Intermittent fasting or Calorie Restriction for weight loss!

GUEST COLUMN: N Prabhudev

Don’t work out because you hate your body — work out because you love it. Eat with Heart in Mind!

No one else can make you lose weight. Only you can do it!! You didn’t gain all your weight in one day; you won’t lose it in one day. Have patience! Set realistic goals. Nobody ever lost weight by thinking about it. People want it to happen. Some wish it would happen. Others make it happen. If you wait you only get older!

The foundation of successful weight loss remains a healthy, calorie-controlled diet combined with increased physical activity. Want to feel better, have more energy and even add years to your life? Just exercise. For long-term weight loss make permanent changes in your lifestyle and health habits. Regular exercise helps prevent or manage stroke, Metabolic syndrome, High blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, Depression, Anxiety Many types of cancer Arthritis, Accidental Falls!

Our weight is a balancing act, but the equation is simple: Eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. And if you eat fewer calories and burn more calories through physical activity, you lose weight. Weight control really boils down to one thing — calories. Eat fewer calories than your body is using if you want to lose weight.

Your body has a constant demand for energy and uses the calories from food to keep working. Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are the types of nutrients with calories and are the main energy sources for your body. No matter where they come from, the calories you eat are either converted to physical energy or stored within your body as fat. These stored calories will stay in your body as fat unless you use them up. You can do this by cutting calories so that your body must draw on reserves for energy or you can add more physical activity so that you burn more calories.

5% of your current weight may be a realistic goal- It’s smart to aim for losing 0.5 to 1 kg a week. You need to burn 500 to 1,000 calories more than you consume each day, through a lower calorie diet and regular physical activity. Walk every day for 30 minutes is an example of a process goal, Lose 5kg is an example of an outcome goal.
These habits must become a way of life.

• Eat a high protein breakfast – 50-90 grams per day – 1 g/kg of body weight
• Eat four servings of vegetables and three servings of fruits daily
• Replace refined grains with whole grains.
• Use modest amounts of healthy fats, such as olive oil, vegetable oils, avocados, nuts, nut butters and nut oils.
• Avoid sugar, except the natural sugars in fruit.
• Exercise can help burn the excess calories you can’t burn through diet alone.
• Resistance training – weightlifting, is a great for losing weight. Cardio workouts are equally effective.
• Drink water throughout the day and aim for half your body weight in ounces
• Eat more fibre. Eat slowly.
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern where you cycle between periods of eating and fasting. It does not say anything about which foods to eat, but rather when you should eat them. There are several different intermittent fasting methods, all of which split the day or week into eating periods and fasting periods. Some people seek to use Intermittent Fasting to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight.
Proponents of intermittent fasting highlight a range of potential benefits, some of which are supported by research, including improvements in weight loss, thinking and memory, type 2 diabetes, tissue health, and even physical performance. The main clinical implication is that restricting your window of eating – eating over less time, having more fasting time may reduce weight gain over time.
Shorter time from wake up to first meal and with longer time from last meal to sleep appeared to experience less weight gain, a trend suggesting that eating earlier in the day might facilitate weight control. There is no ‘best diet,’ and different people respond differently to any weight loss approach, whether it’s a diet, an exercise routine, an anti-obesity medication or even bariatric surgery.
Next Bariatric surgery for weight loss!

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