The best lifestyle changes according to Katan
In recent decades, there have been many diets that promised miracles. But according to professor Martijn Katan you don’t have to follow a diet at all to lose those annoying extra pounds. Small lifestyle changes, he says, are sufficient.
Martijn Katan is a professor of nutrition and likes to keep the facts and fables about nutrition separate. According to him, it is not our perseverance or our willpower that makes it so difficult to lose the excess pounds; losing weight just goes against our nature.
“Our instinct is to stock up on fat as soon as food is available,” he explains. “After all, you never know when you will get food again. That has been a valuable instinct for a long time. In the time when food was scarce, a few kilos of fat could more or less make the difference between life and death. But our world has changed. turned into a sloth land. There is no longer a famine. We live in an unnatural situation, with something tempting to eat on every street corner. However, our instincts are unstoppable now that the calories are up for grabs everywhere. It is a primal urge that is even stronger than sex. You can’t beat that on your own.”
This primal urge is therefore a disadvantage in an environment in which too much food is present. In addition, in recent decades (thanks to elevators, escalators, scooters, cars and sedentary work) we have started to move less and less.
It’s all about the calories
However, it is possible to lose weight. According to Katan, the secret is not in another new diet. “It is best to lose weight in small steps. If you eat 100 kilocalories per day less, you will eventually lose 5 kilograms. It only takes years. You can also start with 300 kilocalories per day less, then that 5 kilograms is already there after half a year.After that you have to eat 100 kilocalories per day less than now for the rest of your life, otherwise the kilos will come back.If you eat fewer calories than you use, you will lose weight.It’s that simple. “
There are no foods that make you lose more weight, because it’s the amount of calories that matters. Katan: “A calorie from kidney beans makes as much fat as a calorie” chocolate, only brown beans don’t eat away so well.”
The second thing you can do is figure out how to get more exercise. “And I’m not talking about devices such as a rowing machine that is in everyone’s attic at some point. No, it’s about daily exercise: cycling to the supermarket instead of by car, walking with others, but also cleaning or gardening. All movement counts. If you walk, cycle, vacuum or garden for half an hour more every day, you consume exactly the 100 extra kilocalories you need to not gain weight again after losing weight.”
Watch less TV
What also helps, according to Katan, is getting rid of the television. “We don’t know why, but it has been shown that people lose weight. Maybe because they automatically start exercising more. Or because they no longer mindlessly eat a bag of chips. But what we do know is that it works. “If it is too big a step to stop watching television at all, you can limit the number of hours you spend in front of the television. For example, put a time lock on it. And no more computers also count, of course.”
According to Katan, it is quite possible to lose weight with a diet. If you actually stick with it for a few months, you can lose a lot of weight. According to him, it does not matter which diet you follow. “But bread, no bread, lots of proteins or more carbohydrates, it doesn’t matter at all. It is not the special composition of a diet that makes you lose weight, but the commitment with which you follow the diet. You lose weight because the diet forbids certain things, so you can no longer spontaneously eat what and when you want.”
The problem with dieting is that it’s uncomfortable because you can’t eat what you like. Katan: “The longer you follow a diet, the greater the resistance becomes. You crave a tasty slice of pastry or a plate of spaghetti. After about three months, the plugs break and the diet is over. After that, four of them expire. the five people go back to their old eating habits. And then the lost kilos come back.”
And then… stay slim
According to Katan, losing weight is not simple, but it is possible. “You have to realize that you have set yourself a heavy task if you want to lose weight permanently. A certain way of exercising and a certain way of eating comes with a certain weight. liposuction fat has been sucked out, that fat will come back if you don’t eat less or exercise more. If you want to fight the pounds, you must be willing to change your lifestyle forever. It’s not impossible, but it’s difficult.”
“That is why it is important to have a plan ready in advance so that you do not fall back into the old eating habits after following a diet: which calories do you cut out, which foods do you leave out? You have to face immediately what it takes to maintain your weight after the diet or even gradually lose weight. Staying slim means eating a little less throughout your life.”
Sources):
- Plus Magazine
