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If you want to lose weight without agony and live permanently, you should not eat less, but even more. Just different: better, smarter and healthier. Bestselling author BAS KAST recommends five scientifically sound strategies
How do you lose weight? Well, it's very simple: you just have to eat less and move more! Is there someone who wouldn't have heard this well -intentioned tip yet? The"Principle of the energy balance"It has become the mainstream mantra, as soon as it is about the question of how to get rid of excess bacon rolls. Serious experts also swear by the recipe, which makes things more fatal. With the principle of the energy balance, it is also explained overweight: Why did we get fat at all? Well, because we consumed more calories than burned for a long time. We just "spent" more calories as "spent" as "spent" over the Christmas days.
As logical as it may sound - it is similar to asking: Why is Elon Musk so rich? Answer: Because he earned more money than spent! As the comparison reveals, the problem with the "energy balance principle" is not that it would be wrong. No, it is quite correct - and yet useless. Because we would rather learn something about the strategy with which Elon Musk came to his phenomenally positive "money record". And the same applies to losing weight: more helpful than the advice with the "less eating" would be a concrete nutritional strategy that helps us that we don't want to eat too much at all.
In recent years I have always dealt with science on a question that is essentially translated:How do we breastfeed our hunger in the best possible and enjoyable way?And with that we are already with the good news: We have more and more scientific knowledge at our disposal that go far beyond the less-eating mantra. These findings also reveal that the idea, according to which a calorie is always a calorie, also misrums in practical life. So let's see the most effectiveon who have proven themselves in the scientific test. In order to anticipate fundamental advice at this point: If you want to lose weight, you shouldn't aim to eat less. On the contrary:The motto is more food. Defachion does not lead to the goal, especially not in the long term. Instead, we should eat more from those foods that really fill you up.
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Bass cupboardStudied psychology and biology and regularly informs about current health issues under "Baskastoffical" on Instagram and YouTube. On YouTube you can also find a long video of the science of losing weight.
5 healthy nutritional strategies from the expert
Strategy 1: Food as natural foods as possible
The more you get up when eatingunprocessed foodsSet how fish, meat, fruits, vegetables and legumes, i.e. peas, beans, soybeans, lentils and chickpeas (supplemented by a handful of nuts a day), the lower the risk of becoming overweight.In fact, these foods help demonstrably with. Are also recommendedOnly slightly processed foods, such as natural yogurt, curd cheese, oatmeal or olive oil. Also aBread of a traditional baker or a traditional baker, especially a whole grain bread or a, is a good choice. The reason: these foods saturated much faster than highly processed junk food in the industry.
Of course, this suspicion had been hugging for a long time. It was not until 2019 that one of the most important experiments in nutritional research in recent years gave evidence. The experiment appeared in the respected specialist journal"Cell Metabolism", comes from the US nutritionistKevin Hallfrom the National Institutes of Health, the relevant health and biomedical research authority of the US government. The renowned scientist and his team invited a group ofoverweight test subjectsFor a month to the laboratory where theyTwo different types ofgot. Once they got unprocessed meals for two weeks, then two weeks of groceries, which are highly processed. The remarkable was that the meals were very similar not only in terms of calories, but also in terms of nutrients.The only essential difference was the degree of industrial processing: There was once natural and once highly processed. All participants should just be fed up, it was explicitly not about a diet study.
It showed: when the test subjectsHighly processed foodwere offered (ready-made ravioli, hot dogs, margarine etc.), ate well every day500 caloriesMore than with the unprocessed foods - and increased. The overweight participants received reverseNatural foods, melted their fatty pölnchenJust there. And that despite the fact that the test subjects are completely in this case! Not always, but typicallyHighly processed food packed in plasticAnd contain at least one cryptic ingredient that you would never find in normal cuisine. So, we talk about biscuits, chips and many ready meals, but also intuming fruit yoghurts and ready -made desserts as well as - probably particularly harmful and fattening - the many soft drinks such as cola, limos and energy drinks. Of course you can also nibble a few cookies, I do that too, but overall I would hold back strongly with the artificial products of the industry.
Strategy 2: Eat more proteins
If you precise this first strategy, it becomes even more effective. Who increaseseats, it willFats particularly quickly. Also that"Protein principle" can be demonstrably helped with losing weight. Because proteins - also called proteins - clearly saturate per calorie more than the other two energy sources called carbohydrates (these are the various forms of sugar, such as sugar itself, but also bread, pasta and rice) and fats (for example in the form of oils and butter).
In an experiment by the Australian researchersStephen SimpsonandDavid RaubenheimerFrom the University of Sydney, the scientists of a test group offered for several daysproteinreiches Buffeton with lots of meat, fish and yogurt. Another test group, on the other hand, used one during the timethe protein arm buffet, among other things with croissants, pasta and potatoes. Again it was not about a diet study, the participants should simply be fed up. The impressive result: the test group that theprotein -rich foodsate, went on onespontaneousand took 38 percent less calories than usual. At thethe protein arm buffetit was the other way around: the participants of this grouphad to eat significantly more than usual, to get full - and feed whole35 percent more calories!
The unusually strong saturation, which is based on protein -rich foods, also explains why high -processed foods lead to we have to eat 500 calories every day to drive out our hunger: industrial products are typically "protein -dilated". That means they are often soFaithful and/or greasedthat we have to consume a lot of calories in the form of carbohydrates and/or fat in order to get enough filling proteins. In addition to fish, meat and yogurt, protein -rich foods are primarily legumes and vegetables, seeds (such as flax seeds) or nuts. These foods fill us up instead of fattening us.
Strategy 3: With more fiber, your intestinal bacteria are finally full
Another reason why industrially processed products don't really get us really full, but real food from nature, but very well,lies in the fiberbut itOnly in plants and herbal foodsgives, especially in fruit, vegetables and whole grains. Legumes are also real fiber bombs. Fillers are called that because we arebe unable to digest. They are anything but mere "ballast". In ournamely theFiber for the feed of those trillions of bacteria, which you also as thatMicrobiomadesignated.
And these bacteria are also hungry. When the bacteria "feed" fiber, something is most biologically remarkable: the bacteria form so -calledShort -chain fatty acids. These fatty acids can hike to the brain and report to the saturation center there: "You ate enough!" In this wayHelp us fiber not to eat too much unnecessary food. But there is more behind it.
Strategy 4: Anti -inflammatory food relieves your "brain snuff"
This is what we come to the most spectacular discovery of nutritional research in recent years, namely the fact that food does not only provide us with energy in the form of calories. No, food is, as it turns out, tooA form of information. Many nutrients act asSignalin our body. You canMolecular messagessend. These messages cancontribute to overweight or help us to lose weight. So it may be that our food regulation center in the brain, the hypothalamus, due to overweight or poor nutritionliterally inflamedis. And just as an inflamed and clogged nose no longer smells much, even an inflamed hypothalamus no longer "smells" the saturation signals of the body (such as the saturation hormones leptin and insulin).
Helpanti -inflammatory foodCan you drive down this inflammation. The result: the inflammation in hypothalamus relieves thatSaturation center "smells" theagain- and we finally feel full. Anti -inflammatory foods includeOmega-3 fatty acids, as they occur, for example in salmon, herring, mackerel or trout. But also thatshort -chain fatty acidsThe "digested" fiber "digested" by our bacteria appear highly anti -inflammatory. Also developmany, especially turmeric, ginger and garlic, anti -inflammatory effects. Other foods with such properties are: tomatoes, apples, berries, carrots, oranges, peaches and mandarins as well as soybeans. Fortunately, tea and coffee also appear anti -inflammatory.
Reverse aresaturated fatty acidshow they occur especially in animal foods such as sausage, red meat, milk and butter, ratherinflammatory. It is also not accidental to see again in experiments that test subjects lose more weight if you simply replace part of the saturated fatty acids of your food with unsaturated fatty acids - without changing the calories, only by replacing the food, for example by cooking instead of saturated butter with largely unsaturated olive oil.
Strategy 5: Essen Essen earlier makes you slim
Also thatTimingCan play a decisive role in losing weight. In an attempt from 2022 by researchers, including the American University of Harvard, the scientists set a small group ofoverweight test subjects one after the other on two dietsWith identical calorie number. The only difference: In part of the experiment, the test subjects ate theirsMeals at 8 a.m., 12 p.m. at noon and at 4 p.m.. In the second part of the experiment, on the other hand, the test subjects got mealsFour hours backwardspostponed, i.e.12 noon, at 4 p.m. in the afternoon and at 8 p.m..
The attempt went over a few days, and during these days the researchers caught a variety of data, for example how hungry the test subjects were, but also biochemical parameters. It showed: If theAte test subjects rather late, was the probability that they werewere hungry at their own feeling, twice as highas if they were eating earlier. In particular, they developed an increasedon carbohydrate -rich foods and meat. In addition, late food - in comparison to early food - went hand in hand with lower concentrations of the saturation hormone Leptin, mind you: with the same amount of calorie. Even more, certainGenes that play a role in reducing fat, were at theLate eating down. That is, these genes that contribute to fat loss wereless active in the late eaters- calorie quantity or not. Conversely, genes that lead to fat formation were highly regulated, i.e. more active than in the early meal, regardless of the number of calories - simply because the test subjects ate later. So the body drove down fat burning in the late eaters.
The molecular processes also seem to work in real life. In a diet study, published in the journal"Obesity", shouldTwo groups of women*once abigAnd for thatSparse dinnerTake away while others had little breakfast and were allowed to strike a little more during dinner. All ate as a wholethe same number of calories. The amazing result after twelve weeks of diet: the women* with thatBig breakfast had lost five kilograms moreAs that with the big dinner - and that with the same number of calories. ThisTiming effectWe can use for a diet that really helps us to reach and keep our desired weight. He also serves a diet in which weDo not have to go hungry, just eat differently- smarter, better and healthier.
One more thing at the end: gain and lose weight is a matter of the head
A legendary attempt by researchers from the University of Yale in the US State Connecticut shows how quickly we can mislead and save calories. Their subjects gotTwo different milkshakes. Once it was a drinkLots of fat and sugar, with many calories, that is, a real "pampering milkshake". A week later, the same test subjects then received one for controlDiet milkshake with little fat and calories.
After the participants had consumed the milkshakes, the researchers measured the levels of theHormons GhrelinIn the body of your test subjects. Ghrelin is also as"Hunger hormone"designated. The more ghrelin circulates in the body, the morewe feel. The finding:After the pampering milkshake, the hunger hormone Ghrelin fell into the basement. People apparently feltfeast. The Ghrelin Levels after theDiätshakeHowever, were still high - the participants feltnot really saturated.
Now you could ask yourself: so what? Wouldn't one have expected it exactly? Not really, because here is the highlight:The researchers had deceived the test subjects. Actually wereBoth shakes identical: Both actually contained the same ingredients and in both casesAround 400 calories. Nevertheless, the bodies of the test subjects reacted fundamentally differently, depending on what the participants believed to have drunk. In other words, even if we only believe that we are on a diet and eat "Light" and eating conservably, there is a risk that we will never feel really full psychologically and physiologically.A diet that primarily does not use is doomed to failure in the long term. Better trust the strategies of science presented here and eat more food that saturates you in a good way.