How to lose a lot of excess weight. How to lose a lot of weight. Violation of water-salt balance

Until now, many are sure that the question of how to lose excess weight can be solved in two ways: you need to eat less and move more. Not surprisingly, such a prospect is terrifying, and they generally refuse to lose weight, leaving everything as it is. In fact, this is a very simplified rule, which in such a formulation has lost common sense.

Any weight loss program always involves fractional meals. Why should you eat often during the day? The answer lies in the peculiarities of metabolic processes. Each of its cells requires nutrition, as well as the removal of decay products from it. Actually, our body works in exactly the same way at the macro level. If these processes take place without failures, regularly, in sufficient volumes, then we can talk about normal metabolism, weight, and health.

The liver provides nutrition to the cells. For each cell, it produces the substances it needs and delivers them. We need to ensure a regular flow of nutrients to the liver, as well as oxygen and water for their further synthesis. Assimilating the elements necessary for life, the cell releases toxic products into the intercellular space that appear after the synthesis of nutrients. From there they are excreted through the bloodstream to the liver and kidneys, which are responsible for their disposal. Therefore, it is important to maintain water balance in order to maintain a sufficient level of removal of breakdown products.

When we eat, not only gastric juice is released, but also bile. To release it, a small amount of fat, about a teaspoon, is required. Therefore, if you eat frequently, the body will use up more fat reserves.

With normal fractional meals per day, a person on average uses about 100 g of fat to process the food received. Accordingly, weight loss without harm to health should be approximately 3 kg per month. If you lose more, muscle mass and water are lost. This leads to the development of various diseases.

Nutrition

The very first recommendation for those who plan to lose weight at home is to eat five to six times a day. Why exactly this much, and not more and not less? The indicator is derived from the characteristics of the body.

How the body works

It is believed that the gallbladder has a volume of about 200 ml, while the liver produces almost a liter of bile during normal activity. Therefore, to ensure optimal circulation of the substance, the gallbladder must fill and empty at least five times a day.

However, in order to lose weight, it is important to maintain the volume and quality of what you eat. At the main meal, the amount of food should fit in two palms. At the same time, we exclude low-health foods from the diet: baked goods, sugar and, if possible, sugar-containing products.

Sweets

Do not try to completely eliminate sugary foods, otherwise you will harm the body. Glucose is an essential substance for the normal functioning of our brain. Its deficiency causes slow reactions, difficulty thinking, despondency, fatigue and depression.

It is enough to eat a teaspoon of honey and one piece of candy a day. We definitely include porridge and other complex carbohydrates in the menu.

Fats

We reduce the amount of fat consumed to 25 g at a time with five meals a day. When there is a shortage of incoming fats, the body begins to use up what it has stored in reserve.

Your diet should be structured so that you eat complex carbohydrates in the morning, which provide energy for the day. For lunch - dairy products, thermally processed vegetables and fruits, vegetable soups. For dinner - proteins (eggs with vegetables, cottage cheese, fish, meat).

Cellulose

It doesn’t matter whether you are planning to lose excess weight or simply switch to a healthy diet, you need to ensure that toxins are removed from the body. To do this, it is recommended to follow a diet for one day, but not resort to fasting.

It is believed that excess carbohydrates and crude fiber lead to intestinal dysbiosis, which a special diet helps get rid of. To do this, you need to sit on thermally processed vegetables and fruits all day: light soups, baked fruits, vegetable stews.

Salads made from raw fruits are not suitable due to the fact that they contain a lot of moisture. Once in the body, such fiber carries out only mechanical cleansing, but does not absorb toxins. Only a dehydrated substance is capable of this.

A vegetable diet day will help to cleanse the body and lose excess fat without harm to health, which should be carried out according to the following rules:

• you need to eat them five times a day;
• season food with a teaspoon of vegetable oil each time;
• For the last meal, you can prepare a salad of raw fruits and herbs; they will carry out the final mechanical cleaning.

In a day, without harm to your health, you will lose about 300 g. If more, it means a lot of water has been lost, and its amount needs to be replenished.

Water mode

About 70% of breakdown products are removed from the body by the liver. But these are only fat-soluble toxins. Water-soluble ones are utilized by the kidneys, approximately 25% of the total volume. But this process requires a sufficient amount of water. Therefore, in order to lose excess weight without harm to the body, it is necessary to monitor your water balance.

The liquid can be supplied not only with clean water, but also with soups, juices, including freshly squeezed ones, compotes, tea, and coffee. There is an opinion that decoctions and freshly squeezed juices are more food than drink. Other experts say that water is absorbed faster if it is transported along with minerals and vitamins, so it should definitely be drunk in the form of juices and vegetable soups. It should be at least one and a half liters per day, including first courses. People with heart disease are advised to drink no more than a liter of fluid.

Remember that a lack of water can lead to various diseases: disturbances in the functioning of blood vessels and the heart (including increased wear and tear), deterioration in the transportation of useful substances and the disposal of toxic ones.

Physical activity

The question of how to effectively lose weight can be solved not only through nutrition, but also through increased physical activity. To do this, it is advisable to go to the gym and exercise under the supervision of a trainer. He will select a suitable program and adjust it as you progress. But there are some nuances that you can and should control yourself.

First of all, you need to control your sweating - it leads to a severe disruption of water balance. And we remember that with a lack of water, the blood thickens, toxins are less easily removed from the body, oxygen is poorly transported, and it is harder for the heart to work.

People who are very overweight need to be especially careful. Even at rest, they have a heavy load on their heart, joints, and tendons. Therefore, they should start with swimming, but if they wish and have a professional trainer, they can also start with classes in the gym, where it is good to localize the load, eliminating unnecessary pressure on the joints.

You should not focus on the difference in weight between the beginning and end of the workout. It can be significant, but it occurs mainly due to a decrease in the amount of water in the body.

Most of the fat is burned during the rest period, when the muscles gradually recover after exercise. The more muscle there is, the more fat is used to maintain it. Therefore, you should not be afraid to pump up too much; additional volume will only benefit you.

Proper sleep

Here we come to another important component in the question of how to properly lose weight - proper rest and sleep. If you want to join the ranks of those who have lost weight, evaluate your sleep pattern: how much sleep you sleep a day, when you go to bed, under what conditions you rest, what wakes you up in the morning.

It is believed that the ideal time to go to bed is sunset. As soon as it gets dark outside, the body begins to prepare for rest: body temperature drops, heart rate slows down, and the effect of stress hormones stops. All this is the work of melatonin - the sleep hormone. Restoration of the body and, accordingly, weight loss takes place during the period of deep sleep.

• Sleep should be 6.5-8.5 hours a day.
• Try to go to bed and get up at the same time. It is advisable to go to bed when it gets dark outside, and not to extend your day with artificial lighting, which reduces the level of melatonin production.
• The room should be relatively cool; in such conditions, metabolism accelerates. But do not overdo it, as it is difficult to fall asleep in a room that is too cold, which shortens the duration of sleep.
• It is advisable to sleep in the dark, this is the only way to achieve normal melatonin synthesis. Scientists have calculated that the risk of obesity among those who sleep in pitch darkness is 21% less than among those who like to sleep with light.
• Turn off the TV, computer and gadgets half an hour before going to bed. This way, you give your nervous system time to calm down and turn off your brain faster, which will delight you with calm and pleasant dreams.
• Listen to yourself when you wake up. If you are in a bad mood, have heavy thoughts, this indicates impending depression, which often causes obesity.
• Try to wake up with the sunrise. If you get up closer to lunch, you will feel unwell, feel exhausted, and lack energy, which is also often replenished through food.

Of course, there are so-called “owls” and “nightingales”, but it is believed that it is better to stick to the “lark” mode.

Weight loss by category

For a teenager

Sometimes a teenager needs to lose a lot of weight. In this case, we must take into account that his body is still growing, he cannot use mono and no-carbohydrate diets, or fasting. This can cause illness. Therefore, a balanced diet, physical activity and the exclusion of crackers, chips, fast food, and soda are suitable for a teenager. The diet should be rich in lean meat and fish, fruits, vegetables, cereals, low-fat dairy products, and eggs.

For physical activity, classes in a sports section or gym are suitable.

It is important to first consult a doctor and determine the cause of obesity in order to exclude possible serious illnesses. It is advisable that the weight loss process also take place under the supervision of a physician or parents.

For men

The peculiarity of the male body is that for them the minimum calories required per day are 1800 units. This must be taken into account when planning your diet. They also need exercise in the gym, but in this case you can safely work on the mass, building up muscles. They will help you burn excess fat faster. Therefore, it is recommended to focus on proteins in the diet.

To ensure that the weight goes away steadily and the lost kilograms do not return, men are recommended to follow these rules:

• Stick to your diet.
• Do not drink alcohol or processed foods.
• Minimize the amount of salt.
• Drink at least 2 liters of water per day.

For women

Representatives of the fair sex lose weight according to the same principles, only with some nuances. So, their minimum amount of calories per day is 1200 units. Therefore, they also need to adjust their diet and start doing physical activity. Classes must take place at least three times a week. This can be not only cardio exercises, but also strength exercises.

I would like to warn girls who engage in self-torture and go hungry or sit on strict diets for a long time. Such weight loss gives only a temporary effect, and after switching to the usual regimen, everything lost sometimes comes back with additional kilograms.

Nursing mothers and pregnant women need to adhere especially carefully to special nutritional systems. Their diet must contain enough nutrients. It is strictly forbidden to use various drugs, biological supplements for weight loss, magnets and other devices. Massages and wraps are used with caution, which in other situations give an excellent effect, complementing basic weight loss measures.

When it comes to losing weight, most people want everything, more and more at once. Of course, it would be great to find a way how to lose weight at home a week and immediately to the ideal, but in reality this, alas, does not happen. There are no miracle diets! In fact, losing extra pounds is difficult, time-consuming and not always pleasant. It’s worth deciding right away: losing 4-5 kg ​​of excess weight per month is considered safe, and no more. This is what is called “quick weight loss.” Anything more is no longer “quick”, but “painful”. Losing 1 kg of excess weight per week is not stressful for the body: it does not have to adjust its metabolism to a new level of energy metabolism, the skin has time to contract, and the level of glucose and insulin in the plasma does not fluctuate. This is a healthy way to lose weight that will not cause you any problems.

Don't chase time! There is no guarantee that the weight lost quickly will not come back, taking with it another couple of extra pounds. It’s better to lose weight gradually – it’s much more effective! Let's figure out what, how and when you need to eat to get rid of excess weight, and how it is advisable to supplement the chosen diet: what modes and exercises. If you delve into the rules that will be listed below and get used to them, there will be nothing mystically complicated in the process of losing weight.

The most basic question about dieting is: what can or even should you eat to lose excess weight? The main thing is that you still need to eat! Only nutrition should be correct, then weight loss will be healthy. Many, deciding to lose excess weight, immediately rush to extremes and go on a real hunger strike, which is fundamentally wrong. When fasting, the body goes into “economy mode”, extremely reluctant to part with accumulated excess weight and maintaining it until the last moment. In addition to being harmful, it is also not effective for weight loss.

Warning: Don't try to fast! There is therapeutic fasting (and it is not needed to lose weight), which is really useful, but it is far from a simple refusal to eat. Going on a hunger strike will not help you in losing weight, but will only “kill” your metabolism, after which you will have to “accelerate” it for many years to restore your usual diet.

There will be no “lightning weight loss” diets here. Diets, for the most part, are a short-term measure. We will not talk about diets, but about lifestyle - about proper nutrition.

Here's what you should take as a basis for proper nutrition:

• “Slow”, complex carbohydrates, which require large energy costs for absorption and do not saturate the blood with glucose very quickly. This, first of all, includes almost all cereals, vegetables and a significant part of fruits, even if they are sweet (fruits do not contain glucose, but fructose, which is much better for weight loss).
• When choosing vegetables for proper nutrition and weight loss, focus on low-calorie ones. This is especially true for cabbage and cucumbers, and to a lesser extent for carrots and other root vegetables. These vegetables have the lowest energy value, but at the same time they are very useful, and not only for weight loss.
• Products with a high protein content and a small percentage of fat: lean meat and poultry, light hard cheeses, egg whites, etc.
• Eat your greens! It is very healthy and contains few calories. Celery is especially good in the fight against excess weight (by the way, the roots too) - it activates metabolism and promotes lipolysis. If the question is how to quickly lose excess weight for a woman, then cilantro should be avoided from greens. Some organic compounds contained in it, affecting the hormonal balance of the female body, contribute to weight gain rather than weight loss.
• Replace butter with any vegetable oil in your diet. The fact is that vegetable oil contains more polyunsaturated fatty acids, which “displace” atherogenic fats. This will help not only with weight loss, but will also prevent atherosclerosis.
• Fish is a very healthy product. Even fatty varieties in small quantities are more likely to be beneficial than harmful. Again, the point here is the same polyunsaturated fatty acids and the omega-3 fatty acid complex. They will allow you to lose excess weight painlessly.
• Try to replace sugar with honey. Tea or coffee with this product is just as tasty as with sugar (it's a matter of habit!). It is unlikely to add extra weight to you, but it will bring tangible benefits.
• Reduce salt intake to a minimum. Salt retains water, which increases your weight (and also your blood pressure). It doesn't exactly help you lose weight, but it's still useful.

If you are really interested in the question of how to properly lose a lot of weight, and you are not chasing weekly deadlines, but real effectiveness in losing weight, these tips on the necessary products will be more than enough for you. When your weight has already decreased, but is still far from ideal, adding the remaining components (the right attitude and exercise) is simply necessary.

How should you eat to lose weight?

The question “how” is no less important than the question “what”. And maybe it is even more important for proper weight loss. There is a lot of advice on diets, but each person must select it individually. Approach nutrition as a beautiful ritual. How much will you eat if you slowly, with pleasure, savor every bite, and your food will be a small work of art? Will you gain weight if you eat this way?

Here's what shows the greatest effectiveness in losing weight:

• giving up snacks is already half of everything you need to lose extra pounds;
• do not adhere to strict diets, or any restrictive diets in general;
• eat slowly, in small pieces;
• do not be distracted by other irritants while eating, concentrate on the sensations of food, its taste and smell;
• cook delicious food and decorate it beautifully - make it a little masterpiece!
• use all the necessary cutlery - this will reduce the speed of eating and speed up satiety;
• do not add a supplement to yourself, even if you took a little food: it is always better to leave it a little - this will make weight loss much faster;
• prepare any food for others, but eat only what you choose - knowing that it was prepared specifically for someone else makes it easier to refuse junk food;
• do not scold yourself for eating “forbidden” food, especially immediately after eating - believe me, your brain will not appreciate it!

As you can see, the weight loss techniques described here are primarily psychological and do not relate to nutrition. And they really work!

When should you eat to lose weight?

A proper diet helps the body correctly rebuild its metabolism to a new level. If you independently “train” your metabolism to eat according to a schedule, the risk of fluctuations in sugar levels and excess insulin production will be reduced to a minimum, which will not only allow you to effectively lose excess weight, but also easily avoid gaining it again in the future.

The most important thing: try never to “bite”! This is a fundamental question. Diet is extremely important and plays a huge role in the fight against excess weight.

In addition, proper nutrition presupposes the normalization of the gastrointestinal tract and, in many respects, this is ensured precisely by the regimen. By maintaining an adequate diet, you simultaneously prevent a number of gastroenterological diseases while losing weight.

So how should you eat? There are only five rules:

• eat breakfast, don’t force your body to starve for half the day and “break out” later - this definitely won’t help you lose weight;
• eat at least 5 times a day, but in very small portions;
• try to stick to the same meal times if you want to lose weight;
• for weight loss, never “take bites” before and after meals, even a “small spoon”;
• do not eat 3-4 hours before bedtime (not eating after 18:00 is a myth, everyone has their own daily routine!).

What else you need to do to lose weight: exercises and regimens

With diet, everything is more or less clear, but what else is needed for weight loss to be effective? Losing weight by changing your diet without training and a proper daily routine is possible, but it is far from optimal for losing pounds. Try to combine all the components, not just the diet, to make weight loss as fast, safe and effective as possible.

• Firstly, Sleeping and waking patterns are very important. Weight loss will be much more active if you get enough sleep (that is, at least 7 hours a day). This normalizes hormonal and energy levels and makes it easier to lose extra pounds.
• Secondly, You should always remember about the drinking regime. During active weight loss, the kidneys must work hard to cope with cleansing the body. The best way to do this while losing weight is to drink a lot and eat virtually no salt.
• Third, Try not to drink alcohol, it definitely won’t help you lose weight. It is, of course, called “empty carbohydrates,” but alcohol’s calorie content is really high. No diet allows you to drink alcohol!

You can’t forget about training either. If you have gained excess weight and are in good physical shape, reduce your caloric intake, but if you started losing weight with a lot of weight and are not at all used to physical activity... Start doing exercises!

Here are the basic exercises that ensure good weight loss, maintaining skin and muscle elasticity and, of course, good health:

• Abdominal exercises (especially if you are a girl). Do not forget that there is not only a middle press, which is usually “pumped”, but also an upper and lower one.
• Straight back squats are exercises that help you lose weight, develop your hip muscles, and improve your balance. This exercise is energy-intensive and will definitely help you lose weight.
• Bend forward, backward and sideways. When bending forward and to the side, you need to touch your foot or toes. If you are heavy, you may not succeed right away, but this is a matter of training. This exercise helps reduce fat deposits in the waist area.
• Raising a straight leg, especially to the side. This exercise strengthens the inner and outer thighs, where excess fat is intensively deposited, which absolutely everyone wants to lose.
• Jumping, at least for 1-2 minutes. For this weight loss exercise, it is very convenient to use a jump rope.
• You can just dance by turning on your favorite music! This is also a kind of exercise, very useful for losing weight.

So, to lose weight quickly and effectively, you need to know what, how and when to eat. You need to make these rules a part of your life, and not just losing weight (so that you don’t even think about them as a diet!) and, of course, don’t brush off physical exercise.

In 2001, I really wanted to lose weight. And he did it lost 30 kilograms in four and a half months: from 112.6 kg to 82.6 kg. I did it myself, on my own, without using medications. Everything was done exclusively by healthy means: a proper diet (I did not use strict diets), exercise in the gym (medium intensity) and light, easy fasting.

From my own experience, I realized that there is nothing difficult about losing weight. Anyone who has problems with excess weight can do this. And most importantly, this is done quite easily and simply. Of course, if you know what and how to do.

How it all started: how I wanted to lose weight

I was slim as a child and remained that way until I was 24 years old. After that, an incorrect diet, beer with high-calorie snacks, and the habit of overeating due to nervousness crippled my metabolism and I began to gain weight. The peak of this process occurred in the winter of 2001: over the winter I gained 6 kilograms and reached 112.6 kilograms of live weight. My height is 176 cm, in April 2001 I turned 28 years old. By this time, I already knew well what hypertension is and how it affects my communication with my wife.

Two of my friends worked with me: one was taller than me, the other was shorter, both were about my build. The short one weighed 114 kilograms, the tall one 116. And then in February, both of them fell sharply ill: one’s heart began to go crazy due to hypertension, the other’s kidneys failed. Both disappeared from work for a long time: they rested at home, only going to the hospital.

Of course, before this I had already thought more than once that I needed to do something about my weight. But then I just got scared. And to be honest, I was very scared. Moreover, my hypertension again reminded of itself. I calculated a simple proportion: what will happen if I continue to gain 6 kilograms per year. Most likely, in this case I would not have lived to see 50 years old (or maybe I would have died right after 40). And long before that he would have ceased to be a man.

So the reason for my great desire to lose weight was very simple: strong fear for my life and health. And also for his manhood.

Mode: nutrition, training and light fasting

When I started losing weight, I was 112.6 kilograms. I set myself a goal-norm: to lose 30 kilograms and a goal-maximum: to reach a weight of 80 kilograms. By the way, I didn’t set any specific deadline, since I didn’t even know approximately at what speed you could lose weight. Therefore, I decided to choose a regime for myself in order to get to the result as quickly as possible: I did not know how long my fear (which is where it all started) and my willpower would support me.

At the very beginning, I was helped by the advice of two people: my mother, who had been struggling with her excess weight for a long time and not very successfully, and one old friend. who several years ago lost 10 kilograms, bringing her figure to excellent condition. An acquaintance in a long-ago conversation said that she followed a diet of 1200 calories daily. My mother gave me several useful books on healthy eating, calories and diets. My idea was simple: limit calories and go to the gym.

From the literature, the most useful was the section in one of the cookbooks devoted to healthy eating. There were tables of proteins, fats, carbohydrates and calories contained in various foods. It was a discovery for me that the calorie content of some products can vary by an order of magnitude: for example, 100 grams of fried pork (about 600 kcal hereinafter the calorie content is given per 100 grams) is equivalent to two kilograms (!!!) of various vegetables (about 30 kcal ). Moreover, often the most high-calorie foods were those that I didn’t really like: butter (870-900 kcal), mayonnaise (620 kcal), various cereals and rice (310-330 kcal). But some foods (primarily vegetables 30 kcal and fruits 40 kcal) can be eaten almost unlimitedly. And the most profitable thing is cucumbers: fresh cucumbers contain only 8 kcal, and pickled cucumbers contain 13-16!

In addition, I found and read Paul Breguet’s book “The Miracle of Fasting” on the Internet. The logic of the book completely coincided with mine:

• firstly, a little fasting has a beneficial effect on health;
• secondly, zero kilocalories per day is the very ideal that you can and should strive for when radically losing weight!

Bodybuilding books also provided recommendations on healthy eating, which is an integral part of working on your figure. The recommendations there were as follows: there must be enough proteins and carbohydrates, a minimum of fats, and drink a lot.

I decided that if a diet of 1200 kcal per day gives good results, then maintaining a diet of 600 kcal per day will be all the more effective. According to preliminary calculations, it was quite realistic to maintain such a regime. At the same time, I note that I always eat late in the evening and cannot go to bed on an empty stomach. In addition, it was necessary to eat meat and dairy products: if there was not enough protein in the diet, I would lose weight through muscle, and not through fat. Which, of course, I didn’t want. And this, in turn, required fairly strict restrictions on what could be eaten and how it should be prepared.

So my plan initially looked like this:

• For as many days as possible, adhere to a diet of 600 kcal per day, in extreme cases 1200 kcal per day.
• At the same time, the diet should contain enough proteins (due to lean meat, fish, cottage cheese and fermented milk products). The rest of the diet is mainly vegetables and fruits. At the same time, fats must be minimized in every possible way!
• Once a week daily fasting fast along the Breg.
• Twice a week training in the gym.

Of course, life has made clarifications and adjustments to this plan:

In fact, I stuck to 600 calories a day for an average of three days a week. For another two or three days I kept myself within the range of 1500-2000 kilocalories (which, with a weight of 112 or even 100 kilograms, is also a fairly effective fasting regimen). But on weekends and holidays, when you either sit at home or go to visit someone (for example, for a birthday) ... one, or even two days a week I ate properly! As a result, usually two or three days after the weekend I returned to the weight that I had on Saturday morning, and only then resumed losing weight from the previously achieved milestone.
Diet has proven to be the most important part of a weight loss regimen in general. For example, there was a period when, due to illness, I did not go to training and sat at home and was sick. I ate quite a lot, but everything was properly prepared from the right ingredients and I slowly continued to lose weight. I also had another period during which I actively trained, but at the same time I was not strict enough about my diet. In this case, the weight did not move down one iota until I restored the correct diet.

From this I concluded that diet is more important for weight loss than exercise. And I turned out to be right: I later found confirmation of my conclusions in the brilliant book by M. M. Ginzburg “How to overcome excess weight.” I will add that the products from which the food is prepared are important but equally important is HOW to cook. For example, if you season a regular summer salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, greens) with two tablespoons of mayonnaise, this mayonnaise will contain more calories than the salad itself. It is often safer to cook your own food than to check whether everything is prepared correctly. As a result, I got pretty good at cooking while losing weight. And not only me: some of my friends, who also independently lost 10-20 kilograms of weight, also learned to cook at the same time for the same reasons.

I actually carried out a daily fasting fast almost every week. Moreover, I established a regime where hunger strikes (or, more precisely, “fasting days”) took place on Mondays, which was very useful for the usual gluttony on weekends. In fact, it’s not that difficult to arrange a daily fast. First of all, you need to set the hour “X” let’s say 21.00. On Sunday you do not eat anything after 21.00. On Monday morning you go to work and don’t eat anything all day until the evening. At the same time, you can and should drink large quantities of tea and coffee without sugar (sugar substitutes without calories are possible). By 21.00 the day of unloading ends. After 21.00 you can eat half a kilo of fruit and wash it down with well-brewed tea or hibiscus. This will save you from having to go to bed on an empty stomach and will not reduce the effect of unloading.

When I first walked into the gym, my whole body shaking, the trainer clearly didn’t take me seriously. However, he gave me sensible recommendations on what exercises and how to do to lose weight. I usually studied twice a week for one and a half to two hours. The classes included enhanced block of abdominal exercises. All regular exercises with a barbell, dumbbells and on simulators were done in 3-4 sets and with the maximum number of repetitions, with an average load. Besides, calories burned effectively on an exercise bike I usually pedaled for 15-20 minutes (I can also recommend you treadmill And ski trainer). By the way, when I lost the first ten kilograms, the trainer’s attitude towards me became extremely respectful. With further weight loss, the trainer's respect only grew. In addition, the trainer began introducing me to women visiting our gym: I advised them on how to lose weight.

Exercising in the gym is also useful in order to tighten the skin. If you are seriously losing weight, there is a great danger that after losing the first 10 kilograms, your skin will hang off you like a bag. Thanks to working out at the gym, I managed to avoid this and I lost as much as 30 kilograms. Although the stretch marks on the sides still appeared.

And here is the result weight loss by 30 kilograms in 4.5 months was obtained. I am proud of this result, and I wish you the same success!

Reports from the battlefield: weight loss rate

In achieving any Goal, the most important thing is to objectively assess the degree to which the result has been achieved. It's best when you can do this in real time. When losing weight, you have two objective guidelines: weight and waist size. Measuring waist circumference is especially useful for those who can no longer weigh themselves on conventional scales (from 120 kilograms of live weight and above).

For me, the main reference point was Saturday morning weight. I weighed myself in the morning every day, and during the day I stepped on the scale at every opportunity. Every week on Saturday morning I wrote down my target weight for the week. This helped me objectively evaluate the progress in my weight war. The results were:

In the first month I lost 12 kilograms.

For the 2nd month 8 kilograms.

After that, a cruising pace was established: I lost about 4 kilograms per month, which allowed me to lose another 10 kilograms in 2.5 months.

After I met my Goal Norm in 4.5 months, I continued to lose weight and achieved my Goal Maximum. Ultimately, the minimum weight I reached was 78 kilograms, almost 35 kg less than the weight I started with.

Daily weight monitoring helped me catch some important patterns that helped me greatly throughout the subsequent time.

In my experience, weight gain and loss do not occur immediately, but with a delay of one day. For example, if you seriously unloaded yesterday and even went to work out, it’s not necessarily true that your weight will become less today. But if you support the unloading mode even today, tomorrow the result will be obvious! And vice versa, if yesterday there was unloading, and today you overeat something high-calorie tomorrow you will weigh, at best, as much as the day before yesterday. But if you ate heartily yesterday unload today, and tomorrow you will be able to avoid extra kilograms!

Alcohol retains water in the body. Therefore, if you began to weigh more after yesterday’s evening libations, don’t worry, everything will be fine by tomorrow. Unless, of course, you snacked too much. Alcohol is a high-calorie thing (especially strong drinks 40 degrees or more). But the most dangerous thing is that it increases appetite and suppresses the feeling of satiety. In addition, you are unlikely to count calories when you are under control. They get fat not from beer (light beer has 40 kcal like fruit juices), but from high-calorie snacks for beer (chips and nuts about 560 kcal, croutons about 350 kcal). It is best to make sure that snacks are plentiful and low in calories before drinking begins. Eat beer with squid, crayfish, lean fish or shrimp you won't get fat!

Weight loss is uneven. At first it can fall quite rapidly. But after a few weeks the fall slows down and stops. Moreover the weight may even come back despite the fact that you continue to adhere to the regimen. In fact, everything is in order: it's just that your body, not aware of your intentions, has decided that you are killing yourself and resists to the best of your ability. Such resistance usually lasts 2-3 weeks, during which time you can even give yourself a little indulgence. Then the body gets used to its new state, you tighten the regime and weight loss resumes! All this is clearly visible on my weight loss chart.

When losing weight, your first reward is a feeling of lightness and overwhelming energy. It becomes especially strong after the first ten kilograms are lost: it seems to you that you are just fluttering. And it’s not surprising: imagine that before you constantly walked with a ten-kilogram weight, sat with it, lay down, lived with this weight. And now you have finally thrown away this weight! No wonder you feel light and energetic. What else will happen if you lose 20, let alone 30 kilograms! I already know...

Especially for managers: while I was losing weight, I realized that constant effort (not to say violence) on oneself is much harder than forcing subordinates to do something. But if you can tame yourself and achieve results, then there are simply no insoluble management problems for you!

In parallel with weight control, I tracked changes in my waist size. On average, for every kilogram I lost, my waist decreased by a centimeter. I don't know if this is the case for everyone or just me. But one thing I can say for sure: for every ten kilograms you lose, you will have to change almost your entire wardrobe! Advice: if ten kilograms is just the first stage, do not buy too many things at once: then you will have to throw everything away. But how cool you will look in your old clothes! For example, I wore the same trouser belt the entire time I was losing weight - I just poked new holes in the belt. As you can guess, the belt ended up being 30 centimeters longer than needed. But how easy it became to show what I had achieved it was enough to demonstrate where the holes were where I had fastened the belt before! So to speak, I always carried my main argument with me. I threw out all my old clothes a long time ago, but this memorable belt still lies in the far corner of the closet.

I’m still kicking myself that I didn’t think to take a photo in swimming trunks before I started losing weight! Of course, the reason is that I simply did not believe in the success of my hopeless venture. And I believed it only when I had already removed the first ten kilograms like a cow licked it with her tongue. The trouble is that I don’t have a single photograph taken when I was over 106 kilograms. So, if you are losing weight, guided by my experience, don’t repeat my mistake, take a photo before starting the process! When you reset, take a photo in the same pose and place these two photos side by side in your photo album. There will be something to show your friends!

Nutrition: know-how

“Is it possible to do without a diet if you use special massage, acupuncture, or psychotherapy?

Unfortunately, reliable and predictable weight loss in an obese patient can only be achieved with the help of a specially selected diet. All other treatment methods, at best, either enhance the effectiveness of the diet or improve its tolerability.”

- M.M. Ginzburg, “How to overcome excess weight: working on mistakes”

Proper diet is the most important thing when losing weight. It matters a lot what you eat and how it was prepared. It is no coincidence that many people who lose weight learn to cook themselves. Sometimes it is simply impossible to explain that you CANNOT season your coleslaw with vegetable oil. They answer you: “Yes, I only added two spoons, it tastes better!” At the same time, they stubbornly refuse to understand that these two spoons are pure fats, which you minimize in your diet with all your might. And there are more calories in these two spoons than in a bowl of the salad itself.

Remember: You and only you are responsible for the result! And in order to lose weight effectively and surely, you can even take on additional responsibilities around the house. Most important:

• Prepare meals to ensure you are eating exactly what you need to lose weight.
• Buy products so that in the refrigerator and in the kitchen there is only what is useful for your regimen.

Basic principles of the diet:

The key to a weight loss regimen is calorie restriction while minimizing fat. Radical weight loss up to 600 kcal per day, intensive up to 900 kcal, normal cruising up to 1200 kcal. At the same time, there should be no more than 40 grams of fat per day, a maximum of up to 70 grams per day. An example of a diet for 600 kcal per day: 250-300 grams of chicken breasts stewed with spices (or 500 grams Chakhokhbili see recipe below), about a kilogram of fresh vegetables and fruits, well-brewed tea (black, green, hibiscus) in unlimited quantities.

At the same time, you need to eat enough protein to lose weight due to fat, and not due to muscle mass. The daily protein intake is about 70-75 grams per day, approximately the amount contained in two chicken breasts.

Carbohydrates in a certain amount are beneficial to the body. Carbohydrates are dangerous only together with fats: against the background of carbohydrates, fats are easily digested, adding fat deposits to your sides. It is carbohydrates that affect the feeling of satiety: it is determined by the level of sugar in the blood. Therefore, if you are hungry and urgently want to eat something (or someone), it is best to satisfy your hunger with foods containing easily digestible carbons. For example, eat a couple of apples, drink some well-brewed tea and wait half an hour for the carbohydrates to enter the bloodstream.

Fiber is extremely useful: it provides virtually no calories. At the same time, fiber perfectly trains the intestines and cleanses the digestive tract, carrying with it everything that is in it. This can be used when you have eaten something that you really wanted to eat, but is harmful to your diet. Have you eaten a large piece of cream cake? Eat an apple right away, it will take the cake with it, not allowing the fats to be completely absorbed! A lot of fiber is found in vegetables, fruits and bran.

Read some good book about the calorie content of various foods, at least the corresponding section in a cookbook. And then carefully look at the information on labels and packaging. They usually write calorie content, as well as the content of proteins, fats and carbohydrates per 100 grams of product. At the same time, do not forget about common sense: there CANNOT be 100 kcal in pork sausage. And even if the sausage is mainly made from soy (like most sausages) it still cannot have such a calorie content. If the inscription on the label says one thing, and the cookbook says another, the inscription on the label is most likely lying.
The main thing in the diet is not to squeeze out the maximum effect in the next few days and then not be able to stand it. The main thing is that you can maintain a diet that is acceptable in terms of efficiency indefinitely. Therefore, you must make your regime quite comfortable. Don't limit yourself too harshly, give yourself a break. For example, three days a week you adhere to a more rigid unloading regimen (within 600-900 kcal / day) alternate these days with a softer regimen (up to 1200-1500 kcal / day). One day a week, you can afford to eat whatever you want including sweets and even (horror!) fatty foods. Maybe you will go with friends to barbecue or go to a restaurant great, once a week you can afford it! There is no need to pretend to be an ascetic: excessive asceticism is harmful to losing weight. Do you want to eat a piece of something very tasty, but not very healthy? Eat, a small piece will not cause excessive harm to your regime! Only comfort mode can be effective. In any case, I had just such a regimen and if you are satisfied with my results, then my regimen will suit you!

My principle: when losing weight, you need to eat as much as you want, when you want, and all the most delicious!

That's why I don't like strict diets: I don't understand why on the third day I should eat cabbage and not carrots. Such diets are made for people who are trying to lose weight without understanding calories and fat on their own. A person who can independently read the inscriptions on a label and figure out what’s what doesn’t need such difficulties. Decide for yourself what you can eat and what you can’t – it’s more convenient, comfortable and much more reliable!

For example, when you come to a holiday, it is important to immediately determine which snacks from the holiday table are best to fill your stomach to the maximum. You need to find the lowest calorie snacks that are high in fiber (usually vegetable salads and fruits). With them you fill the main volume of the stomach, and taste the rest. Then all other tasty, but high-calorie dishes will cause the least damage to your regime. And you can try absolutely everything without denying yourself anything!

And yet man is weak. At night you can run to the kitchen and eat everything you find in the refrigerator. But if you have previously made sure that only dietary products are in the refrigerator, this will not cause serious damage to your diet.

What you can and should eat:

Vegetables:

• Cabbage, carrots, onions, beets, radishes, zucchini, etc. 30 kcal (hereinafter all calories are indicated per 100 grams).
• Tomatoes, greens, radishes, bell peppers 20 kcal.
• Cucumbers 8 kcal (!!!)
• With restrictions canned green peas 70 kcal (mainly in winter, when there is little greenery).
• Limit or exclude potatoes: boiled without peel 80 kcal, boiled in their skins 50 kcal (!)
• Eliminate or limit corn and beans.
• In summer, vegetables can be eaten fresh and in salads, as well as stewed with spices as a side dish. In winter, pickles and marinades are widely used. By the way, it is believed that sauerkraut is one of the most useful products in world cooking!
• I recommend making wide use of frozen vegetable mixtures in winter and spring. Their calorie content can vary greatly depending on the composition of the mixture. You need calories within 30 kcal.

Fruits and berries:

• Apples, oranges, tangerines, persimmons, kiwis, plums, peaches, apricots, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, etc. 40 kcal.
• Watermelon the same 40 kcal. It is dangerous because you can eat several kilograms of it, which even with a low calorie content will give a noticeable result.
• Pears are also 40 kcal, but be careful with them: they do not combine well with some foods and can give you a nightmare. In my experience, the worst combination is to eat a pear of fried pork with fried potatoes, and then for dessert, baked goods with something fermented milk. Result St. Bartholomew's Night, especially terrible if the pear was overripe. Eat pears separately, at least an hour before and after another meal! Exception any other fruits and berries: pears can be combined with them without any problems.
• Melon 40 kcal. The peculiarity of melon is that it is considered a body cleanser. Therefore, it is useful to eat it separately, with an interval of three hours before and after any other meal. In my experience, in the summer, a good melon with tea brewed in an oriental style (with mint and thyme) can fill you up for almost the whole day.
• They say that pineapples, eaten in large quantities, are very helpful for weight loss. It’s better to check in Thailand: there pineapples cost 8 rubles/kilogram in our money. I have not tested this in my own experience: this is the experience of a friend of mine who actually lost weight in this way. However, he was serious about losing weight, and pineapples were only one of the activities. Moral: without a serious attitude to the matter, even pineapples will not help!
• Limit grapes (60 kcal) and bananas (80 kcal).
• In summer and autumn you can eat fresh fruits and berries. And in winter, imported fruits - apples, oranges, tangerines, persimmons - can generally be the basis of the diet: they are not so expensive, and even cheaper than some vegetables. In addition, canned pineapples and peaches, as well as frozen berries, can be used to some extent in winter. Raisins, prunes and dried apricots also help - but be careful, they are significantly higher in calories than fresh fruit!

Meat and fish (provide the proteins you need):

• Chicken breasts with skin removed 100 kcal. The ideal protein food used by athletes around the world to accelerate muscle growth. By the way, in any case, I recommend removing the skin when you cook chicken: it contains more fat, and the bulk of the harmful substances that the chicken has eaten during its life are deposited in it.
• Chicken legs and chicken meat in general (except breasts), as well as turkey 200 kcal.
• Beef, veal 200 kcal.
• By-products: liver (chicken and beef), kidneys, chicken stomachs and hearts, beef tongue 200 kcal.
• “Crab sticks” (actually cod meat) 97 kcal.
• Low-fat sea and river fish: pike perch, pike, perch, pink salmon, sea bass, hake, etc. up to 150 kcal.
• Crabs, crayfish, shrimp (finally, lobster) up to 100 kcal. It’s not easy to get enough of this, but this snack is great for long gatherings with friends.
• From sausages primarily ham made from beef, veal, chicken or turkey (option: chicken roll). Even better is lean smoked beef or veal, as well as smoked chicken wings (only our lean chicken, not American broilers!)
• Various jellied and jellied meats made from chicken, beef or with beef tongue.

For meat dishes, the method of preparation is very important. Anything stewed (without adding oil, but you can use spices widely), boiled, baked and steamed is suitable for you.

Dairy products (provide the proteins you need):

• Kefir, fermented baked milk, etc. calorie content depends on fat content. Diet kefir 1.8% fat (for example, BifiDOKTOR) 45 kcal, regular fat 2.5% 53 kcal. Worse, when the fat content is 4% this is already 70 kcal.
• Yogurts 100-130 kcal.
• Cottage cheese: low-fat cottage cheese like “Danissimo” about 140 kcal (in “Vitalinia” it’s even less). On the contrary, fatty curd mass should be excluded from the diet.
• Sour cream calorie content also depends on fat content. Sour cream 15% fat 160 kcal. On the contrary, sour cream with 20% fat content 200 kcal must be limited, and 30% fat content 300 kcal should be completely excluded.

Other benefits:

It is best to season salads not with mayonnaise and, of course, not with vegetable oil. You can use low-fat sour cream or even kefir (although it doesn’t taste as good with kefir). You can also season the salad with lemon or orange juice. Some low-calorie soy sauces are also suitable. There is another wonderful option that few people know about: natural grape (!) or apple cider vinegar. This is not synthetic! Personally, I have been using grape vinegar to dress salads for many years, the taste is interesting, and there are zero additional calories.

Meat and side dishes can be easily poured with ketchup Baltimore ketchups, for example, contain only 70 kcal. Just remember to check the calorie content on the label when purchasing! Other options: Tkemali sauce, low-calorie soy sauces, some Heinz sauces with calorie content in the range of 100-140 kcal.

Instead of sugar, it is advisable to use sweetener tablets; one package usually contains from 600 to 1200 tablets; you need 3-4 of them for a cup of coffee, and they have practically no calories. By the way, it’s convenient to take them with you on the road: the packaging is small and light.

It is better to use iodized salt; it is good for the thyroid gland.

For myself, I found the perfect replacement for bread and cookies. This is bran, and not just bran, but crispy bran sticks. Companies such as Dietmarka produce salted bran sticks with a calorie content of 155-230 kcal and sweet bran sticks with a calorie content of 170-320 kcal. Bran sticks come in wheat and rye, with different flavors: carrot, garlic, Jerusalem artichoke, cinnamon, apple, etc. Moreover, 200 grams of bran sticks is a healthy package. Counts. that you should eat such a package in a week. But even if you sit down and decide to have a hearty bite of bran, you are unlikely to eat more than half the packet. Bran is good, firstly, for quickly filling up: 100 grams of bran plus a mug of dietary kefir 300 kcal, and you feel full. Another option is when you want to nibble on something without ruining your regime: you nibble on some bran sticks for some tea (you can also nibble on an apple) and read a book. After a while, you will feel full despite the fact that you “took on board” about 200 kcal.

What you can't eat:

It is necessary to completely exclude oil from the diet and from cooking (which is more difficult): both butter (870 kcal) and vegetable oil along with olive oil (900 kcal), as well as cooking fat, margarine and lard. Eliminate fried foods in your kitchen like a class!

It is also necessary to completely eliminate mayonnaise (630 kcal). If you are extremely fond of mayonnaise, use “light” varieties with reduced fat content (they can contain up to 260 kcal).

It is best that there is NO PHYSICAL oil or mayonnaise in your kitchen or in your refrigerator. A favorite question among culinary experts is: “what to fry with?” My answer: add water, cover and simmer!

Fatty meat: pork and lamb 600 kcal! 100 grams of pork, for example, is equivalent to 300 grams of beef and 600 grams of chicken breasts. Also limit duck and fatty fish in every possible way: herring, mackerel, tench, etc.

Any cereals (buckwheat, rice, millet, etc.) and everything that is prepared from them all have a calorie content of 310-330 kcal! Many people think that rice is a dietary food. I don’t know how dietary it is but it’s certainly extremely high in calories. Most Asians lived on a couple of cups of rice a day for thousands of years, and lived normally - have they forgotten about this? You need to think with your head, with your head! Or is the head needed only to have something to eat?

Bread, pastries, cookies, gingerbread, cakes, pastries, pasta - all this has a calorie content from 260 to 600 kcal. Particularly harmful are cakes and pastries with butter cream, as well as pies with pasties fried in oil. By the way, I personally like good baked goods (I am especially partial to quality cupcakes). So I made a management decision: no bread so I could have muffins! As Marie Antoinette said: “Have they no bread? Let them eat cake!”

Sweets and chocolate (300-600 kcal). Moreover, if sucking candies are not so scary (they contain only carbohydrates), then chocolate contains a lot of fat. In the Second World War, pilots in the NZ had products that had the highest energy value with a minimum volume: chocolate and cognac.

Nuts of all kinds and chips: 500-560 kcal. By the way, a flavor enhancer is added to the chips, causing a reflexive desire to eat more!

Cheese 400-500 kcal. However, many types of processed cheese (for example, “Hochland”) have a calorie content of 220-260 kcal.

In general, various pastries with meat are common in Russian and German cuisines. In general, it is customary to eat meat with bread. Indeed, meat with bread, especially fried (or even better, with fried potatoes), allows you to eat very well (all fast food is built on this). The trouble is that before the main problem was hunger. And now the main problem is exactly the opposite - excess calories and fat. These days you won't die of hunger. But excess weight and related diseases can finish you off. Therefore, the goal is to minimize the amount of calories and fat in your diet. Only in this case will you be able to eat a lot and at the same time maintain your figure and health.

Let me remind you that people used to live from hand to mouth and our metabolism is designed for just that. What was good before is now unacceptable. Do not eat meat (especially fried meat) with bread, especially with fried potatoes or (even worse) with rice or pasta! Pizza is a food for poor Italians, it will help you gain weight, and this can kill you. Salads from German cuisine dominate on Russian holiday tables: herring under a fur coat and Olivier: meat or fish, potatoes and mayonnaise. Let the burghers themselves eat it. Look what is happening to them: their mortality rate has long exceeded their birth rate!

And most importantly, no, I emphasize, no fast food! One shawarma can contain up to 1000 kilocalories, and it will last you for a maximum of two hours, after which you will want to eat again. The damage to your health will cost you a hundred times more than the cost of the shawarma itself. It is no coincidence that in the States, where fast food is most developed, there are so many terribly fat people. “McDONALDs” cause significantly more damage to their country than all terrorists combined.

What drink:

When thinking about what to eat and how to prepare it correctly, people often forget that drinks also contain calories. For example, fruit juices contain 40-60 kcal, as do carbonated drinks such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Fanta, Sprite, etc. A large glass of Coca-Cola 0.5 liters is already 200 kilocalories! By the way, beer contains the same amount of calories.

There are many prejudices about how much and what to drink during a diet. For example, that you can gain weight because you drink a lot. Yes, you can but only for a while (a day or two). Then the excess fluid leaves the body. It is more important not to eat too salty food: every gram of salt in excess of the amount required by the body binds 100 grams of water in the body. Carbonated drinks can also cause some difficulties; gases can impair digestion and additionally retain water in the body.

In some cases, it is advisable to drink a lot to lose weight more effectively. For example, when you sweat in the heat or during a workout, the body burns a lot of energy when it sweats. And this is exactly what is very useful to you. And it is clear that you need to drink a lot to sweat a lot.

The most dangerous drinks are alcoholic. Wine is already quite high in calories, and all strong drinks (vodka, cognac, whiskey) are extremely high in calories. Plus, alcohol dulls the feeling of fullness. In general, if you start drinking, it’s better to drink beer or wine. And make sure you have a low-calorie snack in front of you because you will most likely eat a lot of it.

• Plain water.
• Mineral water both still and sparkling (but don’t get carried away!)
• Well-brewed tea (black, green and hibiscus) is useful in any quantity, tones and has a beneficial effect on digestion. On days of radical fasting, I drink two 450-gram mugs of well-brewed flavored black tea in the morning. After this, I feel a surge of strength, and for half a day I don’t feel like eating. By the way, the drink that most Russians call tea is not tea at all, but a pathetic surrogate. The fact is that tea is usually brewed completely incorrectly, and the result is a pale imitation of the real drink. You can read how to brew tea correctly in the book “Tea” by V.V. Pokhlebkin.
• Well-brewed coffee (as a last resort instant surrogate).
• Tomato juice (16-20 kcal).
• Coca-Cola Light and Pepsi Light (no calories) if you absolutely cannot live without cola.
• Milk preferably has a fat content of 0.5%, although I don’t know how it differs from water. To be honest, I'm not a fan of milk.
• Fermented milk products (kefir, fermented baked milk, Varenets, etc.) with a fat content of up to 2.5% up to 53 kcal.

How to cook:

As mentioned above, everything that is stewed (without adding oil, but you can widely use spices), boiled, baked and steamed is suitable for you. There is a belief that diet food is bland and tasteless. This is completely misleading! Frying in oil does not add flavor to the dish. But the use of spices in dietary cooking to make a dish interesting, tasty, aromatic and, perhaps, a little spicy is not only not limited, but is encouraged in every possible way! Moreover, more spices = less salt, and extra salt, as you yourself know, is of no use to us.

Traditional Russian cuisine (porridge, pies, dumplings), as well as German cuisine mixed with it in the vastness of Russia, do not correspond to the diet you need. The main goal of such a cuisine is to eat a minimum and be full of maximum, which is directly opposite to your interests.

I recommend to your attention Georgian cuisine; its style best suits the diet we need. Meat stewed with vegetables in its own juice, without adding water and oil, but with herbs and spices - it is tasty and very healthy. Chakhokhbili became my go-to dish, as tasty and unpalatable as cabbage soup. It’s best to read how real chakhokhbili is prepared in V.V. Pokhlebkin’s classic book “National Cuisines of Our Peoples.” By the way, I myself, after standing at the stove for a long time, think: Pokhlebkin wrote the best books on cooking. If you want to cook well, read Pokhlebkin, starting with “The Secrets of a Good Kitchen,” and don’t even open the rest of the cookbooks! Now you can buy all of Pokhlebkin’s books at once, published in one large volume “Great Encyclopedia of Culinary Art. All recipes by V.V. Pokhlebkin.”

As an example, I will tell you how to prepare my signature dish, “winter chakhokhbili.” Real chakhokhbili is good to cook in the summer; meat and vegetables are stewed in the pulp of fresh tomatoes. I modified the recipe for winter conditions. It turned out to be a very tasty dish especially for an extremely lazy cook (like me).

I give all the proportions for a large roasting pan (duck roaster), in which I cook chakhokhbili for the whole family for a week at once. Of course, the quantity of all products can be increased or decreased, maintaining the proportions between them depending on the volume of the fryer.

Winter chakhokhbili:

Preparation: take chicken breasts, peel them, cut pieces of fillet from them and cut them into strips 1.5 cm wide across the grain of the meat. For the lazy: buy ready-made chicken breast fillets at the store (that's what I do). You will need 2.5 kg breasts or 1.5 kg fillets.
Peel potatoes (1 kg) and onions (700 grams).

Take a large roasting pan (duck roaster), or at least a saucepan. It is desirable that the walls be thick (so that the heat from the fire is distributed fairly evenly). The frying pan is placed on the fire (it should be stronger than average) and heated for 5 minutes (until the moment when it becomes hot and strong heat comes from its bottom).

Start of cooking: You throw chicken cut into strips into a hot roasting pan. The meat should immediately stick to the sides and bottom of the roasting pan. Within 5 minutes, the meat crust is fried from below, and the meat lags behind the walls and bottom of the frying pan. After this, you stir the meat so that it is fried on all sides. At the same time, the meat gives a lot of juice, which can be poured into a bowl or deep plate: You want a crust to form on the meat first, and not for it to cook in its own juice. If at some point the meat, on the contrary, begins to burn, add the juice that you drained earlier. Fry the meat for another 5 minutes; 10 minutes should pass from the start of cooking (the moment the meat is added). In this case, the meat is fried in a roasting pan with the lid removed (!)

During steps 3-4 you have time to chop the potatoes and onions. Potatoes are cut in half lengthwise (large ones into 4 parts). These pieces are cut into slices 7-8 mm thick. Two or three onions are cut into cubes, the rest into transverse circles 5 mm thick (then you use your fingers to separate these circles into separate circles in layers).

After 10 minutes from the start of cooking, you add the onion to the frying pan, pour out the remaining juice (if you drained it from the frying pan before), mix thoroughly and add a little salt (a few pinches of salt). The onion should be stewed in meat juice. Continue to simmer the meat and onions in the Dutch oven with the lid open for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

After 15 minutes from the start of cooking, reduce the heat to medium and add the potatoes to the fryer. Add 300 grams of tomato paste or Baltimore ketchup (for example, Bulgarian) there; this will replace fresh tomatoes. Finally, pour two 450-gram bags of frozen mixed vegetables into the Dutch oven. A good option is a mixture of Hortex “Lecho”, “Cous-Cous” and “Ratatouille”. Then you can experiment with this (just check the calorie content so that there are no more than 30 kcal). Mix everything, cover with a lid and leave.

Now you can rest 30 minutes chakhokhbili will be stewed by itself. A couple of times, for a stonecrop of conscience, you can come up and gently mix everything (the main thing is that nothing burns to the bottom over the fire), but otherwise you can go about your business.

After 45 minutes from the start of cooking, you need to salt the chakhokhbili to taste. It is done like this: you add two or three good pinches of salt, thoroughly stir the chakhokhbili, scoop a little juice in which everything is stewed with a tablespoon, blow on it and taste it. After this, rinse your mouth with cold water to restore the taste (otherwise you will get used to the salt and over-salt). If there is not enough salt yet, everything repeats. When you feel that add salt a couple more times and it will be just right, stop (not adding enough salt).

Reduce the heat to low. Now it’s the turn of spices and herbs. But what kind of greenery is there in winter? Therefore, replace it with a ready-made mixture - either hops-suneli (traditional version) or curry (oriental). These mixtures are more aromatic than spicy Add two level teaspoons to chakhokhbili. And for a brighter taste, add a quarter teaspoon of ground red pepper. Cover the roasting pan with a lid and wait 5 minutes.

After 55 minutes from the start of cooking, turn off the heat under the broiler and wait another 5 minutes. An hour after you start cooking, you can try your chakhokhbili!

Thus, you have a whole roasting pan of delicious, aromatic hot meat dishes. The calorie content of such chakhokhbili is only 50-60 kcal. Thus, in just over an hour you decide on your dietary needs for the entire next week. And since such a dish looks completely unexpected in the middle of winter, you can pamper your guests with it and even put it on the festive table.

Fashionable hobbies and useful literature

While I was losing weight, I studied a lot of books on healthy eating and various diets. It must be said that most of these books are of no practical use:

• Any strict diets do not make sense for a person who can flexibly control his diet.
• I follow the recommendations of separate meals (not eating meat with potatoes and cereals, and all that) automatically. I exclude fats, grains and baked goods from my diet in every possible way. And you can eat meat with vegetables and fruits, in accordance with the recommendations of separate nutrition.
• Montignac's recommendations “be a gourmet and you will lose weight!” somewhat controversial. You can prove as much as you like that cheese, red wine and goose fat are not so harmful. But I can definitely say that their absence is even more useful for the hard unloading mode. On the other hand, Montignac is right about one thing: good, high-quality cuisine causes much less damage to your health and your plans to lose weight than fast food. Therefore, if you are a follower of good cooking, and you have a good metabolism, in which fat burns quickly, you really won’t gain much weight.

Now about books that can be truly useful for you:

• M. M. Ginzburg “How to overcome excess weight” an excellent book about how to really lose weight. Ginzburg is a medical practitioner who has been dealing with the problem of combating excess weight for decades. I found this book when I had already lost 20 kilograms. What I read in the book completely coincided with my experience. In addition, a better understanding of the reasons for my weight changes helped me lose the last, heaviest 10 kilograms. This is the only book I know that can truly help you lose weight.
• Paul S. Breg “The Miracle of Fasting” is a small and quite interesting book. One-day hunger strikes were very useful for me, although I did not go further than that.
• V.V. Pokhlebkin “Tea” good tea is extremely useful for good weight loss!
• Cookery books by V.V. Pokhlebkin. For example, their complete collection “Big Encyclopedia of Culinary Art. All recipes by V.V. Pokhlebkin.” Indispensable if you cook yourself, and doubly indispensable if you have to learn it. Start with “Secrets of a Good Kitchen” and you will see how much fun cooking can be!

I wish you to successfully overcome excess weight, look admiringly at your body in the mirror and enjoy the new capabilities of your body!

I wish you success, health and happiness in your personal life!

Konstantin Baksht, 2004 www.fif.ru. The article was published on www.. Document address on the website website:
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Painful hunger

In an effort to get rid of the hated kilograms as quickly as possible, you try to extremely limit your diet: “I will only eat buckwheat with kefir until the scales show the desired result!” Or skip meals, such as skipping dinner or lunch. The most desperate even dare to go completely hungry! It seems that the more you torture yourself, the sooner you will become light and loud, but, as practice shows, this is the most common mistake.

Did you know that on a limited diet the body simply unable extract energy from fat? What happens in the end: you suffer from hunger, look greedily at your colleagues drinking tea with cookies, and the scale arrow either seems to be glued to the hated number, or is going down... but at a snail's pace.

Or, let's say you skipped breakfast. But our body is very smart, and before you even notice, your lunches and dinners have become much larger, more satisfying and higher in calories.

What should we do? Of course, you should limit your caloric intake within reasonable limits, but in reasonable. To begin with, start from the fact that you should consume at least 1200 kcal daily to maintain your metabolism at a normal level, and then focus on your feelings: if you are damn hungry all the time; if you are cold when everyone around you is hot; if you have difficulty walking to the nearest store, your diet should be expanded.

On the edge of possibilities

You courageously eat vegetables and drink large quantities of green tea without sugar, and in the evening you rush to the gym, where you train with full dedication. And, of course, morning exercises, like cross-country running in the park, have not been canceled! But why are you so drawn to sweets and fatty foods? And, despite literally inhuman efforts, the weight returned?

Let's go in order. The reason for the increased appetite, and for foods that are not at all healthy, is that the body urgently needs to replenish energy reserves. He takes it from carbohydrates, and the fastest way to get them is from chocolate bars, pies, a good slice of bread with jam... In general, from things that, unfortunately, are not recommended for those losing weight. In addition, in an untrained person, intense exercise does not stimulate a decrease in fat reserves! It is carbohydrates and stored glycogen that are used up!

Remember: no need for extremes! Moderate exercise will give you extra energy and also help control your appetite! Let your pulse be your guide: 100-110 beats per minute is what is needed for the body to switch to fat consumption mode. And start getting involved in the sport gradually. Let the first step be walking at a fast pace, at least before work, for 30-40 minutes a day. After just a week, the first results will become noticeable.

The right motivation - what is it?

Try asking yourself questions: “Why do I want to lose weight? Why do I want to lose exactly that much? Do I need to lose weight by a certain date?” If you are truly committed to change, you will answer them without hesitation! If not, then, alas, you don’t have enough motivation, and without!

Are you wondering how to get into the right mindset? First of all, answer the above questions honestly. Of course, this may not be as easy as it seems at first glance, but it is necessary to achieve results. As a last resort, do not hesitate to seek help from a psychologist. Besides, maybe you should just forget about diets and weights and start moving more, and also give preference to less harmful, sweet and fatty foods? You will begin to feel better, begin to fully enjoy life, perhaps get rid of any chronic diseases, and against the backdrop of all this, you will also begin to slowly but surely lose weight! Excellent prospects, you must agree!

Water, water all around!

The amount of fluid in the body constantly changes, and so does the weight. Moreover, fluctuations of 1-2 kg per day are completely normal, so it will be useful for you to know about two types of situations:

a) Water quickly leaves the body if...

• you take diuretics and laxatives.


• you practice sweatshop training.


• you visited the sauna.


• you have sharply reduced your salt intake.

b) Water is retained in the body if...

• you ate something salty or smoked. 200 g of salted fish is quite capable of making you “fatter” by 1 kg, so the next day after eating it you should not jump on the scale.


• you drank alcohol. After all, the body, first of all alcohol, needs to dilute it to a concentration that is safe for itself.


• you are in the second phase of your menstrual cycle. At this time you can “gain” up to 5 kg!


• you overtrained and your muscles swelled.

And finally...

Check your scales! For example, weigh a five-liter bottle of water or any other object whose weight you know. Or try stepping on the scale several times in a row - the result should be the same. In addition, it should not change, regardless of whether you stand on one leg or two, on your heels or on your toes. So maybe it's time to replace the unit?

If that’s all there is to it, then remember that you should weigh yourself at the same time, preferably in the morning, before breakfast, when the weight is minimal, and in the same place, and on a flat, hard surface.

Well, remember that, first of all, you should be comfortable with your weight and you should love yourself, and not chase imaginary ideals!

There are many ways to lose weight in a short period of time. However, most of these methods will leave you angry and dissatisfied. If you do not have steely willpower, then hunger will make you give up and give up all your plans at the very beginning of the weight loss process. In this article, we will tell you how to lose weight fast. Keep in mind that losing weight quickly is very difficult for several reasons:

• It is very difficult psychologically to start consuming fewer calories;
• It is difficult to lose a large amount of excess fat in a short time; this will still require a long period of time, more than a couple of weeks;
• Often, rapid weight loss is accompanied by an equally rapid return to the starting point.

Our three-step plan includes the following:

• Reduce appetite.
• Make you lose weight through fat mass.
• Improve your health and strengthen your immune system.

Step One – Reduce your sugar and starch intake as much as possible.

The most important thing is that in order to lose weight quickly you need to completely remove any sugar, starch and fast carbohydrates from your diet plan.

These are two types of foods that actively stimulate insulin production. If you didn’t know about it before, then know that insulin is the main hormone responsible for the accumulation of fat in our bodies.

If insulin levels drop sharply, fat has an excellent opportunity to get rid of excess fat, because the body immediately begins to break down fat tissue, and not carbohydrates.

What else is beneficial about lowering insulin levels? The kidneys begin to get rid of excess water and sodium in the body. And this directly affects swelling and excess weight due to excess fluid in the body.
The graph below is taken from a scientific study comparing low-carb and low-fat diets for overweight women.

The group of women on a low-carb diet ate until they were full, while those on a fat-restricted diet experienced calorie deficit and hunger.

Cut down on carbohydrates, your insulin levels will drop significantly and you will automatically start consuming fewer calories without feeling cramped by hunger.

Roughly speaking, lowering the level of insulin in the body switches your body into an “autopilot” state, which automatically directs all its activities towards getting rid of excess fat tissue.

Summarize: Reducing your intake of sugar and starchy carbohydrates will lower your insulin levels, suppress cravings, and make you lose weight without feeling hungry all the time.

How to lose weight quickly with nutrition

Step Two – Proteins, Fats and Lots of Vegetables

Each meal should consist of protein, fat and carbohydrates (from low-carb vegetables). If you manage to design your nutrition plan according to this simple principle, then the amount of carbohydrates consumed will automatically return to normal - which is 20-50 grams per day.

Protein sources:

• Meat - beef, chicken, pork, lamb, veal, rabbit, bacon, etc.
• Fish and any seafood - salmon, trout, scallops, shrimp, squid, crabs, lobsters, etc.
• Eggs – homemade eggs would be ideal, because they are most enriched with Omega-3 fatty acids.

The importance of having a large amount of protein in the body cannot be underestimated.

Proteins in a variety are necessary in order to speed up your metabolism and make it burn up to 100 Kcal per day without taking into account physical activity.

Protein diets also do an excellent job of suppressing constant thoughts about food by about 60%. Eating more protein will stop you from running to the refrigerator at night and will fill you up to the point where you'll automatically eat about 440 fewer calories a day. And this is only due to the addition of protein to the diet...

That is, when it comes to weight loss, protein is the king of nutrients. Dot.

Low carb vegetables:

• Green leaves – lettuce, spinach, chard, mustard, chicory
• Herbs and spices - parsley, cilantro, basil, rosemary, thyme, etc.
• Chinese cabbage
• Celery
• Radish
• Sea vegetables
• Mushrooms
• Cabbage (fresh or pickled)
• Avocado
• Asparagus
• Cucumbers (fresh or salted, most importantly - no added sugar)
• Dill
• Cauliflower
• green beans
• Broccoli
• Red peppers
• Jalapeño pepper (Ingredient of Tabasco hot sauce)
• Zucchini
• Brussels sprouts
• Tomatoes
• Eggplant
• Carrot
• Leek
• Water chestnuts
• Pumpkin
• Swede
• Artichokes
• Celery root

You can load your plate with as many vegetables as you like. Vegetables can be eaten in large quantities without worrying about going over the upper limit of your daily carbohydrate intake (20-50 grams per day).

A diet based only on meat and vegetables involves the body consuming large amounts of fiber, vitamins and minerals necessary for a healthy human body. The diet does not imply the consumption of grains - there is no physiological need for this.

Sources of fats:

• Coconut oil
• Butter
• Olive oil

Eat two to three times a day. If you feel hungry at lunchtime, add another meal to your schedule.

Don't be afraid to eat fat. If you try to follow a low-carb and low-fat diet at the same time, you will fail. In this situation, you will feel exhausted, tired and exhausted. This way you will quickly abandon all your plans and not reach your desired goal.

The ideal fat for cooking is coconut oil. It is rich in medium chain triglycerides. These fats bring more satisfaction to our stomach and even speed up our metabolism a little.

There is no reason to be afraid of these natural fats; new research has shown that saturated fats have no effect on the health of the heart and its stable functioning.

Summarize: Make sure each meal includes protein, fat, and carbohydrates (from our list of vegetables). In this way, you will stabilize the amount of carbohydrates consumed to 20-50 grams per day and significantly reduce insulin levels.

Exercises for fast weight loss

Step three (Not mandatory, but recommended) – Physical activity three to four times a week

There is no compulsory need to go to the gym every day. But it is strongly recommended.

The ideal option would be to go to the gym 3-4 times a week. First, warm up your muscles, do weight lifting exercises, then stretch.

If you are new to the gym, then contact a local trainer, he will help you.

By doing rowing exercises, you can burn even more calories and keep your metabolism from slowing down. And metabolism is the main participant in the weight loss process.

Studies of low-carb diets have shown that combining them with exercise at the gym can even help build muscle.

If lifting weights is not your thing, do at least light cardio exercises: jogging in the morning, swimming, rollerblading, cycling.

Summarize: It would be a good idea to do weight training. If this doesn't work, do some cardio.

Optional Part of the Plan – Weekly Carbohydrate Replenishment Day

Once a week you can take a day off, during which you can consume all sorts of different carbohydrates. Many choose Saturday for this.

Of course, it's important to try to focus more on healthy sources of carbohydrates, like oatmeal, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a variety of fruits.

But this should happen only ONCE a week. Otherwise, your entire diet will make no sense.

If you want to eat something harmful, then it would be a good idea to do it on this very “day off”.

Please note that junk food, of course, cannot be mandatory. Only it in minimal quantities will help you regulate the activity of the thyroid gland and leptin.

You will gain a little weight during the day off, but over the next two days you will easily get rid of this load and will not feel any difference.

Summarize: If you want to eat something harmful, set aside one day for it - it will not negatively affect the overall diet plan.

WHAT ABOUT CALORIES AND SERVING SIZES?

However, to count calories it would be nice to use this calculator:

I attach a translation of the calculator buttons below:

Simply enter your parameters and click the "CALCULATE" button. In fact, there are plenty of such calculators on the global network; use a search engine and you can easily find a couple.

Your main goal is to keep your carbohydrate levels between 20 and 50 grams per day. You will get the rest of the calories you need for life by eating protein and fat.

Summarize: There is no need to count calories on a low-carb diet. The main thing is to monitor the amount of calories consumed (20 - 50 grams per day).

In general, all you should aim for is:

1. Reduce carbohydrate-rich foods.
2. Eat proteins, fats and vegetables.
3. Exercise 3-4 times a week (which is optional, but recommended).

However, there are some more useful tips to speed up the weight loss process.

These are not old wives' tales, but facts long ago confirmed by science.

Drink water: Research shows that drinking water half an hour before meals helps you absorb significantly fewer calories and lose 44% more weight. Drinking large amounts of water can also boost your metabolism, but not significantly.

Drink coffee or tea: If you are crazy about coffee and tea, then drink as much as you like - this can further speed up your metabolism.

Eat eggs for breakfast: Research shows that people who replace breakfast cereals with eggs do not feel hungry for the next 36 hours and lose 65% more weight.

Use small plates: Research shows that people automatically eat less when they use smaller plates. It's strange, but it really works.

Sleep like a baby: Poor sleep is one of the strongest risk factors for overweight and obesity - make sure you get regular, good sleep.

Summarize: Three rules are your everything, but a few extra tips never hurt.

You will become a professional in the fight against fat and excess weight!

You can easily lose about 7 kilograms during the first week, then the weight loss will be slow but steady.

If you're new to dieting, things will probably happen quickly. The more weight your body needs to lose, the faster it will come off during the first week.

During the first few days, you will most likely feel a little strange. Your body has been burning carbohydrates your whole life, now it needs to adapt to the process of burning fat.

Weaknesses with such a diet are called “carbohydrate flu”. This goes away in a few days. A small amount of sodium in salt will help get rid of such weakness.

With this diet, most people feel very good, positive and energetic. At this point you become a fat burning professional.

A low-carb diet brings many benefits not only in the process of losing weight:

• Reduces blood sugar
• Reduces the amount of triglycerides in the body
• Reduces bad cholesterol levels
• Healthy, natural cholesterol rises
• Normalizes blood pressure

Summarize: Weight loss will begin quickly, but how quickly depends on your weight and physiological characteristics. Reducing your carbohydrate intake has a positive effect on your overall health.

It's not worth starving

If you have health problems, consult your doctor before starting this diet.

A decrease in carbohydrate intake and insulin levels leads to a change in the hormonal mood of the entire body. As a result, your brain and body sincerely WANT to get rid of excess weight.

This leads to a significant decrease in appetite and hunger - and these are the main reasons for weight gain.

Good news for those who like instant results - the rapid loss of excess fluid with such a diet will reduce your weight every morning.

If you follow this meal plan, you can eat until you're full and lose weight at the same time. Welcome to Paradise!