Slimming diets can be a real mood killer, like a Study by the Helmholtz Center in Munich shows. That being said, most diets are far from successful. Many people who initially lost a lot of weight weigh as much, if not more, after a year than they did before they started the slimming diet (yo-yo effect). The cause is stress hormones, which the body can produce more because of the diet.
Counting calories creates pressure and is often the beginning of the end
However, there are also slimming programs that usually have none of these side effects, are practicable and make it possible to maintain a normal weight permanently, such as a Analysis of several Harvard University studies revealed.
The following five slimming programs are particularly recommended, all of which do without the greatest stress factors – namely counting calories and cravings.
1. Mediterranean Diet – Mediterranean diet for gourmets
This is a change in diet that is best kept for life. The simple rules: lots of fresh fruit, salad and vegetables, fish, olive oil and nuts. A glass of red wine is also allowed. Sausage, red meat and high-fat dairy products, on the other hand, should only rarely be on the menu.
Sweets also play a rather subordinate role in Mediterranean cuisine. Tiramisu, the most typical Italian dessert for many Germans, is only served on public holidays in their home country – so it is rather the exception. In everyday life, an apple or a pear with a few nuts rounds off the meal and also satisfies the craving for sweets.
With the Mediterranean diet, you won’t lose two kilograms in the first week. However, four to eleven kilograms within the first year are quite possible, as the meta-analysis shows. This weight loss is permanent if you continue to follow this diet.
2. Low carb has been proven to make you slim
No bread, no pasta, but more meat, vegetables, cheese, eggs. Low-carb is very simple and successful, as the Harvard study also underlines. Four to ten kilograms can be slimmed down in just a few weeks. And if you then make sure to save carbohydrates in the future, you can also maintain your new dream weight.
The explanation: Carbohydrates are broken down by digestive enzymes into simple sugars (e.g. glucose, fructose and galactose). The blood sugar level rises and the body produces insulin to lower it again. However, this slows down fat burning. In addition, insulin triggers the signal “hunger” in the brain. Those who eat a high-carbohydrate diet often eat more than they actually need. This is another reason why carbohydrates promote obesity.
However, if carbohydrates are largely avoided, the body automatically burns more fat and thus also attacks fat deposits. With low-carb, the body switches its metabolism to burning fat.
Low carb is easy with carb blockers
However, this only works if carbohydrates are actually largely eliminated. However, this is not easy in everyday life. Because our typical filling side dishes are bread, rice and pasta. They provide large amounts of carbohydrates, as does alcohol and some fruits, such as bananas.
But the metabolism of carbohydrates can be prevented with natural active ingredients, such as from beans or grape pomace. So-called carbohydrate blockers, calorie blockers or carb blockers contain these active ingredients. They reduce or inhibit the activity of the enzymes that break down carbohydrates in the body. In this way, these nutrients leave the body unused, so they do not provide any energy, cannot be stored as fat deposits and the body has to attack fat reserves.
3. Intermittent fasting – hardly eat anything for days
The principle of intermittent fasting is regular, short-term abstinence from food, then feasting again as the mood takes you. Depending on whether the 5:2 or 8:16 version is selected, you can eat normally for five days, fast for two days with only 500 (women) to 600 calories (men) – or eat normally for eight hours and then for No solid food for 16 hours.
8:16 in particular now has many followers because this variant allows an almost normal eating rhythm: early risers can have a hearty breakfast at eight o’clock and have their last meal of the day in the late afternoon. And if you don’t wake up in the morning anyway, you can start the day at eleven with a sumptuous breakfast and then have dinner at 7 p.m.
Book recommendation (ad)
“Intermittent Fasting: For a Long Life – Slim and Healthy”, by Dr. Petra Bracht, 14.99 euros
This method can also be used to quickly lose excess weight and the body quickly gets used to the fasting breaks in between. An additional advantage of this simple diet: blood pressure has been shown to decrease and with it the risk of secondary diseases such as arteriosclerosis, heart attack and stroke.
Intermittent Fasting, Low Carb, Ketogenic Diet
There are so many ways to lose weight. Here you will find a good overview of the best guides.
4. Low Fat – it depends on the fat content
Not eating fat at all is not advisable. Because the body needs certain amounts for many functions, such as digestion, healthy cells, the formation of hormones, as a carrier of fat-soluble vitamins and much more.
However, too much fat makes you fat, that is undisputed. Because fat has the highest energy value of all nutrients: 9 kilocalories per gram, while carbohydrates and protein only have 4 per gram.
The low-fat diet therefore relies on sensible fat reduction in food. The Low Fat 30 method is particularly successful. It means that a maximum of 30 percent of the total calories of the day may come from fat. As a rule, with a daily amount of around 2000 kilocalories, this is around 60 grams of fat.
Of course, these should be healthy types of fat, i.e. unsaturated fatty acids, such as in olive oil, rapeseed oil, nuts, avocados and cold water fish. Saturated fats like in butter and cheese are unfavorable, especially trans fats. They are formed when unsaturated fatty acids are heated or hardened. Chips, fast food and sweets often contain trans fats and are therefore not useful for low fat.
Lose weight now with the 50 best diet tricks
Our PDF guide shows you how to boost your metabolism and outsmart the yo-yo effect.
5. DASH – a health program with positive side effects
This diet was actually developed to treat high blood pressure. The abbreviation DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. The initiators included scientists from Harvard University. In practice, it turned out that this diet not only lowered blood pressure, but also reduced excess weight gently and permanently.
With DASH, the composition of the nutrients looks like this: A good 50 percent can be carbohydrates, almost 30 percent fat and 20 percent protein. The carbohydrates should come primarily from foods rich in fiber, i.e. whole grain products, vegetables and fruit. In addition, salt consumption should be reduced.
Diets must have a feel-good factor
So there are good diets after all – and they don’t have to be difficult to implement. But regardless of whether you decide to reduce fat or go low carb, supported with carbohydrate blockers: it is important that you feel comfortable and do not put yourself under pressure. Therefore, simply try out which diet is easiest for you.
