Written by: Agata Tiurmorezow, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Long time ago I suffered strong eating disorder. It took me years to heal and get to the point where meals were eaten with joy, without doing extra training sessions or cutting calories on a next day.
It`s really important to understand the problem as we all just want to see quick results.
Anorexia nervosa, bulimia, orthorexia are really dangerous mental health issues and can have an impact on your health and relations with your family.
Gaining and losing weight, emotional eating, binge eating, constant thinking about food, starving, fear of gaining weight – these are just some of symptoms you might face.
I`ve been there. It`s like being in mental prison.
Let me help you to understand the process. Main question – why I can`t lose weight?
Usually, we choose low-calorie diets. We want quick results. Now.
Yes, they are working and you will lose weight, but in long period of time – also your health and at the end experience yo-yo effect and gain weight again. Your body's role is to keep you alive, so when you starve (low-calorie diet) and eat again, it starts to store energy as a fat. Plus, when you add extra activity, your body needs to work really hard.
Overall, all the body processes starts to slow down.
NEAT which is non-exercise activity thermogenesis, is lower as well. Your body starts to be more economical- slower movements, slower speech, less gesticulation.
It’s like with a car – if fuel is really low, you can drive, but you can’t race. Being on salads and a low-calorie diet from Monday to Friday can lead to excessive food intake on weekends. Hunger, frustration and anger are only some of emotions which can occur.
The worst thing is to lose control and start all over again from Monday.
There is also “first day of diet syndrome” where, before starting new regime, last day is full of crap food and people tend to overeat, because they know, “tomorrow is new beginning”.
That kind of scenario quite often lead to metabolic syndrome and hormonal problems.
Women can experience water retention, stomach problems, menstrual issues, skin problems, sleeping problems, thyroid problems, not mentioning about mental health, lack of confidence and low self-esteem. Another very common case can be sedentary lifestyle and estimating wrong calories amount/food portions. We don't really need that much calories with a sedentary lifestyle BUT I wouldn't recommend eating lower than 1500kcal.
What that means? It means that it's better to go for a walk or just be little bit more active and create calorie deficit by movement, rather than eating less calories.
Think about food as energy and fuel, vitamins and minerals.
We can actually lose weight and boost metabolism faster by consuming more calories and being more active, rather than eating less and not moving.
Of course, there is much more weight loss problems health-related like low thyroid functions, hormonal problem, IO, metabolic syndrome, PCOS, but that kind of health conditions just need different point of view, supplemental support, specific diet and workout.
One more thing need to be mentioned here – excessive workouts.
Can you gain weight from excessive trainings? If you are on calorie deficit – NO. There can be temporary water retention but deficit is deficit. What I found with my clients was, that they've been compensating workouts with extra food and that was causing surplus and lack of results or weight gain.
When choosing the diet, be honest and patience. Nothing will happen over the night. Gaining weight did not happen in a week, so weight loss will not happen in a week either.
If you decide to count calories, count everything, every day. Not just Monday to Friday. Count a glass of wine, all bites, snacks and cappuccino. You will be surprised about the income.
I always recommend to ask for help, do it once and properly. Find balance and make it fun.
Visit my Instagram for more info!
Agata Tiurmorezow, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Agata Tiurmorezow works as Eating Disorder Recovery Coach. Agata after sufferring herself 20 years ago, earned a master's degree in Food Technology and Human Nutrition. This allowed her to deepen her knowledge of nutrition and better understand how the body functions. For the past 10 years, Agata has been helping women achieve their goals, improve their health, and minimize symptoms of conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, thyroid issues, or menopause through a specially tailored nutrition plan, supplements, and exercise.
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