You have decided to move more. Good this way. But that alone will not get you to your feel-good weight. What’s missing: Gradually change your diet to a wholesome mixed diet (see page 8).
Stay realistic
The promise of losing five kilos in a week is completely unfounded. There are 7000 calories in one pound of fat. Since a woman only burns 2,000 to 2,500 calories a day – a man about 2,500 to 3,000 – even on a zero diet it would take you at least three days to burn a pound of fat. For healthy and lasting weight loss, however, experts recommend losing only about 500 grams per week. To do this, you need to save about 500 to 700 calories per day – or burn them through exercise.
have patience
In the beginning, the weight drops quickly: after just a few days, the scale shows one to two kilos less. The disappointment is all the greater when hardly anything works afterwards. What many people don’t think about is that when you diet, your body first uses up the carbohydrate stores in the liver and muscles. Water is also lost in the process. If you don’t exercise at the same time, you also break down muscle protein. But fat is more stubborn.
Every third woman in Germany has already done at least one diet
Caution: crash diets
If the body no longer gets any energy, it switches the metabolism to the back burner and throttles the calorie consumption. Since muscles require more energy than fatty tissue even when at rest, they are broken down if they are undersupplied. But it is precisely this effect that diet candidates want to avoid. This is why regular exercise is so important when it comes to losing weight. Both strength and endurance training are good for maintaining muscle, but endurance training uses more energy.
Table of Contents
Save calories without effort
These simple tips will help you lose weight even faster
- Don’t skip breakfast Fruit muesli or wholemeal bread with a sweet or savory topping is ideal. Both last a long time. Those who do not eat anything in the morning eat about ten percent more than breakfast eaters at other meals.
- A raw vegetable salad as a starter fills your stomach and distracts you from the bread basket that is usually on the table. Important: Use a low-fat dressing, otherwise the effect will fizzle out. If you don’t like raw food, drink a large glass of water before eating.
- Put the food brake on Stop when you’re full – sounds trite, but most people eat their plate without thinking. Keep listening to yourself to see if your stomach isn’t already satisfied.
- More protein in the evening, please If you do without carbohydrates such as bread after 6 p.m., you promote fat loss at night. So eat more cheese, quark, fish or meat instead of thick sandwiches. Compromise: twice a week is enough to get started.
- Low-fat cooking Admittedly, coated pans unfortunately don’t produce a delicious crust on fried dishes. But you save up to 40 percent fat. Also very frugal: Römertopf and steam cooker.
- Skip snacks Limit yourself to three meals, with no snacks between meals. Then you can better control what you eat. A bite on the side is often not counted, but it tends to have a lot of calories.
- Use red instead of white Figure traps can be avoided: For sauces, choose the red variant (tomato and vegetables) instead of the white one (cream). The slim alternative is also not so heavy in the stomach.
