The modern world has headed for harmony. The trend is oatmeal, a healthy lifestyle, a gym and competitions in the fitness bikini category. People changed their watches to fitness trackers, and table patties to salad and chicken breast in the lunchbox.
Start is given
And so the man decided to change his life for the better and embark on the path of a healthy lifestyle, proper nutrition and sports. He bought his best sports uniform and annual gym membership, even passed the test on an analyzer scale, so that he would probably know how much it costs to lose.
It turned out that losing weight in the digital age is easy and pleasant - social networks are full of pseudo-trainers who are ready to create a nutrition program for little money, and marathons, where the same weight loss people support each other on the difficult path to a beautiful body. A start.
Vicious circle jogging
Behind a month of hard work, kilograms of boiled breast and cucumbers. Our hero knows how all the simulators work in the gym and in which zone you need to keep the pulse for more efficient fat burning.
Scales treacherously show only minus two (three-four-five) kilograms. But now the belt can now be fastened one hole further. And in general, pants hang. In general, you can afford this cookie. And this too. And the cake. The main thing is one thing, there will definitely be nothing from him. And these chips, with friends for the company. Just one little thing. Until, as in a well-known joke, a person finds himself in a refrigerator eagerly drinking a fifth piece of chocolate cake with a borscht pan. And on the scales (all the same treacherous scales) instead of minus two - plus five.
“Tomorrow’s new marathon, and no cakes,” the person firmly decides for himself.
Eating disorder
A person who is forced to strictly limit himself in his favorite foods for a long time is constantly in a state of stress. Fatigue and irritation from unloved and monotonous food accumulates and results in a breakdown - an uncontrolled absorption of not only your beloved, but also all the food in a row.
Then, tormented by guilty feelings, losing weight again goes on a diet - this time, perhaps even more stringent. Holds for a while and again breaks down. The circle is closed, and its result is not a slender body, but RPP - an eating disorder that delays our hero almost instantly.
Flexible diet
When the public, fitness trainers, nutritionists, nutritionists, psychologists and the rest of the army of specialists, hypothetically responsible for our slim body, became aware of the causes of RPP and the mechanism of action of the vicious circle of “diet-weight loss-stall-weight gain”, the search for new approaches began nutrition area.
One of them was Lyle MacDonald’s “flexible approach” diet. His book-guide on this method of losing weight was published in 2005 and almost immediately sold out in thousands of copies.
Its essence was the refusal to demonize any food and dishes in favor of a balanced diet. It turned out that you can lose weight deliciously.
The enemy is not a cookie, but a packet of cookies
MacDonald formulated the main idea of a flexible diet as "there are no bad foods, there is a poor ratio of macronutrients and the wrong calorie content."
To everyone who wants to lose weight, the author first of all suggested calculating his recommended daily calorie content and the norms of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Based on the data obtained, you should make your diet.
In the book Flexible Diet, MacDonald emphasizes that any deficiency is good if the person is able to keep it for quite some time. And it is precisely the long-term and duration of the diet, and not some one-time weaknesses and nutritional delights, guarantee a good result.
Basic principles
A flexible approach to diet is based on the good old balance of macronutrients, which is recommended to be maintained in the following proportion - 40% carbohydrates, 40% protein and 20% fat. Another, no less important indicator is the amount of fiber and water consumed. Any foods that you eat, whether ice cream or broccoli, should be included in this diet.
An incredible innovation and discovery for 2005 was the so-called free meal proposed by Lyle MacDonald in a flexible diet. He suggested once or twice a week to arrange a free meal - breakfast, lunch or dinner without regard to the composition and balance of the BJU.
This practice allowed us to maintain sufficient motivation, excluded the possibility of a breakdown and the development of an eating disorder, thereby making the diet much more effective in the long-term (or even lifetime) perspective than any other low-calorie counterparts.
Carbohydrate day
The next innovation of MacDonald was the proposal to arrange a high-carb day. On such a day, it was allowed to absorb your favorite carbohydrate foods without reference to the BZHU and daily calories. At the same time, free meals should be canceled this week, and fat should be reduced as much as possible.
What gives a high-carb load? In addition to psychological relief (the ability to absorb your favorite pies and pastries), this practice allows you to instantly increase the level of glycogen in the muscles, thereby increasing the effectiveness of training, which in the overall standings will also play into the hands of losing weight.
Recommendations
In the "Flexible diet" Lyle MacDonald gives basic recommendations that are practically no different from the standard set of instructions in any other weight loss guide:
- You need to eat often. Frequent but small meals will keep blood sugar levels at the same level. The absence of jumps in blood sugar will relieve uncontrolled zhora.
- It is necessary to consume a large amount of low-fat protein. This type of protein includes egg whites, chicken meat and ideas, low-fat fish, dairy products. Protein saturates better, reduces the feeling of hunger. Plus, the body needs much more time and calories to break down protein.
- Add some fat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A little is enough to fit into the norm of 20%. An increase in the amount of fat will lead to their deposition at the waist, and a decrease can cause serious health problems.
- Fiber from vegetables and fruits is an essential element of a healthy diet. A large amount of fiber in the diet slimming dulls the feeling of hunger. In addition, most fruits and vegetables are low in calories and are difficult to eat a lot.
- Simple carbohydrates, such as pasta, rice or bread, are recommended to limit. The problem with simple carbohydrates is not in the products themselves, but in the gas stations for them - spaghetti is one thing, and spaghetti carbonara is quite another. In addition, cereals are very easy to overeat. A person on a flexible diet needs to remember that in one serving there should not be more simple carbohydrates than fits on one palm.
- The slower a person eats, the better. A saturation signal arrives in the brain about 20 minutes after a person has eaten - this is one of the reasons for overeating. Slow chewing helps to reduce the amount of food eaten.
- Free meals and high-carb days will help to avoid eating disorders and will allow you to stay on the diet for much longer.
- Daily workouts are very important. They will help keep the body in good shape and not lose muscle - the notorious “skinny fet” is still not in fashion.
Weight loss rate
Many diets promise you to lose 2-5 kilograms per week. In specialized forums, a person sees similar reviews and results. A flexible diet guarantees you a loss of 0.5-1 kilograms per week. It would seem that the result is not too impressive. But the physiological ability of the body to burn fat is just that. Everything else is water and intestinal contents. But we really want to lose fat, right?
If we take for the axiom that a kilogram of fat contains about 8000 calories, then connecting logic and mathematics, using simple calculations, we can assume that by creating a daily deficit of 1000 calories, you can lose the notorious kilogram per week.
In practice, however, everything is not so simple and straightforward. To begin with, creating such a deficit is quite difficult, if not impossible. Even with high-intensity training in the gym, about 350-400 kcal is lost. Plus, adjusting the diet, in the most optimistic case, you can win 200-300 kilocalories. But with a similar intensity of training and a restriction in nutrition, a person quickly loses motivation, strength and mood.
Fortunately, our body is smart enough and similar measures for quality and quick weight loss are not required. Alpha and beta receptors are responsible for the processes of accumulation (lipogenesis) and burning (lipolysis) of fat in the cell.
Lipolysis or lipogenesis
Now let's see why a flexible diet, in contrast to its ultra-low-calorie counterparts, really works.
First you need to understand the processes of lipolysis and lipogenesis. As you know, in the human body there is a certain supply of fat cells - it is impossible to reduce their number. But to increase - easily. As soon as the fat cell is completely filled with fat, a new one is activated nearby. The process is not endless, but long enough - far from everyone can gain more than 150-180 kilograms, but 100-120 are quite real numbers for each of us.
As soon as a person sharply restricts calorie intake, his body switches to glycogen stores - with low physical exertion it is quite realistic to hold on for several days. Time goes on, but there was no food, no? Interestingly, even in this case, the cunning organism does not trigger lipolysis, but ... catabolism!
Catabolism is the process of muscle destruction. Firstly, the muscles themselves are quite an energy-intensive venture - each kilogram of muscle consumes about 50 calories per day. Secondly, muscle is a much more affordable fuel than fat. That is, with a minimal calorie intake or starvation, the only true result that can be expected is a skinny fat figure. A bit far from the ideal of beauty, isn't it?
Sleep, nutrition, exercise.
The whole point of a flexible diet is to start lipolysis instead of catabolism. The process of fat burning is based on three pillars - sleep, nutrition, training.
To activate lipogenesis, you just need to properly refuel with fats and simple carbohydrates - a piece of honey or a cheburek with a glass of soda will do just that.
To activate lipolysis, it’s enough to create a small calorie deficit (200-250), activate the adrenaline rush and ... go to bed early.
Early, because with insufficient sleep, cortisol is produced, which actively slows down your weight loss. And after a good eight-hour sleep, a person gets up in the morning and discovers that the insulin level is low, the level of glucogone is maximum, which means that lipolysis is in full swing. True, exactly until the moment when the energy costs of the body increase. At this second, the body will switch from lipolysis to glycogen, and in the absence thereof, to catabolism.
Systematic adequately heavy training in the gym (adequately heavy, and not those after which you want to lie down and die) are not intended to increase the energy consumption of the body, but to promote the production of adrenaline, which in turn is one of the starting hooks of lipolysis.
In the book Flexible Diet, the author brings us to a few simple conclusions:
- To lose weight efficiently, you need to lose fat, not muscle
- For quality weight loss, it is necessary to avoid lipogenesis by all means - you should not eat simple carbohydrates with fats, you should not eat too many simple carbohydrates.
- For high-quality and quick weight loss, you should activate the lipolysis process in the body - systematically engage in sports, consume an adequate amount of calories balanced by KBJU, sleep at least 8 hours a day.
- The effectiveness of the diet is not in strict limitation, but in longevity. To ensure compliance with this technique without a possible eating disorder, you should give yourself concessions - 1-2 free meals per week.
Reviews
According to reviews, a flexible diet provides not only effective weight loss without stress, but also forms the right habits that protect the future from breakdowns and weight loss. To date, such a technique remains one of the most gentle, thoughtful and safe for humans.