Calorie restriction diets don’t work and instead create more problems. Most people go on diet. They try a particular one, lose some weight and then plateau, bringing upon themselves more deprivation, stress of failure and inability to cope up. The focus instead, should be on finding the root cause of why you put on weight and why you are unable to lose it. A toxic body craves toxic food while a healthy body craves healthier food, cleaner food. When you’re healthy, your metabolism speeds up, taste buds function differently, you don’t feel hungry all the time and your body burns fat more efficiently.
Weight loss is multi factorial and so is metabolism, and all those factors have to be looked into and addressed to bring about real weight loss. The four basic parameters for weight loss are:
- Diet: Diets don’t work. Smart eating habits do. When you adopt a high- protein, low- carb or ketogenic diet or any such diet you create an imbalance in the body. You may lose some weight initially but then you also lose crucial vitamins and minerals that are critical to the functioning and balance of the cells in our body, leading to malnutrition. What you need instead is a balanced quantity of nutrients to be digested, assimilated and absorbed into the blood and cells to build a body that can lose weight and build up health. Even a slight deficiency of one vitamin or trace mineral can prevent weight loss from happening. In short our body needs the right amount and good quality carbohydrates, protein, fibre, nuts, fruits and vegetables, water for optimal weight loss.
- Exercise: Has it ever happened that despite working out regularly, hitting the gym, doing Pilates, lifting weights, you don’t lose weight? Exercise contributes greatly to staying healthy and living longer but using exercise as a remedy to eating the wrong food is the reason why weight loss continues to be the most wanted goal. Over training/ Over exercising, Consuming fewer calories than what you burn, not providing the right nutrition to the body post exercise are also some of the reasons for not losing weight despite exercising. If u enjoy brisk walk, running or weight lifting, so be it, but ensure you are eating the right type and quantity of nutrients that your body requires to support your exercise and that you are getting right amount of rest. Avoid having unnecessary protein powders or fat burners unless recommended by a qualified dietitian/doctor.
- Sleep: According to me good quality sleep is extremely essential when it comes to burning belly fat, losing weight and enhancing health and immunity. The most important factor is to make sure your sleep cycle is regularized. Our growth hormone, which accelerates healing and regeneration is secreted while sleeping. Lack of it in the body is also responsible for premature ageing. We need to make sure that we get at least 7-8 hrs of sleep everyday to rejuvenate our mind and body.
- Stress: Stress is one of the major obstacle in the weight loss process and one of the main reasons for fat and weight gain. Our adrenal gland also produces cortisol (stress hormone) which regulates how the body converts fats, proteins and carbohydrates into energy. During the periods of chronic stress, levels of cortisol rise and send signal to fat cells to store as much as fat as possible. When you detox, you reset your body. You clean your liver, your energy levels soar, the fat burn increases and you feel good about yourself. You can try deep breathing, which is a powerful way to detoxify the lungs. Yoga, regular exercise are also great to keep your stress levels at bay.