Obesity has a negative impact on health and wellbeing. Losing weight is therefore at the top of the list of good resolutions for many people. However, implementation is often difficult. We show healthy ways to permanent weight loss.
10 tips to help you lose weight faster and easier
No magazines, no bestseller list, and no health website without new, revolutionary, unprecedented diet suggestions: Lose weight quickly made easy, is a promise. Sometimes some of these diets do have some success.
And after a short time, the painstakingly saved pounds inevitably return to their original place. This vicious circle on the stony path to the ideal figure is called the yo-yo effect.
Probably the one perfectly fitting diet can never be found. A change in diet for a few weeks simply cannot bring lasting success. A more sensible alternative, on the other hand, is to rely on two proven virtues: patience and tenacity.
Sometimes even minor changes in eating habits are sufficient, but these must then be adhered to in the long term with a fixed diet plan. The route to a new, easier life is anything but complicated. Ten simple commandments indicate the direction:
The best tips:
1. Refrain from sweets
2. Prefer whole grain products
3. Eat fewer animal products
4. Instead, more vegetables and fruits
5. Less sugared drinks
6. Less alcoholic beverages
7. Eat slower, chew longer
8. Stop when you are full
9. More physical exercise
10. No crash diet, losing weight takes time
Get to know your body properly
Many people who have never had problems with their body weight suddenly notice in their middle years that the clothes from last summer just don’t fit anymore. After a certain age, the need for nutrients gradually decreases.
The body gets by with less food intake. If we then continue to eat our usual portions, this inevitably results in weight gain. A change in living conditions can also lead to weight fluctuations. Just like some diseases that affect the metabolism.
Hormonhaushalt
A persistent deficiency of thyroid hormones (e.g. due to untreated hypothyroidism) can lead to a significant increase in body weight. The falling levels of female hormones during menopause are also often reflected in noticeable changes in weight. Similar effects work in men in old age, only the processes are less abrupt in them.
Blutwerte
Being overweight can affect the results of blood tests over the long term. Often the values for blood sugar, cholesterol, or uric acid are increased. These may already be the first harbingers of diseases that can be triggered by obesity or an unhealthy diet. Diabetes 2 and coronary artery disease are typical examples.
Metabolism
There are individual differences when it comes to the energy required to provide a specific service. The basal metabolic rate (the basic requirement for maintaining vital functions) also differs considerably from person to person.
Metabolism is not least a matter of type. Anyone who is constantly on the move and can hardly endure moments of rest is unlikely to have any problems with being very overweight. Pronounced phlegmatics, on the other hand, have a higher risk of becoming fat.
A permanent change
The calorie intake must match the living conditions and personal constitution. You have to carefully approach the stable balance between food intake and demand. The goal is a permanently feasible diet plan.
Brute fasting cures are more likely to be counter productive, because the organism adapts to a supposed deficiency situation through starvation and uses the available nutrients more sparingly.
The faster the weight gain happens again if more is eaten again. But the sheer amount of calories isn’t the only factor. The wrong or unbalanced diet can also lead to obesity.
Eating habits
Often we eat too much and too quickly. And we often eat the wrong thing too. Many people have long since lost their original sense of what we need and what is good for us. In the well-timed daily routine, people eat when it is time.
And not when you are hungry. And best of all, it has to be done as quickly as possible. Before the natural feeling of satiety can set in, we have already consumed a portion that is far too large.
In addition, many fast food dishes and snacks contain too much sugar and fat. We find the combination of the two nutrients particularly tasty, but we only get it in very small portions.
Stress
Stress increases the hectic pace of eating. We don’t really have the time for that. And so any snacks that are currently available and have little to do with healthy nutrition are consumed in a hurry or for a short time in between.
In addition: Stress is an emotional burden. Delicious food is supposed to comfort us over a situation that we find frustrating.
Eating becomes a substitute for satisfaction. In the long run, eating disorders can even develop, which require extensive treatment.
Sedentary lifestyle
“Sitting is the new smoking”, they say. We move too little. The world of work is dominated by office activities for many. And after a long day at work, we usually make ourselves comfortable on the sofa.
A healthy balance is missing. Movement changes self-perception and improves body awareness. This also has a positive influence on our eating habits.
Exercise also burns calories, of course. But it is hardly possible to compensate for excessive food consumption through exercise alone. At best, competitive athletes can achieve this in extreme endurance sports.
Way of life
An active and fulfilling lifestyle helps in the fight against obesity. Loss of drive, on the other hand, can become a problem. Getting lean is a challenge. Health can also be a major hurdle. Certain medications can lead to obesity.
These include cortisone and some psychotropic drugs. There is also a familial predisposition to obesity. But genes alone are rarely the cause of obesity.
Excessive calorie intake or wrong eating must be added as factors. Drinking should also be mentioned on this occasion. Alcohol and sweet drinks are proven fattening foods.
Diets, yes or no?
Diets promise successful weight loss through a temporary change in diet. Most of the time, however, it turns out that the successes achieved are not permanent.
There is probably no real alternative to permanent dietary changes on the way to sustained normal weight. A consistent diet plan or a permanent nutrition plan serves as a reliable guideline for this.
What diets are there?
Diet: hardly any carbohydrates, fat, and protein, on the other hand, without restrictions. Possible side effects include bad breath, headache, constipation, and fatigue. Due to the one-sided diet, this diet plan may also include too much salt and too few vitamins and fiber.
HCG diet: Combination of hormone injections and a strong reduction in calories to 500 kilocalories a day. Damage to health due to insufficient supply and the regular administration of the pregnancy hormone HCG is questionable with this diet plan. HCG is not approved for reducing body weight.
Intermittent fasting: Eat 8 hours a day and then pause for 16 hours. Intermittent fasting is considered a gentle method with a health-promoting effect. However, a new study found that it had little effect on weight loss.
Shake diets: pre-made diet drinks replace meals. Safe diet plan if it contains all the necessary ingredients for the body. Sometimes there are problems switching to solid food after the diet.
Low Carb Diet: This diet plan focuses on reducing carbohydrates. Vegetables, meat, fruit and dairy products can still be eaten. Under certain circumstances, low-carb recipes are too meat-heavy. This could lead to health problems in the long term.
Low-fat diet: the classic. However, this diet plan is being questioned more and more by nutritionists. Fat probably wrongly has its reputation as the number 1 fattener.
Losing weight and eating healthy
With a healthy diet, it is possible to reduce excess weight and maintain the desired weight permanently. As a rule, no drastic changes in lifestyle are necessary for this. However, the chosen direction must be adhered to with a clear nutrition plan.
Weight Loss Tips
These foods will help you lose weight
Many foods that are already consumed regularly play a major role in a healthy diet. In the chosen nutrition plan, however, enjoyment and enjoyment of food should not be neglected.
However, you cannot lose weight quickly with this strategy. In return, it is possible to lose the excess pounds permanently.
Tip: Some spices, such as cinnamon, can alleviate feelings of hunger that may initially appear. Some of the recommended foods include:
- Whole grain products
- Vegetables
- Fish
- Nuts
- Natural yogurt (low in fat)
- Low-fat quark
- Oatmeal
- Chia seeds
- Lettuce and tomato
- Cinnamon
You should definitely remove these foods from your eating plan
Very high-sugar recipes are generally a problem for anyone looking to lose weight. The problem: some foods contain a lot of sugar without it being apparent at first glance.
On the list of ingredients on the packaging, sugar also has a confusing number of names: glucose, fructose, malt extract, lactose, sucrose, maltodextrin … The combination of fat and sugar is also critical.
Even people of normal weight should only consume them in moderation. Even a diet that is heavily loaded with carbohydrates (lots of baked goods, pasta, white rice) can lead to weight gain in the long run. These foods should be avoided:
- Ice cream
- Chips and Flips
- High-sugar fruit yogurts
- Cream cakes
- Ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, barbecue sauces
- Dried fruits
- Sausage
- Refined vegetable oils
Abnehmen und Entgiftung
Regular and active detoxification of the body is often promoted under catchphrases such as “detox” or “purification”. However, there is no scientific justification for such a cleaning action. The only exceptions are medical emergencies, for example, if toxic substances have been absorbed.
The metabolic products created in the organism, on the other hand, are excreted without external support. The concept of therapeutic fasting, which is often associated with detoxification, does not serve as a diet plan for the long-term loss of body weight. Rather, the proponents see it as a general, health-promoting cure.
Lose weight and intermittent fasting
High hopes were placed on intermittent fasting as a barely stressful yet effective method of weight loss. It currently looks like this hope will be disappointed. A scientific study from 2020 with 116 participants showed that intermittent fasting does not lead to any significant weight reduction.
In 12 weeks, the participants did not even manage to lose a whole kilo of body weight on average. The study did not investigate whether fasting for 16 hours a day had any other health benefits. There may be other benefits from intermittent fasting.
Weight loss and acidosis
Ideally, the body attacks its own fat reserves when losing weight. With this desired fat breakdown, keto acids are formed. If the body becomes too acidic due to the excess of keto acids, further fat loss may come to a standstill.
Despite further reluctance to eat, there is no further progress in losing bodyweight. In this situation, it is helpful to focus more on vegetables. It has an alkaline effect on the body and can thus counteract acidification.
On the other hand, meat, sausage, cheese, and baked goods should be avoided. They are assigned to acid-forming foods.
Recipes that will help you lose weight
Good advice is very simple: Cooking it yourself is the best recipe. This gives you the best control over all the ingredients in your food. Many ready meals and highly processed foods contain excessive amounts of sugar, fat, or undesirable additives.
Another tip: serve the food on smaller plates. Tests have shown that smaller portions are actually eaten.
But even outside of the kitchen, small changes in daily life can have a positive effect on body weight. Many short distances that were previously covered quickly by car should better be covered on foot or by bike.
The short distances to the bakery, bank, and supermarket add up to a considerable training effect. In the workplace, too, it helps to use the stairs as often as possible instead of the lift.
How is weight loss related to the drinks you consume on a daily basis?
When losing weight, most people turn their attention to food. However, many calories are also absorbed through lemonades, iced tea, or other soft drinks. Here it is the large amounts of contained sugar that act as a fattening agent.
Weight Loss Tips
These drinks will help you lose weight
If you want to lose weight quickly, you should drink a lot, but it is best to avoid sugary drinks altogether. Vegetable smoothies are healthy snacks that are high in fiber and can replace an entire meal.
Tip: Mate tea, ginger tea, and green tea are said to have an appetite suppressant or health-promoting effect. You should prefer these drinks:
- water
- unsweetened herbal tea
- unsweetened fruit tea
- Green tea
- ginger tea
- Mate tea
- low-fat milk
- Buttermilk
- Vegetable smoothies
- Vegetable juice (tomato, carrot)
You should avoid these drinks
Some lemonades and cola contain very large amounts of sugar. Therefore, in order to reduce weight, these soft drinks should be avoided in favor of sugar-free drinks. Drinking light and diet drinks is also not safe.
The sugar substitutes contained can stimulate the appetite and thus make efforts to lose weight unnecessarily difficult. Tip: Drink water with all meals and avoid the following drinks.
- sugary soft drinks
- Fruit juices
- strongly sugared iced teas
- Ready-to-use fruit smoothies
- alcoholic drinks
- Light drinks
- Energy drinks
Lose weight with green smoothies
Green smoothies should ideally contain a lot of leafy vegetables but hardly any fruit. By preparing it with little fruit, the fructose content remains relatively low and the number of calories is correspondingly low.
The fresh ingredients are healthy and can replace a whole meal. This is exactly where the weight-reducing effect of the green smoothies lies. They are also a good balance when vitamins and minerals are already rare on the menu.
Lose weight with sport and exercise
These sports are calorie killers
Endurance sports are a great way to lose weight in conjunction with a permanent change in diet. If you have not played any sport before, you should enter carefully. Muscles and joints may not have been able to cope with high loads at first.
The demand for physical performance should therefore not be increased quickly, but only very gradually. After achieving a certain training effect, physical activity increases the well-being and motivation for further weight loss. It’s best to train several times a week. These sports burn a lot of calories and you can lose weight faster:
- Cycle
- Walking
- swim
- To run
- Boxing training
- Step aerobics
- Interval training
Lose weight by jogging
Hardly any other sport consumes more calories: around 500 calories per hour. But not that many people can run fast for a full hour.
This is why cycling and walking, for example, can be more productive, simply because you usually endure a much longer training period. These two sports also make less stress on the cardiovascular system.
Under certain circumstances, the higher stress on the previously damaged hip and knee joints when jogging is an obstacle for overweight people. Swimming or water aerobics are particularly effective, healthy alternatives that are gentle on the joints.
Strength training
Weight training helps with weight loss. Theoretically, the increase in muscle leads to an increase in weight. For this, the newly acquired muscles also consume a lot of energy, even when they are at rest.
This practice increases the daily basal metabolic rate (energy consumption without stress). With the same diet, bodyweight is effectively reduced and the weight achieved is easier to maintain.
What other alternatives for losing weight are there?
An entire industry lives from the fight against obesity. The number of diet products is obvious. Not all are helpful. Some light products even stimulate the appetite even more. In addition to the specially tailored foods, offers from the pharmacy or drugstore are also available.
Laxative
Laxatives are not suitable for weight loss. They are only used to remedy temporary indigestion. Long-term use, in particular, leads to constipation and other health problems.
Appetitzugler
Preparations aimed at curbing appetite and hunger have been coming onto the market with great regularity since the 1960s. At first, they were amphetamine derivatives. Among other things, the preparation cathine is currently still available.
The agent acts on the sympathetic nerve and can, as an undesirable side effect, increase the heart rate. The interest in appetite suppressants has meanwhile decreased somewhat. Instead, drugs that intervene in lipid metabolism became fashionable.
Currently, a drug from the treatment of diabetes is being promoted as a “diet injection”. The weight-reducing effect of all these means is rather manageable. However, the temporary weight loss is paid for by sometimes considerable side effects.
After stopping the preparations, the well-known yo-yo effect usually sets in and the original weight is quickly reached or exceeded. What remains, on the other hand, is persistent damage to health.
Weight Loss Drinks
Most of the time, they are powdered products that have to be dissolved in water or low-fat milk. They replace the daily meals. The slimming effect is caused by a reduced calorie intake (between 800 and 1200 calories a day).
The use of the weight loss drinks usually extends over several weeks. Medical supervision during the duration of the respective diet plan is recommended. You can lose weight quickly with this diet.
Whether or not the bodyweight achieved can be maintained depends on the fact that you do not fall back into old eating habits afterward. Some users suffer from digestive problems or the monotony of this liquid diet.
Alternatively, comparable weight loss can also be achieved with a diet rich in protein but low in carbohydrates.
Food supplements
High-fiber products that fill the stomach but contain hardly any calories are widespread. These dietary supplements reduce hunger pangs and can make the first steps towards weight loss easier.
In the case of radical weight loss, it can make sense to take vitamins, minerals, and trace elements. However, this should not be done on your own, but only on medical advice.
If gastric surgery is necessary
If extreme obesity (Grade III obesity) cannot be controlled in any other way, the doctor may suggest a surgical reduction of the stomach. If there are other health problems, partial removal of the stomach is advisable even for Grade II obese patients.
Due to the reduced stomach volume, only small portions of food can be eaten and the feeling of fullness sets in earlier. Following the operation, weight loss of 30 to 50 kilograms is possible within two years.
Like any operation, this procedure is associated with a risk of complications. The patients also need supportive aftercare so that the rapid weight loss does not lead to deficiency symptoms (vitamins) or other problems.
Alternative methods of stomach reduction are gastric banding and gastric balloon. Here, too, the absorption capacity of the stomach is reduced in principle. Thorough medical advice should be sought before deciding on any of the procedures.
How does the doctor define the degree of obesity?
In addition to waist circumference and age, the well-known body mass index (BMI) is used as a yardstick for classification. The BMI is calculated from the ratio of body weight in kilograms and body height in meters squared:
Obesity grade III: BMI 40 and more
Obesity grade II: BMI 35 to 39
Obesity grade I: BMI 30 to 34
Overweight: BMI 25 to 29
Normal weight: 18.5 to 24
Does it make sense to lose weight quickly?
Losing weight quickly puts a strain on the organism and is usually not sustainable. Only with a long-term diet plan can you finally lose those annoying pounds. Radical diets over a few weeks that promise rapid weight loss are usually only successful for a short time.
Instead of choosing “lose weight quickly”, you should simply opt for “healthy weight loss”. Because every kilo lost that returns to its old place after a few weeks hurts twice.