Understand where the origin of weight gain comes from
Pregnancies, life changes (celibacy, married life, death, professional life), illnesses, all these stages of life can disrupt the eating behavior and cause imbalances that progressively lead from overweight to overweight. “It is important to take stock of the causes of the weight gain, to again avoid disturbances and better manage gaps and frustrations” recalls Valérie Maton.
Set reasonable and reasoned goals
The goal is not to reach a dream weight, like that of a model (as a reminder their BMI is 17, while the normal BMI is between 19 and 25), but to reach a weight of fitness and health. Each person has a personal well-being weight. Weight calculations (BMI and ideal weight) are not taken at face value as a personal reference. They are only indicative tools. It is important to determine its naturally stable weight (that which once reached can be maintained without restriction).
“We set a reasonable goal which corresponds to his morphology and his body and a reasoned objective, which is more linked to his motivation and his temperament ”explains Valérie Maton. This job is easier to do with a dietician.
Choose your method
Apart from wacky and restrictive diets that are often unbalanced (such as the cabbage soup diet or the grapefruit diet), there are two types of weight loss diets:
The protein diet : established by a dietitian, it allows you to lose weight quickly (10% of body mass in one month) but it requires you to adapt your diet throughout the duration of treatment. “It is imperative not to follow a protein diet alone and to take advice from a professional so as not to endanger your health and not to regain the lost pounds” explains Valérie Maton. A regime without a stabilization phase is doomed to failure.
The low-calorie diet: it makes it necessary to reduce the number of calories per day, to take more time, requires enormous motivation. This is the most common diet because it allows you to maintain a social life. However, it is quite difficult to hold, because it requires a lot of patience and endurance.
“It is not the patient who must adapt to the diet, but the diet which must adjust to the patient’s daily life” recalls Valérie Maton. The role of the dietician, the coach or the doctor is to accompany the patient during her diet, to imagine her food program according to her life and to restore the negative points.
Allow yourself moments of relaxation
If thephysical activity allows to reshape the body and possibly to eat a little more, the sport is especially an emotional escape which allows to evacuate the frustrations, the consequences of hormonal imbalances and to promote sleep. Key elements essential to the success of a diet. “As with the choice of a method, we get into a sport suited to our tastes and means” recalls Valérie Maton. “If you are completely closed to physical activity and a massage allows you to relax, go for this solution.” The main thing is to take care of yourself.
To drink a lot of water
We think to hydrate regularly and in quantity. Drinking does not make you lose weight, but helps to regenerate the body’s water, thus better eliminating toxins and waste, and thus avoiding water retention. Water, tea, coffee without sugar, we try to consume at least 1.5 liters per day.
Don’t compare yourself to others
You should never copy the diet of your neighbor, or that of your girlfriend and especially not that of your boyfriend.
Even if it is quite motivating and practical to start a diet as a couple, we do not forget that men have a different and higher metabolism than that of women. Men naturally burn off more calories to keep their bodies functioning. In addition, they only consist of 10 to 15% fat mass, while women carry 25%. They lose weight much faster! The motivation at the start may wane if we realize that our efforts are not paying off as much as those of our Jules.
Thanks to Valérie Maton, dietitian for Dietexpert.
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