What to eat to lose weight: effective alternatives to extreme diets

With the arrival of spring, the number of requests for the word “diet” is increasing exponentially. But serious dietary restrictions can lead to health problems, so we are here to ensure that the weight loss process is not accompanied by hunger. We asked nutritionist Zoya Bogdanova to talk about effective alternatives to popular diets.

Zoya Bogdanova, nutritionist, nutritionist, psychologist

intermittent fasting

The diet is based on the activation of the autophagy (“self-eating”) process. The most common eating pattern is 16/8, where you have to avoid eating for 16 hours and you will have time to eat three meals within 8 hours. In the process of such starvation, amino acids and muscle tissue, which support the vital activity of the body, are broken down. The fact is that it is not enough just to enter a range in nutrition, you need to analyze the diet, find out how much protein, fat, carbohydrate is needed for a healthy metabolism.

Alternative

Reduce fast carbohydrates in your diet and increase the protein component. With such a diet, sufficient energy will come from complex carbohydrates and muscle reserve will be preserved.

keto diet

A diet high in fat and low in carbohydrates. This diet has not yet been studied and has many contraindications. If the body does not have enough carbohydrates, it breaks down the protein component. Therefore, energy loss begins and in some cases depression may develop.

Alternative

First, analyze the amount of carbohydrates consumed. Try to replace them with complex ones (vegetables, legumes, grains) and increase healthy plant proteins (for example, nuts and grains).

Single Fruit Detox

On such a diet, you need to drink a glass of lemon or orange with the addition of syrup and pepper for several days. The morning starts with salt water and in the evening there is tea with a laxative. Before starting the diet, the body needs to be prepared: remove meat from the diet, switch to liquid food and sit on water the day before the detox. The only plus is rapid weight loss. But the consequences in the form of problems with the kidneys and metabolism are not worth it.

Alternative

If you feel like you need a detox, do it for a day. Have a hearty breakfast in the morning – sprouted and boiled wheat germ and drink clean water throughout the day. You can also add a hammam visit to the detox program. Steam stimulates active sweating, from which everything unnecessary will turn out.

Backup nutrition

Diet is when you eat one product for a long time (up to 12 weeks): coffee with milk, chocolate or cocoa. This type of food has no medical evidence or even efficacy. But the consequences are obvious – metabolism is disrupted, irritable bowel syndrome and nutritional deficiencies can occur.

Alternative

If you need to limit yourself to one thing, remove bread and pastries from your diet. Try a week to live without flour. It will be beneficial for metabolism, lowering sugar levels and accelerating the breakdown of fats.

baby food diet

It’s a novelty in the diet world and one of the weirdest. Meals are limited to mashed cereals and soups for children. You can eat it up to 20 times a day, and such a diet is dangerous with side effects such as fatigue, anemia and nutritional deficiencies.

Alternative

Try to reduce the amount of servings (for a woman – up to 300 g, for a man – up to 500 g), remove fast carbohydrates, the second “unhealthy” breakfast, but save lunch, afternoon tea and dinner.

macrobiotic diet

According to eastern philosophy, food has yin and yang energy. The first is sweet and sour, the second is salty, bitter. The predominance of energy-containing foods “yin” leads to weight gain, and “yang” leads to weakness. Therefore, at the heart of the macrobiotic diet is the balance between the products of both energies. His problem is insufficient protein and minerals, which can lead to osteoporosis and anemia.

Alternative

See which products fit your psychotype energetically. With a quick temperament, add green, blue and brown colored foods (avocado, cucumber, greens). With a lack of energy, add colorful fruits, berries, hot sauces to your diet.