men and women aged 21 to 50 years old were divided into two groups for two years.In the first, it was allowed to eat anything and as much as necessary – in a word, to eat as they used to. In the second, study participants ate 25% less than usual. Members of both groups were examined every six months.

Of course, unlike experiments with rhesus monkeys, a time span of just two years cannot show whether dietary restriction can reduce or slow the onset of age-related diseases. However, Calerie investigated something else, equally important – the early signs of heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

The results published in 2015 were very positive. In the blood of members of the group that ate less, the ratio between “good” and “bad” cholesterol increased in favor of the former, the number of molecules warning about the formation of a tumor (the level of tumor necrosis factor, TNF – Approx. ) decreased by 25%, and insulin resistance, a telltale sign of diabetes, dropped by about 40% compared to those in the second control group, where people ate normally.In addition, members of the first group had lower blood pressure.

It must be admitted that some of the benefits listed above may have been associated with weight loss, and earlier studies by Calerie support this. “What’s very clear is that in the long run, being overweight is bad for your health,” says Roberts.

Diseases previously associated exclusively with age are now found in obese people.

However, the results of recent studies indicate that for those with a slim body (with a BMI of 18.5 to 25), the benefits of dietary reduction are significant.

It is clear that further research is needed if we want to state something for sure. And if you decide to try it on yourself – first consult your doctor.

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Older people’s lives shouldn’t be filled with disease at all

Meanwhile, researchers working with primates hope their rhesus monkeys can help understand how dietary restrictions lead to such results for health.

For almost 30 years, scientists have been collecting data on the life and death of 200 animals, on the state of their blood and tissues. This work, according to the National Institute on Aging and the University of Wisconsin, will sooner or later shed light on how restricting calorie intake delays aging.

Does reducing the amount of food eaten lead to the fact that the metabolism works more efficiently? Is there a molecular “switch” for the aging process? Or are there other mechanisms of life and death that we are not even aware of?

Perhaps we will not get the answers to these questions soon. And the importance of what happens to primates like Sherman cannot be overstated.

And while scientists don’t have a simple explanation yet, restricting calorie intake is perhaps one of the most promising avenues in research on how to improve our health and extend our lives.

“From everything we’ve seen, nothing indicates that calorie restriction will not work for humans,” Roberts emphasizes.

Unlike medication, this method does not have a long list of possible side effects and consequences.

“Our members did not feel hungry, their mood was normal, their sex life did not deteriorate. We tried pretty scrupulously to find at least something bad, but we did not find it,” says Roberts.

Some weight loss might have been expected to result in a slight decrease in bone density, she says, but as a precaution, the volunteers took a small calcium supplement.

Roberts admits that despite the promising results, the Calerie study is only the first of its kind.

“I don’t think any of us can say with complete confidence: ok, we recommend it to anyone,” notes Susan Roberts. “But the prospects are incredibly exciting. Nobody wants to live life with diseases. emergence and development is what we all want. ”

Legal information. This article is for general information only and should not be construed as a substitute for the advice of a physician or other healthcare professional. BBC is not responsible for any diagnosis made by the reader based on the materials of the site. BBC is not responsible for the content of other sites, links to which are present on this page, and also does not recommend commercial products or services mentioned on these sites. If you are concerned about your health, see your doctor.

To read the original of this article in English, please visit BBC Future

Food and water supply for family survival for 1 year

When the quarantine due to COVID-19 just started, we wrote an article Emergency stock of food for 2 weeks. But the situation dragged on for several months, and even now who knows whether there will be more outbreaks of the disease and repeated quarantines, and if so, for how long. Therefore, here is a new material for you with a wider coverage – a supply of food and water for 1 year.

Contents of the article

Food and water supplies for family survival: calorie calculation, food list, recommendations

Original article by Bob Rogers

Food and water are the main things to take care of during an emergency, regardless of whether whether you know where to get food or not.

Your chances of survival increase dramatically if you stock up on enough food. Keeping these supplies is essentially one of the foundations of your emergency preparedness, so you should take care of this ahead of time.

Figuring out how much food and water to stock up for an emergency is a tricky task for most people. However, it can be done if you follow a few simple rules.

Proper storage of food and water begins with determining how many people will need them.When you have counted the number of those in need, you can proceed to the next step. Here you need to estimate how much food can be placed in the storage that you have.

Calculating Your Family’s Calorie Consumption

When buying food in the grocery store, you may notice that almost all instant foods have a serving size label. People believe that such information is all that is needed to correctly calculate the consumption of a product.However, this is the wrong approach, since food will run out faster than expected with this strategy.

You need to estimate the required calorie intake for each member of your family, and not rely on the serving sizes indicated by someone who is not clear.

Each person has a different calorie requirement based on gender, age and general activity level. You also need to take into account that the weather is also an important factor when calculating the required amount of food. If you live in a region prone to harsh winters and don’t like to stay at home, then you should probably double your calories.

For regular heavy manual labor such as digging, chopping wood, carrying heavy objects, or even walking for miles, most will likely need on the order of 3000-4000 calories per day.

Total Recommended Calorie Requirements for Different Age Groups

Children 2 to 3 years old

If the child is sedentary, the daily calorie intake should be between 1000 and 1200 kcal.For moderately active and active children, it should be between 1000 and 1400 kcal.

Women

9029 -1800

-2000

9030 Men

Age, years Sedentary type, kcal Moderately active type, kcal Active type, kcal
4-8 1400-1400
9-13 1400-1600 1600-2000 1800-2000
14-18 1800 2000 2400
19-30 2000-2200 2400
31-50 1800 2000 2200
51+ 1600 1800 2000-2200
9029

Age, years Sedentary type, kcal Moderately active type, kcal Active type, kcal
4-8 1200-1400 1400-1600 1600-2000
9-13 1600-2000 1800-2000 2000-2600
14-18 2000-2400 2400-2800 3000
19-30 2400-2600 2600-2800 3000
31-50 2200-2400 2400-2600 2800-3000 51

2000-2200 2200-2400 2400-2800

Once you have determined your activity level and calculated the number of calories per day, you must learn how to cook food so that everyone in your family gets their balanced nutrition. To ensure this, you must make sure that the person is getting all the essential nutrients with each meal.

The human body needs five basic ingredients: fats, proteins, carbohydrates, fiber and water.

Fiber, for example, is essential for your health and well-being, but some consider it to be an extremely “beneficial supplement”. With water, everything is clear. And without an adequate intake of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, the human body simply cannot function normally.

Recommended proportions of protein, fat and carbohydrate intake by age

Age Protein Fats Carbohydrates
Small children (ages 1 to 3) 5-20% 30-40% 45-65%
Older children (ages 4-18) 10-30% 25-35% 45-65%
Adults (19 years and older) 10-35% 20-35% 45-65%

These numbers are important to remember because an unbalanced diet can cause health problems and cause wasting.

The general rule for storing food is that only those that your family is used to eating should be in stock. Never take products that, although they are useful, are not sure that your household will eat them. An emergency is not an appropriate experience to test your family’s culinary preferences. Instead of sweeping away everything you see on the grocery shelves, take another look at your favorite recipes and come up with a way to adapt them to the foods you store in your pantry.

If you are interested in the ratios that provide a balanced diet, the data below should help you:

  • Protein : 15% of your supply. This includes foods such as meat, peanut butter, and a variety of nuts.
  • Grain : 35%. Cereals, pasta, rice, and also bread.
  • Vegetables : 20%. Corn, carrots, peas and other vegetables.
  • Dairy : 15%. Powdered milk and hard cheese.
  • Fruit : 15%. Fruit preserves and dried fruits.

Annual food supply

Getting started with the procurement and long-term storage of food, many begin to get confused in numbers. Alas, this is really quite difficult for beginners.

The pantry should contain basic foods: beans, cereals, fats, dairy products, baking ingredients and various spices. However, figuring out their ratio is a real problem.

The most important thing to remember is that an adult needs a pound (1 lb = 0.45 kg) of dry food a day to survive.

Dry foods such as pulses, sugar, pasta, rice, dried vegetables or dried fruits are constantly on the survivalists’ purchase lists. Here is a list of the essentials for a one-year survival of a family of two :

  • 11 kg wheat flour
  • 23 kg rice
  • 11 kg pasta
  • 55 kg whole grain wheat
  • 11 kg oatmeal
  • 7 kg millet
  • 14 kg dried beans
  • 3 kg lentils
  • 3 kg split peas
  • 12 kg corn flour
  • 5 kg soybeans
  • 3 kg peanut butter
  • 2 liters egg powder
  • 5 kg textured vegetable protein 9063 9003 2 kg baking powder
  • 2 kg baking soda
  • 18 kg sugar
  • 5 kg honey (I personally store a lot of honey, as I use it for other purposes)
  • 2 kg molasses
  • 2 kg jam
  • 18 liters of vegetable butter
  • 23 kg milk powder
  • 5 kg salt
  • 1 kg yeast
  • 11 liters vinegar
  • 5 kg dry soup mixture 9006 3
  • A wide variety of spices and seasonings

Water storage

Water storage is not too much of a problem compared to food storage. However, it is necessary to correctly calculate how much of it is needed to meet the needs of your family.

To calculate the amount of fluid for the correct daily saturation of cells in your body, you need to take half your body weight, but simply replace pounds with ounces.

For example, if you weigh 160 pounds, half of that is 80. This means that you should drink at least 80 ounces (2.26 liters) of liquid every day.

Most survival experts recommend storing at least one gallon of water (3.78 liters) for each person per day.It can be used for both drinking and sanitary purposes.

I recommend taking at least 5 liters of water for each family member. I have adjusted my personal water intake because climate change and sudden heat waves can happen to us at almost any time.

I want to emphasize that every serious survivalist should not concentrate his efforts only on liquid storage. You must learn to find additional sources of water, both inside and outside your home, and have the means to make it drinkable.

In addition, knowing how to design a water generator is the best back-up plan for dealing with fluid problems.

In conclusion: it is difficult to create an emergency supply of food and water, but it is vital!

FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency – the division of the US Department of Homeland Security that coordinates disaster relief efforts that local authorities cannot handle) recommends having a minimum of three days’ supply of water and food.But most Americans don’t follow this recommendation. Of course, they can, if necessary, stretch existing products over a longer period. But this is unlikely to be the right choice and balanced diet. Even those who have enough stock for a week won’t last long. They will need the help of survival specialists.

The information provided in this article should help both novices and experienced and seasoned emergency preparers to figure out how much food and water should be prepared for long-term storage.

I remember how difficult it was for me to get started with this process. And now, having gained personal experience, I want to share information with you so that, in turn, it would be easier for you to create the necessary supply of food and water.

Fasting days: instructions for use

It is believed that not having lunch is harmful; it is better to eat often and little by little. However, scientists at the University of Illinois who study nutritional issues think differently. They recently conducted a study of women who ate no more than 500 calories two days a week and did not eat dinner.It turned out that on the day following the fasting day, they ate only 10% more. As a result, most of those who participated in the experiment lost 5 to 15 kilograms in two months without much difficulty. The reason is in the changed hormonal metabolism. The body is able to quickly get used to food restriction: if you sit on a strict diet for just one day, the next satiety will come faster. Plus, an increasing number of experts are coming to the conclusion that taking long breaks from meals gives you a chance to get rid of fat faster. “When we eat foods that contain carbohydrates,” explains Professor Christa Varadi, one of the leading American dietitians who conducted this study, “glucose comes first into the bloodstream. When we skip lunch or dinner, the body begins to use glucose, which is stored in the muscles and liver, as an energy source. And when these reserves are depleted (usually this happens after 8-12 hours, depending on the rate of our metabolism), we begin to burn fat until we sit down again.This, in fact, is the essence of many new diets – to endure as long as possible and allow the body to get to fat. But in the case of 5: 2, you limit yourself to heavy food for 36 hours, especially if you have an early dinner before the fasting day.

There is a tougher option called The Other Day Diet. Not long ago, after many years of research, Professor Christa Varadi decided to share it with humanity. One day you eat without restrictions (but within reasonable limits), the next day you eat four times less, and the main meal should be at lunch. The next day – normal food again. The fourth is diet. Yes, 5: 2 is more humane, but even her doctors advise starting small. For example, a couple of times a week not to have lunch (but it is much better not to have dinner) to get a 12-hour break between breakfast and dinner. It will take four hours to digest breakfast, the next eight will be needed by the liver to detox, which is beneficial in itself. Then the breaks can be increased to 16-18 hours and after a while you can switch to a 24-hour fast (the time when you sleep is also considered).Drink plenty of fluids on days when you skip meals. Attention! Coffee and tea are allowed, but water with a few drops of lemon or apple cider vinegar is much healthier, and the detox effect will be enhanced with it.

90,000 How long can a person live without water

In order to survive, a person needs to receive nutrients in the minimum amount. One of the main conditions is to drink plenty of fluids. Not a single chemical reaction can do without it. Therefore, it is so important how many people can live without water.

Scientific calculation

The researcher calculated how many days a person will live without water. The average man weighing 80 kilograms burns a minimum of about 1,700 calories per day, even in the absence of physical activity. Energy reserves need to be replenished. In this respect, water is much more important than solid food. For example, people with some rare diseases survive without problems on liquid food.
If dehydration begins in the body, death occurs after a maximum of two weeks.If a person has enough liquid, then he is able to spend a lot of time without food. There are cases when political prisoners and ideological activists have been starving for many weeks. Mahatma Gandhi, dedicated to the rights for an independent India, went on a three-week hunger strike at 70. The famous Indian politician was not injured, he lived for another eight years.

How long a person can live without water is well known to those who have been lost for a long time in the wilderness. The people were found alive several months later.It was possible to survive if it was possible to consume enough liquid.

Opinion of doctors

Doctors agree that a person without water can live on average about 10-14 days. Without food, the term increases to 60. Of course, everything depends on the internal mood, the amount of nutrients, physical fitness, the absence of chronic diseases.

The energy required by the body is accumulated in the form of organic substances – fats, carbohydrates and proteins.First, the body consumes carbohydrates, then fats, so a person with sufficient mass is able to live longer. The final stage of energy production is protein consumption.

Problems with metabolism

How long a person can live without water is influenced by how quickly metabolism is disrupted. Metabolic processes stop without water. Without them, it is impossible to convert food into energy.
With a slow metabolism, the food consumed is burned slowly. When a person is left without food at all, the metabolism is corrected and slows down. As a result, a person can live without water as long as the metabolism is not interrupted. In its absence, the kidneys begin to fail, violations occur in other internal organs.

Conditions of survival – climate. Extreme high and low temperatures reduce the chances of survival. If only water remains in the diet, then in a warm climate, dehydration occurs faster, and at minus temperatures, energy is consumed faster.It is aimed at maintaining a stable temperature for a person.

Understanding the question of how long a person can live without water, it turns out that this period increases at moderate temperatures.

90,000 safe weight loss tactics. Read on UKR.NET

While blizzards and snowstorms rule the show, spring is already packing up its “suitcases” to come into its own in a month or two. Therefore, the first item on the agenda of many of our girls and women today is “losing weight”, “gaining a slender figure,” so that with the arrival of warm sunny days, they can show themselves in all their glory. GolosUA learned from nutritionists and psychotherapists how to effectively lose weight by the spring without harming your well-being.

Setting for harmony

It is possible to “convince” the brain and body that it is time to lose weight, knowing that the answer lies in the natural diet of a slender person. Competent nutritionists and psychologists assure that there is a working meal strategy for losing weight. Having mastered it, you can easily control your weight. Weight loss tactics work when you have set yourself a goal – weight loss.In theory, you need to motivate yourself with good health, not considering losing weight for yourself something unnatural. In practice, there are four basic rules. The first is to never eat in public catering. The second is to eradicate the greed of the “blockade”. Third, there is less salt. And the fourth is not to finish eating if you have already eaten. Based on these simple truths, slender people tend to eat less because they are able to say “no” to themselves by putting the rest of the sandwich in the refrigerator, said psychotherapist Sergei Gorin. Slender people don’t make food sacred. The main thing is to understand that you should not choke on the leftovers of the soup in the dining room, motivating yourself with the fact that it is “paid for”. Another great rule is not to collect too much food in the supermarket, it is better to buy it later.

Experts recommend taking fractional meals as a rule – there are 5 times a day. The best option is to eat homemade food, reducing the portion size, but increasing the frequency of meals. An option for those who are used to eating rarely and in large quantities – breakfast, lunch and dinner – is to add 2-3 low-calorie snacks to the daily diet.In this case, you will eat less the next meal. Such nutrition accelerates metabolism. This tactic helps to lose weight, practically without limiting yourself in anything. Over time, your stomach will learn to eat less, and your brain will “pacify” hunger hormones.

It is very important to limit salt intake, as salt stimulates appetite and thus a person becomes addicted to delicious food. By making the habit of eating less salt, you will eat less.

There is another weight loss trick that works flawlessly.Its essence is that you can eat two products in any quantity and not add a single gram of weight. These are onions and cabbage. If you do not want to eat cabbage and onions, then you are not hungry. By the way, cabbage soup with onions is an ideal dinner for weight loss.

Successful weight loss can be without diets, experts say. Western scientists propose a non-standard weight loss method that allows you to successfully lose weight – this is an understanding of the psychology of weight loss. According to neurologist Dinah Lee-Bagley, this spontaneously triggers the process of losing weight, that is, psychotechnics allow you to lose weight easily and even with pleasure.It turns out that the most important consultant for harmony is our subconscious. The trick is that in order to program yourself for harmony, you need to give the brain the appropriate command, and it will “transmit” it to all systems of our body.

Algorithm of steps to the ideal body

During the winter, many of us gain extra five to seven kilograms. It will take one to two months to get rid of them by swimsuit season, nutritionists say. According to calculations, it is quite possible for a person to lose up to 4 kg in a month.At the same time, it is important not to force events, but to give yourself time to get in shape.

The first thing we do is teach ourselves to eat breakfast properly. For the correct start of metabolic processes, you need to have breakfast within an hour from the moment you wake up. In no case should you skip the morning meal. The “classic” of the genre is porridge. The second breakfast option is an omelet, cottage cheese or casserole.

Secondly, you should definitely plan your snacks. On average, there should be two of them per day. This is lunch – between breakfast and lunch and afternoon tea – between lunch and dinner.For a snack, fruits, yoghurts, a sandwich with grain bread, and a hot drink are ideal.

It is also very important to dine wisely. First of all, you need to pay attention to the calorie content of food, especially when you eat out. It is worth considering the amount of fat in the dish. It’s one thing to eat just a salad, and another thing to eat a salad, abundantly poured with a fatty sauce or butter. A piece of natural meat and an “incomprehensible” cutlet are completely different things.

Now about dinner. You should always have dinner on time – at 19–20 o’clock, but the time can change both in one direction and in the other direction.It all depends on when the person goes to bed. Food is best taken 3 hours before bedtime. You can make yourself an easy dinner option – for example, kefir, cottage cheese. A full dinner is a piece of meat, seafood, cottage cheese, eggs, fish, or any other protein product. As a side dish, preference should be given to vegetables.

Hunger and appetite are two different things.

To lose weight, you need to get enough sleep on a regular basis. A person loses weight better when he gets enough sleep. Scientists claim that it is during sleep that certain hormones are produced – insulin antagonists.If you get a good night’s rest, you won’t crave sweets. However, with a systematic lack of sleep or, in general, insomnia in the morning, a person will certainly need a candy, chocolate or cake, and it will be very difficult to resist such temptations.

You need to learn to distinguish hunger from appetite. Hunger is when a person is ready to eat anything, and appetite is a whim, when you go over what you would like to taste at this very moment. You should not be afraid of appetite at all, its appearance is quite natural.However, when appetite appears, you need not eat, but drink. A hot drink, even a glass of warm water with a few drops of lemon will distract you for an hour and a half until your next “normal” meal.

In pursuit of the goal of losing weight, you need to eat regularly. It is a great misconception that the less you eat, the faster you lose weight. If you skip lunch, for example, then in the evening you will most likely have a breakdown – you will eat more than planned. Nutritionists explain this by the fact that a protective mechanism is triggered, because the body needs to survive, so it will more than compensate for the energy that was not received during the day in the evening.

Experts recommend that those wishing to lose weight lean on vegetables and fruits. They contain a minimum of calories and natural glucose, which gives the body energy. It is also very important to consume protein and dairy products. Milk, kefir, fermented baked milk are a source of calcium necessary for our bones.

Be sure to drink water. It plays a critical role in the fat breakdown stage. Often a person monitors the diet, but at the same time does not pay attention to the amount of liquid drunk. As a result, the extra pounds do not go away.It is easy to calculate the required volume of water, you need to multiply the body weight by 30 ml of liquid. For example: 70 kg * 30 ml = 2100 ml. The figure of 2 liters includes still water, tea. Everything else – soups, milk, juices – does not count.

What to do if you have exceeded the daily calorie intake. I present to your attention my review of how, in fact, my weight loss began

The Basics of Weight Loss: To start losing weight, you need to consume fewer calories than you spend.And here everything is not as simple as it seems.

Three important points:

1. Weight is not only hated fat. It is also bones, and muscles, and internal organs, including the brain. The main task of losing weight is to get rid of excess fat, and not weight in kilograms, because with diets, kilograms can become less, but fat will not decrease by a single gram.

Ideally, of course, before starting a diet, it would be good to know the “composition” of your body: how many kg of the total weight are bones, organs, muscles, and how many are fat.If you take two people of the same weight, height and age, one of them may have five pounds of excess fat, and the other not a drop. This is because muscles weigh more than twice the fat. For example, if you look at the BMI tables, then Brad Pitt is clearly overweight and needs to lose weight)) All bodybuilders with almost completely “fat-free” bodies also have colossal excess weight according to the BMI tables.

Weight – almost never means anything. It means only the amount of excess fat (fat is still not superfluous at all).

2. Fat for our body is the main strategic reserve, on which (in the understanding of the body) its chances of survival depend. For the sake of preserving and increasing this important reserve, the body is ready to sacrifice the rest of the components (muscles, tissues, and so on).

3. There is such a thing as your basal metabolic rate. This is the amount of calories that the body spends on its main functions: breathing, heartbeat, digestion, the creation of new cells, etc. It is calculated in calories.On average, this is one calorie per hour for every kilogram of weight. This is how many calories you will burn if you lie still all day. If you start to reduce the calorie content of your diet below this figure, you will provoke your body into self-defense.

4. Our body still lives in the realities of the Stone Age. When he feels that he has stopped feeding or is not being fed, he triggers defense mechanisms that helped him survive in conditions when there was not enough food. It is with these mechanisms that the majority of those who lose weight face and lose in the battle with them.

I will give an example of such a battle in the next post.

Summing up:
1. You need to get rid of excess fat, not excess weight.
2. Fat is perceived by our body as the most important reserve, therefore, to get rid of excess fat, you need to understand the “psychology” of the body and create the right conditions.

When fewer calories begin to enter the body regularly, the body goes into emergency mode “Hunger has come!” and is taking steps to reduce spending.Pay the main attention to this – he does not start to get rid of fat, he reduces his costs. The average person has a basal metabolic rate of about 1200 calories.

The body’s daily calorie requirement is the basal metabolic rate + calories for other expenses (walking, sitting, mental work, physical activity). The average healthy person needs 2000-3000 or more calories per day.

So, a typical story of a typical weight loss with a typical outcome.

On a specific example, with explanations.

Initial data:
Weight: 73 kg.
Body fat: 32% (based on total body weight)
Calories required to keep the body in its current state is 2000 calories daily.
Goal: to lose weight up to 57 kg.

1. To lose weight, you need to spend more calories than you consume – everyone knows that.
Losing weight goes on a 1500 calorie diet a day, thus creating a 500 calorie deficit.

2. A sharp decrease in the amount of food consumed gives the body a signal that the times of hunger have come. The body turns on automatic coping mechanisms and learns to function at 1,500 calories a day.

3. The body adapts, getting rid of water and muscles first (since maintaining muscle mass consumes the most calories), and secondly – from fat. Fat is the most valuable reserve for further survival, so the body leaves it for the last resort.Research shows that in total, for every 5 kg of weight lost through the diet, there is approximately 3 kg of muscle and 2 kg of fat.

4. As muscles become smaller (hence the cost of maintaining them decreased), the body has adapted to 1500 calories per day and weight loss stops.

5. To continue to lose weight, losing weight must again reduce the number of calories consumed. From 1500 it goes to 1000 calories per day.

6. The body sheds muscle and fat again to adjust.

7. When the body has adjusted to 1000 calories per day, weight loss stops.

Results to date:
Weight: 62 kg (minus 11 kg from the original, of which: 5 kg fat, 6 kg muscle)
Body fat: 30% (of total body weight) (- 2)
Quantity calories to maintain the body in the current state – 1000 calories per day (- 500)

At this point, the situation is as follows. Since the body is in a state of chronic starvation, it includes additional means to conserve energy – the functioning of the endocrine system decreases.In addition, since almost half of the weight lost is from muscle, metabolism is reduced and lethargy and drowsiness appear. Lethargy leads to inactivity, and the body burns even fewer calories than before.

There is nowhere to go further. You cannot reduce your calorie intake. There is also nothing to burn calories with – muscle mass has significantly decreased, metabolism has slowed down, the endocrine system works slowly. In these conditions, it is almost impossible to reduce weight, but it is very easy to gain weight: the feeling of hunger at this moment becomes intrusive and is very difficult to control.

Since the body has adapted to 1000 calories per day to keep the body in its current state, at its current level of physical activity (very low), the additional calories will inevitably lead to weight gain, which the body will convert to fat. Since the feeling of hunger at this moment became unbearable, sooner or later a person breaks down and a period of intense gluttony begins. The amount of fat in the body will increase to the original and higher, as the body picks up in reserve, in case of the next unexpected hunger strike (namely, diet).

What we have in a year:
Weight: 78 kg (+ 5)
Amount of fat: 38% (+ 5)
Number of calories to maintain the body in its current state: 1500 (- 500).

Fat has increased, but now you have to go on a diet so that you don’t gain even more!

Those who often and for a long time sit on all sorts of restrictive diets, the metabolism can decrease to such an extent that they begin to get fat even looking at the cakes. They find themselves in a hopeless situation: either eat cucumbers alone, suffering from hunger, or get fat from every crumb of bread, and at the same time they all still have a lot of excess fat.

What to do? Two key concepts are metabolism and muscle mass. Metabolism can be accelerated and muscle mass can be increased.

1. To gain muscle mass. Muscles are the main consumer of calories in the body, the more of them, the higher the level of basal metabolic rate.

Olympic swimmer Phelps consumes 25,000 calories daily. This is ten times more than an ordinary person. And yet he has not a drop of excess fat. But not so much because he trains daily, but also because he is solid muscles.With so much muscle mass, he can lie on the couch all day and watch TV, and still spend more calories on it than the average person running around the city all day.

There are two types of physical activity:

1. Aerobic (cardio). This is all sorts of jumping and running. This type of exercise helps you burn more calories, increases lung capacity and improves heart function. At the same time, all this type of load can reduce the volume of muscle mass.

2. Power.This is all sorts of weight lifting (dumbbells, exercise equipment, push-ups from the floor). This type of exercise allows you to increase muscle mass.

As you can see, the effect of them is different and in some places the opposite. The golden mean is to combine one with the other. For example, if you go to the gym for an hour and a half, then devote 45 minutes to strength training and 45 minutes to cardio (in this sequence). This will help you burn more calories as well as build muscle mass. Not as much as you would grow it, doing only strength, but still enough for weight loss purposes.

For those who are afraid of “becoming like a Schwarzenegger”: for women this is almost impossible. Ask this question on any bodybuilding forum and they will laugh at you with the whole rocking chair. It is generally difficult for women to gain and maintain any significant muscle mass. Women bodybuilders are people who have devoted years of their lives to their hobbies and spend five hours or more in the gym every day. If you go to the gym three times a week and do strength exercises for 45 minutes, for the first six months you will not see the result at all in the form of at least some visually identified muscles (but you will feel how your body has strengthened and tightened).

The most that you can achieve in a year of such training is an improvement in body proportions (where there used to be fat, there will be more muscle).

Speaking of which, it is impossible to wipe out excess fat with diets. Excess fat can only be burned by physical activity.

2. Eat more often, but in small portions. I already wrote that at the first signs of hunger, the body begins to destroy muscles, while at the same time slowing down the metabolism. He can be fooled a little if you distribute your diet so that there are 4-6 times a day, every 3 hours in small portions.This will give the body a signal “There is enough food! You don’t have to fight for fat!” and he is more willing to part with more. Plus, you don’t get hungry between meals. It turns out a wonderful effect: it seems that you chew something all day, you don’t feel hungry, and at the same time you lose weight.

Ordinary dieters skip breakfast, eat something dietary for lunch, and attack the refrigerator for dinner and chew until nightfall.

3. Experiment with the ratio of protein, fat and carbohydrates in the diet. Sometimes the effect of losing weight can be achieved only by this, without reducing calories.It especially helps when weight loss has stopped (a plateau has come). An increase in protein and a decrease in carbohydrates can give the effect. I will write about this later.

There is also a fourth and fifth component – water, adequate sleep, and skills to reduce stress in life. This is also discussed in a separate post.

To summarize. In order to successfully shed excess fat, you need the following:

1. Slightly reduce the calorie content of the daily diet and at the same time increase the level of physical activity.Be sure to include power loads.
2. Choose an effective ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
3. Eat often and in small portions.
4. Drink enough water.

There are two more methods that can be applied from time to time (especially when the weight is stuck):
1. Carbohydrate alternation.
2. Calorie alternation.
3. Loading (not unloading!) Days.

In the end, I want to emphasize once again:
1. Without sufficient muscle mass, it is almost impossible to lose weight without harm, seriously and for a long time.
2. In order to lose weight, you need to eat, not starve. You need to eat right and enough.

After a low calorie diet, many people regain weight. And it’s not a lack of willpower or bad eating habits. This is because the body strives to return to a given amount of fat.

Target amount of fat is a specific level of adipose tissue in the human body.

This amount is strictly individual and depends on genetics, activity level, etc.But whatever it is, the body will try to keep this amount unchanged.

How the body stores fat

Slow down metabolism

The further you go from your target amount of fat, the more the body inhibits further fat loss, causing your Biology’s energy system to respond to dieting: the impetus for weight regain.
work as efficiently as possible. Mitochondria – the energy sources of cells – begin to produce more energy from less fuel.

At the same time, the metabolism slows down, the amount of energy you spend on everyday activities decreases, even the thermal effect decreases. Effect of circadian variation in energy expenditure, within-subject variation and weight reduction on thermic effect of food.
food – the number of calories you spend to digest food.

And the more fat you lose, the more efficient your body becomes. Moreover, the more often you expose your body to such a test, the better it learns to conserve energy.That is, in your fourth attempt to lose weight on a low-calorie diet, fat will go much slower than in the first three.

Hunger hormones

When you lose weight, your fat cells shrink, triggering the secretion of leptin, a hormone that makes you feel full.

Research on Leptin signaling, adiposity, and energy balance.
showed that during a caloric deficit, the fall in plasma leptin levels outstripped the rate of decline in fat stores.Moreover, this level remains low for some time after the weight has stabilized. This means that even after finishing the diet, it will be difficult for you to get enough.

At the same time, a calorie deficit causes an increased level of ghrelin, a hormone responsible for hunger. Thus, you constantly feel hungry, meals do not bring satiety, and your body conserves energy – ideal conditions for weight gain.

And when you quit the diet, you not only return to your old weight, but gain even more.

Why do you gain weight after a diet

The target amount of fat, which we talked about above, is determined by the number and size of your fat cells. When you quit the diet, the shrunken fat cells grow larger again. In theory, this should tell the body that the weight is restored and there is no more calorie deficit, so you can stop saving energy.

However, the experiment Weight regain after sustained weight reduction is accompanied by suppressed oxidation of dietary fat and adipocyte hyperplasia.in mice, he proved that rapid weight recovery after losing weight provokes the formation of new fat cells.

The more fat cells you have, the smaller their average size. Lack of fat cells and decreased leptin levels signal to the body that the amount of fat is still reduced, so that your body continues to conserve energy. All this forces you to store even more fat than before the diet.

It turns out that in order to really lose weight, you need to avoid a sharp slowdown in metabolism during the diet and correctly return to your normal diet after it.Let’s take a look at three strategies to help you lose weight without slowing your metabolism and return to your calorie intake without gaining fat.

Three strategies for effective weight loss

1. Find your calorie deficit

First of all, you need to find out how many calories, proteins, fats and carbohydrates (BJU) you consume without any restrictions. For three days, just read the nutritional value of everything you eat, on paper or in a special supplement.

Next, determine how many calories you need to consume in order to lose fat, but not slow down your metabolism.Try the simplest method: take your weight in kilograms and multiply by 26.5. For example, if you weigh 60 kg, you will need to consume 1,590 calories to lose weight.

Do not take this value as absolute truth. This is just a starting point, a rough number to start with.

To find your calorie count, you need to carefully monitor your condition.

If you feel a lack of energy and constant hunger, then you need to slightly increase the calorie intake, otherwise the deficit will lead to adaptation and slow down the metabolism.

If you are feeling great and not hungry, you can, on the contrary, lower your calorie intake, but it is advisable to do this gradually, since a quick transition will again slow down your metabolism.

2. To exit, use the reverse diet

When you reach your goals, it is time to increase your calorie intake. However, a quick transition to increased calories can lead to the formation of new fat cells and weight gain. To avoid this, use a reverse diet.

The essence of this diet is a gradual increase in calories – by 80-100 kcal per day. This approach allows you to speed up a little, slowed down after a long calorie deficit, return to your norm of nutrients without gaining excess weight.

Specific weight gain depends on how large your calorie deficit was, how you feel, and how afraid you are of gaining weight at the end of the diet. If you are in a large calorie deficit, feel weak, and are not afraid to put on some fat after you quit, you can take the big jump and quickly add 200-500 calories.

If you feel good on a diet and do not want to gain a single gram of excess fat, increase the calorie content very carefully. For example, increase the amount of carbohydrates and fat in your diet by 2-10% each week.

3. Find small victories to strengthen your resolve

We have already said that the constant jumping from a low-calorie diet to a regular diet only worsens your results. Therefore, try to avoid breakdowns.

Physical discomfort from lack of calories must be compensated for by mental satisfaction.You will not be able to hold out for long on a simple anticipation of results – you need daily small victories.

Eliminate situations that make you feel guilty and take away little joys.

For example, if you are constantly going beyond your established carbohydrate intake, why not just raise it?

When you understand that you are able to follow a diet and keep within your norm, and at the same time you feel good, there is no weakness and wild hunger, you begin to enjoy the process, and this is the key to a long diet with sustainable results.

The main mistake people lose weight is to count calories. To lose weight, a person should monitor how much fat, protein and carbohydrates he eats per day, and drink more water. Exhausting diets are not an option in this case. About this in an interview with the correspondent. RIA PrimaMedia was told by a well-known nutritionist from Moscow Olga Dekker.

– What mistakes are made by people who want to lose weight?

The main mistake is counting calories. You can take a bowl of porridge, which will have 700 calories, or a plate of fish, which will also have 700 calories.But if you eat porridge, you will not lose weight. And if the fish, definitely reduce the weight. So it’s best to keep track of how much fat, protein, and carbohydrate you consume per day. In this case, it happens that people go to extremes: either completely exclude carbohydrates, or exclude fats. But this is harmful. Indeed, our body needs fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.

The second mistake that people who lose weight make is to look at the norms for fats, proteins and carbohydrates for ordinary people. And then ask why they can’t lose weight.But for people who are losing weight, for those who want to gain weight, and for those who are healthy, the diet should be different.

It turns out that you need to select a diet depending on how much a person weighs and how active he is?

The diet depends on how quickly a person wants to lose weight. Many people choose a slow weight loss regimen so that the skin has time to tighten, stretch marks are gone. Sometimes a person has health problems, doctors limit his diet.All this must be taken into account. Accordingly, you need to select the menu so as to maintain the rate of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, and in no case harm your health.

– How many times a day should you eat? Is three times enough, or do you need afternoon snacks and other snacks?

When I conduct an individual consultation for a person, I pay attention to the hour at which he wakes up, what is his daily routine, when it is convenient for him to eat. I see how this correlates with the physiology of his body.And I try to get at least four meals. But, if a person has an irregular working day, for example, he gets up at 06.00 in the morning and goes to bed well after 02.00 at night, then he should not starve in order to reduce weight. He can eat seven or eight times. The main thing is to compose the menu so that the person feels comfortable: neither starving nor overeating afterwards.

– Does portion size affect the rate of weight loss?

The volume of the human stomach is 350 ml. Moreover, it has a certain structure: at the exit to the intestine, it has a valve.And if a person eats no more than 350 ml, then the valve remains closed, gastric juice is produced, food is crushed, for some time the valve opens, food comes out and is already absorbed in the intestine, then enters the bloodstream and feeds our cells. If a person decided to eat soup, the second and wash it down with two cups of tea, it turns out that he exceeded 350 ml, the valve may not withstand. The first thing that happens is the stomach stretches down and forward. It begins to put pressure on our internal organs, especially on the pancreas and intestines.Therefore, portions should be sufficient, but not exceed 350 ml. 350 ml is the soup and the second. And tea or coffee can be left for later or drunk before meals, if you really want to.

– And when is it better to eat fruit: before or after? And is it possible to lose weight with their help?

Fruits are carbohydrate products. Losing weight on fruits will not work, because there will be no balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Therefore, if you eat fruit, you need to consume protein. For example, I sometimes eat cottage cheese with peach for breakfast.Everything is balanced. Fruits are useful, but if we go to extremes and eat only fruits in large quantities, in kilograms, then it does not work out very well.

People also often eat grapes and melons, which ferment in the stomach. They are best eaten separately as a separate food. After eating, I do not recommend it. I do not recommend eating fruit in compotes, it is a pure carbohydrate. It is absorbed into the blood very quickly and increases sugar levels. Better to eat fresh fruits and vegetables.

– Many people, wanting to lose weight, squeeze lemon juice into the water in the morning and drink on an empty stomach.This is useful?

I advise you to drink alkaline water on an empty stomach. And after eating, if you have eaten a little, you definitely need to drink an acidic drink: coffee or lemon water. It aids in digestion. After all, when a person is hungry, gastric juice is produced, and it is sour. If you drink something alkaline, then the process of digesting food will go slower. If sour, it will accelerate. You should not drink sour on an empty stomach. We “acidify” our body. This leads to gallstones and kidney stones.

– What advice would you give to those who have already had dinner but want to have a snack before bed because they are very hungry?

It all depends on the amount of food eaten for dinner.If 100 ml, then, of course, you can eat an apple or drink kefir at night. It’s a big myth that you can’t eat after 6 pm. Of course, metabolism is faster in the morning than in the afternoon. But every person has a different schedule. Someone works at night and wakes up at 15.00. And how can he not eat after 18.00? Therefore, you need to select food for each person’s daily regimen. And there is nothing wrong with eating something at night if your body asks. But it is better to choose foods that will help you lose weight.Balance yourself by making sure you have a certain amount of protein, fat and carbohydrates in your diet all day. It doesn’t matter what time you eat them.

– Is sports nutrition good for you? Can they replace regular food?

If it is possible to fry scrambled eggs for breakfast, to make it more protein, without yolk, then it is better to eat it. If you don’t have time, you can have a protein shake. You just need to pay attention to the composition of this protein shake is more natural, so that it includes vitamins, minerals and enzymes.Enzymes help metabolize protein.

When a person works out in the gym, he cannot bring scrambled eggs with him, so he drinks a protein shake. And that’s okay if you want to build muscle. But do not go to extremes and believe that it is worth living only on sports nutrition.

– What about alcohol? For example, many people say that beer makes you fat. Is it really so?

Any alcohol, including beer, is a diuretic.Roughly speaking, you drank one glass of beer, and went to the toilet in two. Where did your body get the second glass of liquid? He took this water from your cells. Accordingly, alcohol is harmful. But it is harmful when we do not replenish this fluid. If you drank a shot of vodka or a glass of beer, but before that you drank an additional glass of water to your norm, you know that it is this water that the beer will take from you. Therefore, you can prepare. If you want to lose weight, you should know that there are no proteins, no fats, and no carbohydrates in alcohol.There are only calories. Accordingly, it does not affect our diet in any way. If during the day you had an ideal balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, and you have a supply of calories up to the recommended daily allowance, then you have the right to drink alcohol, knowing that you have stocked up with water in advance.

Alcohol, Thematic illustration. Photo by: RIA PrimaMedia

As for the beer belly, very often people have fat on the outside within normal limits, but fat on the internal organs is growing rapidly.This is due to simple carbohydrates. And the organs have nowhere to go, they rush down and forward, stretching the muscles of the press. So it’s easy to get rid of a beer belly. You need to replace simple carbohydrates with complex ones, increase the amount of protein and the amount of water consumed per day.

– Are drinks for ladies, such as martinis and champagne, just as harmful?

Bubbles in champagne are carbon dioxide, which our body does not really need, because we exhale it.If the love for champagne is not strong, you can replace it. Martini is a sweet drink. It contains a certain amount of carbohydrates. But you can adjust them based on your balance. Yes, you are losing weight now, but you calculated that during the day you ate a certain amount of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. You have the right to drink a martini if ​​you have previously stocked up with water, that is, you have drunk it in excess of the norm.

– How much water do you need to drink per day?

For a healthy person – 30 ml per 1 kg of body weight.If you want to calculate your rate, multiply your weight by 0.03. If a person loses weight, during this process a lot of toxins enter the bloodstream, and in order to remove these substances, you need to increase the rate, quite a bit: 40 ml per 1 kg of weight. Count quickly: multiply all your kilograms by 0.04. And we get: someone has 2.5 liters, someone has 3.5. If you received a very large figure, for example, 5 liters, you should not pour a 5-liter bottle into yourself at once. It is necessary to withstand the drinking regime. It is necessary to add quietly: today 1 liter, tomorrow another half a liter, then another.And look at the state. When you increase the amount of water you drink per day, your weight will already go down. Fat is water and energy. Accordingly, the body understands that it does not need to stock up on this water. Water flows in, and he begins to give it away. Weight is reduced, and the rate of water consumed is reduced. While you are building up your norm, the weight is already going down, and you may already stop at 3 liters.

It is also important to understand what should be considered water and what should not. Carbonated water is acidic for the body.And even fish do not live in an acidic environment. And our cells, like fish, feel bad when we drink soda. Sugar is also often added to carbonated drinks. The labels always indicate the energy value per 100 ml of the product. You can see that Coca-Cola, juice and other drinks will contain zero proteins, carbohydrates from 10 to 12 grams, and zero fat. And a certain amount of calories. If we take a glass with a volume of 250-300 ml and pour this drink there, in which 11 grams of carbohydrates per 100 ml, multiply 11 grams by three, we get 33 grams of carbohydrates.For comparison, one teaspoon of sugar contains 4 grams of carbohydrates. Divide 33 by 4 and we get about 8-9 tablespoons of sugar.

Sparkling water, Thematic illustration. Photo by: RIA PrimaMedia

The same applies to juice for children. After the kids drink the juice, they receive a huge amount of energy, and the doctor says: hyperactivity, give the pills to the child. So isn’t it easier to control the amount of sugar, or give it clean water or cook homemade fruit drink?

– As far as we know, you have a blog on the Internet with 160 thousand subscribers.

Yes, it’s called negoloday.ru. In it I give useful advice to those who want to lose weight. I am currently working on an article about salads. I am writing about why, when we eat them, we cannot lose weight.

– Very often people who are losing weight eat nuts. Can they be consumed?

Nuts are a good food if they are not salted or roasted. They are best consumed raw. Many people think that nuts are a protein product. In fact, oil can be squeezed out of the nut.We classify nuts as fatty foods along with seeds, olives and olives.

– What about seafood? On the one hand, they have a lot of protein, but you can also get poisoning.

It is necessary to maintain the norm and try to eat no more than 30 grams of protein at one meal. For example, 100 grams of mussels contains 30 grams of protein. Therefore, when I say that you need to eat 30 grams of protein per meal, I do not mean the volume of, for example, a trumpeter, but the volume of protein in a trumpeter.Seafood is a good product. Especially the Far Eastern squid. It contains a lot of protein, but it is cheaper in comparison with meat and fish, so it is worth paying special attention to it.

Squid, Thematic illustration. Photo by: RIA PrimaMedia

– How many kilograms do you need to lose per month in order not to harm your health?

I am not a supporter of emergency weight loss. For example, someone who is overweight is 12 kg, they will go away in three months. If a person weighs much more, then about 20-30 kg can go away in a month.The kilograms farther from the spine go away faster. The closer to the spine, the more difficult it is for the body to release these reserves.

– For whom, then, is curative fasting developed?

There are such technologies, but, in my opinion, there are more gentle cleaning methods. And if we first prepare our body for this therapeutic fasting, it will be much better. A person weighing 140 kg, starving sharply, can throw so many toxins into his bloodstream, and then experience a crazy headache.There should be no weight loss without water. If fasting therapy includes water, great. But a fat person should not plunge headlong into medical fasting. First you need to bring your body closer to normal, and then cleanse yourself with therapeutic fasting.

– They say that exercising on simulators is not very useful for losing weight. Is it so?

If a person is overweight over 10 kg and goes to the gym on his own without a coach, he risks getting a load on his joints and heart.You need a gentle load or a trainer in order for him to choose the right exercises for you.

If a girl wants to gain muscle mass, the body understands: yeah, the load has increased. To pull this load, we need muscles. At the same time, the body thinks that a woman has a non-feminine task, and why would she then have female functions. The result is an increased testosterone level. And this affects health: early menopause, fertility may decrease.

– Should I go eco-friendly?

If possible, why not.It is much healthier to eat homemade vegetables, berries, etc. But if not, it makes sense to think about how to enrich your body with additional substances: vitamins and minerals.

Let us remind you that on May 23, Olga Dekker became a guest of the PrimaMediaLIVE live broadcast. Within an hour, the nutritionist revealed all the secrets of losing weight.

So, we all know that a person loses weight only when he spends more calories per day than he consumes. Another thing is how “spending” is achieved. After all, you can sit on buckwheat for weeks, eating 300-500 calories a day, but what is the use of this? Although, perhaps, I will express my opinion about mono-diets in other reviews.

So, counting calories – where to start, what is it and … most importantly: IS THERE A RESULT?

1. Everyone who tried to count calories had their own reasons. For me, the most powerful push was just 1 day. An ordinary day of student life, which opened my eyes to HOW MUCH and WHAT I eat. So, the usual morning snack is a waffle with nuts and condensed milk, then pasta and chicken for breakfast, 2 small cabbage rolls for lunch, another waffle with tea after lunch, a pack of chips for a walk, a banana, fried fish, mashed potatoes and a glass of milk for dinner… a bottle of sweet water during the same unfortunate walk … And a few more small snacks at the university, which, it seems, are not felt at all. But when in the evening of the same day I counted calories … the figure was about 3500 !!! 3500 calories – that much is not necessary to eat even for healthy jock men, not like young girls) True, I never thought that I eat SO MUCH in a day. Moreover, there is so much useless food, which, entering the body in such an amount, will certainly be transformed into fat.

THEREFORE, REMEMBER, DEAR! IF YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT, EAT CORRECTLY, THEN THE FIRST GOLDEN RULE SOUNDS THIS
: Snickers (and other similar bars), milk chocolates, croutons, chips and crackers are all VERY high in calories! I’m just a terrible sweet tooth, so I could not completely abandon sweets (including harmful ones). But from now on they can only be eaten for breakfast !!! Want to eat a bar? Go ahead, in the morning you can have tea! But only one and only subject to the principles of proper nutrition throughout the rest of the day! All fast food is rubbish that you only need to indulge in occasionally! By the way, the same bars are also useful.For example, I really like the composition like this

.

2. The most important question that arises before a person who is going to count calories: “And how much do I need to eat in a day so that the body does not need anything, but at the same time said goodbye to excess fat and water? That is, I lost weight, but lost weight CORRECTLY! “? Each has its own norm, I can tell you.

Let’s calculate it using the following formula:

10 x your weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (years)

Now the result obtained must be multiplied by the coefficient of physical activity:

1.2 – minimum or no physical activity

1.38 – fitness classes 3 times a week

1.46 – fitness classes 5 times a week

1.550 – intense physical activity 5 times a week

1.64 – fitness classes every day

1.73 – every day intensively or twice a day

In my case, the figure is calculated as follows:

10×55 + 6.25×162 – 5×18 = 550 + 1012-90. I do fitness every day, but work (study) does not give physical activity, so we multiply the result by 1.6

We get as much as 2300 KK! But remember, this is so that the WEIGHT is in NORMAL !!! And we want to Lose weight! So, dear ones, let’s reduce this figure as much as we can!

For myself, I decided to use 1100-1300 KK per day and at the same time do fitness (at home).

Again, everything is logical: the more you reduce this number, the faster the weight will go away. Only I beg you very much – you DO NOT need to rush to extremes and cut your diet to 600-700 calories, this is VERY little! Allow yourself everything: sweets, fruits, fish and meat, vegetables – in general, everything that you love.Only within reasonable limits! And do not forget to follow the BJU (balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates – I will tell about it in other reviews).

So, rule number TWO: we count calories and try not to exceed the daily norm, but on the contrary – reduce it to at least 1300 KK per day. (figure for women).
And a little advice: if you are used to eating much more, do not force the body: give it a week to rebuild and reduce the number of calories GRADUALLY! If earlier, for example, you ate 2,000 calories a day, then the next eat 1900-1800.Do not expose your body to stress once again! Otherwise, as we know, he may get scared and start saving fat in reserve))

Yes, the first 2-3 days he may want to eat out of habit, but this feeling will quickly pass! If hunger is strong, we reduce the number of calories consumed by 100-150 per day, but at the same time adhere to the principles of PROPER nutrition!

3. My results.

Now about the main thing: what have I achieved by reducing the number of calories consumed?

The period of the experiment is 1 month.Loss in kg is only 3 kg, BUT! Look at the photo: the difference is obvious! The waist appeared, the sides decreased, the legs were slimmer)) Somewhere there, under a not so large layer of fat, muscles even began to appear. All this, of course, is a great merit of physical. loads, but it was the CALCULATION of calories that completely changed my diet and helped to understand why, in fact, the extra pounds appeared! It’s not just the body that changes, the habits change!

And one more thing: it seems that I lost only 3 kg and now I weigh not 55, but 52 – is the result so great? Big! And believe me, if your initial weight is 70-80-90, etc.etc., then it will leave faster! The less weight, the slower it goes away. It is these very last few kilos that the body will not want to give you!

Girls who advised me to write volumes – thank you! That’s right, in terms of volume, the result is already tangible:

Waist:

BEFORE – 70 cm, AFTER 4 weeks – 65 cm

Hips

: UP TO 97 cm, AFTER 4 weeks 94 cm

There is nothing to lose weight in the chest, so the volumes have not changed))))))

Today, I am not quite satisfied with the hips, and there is still fat on my stomach.It really goes away slowly, but there is a way out: I am already making a program of even more proper nutrition, reducing the daily diet to 1000 kk (with my height and weight, this is enough), as well as MANDATORY cardio training, preferably every day. I will definitely unsubscribe about what will come of it.

Better to see once than hear 100 times! I present to your attention the photos of what happened (sorry for the mess in the room, I always take a photo in the morning before school, I always do it in the morning) Photos signed

Study after study shows that losing weight requires eating less and moving more.But there are still people who argue that this is not the case. Some of the arguments against are downright idiotic, some sound impressive.

Zozhnik publishes a post by LJ user necroz, based on an article by Armie Legge.

Myth number 1. What you eat is more important than how much you eat.

You can lose weight on hamburgers and soda. Although, undoubtedly, there are many reasons not to do this, and you are unlikely to enjoy such a diet. There is no evidence that the “wrong” food, which often includes GMOs, sugar, fructose, gluten, makes you gain more fat than the “right” one.Again, this does not mean that you need to eat the “wrong” food.

Whole grains, dietary fiber, and adequate protein in your diet make it easier to control your appetite and keep you healthy over the long term. In any case, while you are in a calorie deficit, the weight goes down.

Myth number 2. If you eat the right combination of protein / fat / carbohydrates, you are not gaining fat.

Almost 100 years of research shows that there is no combination that will allow you to lose more fat than others.Low-fat, high-fat, low-carb diets – either way, you will lose the same amount of fat if you consume the same amount of protein. This is the only exception.

A high protein diet allows people to lose less muscle and more fat on the same calorie diet compared to other options. But after a certain amount of protein (about 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight or even less), additional doses of protein no longer affect the loss ratio.

Myth number 3. People are not losing as much weight as they should be. Therefore, calorie counting is meaningless. NOT RIGHT.

Yes, even in fully controlled studies, people are losing less weight on a diet than they should be on the basis of a deficiency. But this is not a matter of calculating calories, but of energy balance. Here are some reasons why this balance is very difficult to find:

– People almost never can correctly estimate the number of calories received.

– On a calorie deficit, people move less, which leads to less expenditure and less weight loss.

– On a shortage, people lose different amounts of water, which also leads to a difference in the result.

In controlled studies, when people ate less, they lost weight. The difference was less than one would expect, but not much.

Myth number 4. People don’t put on as much weight as calculated.

As with loss, the body resists gaining weight. Some people cannot gain weight at all, despite the large surplus of calories. Here are some reasons why this might be happening:

– Increase in activity
.In surplus, unconscious activity can increase. You get up more often, walk more often, wave your hands more often. The difference can be up to 1000 kcal per day.

Weight gain leads to the fact that a large mass has to be moved
. This also burns extra calories.

– The more you eat, the more is the thermal effect of food
. 10% of 1000 kcal and 3000 kcal is already an additional 200 kcal costs. Also, when people say “I eat tons of food” it means the same as saying “I don’t eat anything and I’m getting better”.

Myth number 5. Metabolism slows down when you cut calories, so cutting calories doesn’t work

If that were the case, starvation would not have been possible. In the Minnesota Fasting Study, people ate a 50% cut diet and walked over 30 km per week. In 6 months they lost 25% of their body weight. Basal metabolic rate dropped by only 225 kcal per day. So yes, there is some reduction in consumption, but this is clearly not enough to stop losing weight.

Myth number 6. Losing weight is too complex to be managed with diet and exercise alone.

Yes, hundreds of factors affect body composition. Habitual fat levels, food sensitivities, basal metabolic rate, hormone levels and sensitivity, etc. But there is good news. People who are in a calorie deficit lose weight without having to worry about all of these factors. Eat less, move more – lose weight. Everything.

Myth number 7.When and how often you eat is more important than how much you eat.

There is no evidence that eating 6 times a day or intermittent fasting is more than just a convenient way to control appetite for some. There is no evidence that the idea of ​​consuming fewer carbs at night or eating in the “post-workout window” will work either. If you consume the same amount of calories, then you will lose or gain the same amount of mass. This is true for 10 meals or one.

Myth number 8. Hormones affect weight, so hormone management is more important than nutrition.

Leptin, insulin, testosterone, cortisol, thyroids – everything affects how many calories you burn and how much fat and muscle you lose. However, there is no evidence that you can change the amount or ratio as a result of dieting, avoiding certain foods, or taking supplements. (except for steroids, which are outside the scope of this article).

Myth number 9. Some supplements allow you to lose weight without being in a calorie deficit.

No supplements (most of which are useless) will not help you lose weight without a calorie deficit. The ones that work will only help you lose a little more fat. Even powerful things like ephedrine and caffeine will simply add an additional loss of 100-200 kcal per day. In addition, this effect will decrease as you get used to it.

Myth number 10. Cutting calories makes you hungry, so it doesn’t work in the long run.

Usually, when you eat less, you want to eat more.However, if you change your diet to eat more “filling” foods, you may not feel hungry. People who have increased their protein intake may consume several hundred fewer calories per day without even realizing it. Although some still remain hungry even when changing food for a more satisfying one. What to do, sometimes you just have to be patient. Gradually, the body will get used to the new mass, and the hunger will go away. In addition, there are many things that make us eat besides hunger:

– We eat a lot when we’re bored.

– We eat a lot of large containers.

– We eat a lot when people are eating a lot around.

– We eat a lot if we don’t control calories.

– We eat a lot when we eat too fast.

– We eat a lot when we are worried.

So, except when you are trying to achieve extremely low fat levels, you can usually control your appetite by choosing an appropriate diet.

Myth number 11. I do not lose weight, although I eat little and do a lot.

There are 4 reasons why this statement is false:

– Most people have no idea how much they actually eat.

– There is no way to check how much they actually ate or spent, so you have to rely on their words. See point 1.

– Whatever diet a person starts, he starts it with preliminary psychological settings. If he believes that the diet will work, then he observes it more strictly, adheres to the regime, and interprets every doubt in favor of the diet.And vice versa.

– Even during controlled studies, people know the details of the study that can influence the results.

Total

Any controlled study in the last hundred years shows that people only lose weight when they are in a calorie deficit.

You’ve heard all types of reasons why people think calories shouldn’t be counted, but they are all easily broken down based on research. This does not mean that calories are the only thing to worry about, but if you want to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than you spend.