The benefits of beets for weight loss
Beets, especially raw ones, have a huge number of beneficial properties. It is rich in vitamins, macro- and microelements. The healing effect of this vegetable for various diseases is widely known.
Beetroot is used in the treatment of hypertension, anemia, constipation and even cancer. In addition, the vegetable is popular in cosmetology and, of course, for weight loss.
Operating principle
How do beets help you lose weight? Firstly, it has a powerful laxative effect. Secondly, the vegetable is rich in fiber and pectins, which help cleanse the stomach and intestinal walls.
In addition, betaine contained in beets normalizes liver function, helps restore fat metabolism and promote faster saturation. Curcumin, which the root vegetable is rich in, fights fats already present in the body and prevents the deposition of new ones.
Beneficial features
In addition to the beneficial properties already listed, beets remove toxins, heavy metal salts and radionuclides from the body. In its raw form, the vegetable strengthens the walls of blood vessels, improves the functioning of the digestive system and acts as a wonderful source of energy.
It is believed that beets increase male sexual activity. For women, the vegetable helps in the fight against mastopathy, menopause and menstrual irregularities, and is also indicated for use by pregnant women.
Raw or cooked
For weight loss, beets are consumed in a wide variety of forms: raw, boiled, baked or beet juice. The most effective and healthy thing is, of course, raw beets and their juice. At the same time, diets often combine vegetables in different forms (raw, boiled, baked).
In its raw form, beets contain the maximum amount of useful substances, which are significantly reduced during cooking. However, there are a number of restrictions when consuming fresh vegetables.
Main conclusions
- beet salad is dietary due to its low calorie content and high content of vitamins, minerals and amino acids;
- beets go harmoniously with vegetables, cheeses, meat, cottage cheese, fruits;
- The least amount of calories is found in raw vegetables, and a little more in boiled vegetables.
Despite all the benefits of the root vegetable, it can cause harm to the body if there are contraindications. Therefore, if they are present or suspected, it is recommended to consult a doctor.
How do you feel about eating beetroot salads when losing weight and maintaining proper nutrition? Share your favorite recipes with our readers.
Losing weight with beets correctly
Nutritionists have developed several options for diets with beets and beet juice. As a rule, they are used for unloading, but there are also weekly beetroot diets, and even diets for a month.
Losing weight on beets certainly has other benefits besides weight loss. Eating this vegetable leads to overall health and lack of hunger. It serves as an excellent remedy for the prevention of constipation, and also saturates the body with useful substances.
Fasting day
Eating beets on a fasting day helps you lose up to 1.5-2 kg. The menu for the day is simple:
- Breakfast - salad with fresh ingredients: carrots, beets, cabbage, prunes. Grate the vegetables on a coarse grater and season with olive oil.
- Lunch – salad of beets, carrots, apples and seaweed, seasoned with kefir. You can drink 250 ml of milk.
- Dinner – baked beets with cottage cheese and herbs. Green tea with lemon is a good drink.
Important! It is better to spend such fasting days no more than once a week.
Diet for a week
In this version of the diet, the main dish is a salad of grated beets and carrots, seasoned with low-fat sour cream. It is recommended to alternate salads from fresh and boiled vegetables in your diet.
1 day:
- breakfast: salad, whole grain toast, tea (no sugar, you can add low-fat milk);
- lunch: salad, boiled rice;
- dinner: chicken soup with beets, apple.
Day 2:
- breakfast: oatmeal porridge with water, low-fat yogurt, tea with honey;
- lunch: salad, baked chicken;
- dinner: potatoes baked with herbs and vegetable oil, kiwi.
Day 3:
- breakfast: salad, two whole grain toasts, tea (no sugar, you can add low-fat milk);
- lunch: salad, low-fat baked fish;
- dinner: lean soup.
Day 4:
- breakfast: oatmeal with low-fat yogurt;
- lunch: salad, chicken breast (boiled or baked);
- dinner: casserole of vegetables and herbs.
Day 5:
- breakfast: salad, two whole grain toasts, tea (no sugar, you can add low-fat milk);
- lunch: salad, boiled rice;
- dinner: baked vegetables, 250 ml low-fat kefir.
Day 6:
- breakfast: salad, two whole grain toasts, tea (no sugar, you can add low-fat milk);
- lunch: salad, a piece of hard low-fat cheese;
- dinner: vegetable stew (without potatoes).
Day 7:
- breakfast: salad, low-fat yogurt, oatmeal, tea (no sugar, you can add low-fat milk);
- lunch: salad, baked chicken;
- dinner: boiled egg, steamed rice, tomato.
After leaving the diet, it is recommended to stick to a healthy diet and avoid eating sweets.
Rules for eating vegetables during a diet
Excessive consumption of beets, especially raw, can be harmful to the body. Before going on a beetroot diet, be sure to consult your doctor. You can use it no more than once a month, and arrange a fasting day on root vegetables - no more than once a week. There are also a number of rules that must be followed when choosing a beetroot diet.
Firstly, you will have to completely eliminate sugar from your diet, since beets contain a large amount of it. Secondly, those who adhere to the beetroot diet and those who arrange fasting days with this vegetable need to drink at least 2 liters of water per day.
It is better to choose raw beets - they contain the most nutrients. However, the likelihood that it will harm the body is also greater than when eating boiled vegetables. Try to alternate them.
Reference. The rich red root vegetable is considered the most useful.
The most important thing is to follow the restrictions and do not forget about the contraindications for consuming beets.
Preparing a fat burning cocktail
To prepare a cocktail for weight loss for 1 day, you will need the same 1.5 liters of kefir and 1 kg of beets. This recipe for kefir with beets for weight loss is simple: boil the beets until fully cooked without adding salt. Remove the skin, chop the beets, pour them into kefir and use a blender to mix the ingredients until smooth. If you don't have a blender, simply pass the beets through a meat grinder, then mix thoroughly with kefir. Beetroot-kefir cocktail has a rather specific taste, which not everyone can appreciate. Therefore, it is allowed to add a pinch of chopped herbs to it: parsley, dill, cilantro, celery.
This cocktail should be your daily diet. Divide the drink into 6 parts and drink it every 2-3 hours. The dietary program lasts 3 days. If you feel acute hunger, you can add a small portion of fruit salad to the menu one day.
Disadvantages of the diet:
- Beets and kefir have a laxative effect, so frequent trips to the toilet are an integral element of the diet. Many people choose weekends to lose weight, when they don’t have to leave the house.
- Some people who are losing weight already notice severe diarrhea on the first day, which is accompanied by bloating and abdominal pain.
- The diet is not balanced. You do not get the proper amount of proteins, fats, and the vitamin composition differs significantly from a full diet. If you stay on a diet for more than 3-5 days, you risk developing a persistent aversion to such tasty and healthy foods.
- As mentioned above, weight loss on kefir and beets occurs due to cleansing of the intestines and loss of excess fluid, fat mass is lost in minimal quantities. Therefore, you can quickly regain lost kilograms if you do not limit yourself in nutrition in the future.
- Like any other diet, the beetroot-kefir diet has a number of contraindications. These are diabetes mellitus, increased acidity of gastric juice, stones in the bile ducts, kidney failure, a tendency to diarrhea, and an allergy to one of the components.
Restrictions and contraindications
Diabetics will have to refrain from the beet diet and raw beets, as the vegetable contains a large amount of glucose. In addition, the diet is contraindicated for hypotensive people, people suffering from gastrointestinal diseases (especially gastritis and frequent diarrhea) and urolithiasis.
In this case, it is better to exclude raw beets from the diet and replace them with boiled ones. Remember that the amount of nutrients in the vegetable will decrease sharply.
Contraindications
If you have certain diseases, beet consumption should be strictly limited.
Contraindications:
- allergic reactions;
- osteoporosis, fractures, diseases of bones and joints;
- diabetes;
- diarrhea - for chronic stool disorders, strict refusal is recommended;
- hypotension - consumption of beets is accompanied by an even greater decrease in blood pressure, which leads to weakness and fainting.
- high acidity of the stomach - the vegetable provokes an exacerbation of the disease;
- urolithiasis - beets are not recommended for use in case of kidney stones or bladder stones.
Diet dishes
There is good news for those losing weight on beets: there is a huge variety of dietary dishes with this vegetable. Here are the most popular recipes.
Beet and carrot salad
Ingredients:
- beets – 1 pc.;
- carrots – 1 pc.;
- freshly squeezed lemon juice – 1 tsp;
- greenery;
- unrefined oil.
Wash and peel the vegetables, grate them on a fine grater, and chop the greens. Mix by adding lemon juice. Fill with oil.
Beetroot with garlic
Ingredients:
- beets – 1 pc.;
- garlic – 2 cloves;
- mayonnaise;
- salt and pepper to taste
Wash and peel the beets, grate them. Chop the garlic and add to the beets. Season with mayonnaise, add salt and pepper.
Of course, due to mayonnaise, this dish cannot be considered 100% dietary. At the same time, beets retain all the beneficial properties, as well as a laxative effect that will cleanse the intestines and get rid of 1-2 extra pounds.
Beet salad
Ingredients:
- beets – 1 pc.;
- vinegar 6% – ½ tbsp;
- vegetable oil – 2 tbsp;
- salt and pepper to taste.
Boil and cool the beets, cut them into thin bars. Pour in vinegar and leave for 20 minutes to allow the vegetable to soak in the marinade. After this, drain the liquid, season the salad with oil, add salt and pepper.
Beetroot with kefir
Ingredients:
- beets – 1 pc.;
- kefir 1% – 250 ml.
Pass the ingredients through a blender. This makes an excellent diet cocktail that can be used as a snack.
Salad "Brush"
Ingredients:
- beets – 1 pc.;
- carrots – 3 pcs.;
- white cabbage – 500-700 g;
- olive oil – 2 tbsp;
- freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Wash and peel all vegetables. Grate the carrots and beets on a coarse grater, chop the cabbage finely and mash a little so that it releases the juice. Next, mix it with the rest of the vegetables, let it brew for 5-10 minutes and season with oil. You can add lemon juice and herbs for taste.
Beet juice
Beetroot juice is also very useful for weight loss. Of course, it is better to squeeze it yourself, so you will get the maximum of nutrients contained in the root vegetable.
Important! Freshly squeezed juice should not be consumed. Be sure to let it sit for 2-3 hours.
The most popular and effective mix of juices for weight loss: beetroot, carrot, cucumber with grapefruit, plum and celery juices.
The essence of the diet
The beetroot diet, like the rest of the diet for weight loss, is designed so that the calories consumed in the menu (salad, soup, beet puree) are less than those consumed by a person throughout the day. On average, calorie consumption, depending on gender, age, and lifestyle, ranges from 1800 to 2100 calories.
The weight loss diet is based on eating boiled red beets, 100 grams of which contain only 40 calories.
Using recipes for weight loss, it is easy to lose up to a kilogram of weight per day. With this diet for weight loss, office workers and other people who move little during the day can easily lose weight.
The beetroot diet is divided into several types: food for 3 days, diet for seven days, food beets + kefir for 7 days, food cabbage + beet for 5 days. We will focus on the three-day and weekly diet menu.
Efficiency
Basically, weight loss with beets is achieved due to its two properties: laxative and fat burning. The beetroot diet, of course, is not the one on which you lose 20 kg per month. At the same time, it is considered a fairly effective way to lose weight at home.
You should not believe enthusiastic statements that you can lose 15 or even 20 kg on beets. On fasting days it takes up to 1.5-2 kg. Those who adhere to a weekly beetroot diet get rid of 4-6 extra pounds in a week.
To prove it, here are some reviews of girls who actually lost weight on beetroot diets.
Healthy Blood Pressure Levels
High blood pressure is a leading indicator for a heart attack or stroke. It is insidious and tends to be asymptomatic until something bad happens. This is why foods that can lower your blood pressure are important to eat every day. Beets reduce blood pressure by 4-10 mm Hg. Art. within several hours after consumption.
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Reviews of those losing weight
Masha: “Once a week I make myself a fasting day with beets baked in the oven. It helps to lose weight and improves digestion. During this day I lose up to a kilogram, without particularly starving, because beets are very filling.”
Irina: “I decided to try a diet and spent 2 days on a salad of baked beets and olive oil. She held up well, really lost 1 kg, even her complexion became less pale.”
Svetlana: “I’ve been on a diet for 6 days, my result is 5.600! But what pleases me most is not even the plumb line, but the condition of my stomach and intestines. This is what it means not to eat fried, over-salted, seasoned and sweet foods! The lightness is amazing, it seems as if it took not 5 kg 600 g, but all 10 kilos!!! It’s already noticeable in terms of volume.”
Regina: “In 7 days minus 8,100! How it was sitting: very, very good. For those who are afraid of starving, the beetroot diet is just it! I wanted to eat very rarely, I always remained full. As a matter of principle, I ate absolutely everything that was indicated in the diet. Total: BEFORE the diet I weighed 67.4 kg, AFTER – 59.3. Height – 168 cm.”
Experts' opinion
Nutritionist Ksenia: “Many people are interested in the question: how to lose weight with beets? As an expert in such matters, I recommend being more careful with her. Firstly, the natural product is a strong laxative, which is not acceptable for all people. Secondly, it can provoke an allergic reaction. Before starting a diet, you should consult a specialist.”
Nutritionist Lydia: “Mono-diets are possible, but only according to indications. Yes, they give good results, but this is short-lived. Long-term abuse of such monodays is dangerous for the body.”
Gastroenterologist Angelina: “You shouldn’t blindly trust reviews on the Internet. Before you start losing weight, be sure to consult your doctor. Days on juices, vegetables and any other strict “unloading” can manifest or aggravate gastrointestinal diseases.”
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