Is Dieting Worth It?
Have you ever tried to lose weight with a diet? Did it work? Most people manage to shed a few kilos "without" much trouble, at least as long as they stick to all the rules that particular diet prescribes.
As soon as you reach your goal or stop the diet, you're back to your pre-diet weight within no time at all (often even more than before).
The Problem With Diets
The main problem with diets is that the weight you lose isn't pure fat mass, it also includes muscle mass. Losing muscle mass lowers your overall energy requirement. So after the diet, your body needs fewer calories than it did before. To counteract this, it's important to combine any weight loss with exercise and sport.
A Long-Term Solution
Unfortunately, there's no miracle cure for losing weight. Ultimately, the best approach is to learn a change in behaviour that lasts a lifetime. When doing this, keep in mind that weight loss shouldn't happen through starving yourself, otherwise you risk sudden hunger attacks, and a slower weight loss is healthier for your body anyway. So the goal is to use this change in behaviour to learn to "listen" to your body, stopping when you're full and only eating when you're hungry. You should also learn to eat slowly, since it takes time after you start eating for the feeling of fullness to kick in. To optimise weight loss, targeted training can help you reduce fat mass and increase muscle mass, which also counteracts the drop in energy expenditure. Ideally, you'd be active for at least half an hour every day. Not just sport, but everyday activities like cleaning, gardening, climbing stairs, brisk walking or cycling also help you reduce and manage your weight.
5 Tips for a Balanced Diet
- Don't cut out too much. If the psychological pressure gets too great, you'll give up on your good intentions too soon, so aim to lose weight slowly but steadily.
- Focus only on eating while you eat, and avoid other activities (TV, newspaper, etc. )
- NEVER go shopping on an empty stomach.
- Make sure you get regular exercise and do sport.
- Decide how much you want to eat before you start, and only put the plate you've prepared on the table.
