Why do I need to plan a diet?
There is no universal number of meals per day for weight loss to be effective and harmless. The main thing is not to starve, because any restrictions lead to breakdowns, overeating, slowing down of metabolism, insulin resistance.
At the moment a three-meals-a-day diet is the most physiological and suitable for most people. It involves breakfast, lunch and dinner — without any snacks. Such a nutrition organization helps to normalize carbohydrate metabolism and prevent pathologies of any sort, especially insulin resistance.
Not only the diet is important, but also the calorie rate, which is logically divided into three main meals:
breakfast — 30%;
lunch — 35%;
dinner — 25%;
two snacks (if you can't do without them) — 10%.
Such a scheme is comfortable for the activity of the gastrointestinal tract and does not traumatize your moral state.
If you are used to exactly three meals a day, during breakfast and dinner you need to consume 1/4 of the daily amount of calories, and at lunch — the remaining part, because it is at this time that a person's digestion is working especially hard.
When calculating four meals a day , calories are distributed as follows:
first meal — 30%;
the second one is 15%;
third — 35%;
the fourth is 20%.
What do we get by getting used to a diet?
Harmless fat deposits burn
Insulin is not produced while the food is being digested. The absence of this hormone in the blood leads to the fact that fat is not deposited, the body begins to burn previously accumulated fat deposits.
Control of food intake and calories
With systemic nutrition, it is easier to control the daily calorage. You can place each meal in containers in advance by calculating the calorie content of portions.
Hunger "by the hour"
The body gets used to a certain schedule and shows signs of hunger every day at the same time. This protects against breakdowns, "empty" snacks and overeating.
Individual calorie allowance
When calculating the daily caloric intake, many factors must be taken into account: age, gender, weight, height, sleeping regime, physical activity. Bioimpedance measurement, an examination that determines the amount of water, fat and muscle tissue in the body, will help to make an accurate calculation up to a gram.
If you don’t have an opportunity to consult a specialist, you can use the Mifflin-San Geor formula.
Men: (10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) — 5 x age (g) + 5) x AC.
Women: (10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (g) – 161) x AC.
AC stands for the activity coefficient:
minimum activity (with sedentary work) — 1.2;
low activity (1-2 short workouts per week or walking) — 1,375;
average activity (3-4 workouts per week) — 1.55;
high activity (workouts up to five times a week for more than an hour) — 1,725.
With a balanced diet, the caloric content of the diet should be reduced by no more than 500 kcal compared to the usual daily norm.
The lower calorie threshold for women is 1200 kcal per day, and for men — 1800 kcal.
Eat, you can't starve
Dietary nutrition should be full and regular, not meager and once a day.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner should include proteins, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates. The saturation index of the diet should be adequate to provide the necessary energy and strength and not lead to exhaustion and deficiencies in the body.
The desire for calorie content of dishes to zero harms the endocrine system, increases the stress hormone cortisol, reduces the satiety hormone leptin, worsens the general condition.
Of course, following a healthy diet, don’t include sugar, it’s not allowed, it is also advisable to limit fructose and foods that can lead to inflammation (for example, processed foods, trans fats, etc.).
Include white chicken or turkey meat, eggs, low—fat cottage cheese (a source of protein), healthy fats (nuts, fish, flaxseed or olive oil), complex carbohydrates (buckwheat, quinoa) and, of course, add green vegetables and herbs - the main sources of fiber, which is necessary for a full-fledged work of the intestine.
Do not forget about your water balance. Drink at least 1.5 liters of clean water daily. The approximate norm is calculated according to the formula: 30 ml per 1 kg of weight.
It is also recommended to use a fat burner on a natural basis to improve the effect. By the way, our company offers a whole line of such body fat burning supplements
Basic principles of healthy weight loss
- A small calorie deficit.
- Good sleep (7-8 hours, we go to bed before midnight).
- Sufficient amount of water.
- The presence of three full meals (skipping at least one can provoke overeating).
- Sufficient motor activity (for example, 8 thousand steps per day and 2-3 workouts per week).
- Complete or partial alcohol abstinence.