MOSCOW, February 10 - RIA Novosti. Physiologist from Loughborough University in England, Kevin Dayton, in an article for The Сonversation portal, told how to cope with excess weight and not regain the lost pounds.
Sticking to a strict diet is challenging for two reasons. Firstly, access to delicious food is practically unlimited, and secondly, the feeling of hunger becomes more intense when you start losing weight. Dayton is confident that these two difficulties can be dealt with.
Count calories
As Dayton writes, the most important thing when losing weight is to be attentive to the quality and quantity of food consumed. Diet control is necessary to counter the body's natural tendency to gain extra pounds, developed over the course of evolution.
Dayton argues that a person's appetite remains almost unchanged, even with overeating and a significant excess of the daily calorie intake. The body cannot adapt, because it does not know what to do with excess energy, and begins to gain weight.
That is why you need to count calories instead of focusing on hunger, the article notes.
“It's important to be aware of your calorie intake because short periods of inadvertent overeating can trigger weight gain or make it harder to lose weight,” writes Dayton.
He explained that it is useless to maintain a strict diet all week and then overeat on weekends. Understanding this mechanism helps to lose weight, as it allows a person to make an informed choice in favor of a diet, the scientist is sure.
Exercise is the enemy of hunger
In addition, it is important not to forget about physical activity, the scientist recalled.
Intense exercise, in contrast to dietary restrictions, helps to reduce hunger, which is especially important when changing the diet to a dietary one.
However, like diet, exercise causes energy deficits for weight loss.
Sometimes you can relax
Dayton clarified that those who want to lose weight do not have to constantly rigidly restrict themselves and refuse, for example, from parties with additional meals. A certain degree of flexibility in this matter is needed, he said.
Given that the appetite remains unchanged, despite the increased calorie intake, it is possible to adjust the diet and exercise regimen before and after the holiday event. This will avoid weight gain.
“Conscious control over diet and lifestyle is more than enough to counteract the body’s natural tendency to gain weight,” he concludes.
