Exercise vs Diet: Your key to weight loss
Diets pose a number of restrictions as it requires one to make drastic changes to their intake of calories, carbohydrates, fat, sodium, protein, how much to eat and so on. The caloric restrictions also take a toll on one’s time & energy and are not sustainable.
You are constantly hungry, and the deprivation of your favourite foods leaves you frustrated, a perfect setup for what follows: intense cravings and binges! Sure, you may get back on track after succumbing, and continue for another while, and experience some weight loss, but the lost weight is regained afterwards. In fact, you may regain more weight than you lost, and repeatedly.
In general, weight is affected by physical activity level and caloric intake: you have to burn 3,500 calories through physical activity to lose half a kilogram of weight. Or you can reduce your food intake by the same number of calories. You can accomplish this by cutting 500 calories a day for a week. For example, two slices of regular cheese pizza have about 500 calories; you can burn them off by running on a treadmill at 10 Kph for 45 minutes.
It is not practical to exercise and burn off all the food you eat, but you can change some eating habits and lose weight more effectively. So, here are some ideas to improve your chances of success:
Managing Portions and Balancing Meals
You can manage your food portions and stay below your daily calorie-intake limit for your body profile and weight-loss goals. To lose weight, slightly lower your daily limit. Make food substitutions to properly balance macronutrients (carbs, protein, fat, fibre) for your body profile. Carb intake should be reduced for those who have fat around the waist; those with fat around the thighs and buttocks should limit fat intake; and so on. Eat more fibre, eat less saturated fat, and drink more plain water. Cut down sugar in all its forms. Take no more than your daily requirement of protein.
Eating Order and Manner of Eating
Change the order of eating - first drink some plain water, then eat half of the veggies, pause a bit, then eat half of the carbs and protein (main dish) with accompaniments, then the rest of the veggies, then the rest of the meal. Stop eating when you are satisfied. Save the leftovers for another time, or discard them (your stomach is not a garbage bin).
Don't slurp and swallow. Eat-in small mouthfuls and chew each mouthful at least 20 times before swallowing. You have to do this long enough to reprogram your brain from sensing the total volume of food swallowed (in order to get the ‘satisfied’ signal), to sensing the total number of chews.
Eat at the same times every day, and try to eat all your calorie-loaded meals within a 10-hour period. Chew on raw or cooked vegetables and drink water the rest of the time to keep hunger pangs at bay.
Say NO to Cravings
Do not succumb to snack cravings! Distract yourself when you get a craving: look at a video, talk to someone, walk around, do something completely disconnected from ‘food’ topics. In a few minutes, the craving will disappear.
All these appear simple, but are actually quite difficult to follow, especially in the face of so many pressures to gorge on easily-available and super-appetizing food. A nutritionist can help by preparing a personalized diet plan for you. However, he or she cannot be present when you actually eat, to make sure that you are following the plan: you are on your own!
But what if just like a personal trainer who is present at your workouts to coach, encourage and challenge you, a nutritionist could look at whatever you’re about to eat and tell you what to change? Eat less of this, more of that, swap this for that, eat this first, eat that last, etc. No huge changes; just eat what you normally eat, but tweak it a little.
