Diet — the simple recipe for success

Your body needs energy to function. It needs it so your cells can work and renew themselves. Even while you sleep you use energy, because your cells are still "alive" and working to regenerate your body after a full day of activity.

Your body produces energy from the foods you put into your mouth. Whether you eat meat, vegetables, grains, fruit or sugar, ultimately these are converted into energy (and, of course, waste products).

The process is roughly like what happens in a stove. Paper, wood and coal all produce heat. However, one gives more, another less. Foods are similar: for the same amount, sugar contains much more energy than the same amount of carrot, for example.

Only a certain amount of energy can be obtained from the food you eat at any one time. When that runs out, an energy deficit occurs. You then get a strong signal (hunger) that prompts you to "stoke the fire", i.e. to take in raw material for producing energy. The feeling of hunger almost forces you to eat.

What determines energy requirement?

How much energy your body needs depends on two things.

• Basal metabolic rate, which is the amount of energy required to maintain your basic life functions.
• Your daily activity, that is the amount of energy needed to sustain that activity.

If you have an office job and sit all day, you use little energy; if you carry sacks all day you use a lot. The more you move, the more energy you use.

The importance of balance

In nature, living beings generally strive for balance: they eat as much as is necessary to maintain life, sustain activity and keep reserves so they can escape danger if needed.

You can observe in wild animals that they eat a lot and gain weight in summer. At that time food is plentiful and they need to build up reserves for periods when food is scarce; those reserves will then be used.

So if more energy enters the body than is used, it begins to store it — it "puts it away for harder times", like grandma preserves jam.

A large amount of energy can be stored as fat, so excess energy consumed ends up as fat somewhere on your body.

While animals build fat reserves to avoid winter starvation, modern humans no longer need this: grocery stores are open year-round. Abundant, energy-dense food is available to most people today, and many take advantage of that — not just to survive the winter.

Why do I gain weight?

In most cases weight gain indicates a disturbance of the energy balance. If your body fat starts to increase, first consider that you are eating and drinking more than your body needs.

There are no excuses!

Only you can put energy into your body — through food. No one can eat for you. This is an unchangeable FACT!

Some people blame hormone problems or medications, claiming that is why they gain weight. But this is not true in that simple form!

It is true that certain diseases or drugs reduce energy needs or increase appetite. For example, with an underactive thyroid the patient requires less energy than usual and most such patients gain weight. But the excess weight does not result from the hormonal problem itself; it results from the fact that they take in more energy than they expend.

You also don't become obese simply because a medication "creates appetite." This urge can be overcome by willpower.

Of course in these cases the affected person has it much, much harder, but that still doesn't justify pointing fingers at others for their obesity. Whatever I eat, it will not make anyone else gain weight — only I will!

What is the big secret of losing weight?

It is to take in less energy than your body needs to maintain itself and to cover the energy required for your daily activities!

What is the simplest method for dieting?

Take a scale. Step on it and measure your weight. Write it down on a piece of paper.

A week later weigh yourself again and compare the results.

• If it hasn't changed, it means you ate exactly as much as your body used.
• If it increased, it means you ate more than was necessary.
• If your weight decreased, you used more than you consumed.

To lose weight you need only to eat and drink less than you burn over a long period of time.

Measuring multiple times every day is totally unnecessary. Your weight fluctuates within a day depending on your body's water content. Sweating, breathing, urine and stool can cause differences of several kilograms. And, of course, the amount you've eaten or drunk is variable. So it's enough to measure every few days and watch the trend (the direction of the values)!

Why is losing weight difficult?

Success in dieting requires strong self-control, and not just for one day. Well… that's the hardest part!

Most foods are tasty. Eating is a source of pleasure. Most modern foods are extremely energy-dense and full of carbohydrates, so very small amounts are enough. Many restaurants don't focus on quality but try to attract customers with presentation and large portions.

Without torturing yourself you can lose about half a kilo per week. That is about 2 kg per month and 15–20 kg in a year. If you have a significant excess, it can take years to lose it.

You can only lose weight with a method you can maintain for a long time. A 600 kcal/day diet is the high school of self-torture and you won't stick to it for more than a few weeks. You can hardly wait for it to end so you can eat again. So after a few days you'll be back at your old weight.

My recommendation

Today there are many websites and mobile apps where you can track your energy balance. Document every bite, every drink, every exercise and activity. Don't omit anything — you'd only be fooling yourself.

It's very useful to get immediate feedback about your energy balance. You can see how your consumed and expended energy relate to each other.

It's worth taking one or more partners into your dieting plan. When you fail, they will help you through the low point, and another time you'll do the same for them.

You don't need to do anything else but ensure that the energy you expend is greater than the energy you consume each day.

That's how "simple" the recipe for weight loss is!

What if you don't lose weight despite counting calories!?

It may happen that you count calories precisely. You pay attention to the balance between expenditure and intake. Your daily balance is negative — you expend more than you consume — yet your weight doesn't budge.

If you experience this, it indicates that you are choosing the components of your diet poorly. Most likely you frequently eat and drink foods high in carbohydrates, even late at night. Why is that bad? For your body breaking down carbohydrates is very easy, and if there is sugar in your blood, it will use that to produce energy.

Under normal circumstances, when the sugar runs out the body switches to breaking down fats. But some people need days for this switch. So if you regularly consume sugars (even in very small amounts), your body never switches to using the energy stored in previously accumulated fat.

So if you find that your weight doesn't drop despite reducing calories, consult a nutrition specialist. They can help determine what your diet should consist of, and when and how much carbohydrate, fat and protein you should consume. Properly setting your daily meal rhythm is also important. Preferably have your last meal before 6 PM and don't eat or snack until breakfast. This amount of fasting is enough for healthy cells to start breaking down fats — you won't be starving, but your fat stores will decrease. I'll write about this in a separate article.