It is widely believed that most diets fail. However, the reason for this is not the lack of weight loss. In fact, most diets are effective in this respect if you use any diet to engage in any sport. The reason why most diets fail is that those using the diet can not maintain their weight.
These are bad news …
It is estimated that only 1 in 6 people using the diet is able to maintain 10 percent weight loss after a year. Studies show that up to 97% of those who lose fat using only diet, will regain everything back most likely during the year. Why is this number so high?
After losing weight, your body adapts to a reduced amount of calories through a process called adaptive thermogenesis. This works in such a way that due to the reduced weight we burn much less calories than before losing weight. Until you learn to consume less calories every day, your slimming efforts are doomed to failure.
Your body works against you!
Research carried out many years ago suggests that there is \ appellation \ in the brain (probably in the center of the hypothalamus) that needs to be reset to adapt to the new calorie level. The problem is that it takes many years (some suggested that up to 5 years) so that the brain adapts to long-term, lower caloric intake. During this you will be hungry most of the time, which does not bode well for your weight in the long run.
Does the type of diet you use matter?
It has been shown that carbohydrates are the key dietary factors that control appetite and success in weight loss. In particular, the consumption of more unprocessed carbohydrates with a low glycemic index helps to control appetite and prevent fat deposition by modulating insulin activity.
Protein is also important because the body burns more calories to process them, and also directly affects the appetite.
Protein is also important
For example, in several studies, it was clearly shown that the protein supplement suppresses the appetite. The result is that the diet becomes a bit easier.
Recently, French scientists have thoroughly described how it works. After taking a high-protein food source, protein residues called oligo-peptides interact with some opioid receptors in the gut by sending a message to the brain. The brain responds with a message back to the intestines via the nervous system. It triggers the release of glucose, which sends a further signal to the brain that suppresses the appetite.
The main reason that the mass returns after a diet is energy expenditure. Our body has 2 types of energy expenditure, one which is energy spent on maintaining the nutritional function of the heart, brain functions, etc., and a second, total energy expenditure, which includes both resting energy and burnt during physical work.
You do not need to be a scientist to realize that a reduced energy expenditure after the end of your diet can promote the return of lost weight, especially if you can not keep your calories down. So what types of diets prefer more relaxation and total energy use?
This subject has been the subject of widely disseminated studies published in the prestigious journal \ Journal of the American Medical Association \. 21 men and women between the ages of 18 and 40 used every three diets at different times, each of them containing the same number of calories, but different contents of micronutrients.
However, before they started their experiment, each of them used a different diet, thus achieving 10% to 15% of weight loss. For this reason, research has focused on maintenance diets designed to maintain the previously lost weight.
Low-fat diet 60% carbohydrates, 20% fat, 20% protein
Diet with a low glycemic index of 40% carbohydrates, 40% fat, 20% protein
Diet with a very low carbohydrate content of 10% carbohydrates, 60% fat, 30% protein
Patients remained on each diet for four weeks. People on a low carbohydrate diet also received a fiber supplement of 3g with each meal. This is important because constipation is a common side effect of a low carbohydrate diet.
The low-glycemic diet focused on sources of carbohydrates that did not cause rapid release of glucose in the body, such as vegetables, fruits, and legumes. It minimized the grains that trigger a higher level of glucose release.
The results showed that low-fat diet (the most commonly recommended diet for weight loss) produced the lowest energy expenditure of the three.
A low glycemic diet generates higher rates of both resting and total energy expenditure.
However, the low carbohydrate plan generated the highest rates of both types. The plan burned 67 kilocalories a day more at rest than a low fat plan, and the energy difference between the two diets was up to 300 calories per day.
It was also not affected by thyroid hormones, because the studies showed slightly reduced thyroid activity in subjects using the low-carb plan, than in the case of other diets.
The studies showed the highest sensitivity to leptin when subjects were on a low carbohydrate diet, which could have an impact on energy expenditure. The low carbohydrate diet also had the greatest impact on high density lipoproteins, which are considered to be highly beneficial in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Another factor causing problems with the heart, which was reduced when using a low-carb diet were blood triglycerides.
On the wrong side, the 24-hour measurement of cortisol levels was the highest in the low-carbohydrate diet. This indicates stress. Earlier studies also showed a higher level of cortisol for people who were on a diet with very low carbohydrate content, but did not use a moderate carbohydrate diet.
Although higher levels of cortisol are associated with increased body fat deposition, insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease, we know that cortisol levels were elevated, because one of its lesser-known functions is to mobilize fat to energy. I believe that a low carbohydrate diet has significantly increased the use of fat for energy, which may explain higher levels of cortisol.
Cortisol is also the main catabolic hormone in the body, but its activity is offset in this respect by the higher intake of protein, which is a feature of low-carbohydrate diets.
The low-carbohydrate diet also produced more C-reactive protein, a non-specific measure of inflammation. Here, too, I think the reason is that the subjects were not involved in intense exercise, and the high fat content in the low carbohydrate diet (60%) probably caused a higher level of C-reactive protein. If the subjects were more involved in the exercises, CRP would not be a problem, I think. However, the main reason for the higher concentration of CRP observed in the low carbohydrate plan would be the absence of fiber. While the subjects took supplementation of 3g of fiber per meal, their total daily dose was only 11.2g. Compare this with an average consumption of 30.3g of fiber during a low-fat diet and 32.8g during a low-glycemic diet. Daily fiber intake is 30-50g,and the lack of fiber increases the level of C-reactive protein and inflammation in the body.
The authors suggest that a low fat and high carbohydrate diet is likely to result in a rapid recovery of body weight as a result of changes in energy expenditure and a negative effect on leptin activity.
Although the low carb diet gave the best results in terms of health changes in the body and energy consumption, it is thought that this may be problematic due to the adverse effect on the metabolism of cortisol and CRP. The authors of the study suggest that the best way to maintain the lost weight is a diet with a low glycemic index.
For bodybuilding purposes, this diet would have to be modified because it contains only 20% protein. A better plan may be to reduce the fat content from 40% to 30% with an emphasis on \ good fats \ such as omega-3 acids and an increase in protein content from 20% to 30% in order to maintain muscle mass and counteract any effects of cortisol.
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