Everyone knows that to lose body fat, we have to burn more calories than we consume. This is based on the first law of thermodynamics which says that energy is neither created nor destroyed; It can only be transferred from one form to another.
Therefore, it is common sense that eating less or burning more calories each day will allow us to lose body fat. Unfortunately, our bodies and brains are more complex.
Dieting and restricting food intake by counting calories rarely works. All this does is complicate things for you and distance you from what matters.
This is because eating is essential for the survival of human beings and they are not prepared to do without it.
Don’t get upset about the fact that the diet doesn’t work. Get motivated!
You shouldn’t deprive yourself of anything. All you have to do is acquire healthy habits that will help you lose body fat substantially. This article will help you achieve it!
REASON #1: Losing sight of what matters to lose fat
One of the effects of dieting is that people end up focusing on things that don’t matter much when it comes to losing fat. They pay excessive attention to things like whether their food is organic or genetically modified, contains gluten, what type of water they drink, and the times at which they eat. This does not mean that they do not matter on other occasions and/or situations, which in some cases they do.
The thing is, you won’t notice the difference if you don’t do what you need to do primarily to lose fat.
Solution: Here are the tips that matter when it comes to losing fat.
- Eat high-quality food that allows you to digest well and avoid feeling overwhelmed.
- Sleep correctly and avoid stress.
- Avoid important nutritional deficiencies such as Vitamin D, Vitamin B, or Magnesium.
- Be consistent in your training and nutrition.
- Lifting weights in such a way that you overload the body. This way you will gain muscle mass and lose fat.
- Promotes activism instead of a sedentary lifestyle.
Once you consolidate these healthy habits and they develop like clockwork, you can start to focus on what is important to you. You should not obsess over small details as much as you should ensure that these habits develop automatically.
REASON #2: You don’t recognize when you are hungry and when you are full
Starting a diet involves giving up certain foods and ignoring when you are hungry for fear of gaining weight. This leads to changes in your brain and metabolism and causes you to feel hungry all day, even if you have finished eating. This also entails a lack of recognition when the opposite happens, frustration.
SOLUTION: Changing your way of thinking in such a way that you recognize your hunger and frustration is not an easy task, but here are some tips that can help you.
- Be adamant about avoiding processed foods in favor of real food.
- Eat plenty of protein in your diet that includes healthy fats and absorb carbohydrates from whole grain products.
- Eat lots of vegetables and foods with fiber.
- Make sure you get enough sleep as sleep deprivation negatively affects your metabolism and will accentuate the symptoms of hunger and hunger.
REASON #3: Your willpower runs out and causes you to say “What the hell!” and you get stuffed.
Willpower is a limited resource and when you use it throughout the day to control yourself from eating more than necessary while doing other activities that require effort (like going to the gym) it fades away. One reason for this is that self-control requires a lot of mental strength – approximately 20% of the calories you burn throughout the day are used by the brain.
The diet has a double effect on willpower since, on the one hand, you have to use it to control your appetite, and on the other hand, you restrict calories, so your amount of energy will be limited. The result is that many people exhaust their willpower at night.
That’s when they raise their arms in the air and shout “But what the hell!” and they start eating chips, ice cream, cakes, etc.
SOLUTION: Adopt healthy eating habits that allow you to feel good, as well as absorb enough sugar for your brain so that you supply it with enough energy to allow it to function perfectly. Many people think that eating frequent meals with a high level of protein, healthy fats and carbohydrates from whole foods is a good trick.
REASON #4: You feel stressed
To lose body fat you should not be stressed, since it is a long process that requires a lot of willpower. That’s because when you feel stressed, the hormone “cortisol” rises. A high level of cortisol causes the intake of food, especially foods rich in carbohydrates and fats.
Furthermore, calorie restriction to lose body fat is an anxiety inherent to stress and will make you feel disturbed by hunger and have cravings all the time.
Solution: Figure out an effective stress management plan that focuses on exercise and recovery, sleep, fun, and some type of mind activity – such as meditation or deep breathing.
REASON #5: Your metabolism slows down. There are three ways for your body to burn fewer calories each day
First of all, the process of breaking down and digesting food burns calories, called the thermic effect of food. For example, the body burns almost 25 percent of the calories provided in a pure protein meal. If instead you diet and eat less, the thermic effect is reduced and the body burns fewer calories.
Now, this is a short-term effect and there are ways to compensate for it, for example by increasing your protein intake and eating more fibrous foods (like vegetables).
Secondly, if you manage to eat less than 1,200 calories a day your body will slow down your metabolism in order to preserve fuel deposits, and thus you will burn fewer calories daily. This has long-lasting negative effects on metabolism, leading people to regain the fat they lost. To begin with, they often end up gaining more weight than they were. It can also lead to imbalances in metabolism, further aggravating the problem.
Third, the diet leads to losing large amounts of muscle mass, which drastically reduces the amount of calories your body burns each day. This is a terrible situation as it means you have a worse body composition and poorer health than before you started.
Solution: Start a weight training program and opt for a high-protein diet to maintain muscle mass while losing body fat.
By planning your diet around whole foods and plenty of vegetables, there is a good chance that if you are reasonably active in daily life, you will be in a calorie deficit and lose body fat without needing to cut calories.
REASON #6: It is not sustainable in the long term
Most people who start fat loss diets do so with the mindset that “someday in the future” they will eventually stop eating in a way they hate.
Dieting alone is not sustainable. Once you end your diet habits, you will regain the fat you lost and this will cause serious hormonal changes in your body that you will not be able to recover. This is known as weight cycling and it is a horrible reality that affects dieters, as it makes it more difficult to lose body fat in the future and causes inflammation, increasing the risk of disease.
Solution: If you don’t like your exercise program, you simply have to find a way to be active that you enjoy a little and can continue exercising.
The same goes for eating, if you don’t like what you eat, you have to find another way of eating that allows you to enjoy the food and doesn’t give you cravings. Sometimes working with a nutritionist, a psychologist, or a trainer can help.
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