Hi everyone!
Today I would like to talk about a
sensitive topic that might interest many people: Weight gain and weight loss. I
want to say at first that this is not a typical diet post, where I will tell
you to reduce carbs or follow any other diet trend. It is about the main
mistakes that we make that let us gain weight or will keep us from losing
weight. Beware, the post is long but you can always skip to the section that
interests you ;)
As I already described in the post "How a break-up can change your life" I was in a relationship where I gained a
lot of weight because I was very unhappy without realising it. I won’t start to
gossip and say anything bad about a person that has been very close to me for a
very long time. But we both were not happy in the relationship and it took us a
while to realize that. I gained and gained and gained weight steadily. It was
so frustrating because I did everything that I could, was on every diet and really
starved myself every now and then. Still, the weight was not dropping. I now
believe that the most important factor was that I was very unhappy. After the
break-up it was quite easy for me to lose the weight again. But there are lots
of other weight loss mistakes that I will discuss in this post. Just feel free
to read the sections that interest you :)
Psychological factors:
You might not lose weight although you
are convinced that you are doing everything right. Everyone around you might even be eating much
more than you are. When this is true you should ask yourself: Am I happy? Am I stressed? When we are
stressed or unhappy, our body releases the hormone cortisol. This is an old
mechanism that is actually used to safe fat as a resource for bad times. When
we are stressed we often have trouble sleeping because we might be working a
lot or think about our problems when we lie in bed. So, we probably sleep less
which makes the body release the hormone ghrelin. It makes us crave sugar to be
prepared for bad times as well. So my first advice that you really shouldn’t
underestimate is:
Be kind to
yourself and have time to relax.
Diets:
You all have probably heard that
already but I will say it again. Starving
yourself will keep you from losing weight! If you are dieting too hard, your
body will be expecting periods with very little food, so it will save all of
its energy stocks (aka fat) and get into survival mood. Instead we should
nourish our bodies and give them the feeling that there will be an eternal flow
of good foods. This way our bodies will let go of the fats they have
accumulated. Apart from that, don’t
underestimate that power of cravings. We all plan to have a little more
discipline on our next diet but still we end up overeating on cookies at some
point. The reason is not that we lack willpower or discipline. Our brains are
very clever and very powerful, so they will always find way to trick us into
eating enough. When we start a diet I can almost guarantee that we will fall
for sugar at some point. Then we feel terrible and beat ourselves up with all
kinds of mean things that we wouldn’t dare to say others. Diets are terrible!
For our body and our psyche! So, my second advice is:
Nourish your
body with healthy foods instead of dieting
Metabolism:
If you are really happy and not
stressed at all and still not losing weight, chances are that there is
something wrong with your metabolism. I for example have a hypothyrosis and I
simply take pills against it every morning. Just go to the doctor because it is
always better to get a professional opinion. My third advice is:
If you are
not losing weight, have your metabolism checked by a doctor
Counting calories:
One huge mistake that I did for a
really long time was counting calories; until I had physics lessons at the
university and realised what the term “calorie” actually means. The word
“calorie” describes the amount of energy that is needed to warm 1ml of water by
1K (or 1°C). I know, sound very complicated but imagine it like this: When one
chocolate bar has about 500cal, it means that, if you put the chocolate bar on
fire, it would be able to warm 500ml of water by 1°C. It simply describes the
amount of energy that any substance holds. Our bodies need certain amounts of
energy every day and spare energy from food is safe in the form of fat. So,
calories are a good guideline to see, how much energy is inside of our food.
The thing is that calories don’t give us any information of how the body can
process the food. I imagine for example that wood has a huge amount of calories
but you would probably starve to death, if you were only eating wood (Please,
don’t try this as home!!!!). So my fourth advice is:
Only see
calories as a guideline and not as the main thing to control for weight loss
Fibre:
Calories bring me to my next point: Fibre.
You have probably heard that we should eat a lot of fibre but have you ever
wondered why? Fibres are those parts in our food that the body can’t digest.
Wood contains lots of fibre which is why we would probably starve to death. But
smaller amount of fibre are definitely good for the body. Fibre will keep us
full for a longer time, it will promote the “good” bacteria in our digestive
system (more on that in my upcoming post about how to keep the gut happy) and
it will increase our bowel movement which helps our body to detox (I might write
a post about actively detoxing but I have not formed a definite opinion on the
whole detox matter. Would you guys be interested in such a post?) You can find
fibre in all vegetables or whole grain products. Nice examples for the
importance of fibre are bananas and cheeseburgers (from the company with two
golden arches). Bananas and cheeseburgers have about the same amount of
calories still you should not replace every banana that you eat with a
cheeseburger. Bananas are much higher in fibre and nutrients belong to this
nourishing foods that are good for you and you could eat much more bananas without
gaining weight than you could eat cheeseburgers (but again, don’t overeat on
bananas, it’s all about balance). My next advice is:
Try to
include fibre into your meals by having lots of vegetables and whole grain
products
Carbs:
I know, everyone thinks that carbs are
terrible. But this is not true. First, we have to distinguish between refined
sugars with a very simple structure on the one hand and complex branched carbs
on the other hand. I agree, too much refined sugar is not good but at the same
time, small amounts should be fine. When we talk about carbs (or sugars) we
also have to talk about blood sugar levels and the hormones that control the
blood sugar:
Try to have
carbs from vegetables and whole grain products and be aware of the time when
you eat them.
Fats:
I know, as much as we fear carbs, we
fear fats. But again, fat per se is not bad! Especially plant derived fats can
be very good for us and we need them in our food. The cell membranes that
surround each cell of our bodies are almost entirely made of fats! We only
shouldn’t take it too far when we have fats. Everything in moderation! Some
fats, for example from avocados or coconuts can actually speed up the
metabolism so that we start losing weight. With fats it is the same story as with
every other nutrient group; if we have too little, we will start craving it. And
cravings might lead to binge eating. On the contrary, if we include some fats
into our diet, our bodies will get used to burning fats and will not hesitate
to burn its own fats as well. But what are healthy fats? Only as a guide line,
they are usually plant derived and when you search for good oils, look for “native”
and “cold-pressed”. Some oils you will always find in my home are olive oil,
coconut oil, canola oil and sunflower oil. My last advice is:
Don’t be
afraid to have healthy fats and look for good quality
I hope I could give you some proper
background information about food and nutrition. And I follow one last rule: Have the food that the grandmothers of this
world know. I don’t mean that you should stop having sushi only because
your grandmother doesn’t know it or stop experimenting with food. I think, if
the ingredients of a meal were already known 80 years ago, it is rather likely
that these ingredients are on the healthy side.
All the best!
Stefanie
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