Typical dietary mistakes for those wanting to lose weight

Author: Nikolai Borisov - coach, champion of Russia in powerlifting.
2017-05-26

As summer approaches, the internet has seen a surge in articles about diets, including mono diets. In light of this, I feel it is necessary to warn those wishing to lose weight against repeating the mistakes of others.

Most Europeans and Americans have a bit of extra fat. Almost everyone has tried to get rid of it. So why are there so many overweight people? Despite the abundance of informative materials available online, people continue to make serious mistakes right from the beginning of their weight loss journey.

This article is for those who genuinely have extra fat. The “frenzied dieters” aren't losing weight for a different reason: they have nothing extra to lose.

1. Diet without Exercise

A moderate diet can help in non-severe cases. However, serious dietary restrictions will lead to the body not receiving the necessary nutrients in sufficient amounts. The metabolism of these nutrients will slow down, and while there may be some reduction in waist circumference, the body will experience atrophy of organs, including the skin, which may sag in the areas that have lost weight. Don’t be surprised if, as a consequence of laziness, you end up with problems ranging from joint issues to reproductive health concerns. Often, individuals do not want to associate long-term outcomes with diets. They lack the courage to acknowledge self-harm due to their foolishness.

The immediate effects of severe carbohydrate restriction can be noticed almost right away. A loss of energy and irritability set in quickly. Many of you may have observed this in slimming individuals around you. Physical activity can help avoid excessively restrictive dieting.

2. Exercise without a Diet

This is not as severe as the first point. You may become stronger, healthier, and happier. However, not everyone will succeed in getting rid of extra fat. Physical activity can increase appetite to the point that the food intake covers all energy expenditures. Even several hours of daily exercise can prove ineffective. For example: a multi-day cycling trip with daily distances of 200-220 km and carrying 30-35 kg on the bike (something you won’t encounter in a fitness club). Since the goal was not to lose weight but to maintain an average speed of about 20 km/h, a substantial portion of carbohydrates was consumed every 2-3 hours, sometimes as much as a loaf of bread with a can of condensed milk. As a result, I left weighing 95 kg and returned at the same weight. I mention the weight because I keep track of my weight category; I don’t measure my waist. The conclusion is clear: improper eating with exercise does not guarantee weight loss.

3. Monitoring Results in Kilograms

The distinction between thin and thick is measured in millimeters (or centimeters). Mass (in grams or kilograms) is what describes bodies, including humans. The second parameter is important when you need to be in a specific weight category.

Various human weight tables that take into account height, wrist circumference, and chest size are often "stretched" to fit. Medical weight norms based solely on height are practically useless. Many elite athletes fall into the upper weight categories and are labeled as obese according to these tables, up to class 3 obesity. This has its advantages—it avoids military draft concerns.

A person wishing to lose weight for aesthetic reasons should focus on parameters that are visible—measuring the circumferences of various parts of their body. Health status and life expectancy correlate more with waist circumference than with weight itself. It's important to trust measuring tools rather than subjective estimates. Your perception of your body size can be affected by lighting changes, tanning, and fluctuating moods. In the early stages, measurements can be taken every 10 days. Over time, once a month will suffice. More often is unnecessary, as small changes may be masked by measurement errors.

Measurement inaccuracies are mainly caused by two factors: varying tension when using measuring tape and placing the tape inaccurately compared to where it was last placed.

Weighing oneself is significantly easier. Thus, people prefer to step on the scale. By taking the easiest route, they encounter two problems. First, with proper training, muscle mass increases, and the person trying to lose weight may not notice a decrease in fat. Second, people feel elated by weight loss after each workout or sauna visit. This leads to the next mistake.

4. Trying to Lose Weight Through Water Loss

Training in most sports leads to significant sweating. Some moisture evaporates from mucous membranes during breathing. For weightlifters, a normal water loss is 1-2 kg per training session; in cyclic sports and combat sports, it can be even more. However, all the lost water must be replenished. Otherwise, you may die from dehydration.

Attempts to increase sweating through warm clothing or specialized belts lead to additional losses of minerals that you'll need to replace, just like water losses. This is a completely pointless endeavor. Without restrictions on fluid intake, your weight will return to pre-training levels within a few hours.

5. Fruits as the Basis of the Diet

Firstly, fruits contain a lot of fructose. Secondly, fruits stimulate appetite. Thirdly, they are rich in organic acids that can aggressively affect the enamel of your teeth.

These are very compelling reasons to obtain fiber, minerals, and other beneficial substances from vegetables rather than from fruits. Eating one apple a day won't harm you, especially if it's baked.

6. Veganism

Vegans come up with all sorts of justifications for their beliefs. The main argument is that humans are fruit eaters by jaw structure. However, binocular vision is characteristic of predators; it is necessary for estimating the distance to a prey before jumping. Herbivores have their eyes on the sides.

Yes, in the homeland of humans as a species, fruits grow year-round. Yet in the mid-latitudes, where most readers of this site live, fruits grow for only about 2 months a year. Where did our ancestors get their fruits for the remaining 10 months before supermarkets appeared?

From what sources do our closest relatives—higher primates, who are largely fruit eaters but not vegans—obtain protein? From insects, worms, eggs, and sometimes they will eat birds or rats. The chitin in insects is almost equivalent to beef in terms of amino acid composition, and earthworms contain about 20% protein with a good percentage of essential amino acids. Yet, vegans do not suggest replacing meat and poultry with worms. And who would agree? Exclusively for ethical reasons. Shouldn't we kill a million worms instead of one pig?

Speaking of obligate herbivores, take the European bison for example. It’s a very muscular creature. We can’t completely exclude the possibility of insects and worms entering its gastrointestinal tract along with grass or bark. Still, let's consider it a vegan. A bison’s daily diet in captivity consists of 160 kg of hay, branches, bark, and vegetables. In human terms, this means a person would need to consume around 15 kg of plant food. Lean animals like giraffes and gazelles spend about 16 hours a day chewing leaves. If you assume you could survive on a plant-based diet, you would have to spend all your free time chewing it, forgetting about work and workouts. Besides, your digestive system is not structured like that of ruminants.

Don't attempt to replace animal foods with soy, as it contains antinutritional components—protease inhibitors https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Соя.

Practice shows that those who fast often gain weight. And fasting is nothing more than temporary veganism.

7. Mono diets

Even more alarming than veganism. What is the source of weight loss when eating only rice, only dairy products, or only vegetables? It comes from structural hunger (lack of certain nutritional components).

For life, a person requires more than 70 substances: 8 essential amino acids (better all 20, to avoid wasting energy on conversions), more than 20 vitamins and vitamin-like substances, over 15 minerals, not to mention several dozen fatty acids and many others. By consuming only one group of products, a person experiences structural hunger for half of the listed nutrients without feeling hungry. In simple terms, the body deteriorates without experiencing hunger, initially without pain. The first symptoms of deterioration will appear very soon. Depending on the chosen mono diet, these may include: hair loss, brittle nails, dry skin, digestive disorders, etc. Of course, in 10-15 days on a mono diet, you may not develop any serious illnesses, and you might manage to lose a couple of centimeters off your waist. However, returning to a normal diet will restore your body to its previous state within a few days. It's a completely pointless endeavor.

The stereo diet is somewhat better. Consuming buckwheat and kefir allows you to last longer than on just one of the components. But even in this case, as Sergey Tkachenko rightly points out Sergiy Tkachenko, you can expect: “Dry, peeling skin, hair loss—these are consequences of fat deficiency in the body. Good figures after such a diet are rare. Bumps, dimples, and depressions from cellulite” (article - Is the kefir-buckwheat diet beneficial?). But these are merely visible issues. The same changes will occur in your internal organs. Their degradation is inevitable in the absence of marine fish and plant oils in your diet. The fiber from boiled buckwheat hardly stimulates intestinal peristalsis as effectively as the fiber from raw vegetables. There cannot be healthy eating without cabbage, carrots, and beets.

Vera Kobchenko honestly warns about the numerous contraindications of oatmeal diet, which, with the recommended addition of fruits, berries, and kefir or milk, transforms from mono into a quad diet. In this case, the body does not receive even half of the necessary nutrients for life.

It’s good that these authors are honest. Other websites prefer to remain silent on the problems of dieting.

Mono diets are a dangerous form of self-deception. The body receives the illusion of nutrition. Something enters the stomach, and the minimum carbohydrates allow movement. Meanwhile, due to structural hunger (most often, the intake of fatty acids ceases), internal organs and bodily functions suffer. The volume lost during the diet will quickly restore. Structural hunger certainly does not contribute to health.