Diets to lose weight

Recommended food to lose weight

What is the healthiest diet to lose weight?

The best diet to lose weight is NOT the one that causes you to lose the most kilos, since any energy-deficient eating plan will make you lose weight, such as fasting or monodiets (such as  “the artichoke diet”).

The problem with these diets that cause short-term weight loss occurs after losing weight, when the rapid recovery of the lost kilos occurs in what is known as the yo-yo or rebound effect.

healthy dietThe best diet to lose weight is one that is done in a healthy way, with changes in diet and lifestyle. To be successful, the help of a professional is recommended who provides healthy recipes, advice, and that the environment (family and friends) collaborate in the person’s health goal and accompany them in their purpose.

What is the yo-yo effect?

It could be summarized that the yo-yo effect is the natural consequence of losing weight without exercising, with a lot of stress and having eaten ultra-processed products. Eating absurd diets for a certain time produces a slow metabolism, that is, fewer calories are burned at rest, due to loss of muscle mass and activation of the body’s energy-saving mechanisms (decrease in body temperature, etc.).

What is the purpose of a diet?

The desirable thing to lose weight is not to lose a few or many kilos in a few weeks (which will probably soon be regained), but what is important in a weight loss plan is to change habits of daily life that help improve health and maintain a healthy weight in the long term.

How much weight should you lose?

The weight loss achieved with diets depends on each person’s situation: their genetics, the type of diet they were on before, their metabolism (and diseases that affect it), the level of stress and, above all, their daily weightphysical activity.

A person with highly developed musculature should not lose the same weight as another person with less musculature. Probably the person with more muscle should lose less than another person with little muscle, who should do exercises to increase their muscle mass.

All miracle diets cause you to lose weight, but in most cases you will recover and lose muscle, which is very harmful. Therefore, you should always accompany your diet with physical exercise and pay more attention to body composition than to the scale.

General dietary advice to lose weight

In general, in order to lose weight it is recommended, first of all: “don’t always be on a diet” The energy deficit activates body mechanisms to save calories. The slimming period should have a start and end date. Then you should eat a healthy diet with very few exceptions.

Among the foods not recommended we can mention the followings:

  • Reduce the amount of flour and added sugar in the diet, especially that which comes from juices, cookies, pastries, flavored yogurts, jams, etc. Most of these products are junk food, even if they are “light.”
  • Avoid alcohol, tobacco, foods with a lot of sugar and fats (mainly processed  foods): cookies, cakes, cream, condensed milk, sausages, processed meat, etc.
  • Sleep enough time and avoid stress: This aspect is as important as diet, since continued stress generates hormones that affect our metabolism.

punto rojo More information on natural treatment of obesity and plants and diets to lose weight

This article was endorsed by Elisenda Carballido - Dietitian nutritionist. Postgraduate in Phytotherapy and master in Nutrition and Metabolism.
Editorial
Written by Editorial Botanical-online team in charge of content writing

1 February, 2024

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