Why weight comes back quickly after a diet: how to keep it off

According to various estimates, about 20% of people who lose weight by changing their diet maintain optimal weight. The remaining 80% face a problem: the lost pounds return, and they have to look for new ways to achieve a slim figure. Moreover, regaining excess weight is the minimum difficulty that can be encountered after a dietary shake-up. Because often the lost weight is not only restored, but also increased. Why does this happen, and are there any diets after which the weight does not return?

Reasons for weight gain after dieting

A sharp reduction in calorie intake or a change in menu is stressful for the body. Studies have shown that you can reduce your caloric intake by no more than 20% without harming your health. Even if you suddenly eat a surprising amount, suddenly cutting your menu in half will stress your body and lead to problems. That is, you should change your eating habits carefully, gradually, and carefully.

However, in pursuit of a beautiful figure, especially when the need to “fit into” their favorite dress looms ahead, many women strive to lose weight quickly. They resort to mono-diets, severe dietary restrictions, and even real hunger strikes. An exhausted body really begins to lose kilograms, although not due to fatty tissue, but due to water and muscles. But, since the result is noticeable on the scale, and the coveted dress fits the figure, women consider such ways to quickly lose weight effective.

In practice, exhaustion of the body is extremely harmful. The body remembers periods of such sudden weight loss as times of hunger and stores adipose tissue in case force majeure occurs again. That is, the lost kilograms are rapidly restored, and the body begins to resist their loss with all its might, because nutritious, energetically valuable fat can be useful during the next “hunger period”. Thus, the desire to lose weight contributes to the gain of excess body weight.

But even if you do not abuse fasting and mono-diets, there may be other reasons why you cannot maintain optimal body weight.

Calorie foods

So, you gave up high-calorie foods for a couple of weeks or even months, and gained a slim figure. Everything is fine, the diet period is over, you can return to old habits. This is the most common mistake people make when trying to lose weight.

If you've lost pounds by cutting out high-calorie foods, once they're back in your diet, you'll start to gain weight again. A diet that doesn't cause weight gain is one that you can stick to consistently, with minor adjustments. It is impossible to eat hamburgers and drink cola every day and maintain optimal body weight. Unless you compensate for this with some kind of physical activity at the level of a professional athlete. However, even daily exercise does not help everyone normalize body weight without nutritional correction.

Metabolic slowdown

It can occur for various reasons, including the one we described above: the body’s physiological response to hunger. Our body is “sharpened” not for compliance with the canons of beauty, but for survival, so it can slow down its metabolism if you periodically stress it in the form of a sharp reduction in calories. But there may be other reasons:

diseases of the endocrine system;
a sharp decrease in physical activity;
taking certain medications with similar side effects;
regular lack of sleep.

Loss of motivation and willpower

Another common reason why you can’t maintain a slim figure is lack of discipline. Let's say you balanced your diet, consulted with a nutritionist, signed up for a gym, and everything is going great. But from time to time you want to return to old habits: drinking beer instead of jogging, tasting sweets instead of the gym, and replacing salads with hearty, aromatic sweet pastries.

To fight temptation, allow yourself such weaknesses, but very carefully. Plan ahead for these little treats. However, eat baked goods once a week and in the morning, and not every day and in the evening. If you feel tired, allow yourself to relax with your favorite TV series, reschedule your sports training for tomorrow (but not for a period like “in a month”). Of course, you should give up alcohol so as not to gain excess weight again, but a glass of dry red wine on Saturday evening will not hurt, and at the same time you will not feel that you have been deprived of all the joys of life.

Please note that if you eat and cannot stop, if, having eaten enough, you feel guilty and avoid eating in front of other people, then this is not a problem with willpower. This is how eating disorders manifest themselves. They also happen to very disciplined, strong-willed people. Only a qualified psychiatrist-psychotherapist who specializes in the treatment of eating disorder will help to cope with this problem.

Calorie deficit

Paradoxically, trying to eat less can backfire. The fact is that if you don't get enough nutrients during breakfast, lunch, dinner and afternoon snacks, then you will constantly want to eat. Hands themselves reach for candy, sandwiches, snacks, which seem to be a “snack” and “do not count.” For the same reason, you may eat at night, because hunger prevents you from sleeping, or you simply are not able to withstand the new diet for long enough. Remember, you can only reduce your caloric intake by 20%, otherwise the body will perceive the changes as stress.

Is it possible to lose weight with a diet?

What results can you achieve by losing weight with diets? Why does weight come back and grow even more after a diet? These are some of the most common questions we get asked.

Of course, losing weight with diet is possible! But most often, and unfortunately, this weight loss will not last forever. In the vast majority of cases, the weight comes back, along with the diagnosis of obesity.

Why is this happening. There are a lot of theories about this, but no one still knows for sure. Either a person gets tired of following this diet and sooner or later returns to his old eating habits. Either the body adapts to a new regime and eventually falls into the so-called metabolic hole. Scientists have yet to find an exact answer to these questions.

Life shows, and scientific research echoes it, that only 1% of people can maintain weight after losing weight through a diet. The remaining 99% achieve only a temporary weight loss effect. After six months, after a year, the weight returns to its original values.

But the saddest thing is different. The existence of the “Yo-Yo effect” has been proven (the name is taken from a rubber children’s toy that bounces in the opposite direction from the one in which it was pointed). In relation to diets, this means one thing: a person gains even more weight than he loses during the diet. In other words, the extra pounds not only come back, but they also bring friends with them.

The Yo-Yo effect during dieting occurs for two reasons:

A person stops following the dietary regimen that was prescribed to him. And this is understandable. If significant reserves of fat have accumulated in the body, any diet turns into torture and a struggle with one’s own body and mind. Life becomes difficult and sometimes unbearable.

Any attempt to lose weight by dieting for a person with a BMI above 35 is always associated with enormous stress. And it is simply impossible to maintain such a regime for a long time. And as soon as the diet stops, the weight begins to creep up. As nutritionists themselves joke, diets for maintaining weight have not yet been invented.

Against the backdrop of a diet, the body understands that it is in saving mode. In his understanding, the “dark days of hunger” have arrived and he is forced to give away his supplies. He, of course, resists this, so the metabolism is adjusted to a new regime. It is called "thrifty metabolism". With this regime, even a small amount of food taken is enough to store reserves in fat stores. Calories are taken from the basal metabolism and due to stronger squeezing (processing) of incoming food. In other words, the body squeezes every bite of food down to a drop and takes most of the squeezed back into fat reserves.

This is why using a weight loss diet for obesity is not effective. Moreover, if a person is not obese and we are talking about losing 3-4 kg, restrictive diets work very well and do not cause the person any problems.

But as soon as 20-30 extra kg accumulate in the body, the fat balance mechanism is completely rebuilt, fat cells turn into the main endocrine organ, and diets become simply powerless against such an enemy.

You can read more about obesity treatment here.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIij—1er4w

Diets after which the weight does not return

These are diets that you can stick to constantly, which seem satisfying, tasty and enjoyable. In other words, a diet after which the weight does not return is a balanced diet. Often it requires a complete restructuring of eating habits, giving up alcohol, limiting the consumption of sweet, fatty, spicy, mayonnaise and sauces from stores.

If you don’t want the extra pounds to return, then don’t chase quick results. Quickly lost kilograms come back just as quickly. The normal rate of weight loss is 0.5-3 kg per week. If you are healthy and lose 5-10 kg per week, then rest assured: these kilograms will return sooner or later.

How to deal with hunger

It is unknown when the anti-obesity drug will appear in pharmacies. Therefore, we will fight it in our own ways. To take control of your leptin and ghrelin levels, you need to eat right, be physically active, and take care of your mental health.

The level of ghrelin directly depends on whether we get enough sleep or not. In those who are chronically sleep deprived, ghrelin is consistently high. Accordingly, the feeling of hunger is practically not dulled. Hence overeating and excess weight.

The optimal time for lights out is 22:00-22:30. Sleeping in the dark is also important because the sleep hormone melatonin produced helps normalize metabolism. It has been proven that among people who often work night shifts, the percentage of people who are overweight is higher.

You should not often resort to express diets. They may give quick results, but they are just as short-lived. As a result, the weight not only returns, but also increases compared to what you went on the diet with. Divided meals 5-6 times a day in small portions are healthier and more effective. At the same time, the diet includes proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. You just need to take them separately.

Inflammatory processes in the body affect sensitivity to leptin. Therefore, it is necessary to cure all diseases, including caries. Drinking regimen also helps reduce inflammation. You need to drink 1.5-2 liters of plain water per day (drinks do not count).

There are also anti-inflammatory products. These include:

fatty fish;
beans, red beans, lentils;
nuts, seeds;
linseed oil;
brown rice, oatmeal;
vegetables, juicy fruits;
ginger, cinnamon, green tea, mint.

Harmful foods, such as smoked meats, pickles, sweet, floury, fatty meats, on the contrary, cause inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, they should be completely excluded from the diet.

You can also increase leptin levels through physical activity: walking, cycling, skiing, etc.

You also need to learn to control your emotions in order to increase your resistance to stress. When stressed, the body produces the hormone cortisol, which increases appetite. Many people eat stress.

To lose weight faster, you need to come up with motivation. Everyone has their own. Some people dream of fitting into a prom dress again, others want to run with their child for a walk rather than sit on a bench, and for others, losing weight is not a luxury, but a vital necessity. After all, excess weight puts a huge burden on the joints, spine, and feet. The longer the motivation, the longer the normal weight lasts.

Be beautiful and healthy!

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How to maintain weight after a diet

Follow a balanced diet, eat as little baked goods, sweets, fatty foods, and fried foods as possible. Don't forget to include fresh vegetables and fruits, salads, cereals, legumes, some nuts and berries in your daily menu.

Also try to maintain a comfortable level of physical activity. Sedentary work is harmful to health and contributes to weight gain, so choose a pleasant type of exercise for yourself: walking, running, swimming, gym. The main thing is that you move regularly. If your level of physical activity and diet remain stable, but your weight is growing rapidly: for example, 5 kilograms per month, despite the fact that your eating habits have not changed and you have not stopped walking or playing sports, consult a doctor. With a high degree of probability, the problem is not in your diet, but in your health.