A little reflection on what it takes to think about a diet to lose weight, a recurring theme at each start of a new year.
Although it may seem otherwise, it is not true that people leave the famous bikini operation until the last minute. Most of the people tend to have weight loss among their good New Year's resolutions and that is known by magazines, newspapers, blogsā¦ we all know it. And since it is a matter of the moment, then everyone comes to discuss it. And how.
As someone who has been battling the kilos all my life, going from endocrine to endocrine, reading and studying nutrition to try to understand why my body doesn't work like most people I know well, I throw a lot of tantrums when I see how the subject is dealt with many times, how they try to sell us all kinds of motorcycles in order to scratch a few visits.
I do not think that the subject of weight loss is a subject that can be treated lightly, as if it were something trivial that could be solved with a grandmother's remedy. Think that if losing weight were easy, obesity would not be a health concern at the government level, but it turns out that it is the great epidemic of the 21st century in some first world countries.
Diet to lose weight or diet to regain shape after the holidays
And is that to lose weight, not everything is valid for everyone or in the same way. Think of healthy people, athletes and who take care of their diet. Do you think that a basketball player over two meters tall and almost 100 kg in weight has the same nutritional needs as a gymnast weighing five feet and 50 kg? It seems obvious that not.
Factors such as sex, age, physical activity or the constitution itself determine the nutritional needs of each individual and the diet to be followed must be according to these. Therefore, the diet that allows one to maintain their weight, another can make you lose weight and even another can make you gain weight.
If there is also any pathology that affects the proper functioning of the metabolism, we are facing a really complex issue.
So, the first thing we must take into account is to know what is intended and, with that, choose the best method to find the solution.
It is not the same to want to get rid of that couple of kilos that you take at Christmas or in summer because you have spent days eating too much. Those pounds are not a problem and, in most cases, they may end up going away on their own if you return to your pre-party routines. And if they resist, in most cases, it will be enough to do a little self-criticism of what is being eaten to detect what food we are abusing and moderate or eliminate its consumption. In short, with a healthier diet and without making great efforts, those kilos will end up disappearing. Don't be fooled by miracles, or detox diets, or blood group diets.
When losing weight is not just losing the extra pounds
Now, if the intention is to solve a medical problem of obesity or overweight, I am very afraid that the solution is not so easy. In that case, the most sensible thing to do is to go to a health professional, either an endocrinologist or a nutritionist who, although from experience I tell you that it is not always easy to find someone who makes you feel comfortable and mentalize the first time. that a long road is going to begin and that at times it will be very hard.
The decision to lose weight requires being clear that it will be a process that requires great willpower and that it must involve a change in life and for life, because in most cases it will not be enough to strictly follow the diet that you provide us our doctor to lose the excess weight, but it will also be necessary to continue with a maintenance diet for life that must be followed with the same rigor as the first and practically for life if the dreaded rebound effect is to be avoided.
I insist on the importance of finding a doctor who makes the patient feel comfortable and who, after a detailed study of his case, designs a diet according to his needs. If you find a doctor who, as soon as you walk in the door, takes a diet out of the drawer and without doing a sad analysis gives it to you to follow, things do not look good. Better find someone else who shows a little more empathy.
It is not the usual thing, but it is more frequent than one thinks, that to achieve the desired weight loss, apart from the help of an endocrinologist or nutritionist, the help of a psychological therapist is also necessary, since in many cases being overweight is derived from psychological problems of the patient and that, once they have been properly treated, overweight problems are easier to solve.
You've been working hard to follow a healthy, low-calorie diet and improve your exercise habits, and your reward has been watching your weight go down and feeling better. Now, however, for no reason you can identify, the scale has stopped budging. You've hit a weight-loss plateau. Don't get discouraged. It's normal for weight loss to slow and even stall. By understanding what causes a weight-loss plateau, you can decide how to respond and avoid backsliding on your new healthy habits.