Hamburg.
The first thing to do is change your diet. Because we cannot move enough to compensate for unhealthy food.
Every year at the beginning of the year, the fitness studios are full, and the number of members always skyrockets. in the Podcast “Dr. Matthew Riedl. This is how healthy eating works.” this time it’s about what you should actually start with if you want to do something for your health. Movement alone is not enough.
dr Matthew Riedl, known from the NDR Nutrition Docs, recommends an analysis to start with. A food diary is ideal for this. “You can see how often you’ve eaten. If that was five or six times, then that’s snacking. That’s where I recognized a problem.” Then you also realize that there may have been a lot of sweets and possibly no vegetables at all.
Start by analyzing your own eating habits
Riedl recommends thoroughly analyzing your own eating habits. It is important not to tackle all problem areas at once. “That overwhelms us and then you’re guaranteed to fail.” Riedl advises the 20:80 principle. “That is an old merchant principle. The merchant knows that I make 80 percent of my sales with 20 percent of my customers. Of course, I take care of the 20 percent of customers who fill my pocket. That means I look at my mistakes and see which ones have the greatest leverage. If I change a mistake, it can suddenly be five six kilos less. But it has to be a relevant error,” says the nutritionist, internist and diabetologist. Also read: Italy: Eating insects – EU decision causes a scandal
A good place to start is, for example, his sugar consumption to reduce. “Of course 120 grams of sugar a day is too much, 50 is better. If I say now you have to hit 50 the very next day, that’s all too crass. So first 75 grams or 100 and try to slowly commute down.”
Small steps are more effective than big ones
This has been well researched in studies at Stanford University. “Small steps are more effective than big ones,” says Riedl. Otherwise you’d be fed up after two months at the latest. “These absolute plans, like never eating chocolate again, don’t work.” Also exciting: Healthy nutrition: Does VAT tip on fruit and vegetables?
But if you want to eat chocolate, then better only occasionally and then 80 percent and right after the meal, not in between. “So small steps and orientate yourself towards reality,” says the Medical Director of Medicum Hamburg.
“Any failure to lose weight leaves us with a fundamental sense of failure. And anyone who has failed ten or twenty times has learned that I can’t be helped, I’m a failure, that’s no longer going to work anyway. And that is very fatal. This can change very quickly worst overweight develop. Then these people give up and that’s a pity, because being so overweight will of course lead to death at some point.” More about nutrition: Pesticides: How Cem Özdemir wants to save German wine
When rule of thumb According to Riedl, if you lose around ten kilos a year, that’s really good. Diet promises like ten pounds or ten kilos in two weeks are complete nonsense. “If I set such unrealistic goals and I don’t achieve them, what do I experience then? Then I experience a deep failure. And that prevents me from continuing.”
Keep going, even if the weight falters
If the weight loss stops in between, that’s normal, you shouldn’t give up, says the nutrition doc. “stay on the ball, then it goes on more slowly afterwards and also leads to success. Do not give up!”
But if you want to take advantage of the new year’s spirit of optimism, you should start now quickly – with changes in diet and with more exercise. “Unfortunately is Sport just the little brother in weight loss‘ says Riedl. With all the foods that make you fat, exercise alone is not enough. Read here: Thermomix: New accessories should make cooking much easier
“We actually achieve more with nutrition. Of course exercise is great because the muscles grow. As she gets fatter, she needs more energy. The basal metabolic rate increases, the blood lipids decrease. We are better, we are more vital. Everything great. But without nutrition optimization that’s not possible.”
Those who are ready meals become more depressed
In order to improve nutrition, people need drive. for that movement crucial: “Sport makes us more balanced. Not only does it consume energy, it also makes us fitter and more active and shows us what we can do. It makes us self-efficacy.” Also interesting: Sport in case of illness: With these symptoms it becomes dangerous
Riedl cites studies that show that those who eat a lot of ready meals are more depressed and anxious. “And anyone who is depressed and anxious sitting on the couch naturally doesn’t dare to do anything. He doesn’t even dare to do his nutrition to change and with that you are trapped, so to speak.”
Why obesity is not a private matter
However, he is overweight no private mattersays the author of more than 30 best-selling nutrition books. “Obesity is a government failure because the government allows us to go to supermarkets where 80 percent of the products are not good for us, they are harmful and they make us fat. Politicians say it’s a private matter. Unfortunately, politics still doesn’t care that the whole population gets sick.” Read more: Desire for sport: According to the study, intestinal flora plays an important role
He appeals to those people who are unable to make progress with “on-board resources” to contact a practice specializing in nutritional medicine. Being overweight is one chronic diseasethat you should get help with.
More articles from this category can be found here: Life
