The first month of weight loss: features and nuances

Author: Oksana Slavskaya – fitness trainer and creator of the website s-trenerom.com.
2012-10-23

This article is not an advertisement for some miraculous weight loss pills that make fat in the body melt away like butter in a pan. It is based on SCIENTIFIC information about how our body functions. Therefore, if you truly want to get rid of excess fat – read carefully. If you are new to training and have “pounced” on the machines as if you could lose weight either today or never, let me inform you: in the first month, weight loss happens primarily not through fat burning, but through:

1. Loss of excess fluid. Even if you drink little water, with insufficient physical activity, this water is retained in the body in the form of edema (especially if you love salty foods). When you start exercising, your body's metabolic processes improve, and excess “stagnant” fluid is expelled. Naturally, this also reflects on your weight and body measurements.

2. Decreased caloric intake. Exercise is very important, and without it, getting in shape is impossible. However, in the first month, it is especially important to change your diet. Why?

The reason is that the body uses energy (calories) for its functioning, which it extracts not only from fat reserves but also from carbohydrate and protein stores found in muscles and the liver. Moreover, fat reserves are consumed last, as they are the “strategic reserve” in case of hunger, illness, stress, cold, and other "extreme" situations from the body’s perspective.

When you first start exercising, your body begins to burn more calories, but it hasn’t yet learned to "tap" into its fat reserves. It hasn’t "reconfigured" to effectively use fat as an energy source during workouts. Primarily, carbohydrate reserves are utilized. The necessary restructuring occurs approximately after a month of training.

Why a whole month? Because changes need to take place in all body systems: cardiovascular, respiratory, musculoskeletal, hormonal, etc. Agree, it requires quite a lot of work from the body for you to finally start enjoying your reflection in the mirror. A month is quite short for such significant processes.

Now, a few words about what you should eat. Many people complicate their diets as much as they can: they read advice from "self-proclaimed nutritionists" and invent something on their own. And the basis of all diets seems to be the absolute conviction that one must drastically limit themselves in something, suffer for a month or two, and then they can eat whatever they want, and their figure will be perfect.

Deep down, we understand that this is the wrong approach and that the results of such diets will be very temporary while the stress will be constant. We understand this but continue to search the Internet for "magic diets." Friends, everything is much simpler and more mundane: proper nutrition. The most foolish action a person can take is to deceive themselves. So let's be honest with ourselves and finally change our eating habits in such a way that we’ll never have to "diet" again. Because the figure will be excellent for a lifetime!

If after reading this article you decide that you can get by without workouts and only normalize your nutrition, we want to draw your attention to EXTREMELY IMPORTANT INFORMATION about how weight loss occurs later, after a month. And why, without fitness, your figure will end up looking saggy and flabby (even if your diet is perfectly arranged).