Why are the kilos coming back?

Diet regimes are known to promise short-term weight loss, with a tendency to gain the weight back over time. The question is, why do people regain the lost kilos after a diet? In short, calorie deprivation leads to changes in hormones, metabolism, and cognitive function that make it difficult to maintain a healthy weight.

In response to the lack of calories, the level of leptin (hormone of satiety) is lowered and the level of ghrelin (hormone of hunger) is increased. Because of this, individuals on a diet feel more hungry, and the feeling of hunger remains even after consuming a regular meal.

The most basic physiological adaptation to calorie deprivation is a reduction in energy expenditure (that is, the amount of calories burned). This reduction is due to two factors. First, after a caloric deficit, weight is lost, so less energy is needed to move a “smaller” body, and less energy is spent during exercise.Second, the metabolism becomes more “efficient”, allowing the body to survive on less energy than a body of similar size that is not in a caloric deficit. Therefore, to continue losing weight, an individual needs to consume even fewer calories than in the initial stages of the diet. People who want to lose excess weight who are not aware of this metabolic adjustment and do not change their diet accordingly will stop losing weight, may even start gaining it back, and will likely be confused and discouraged. From their perspective, they’re still doing everything right—everything that already led to weight loss—and it’s no longer working. Their friends and family members may mistakenly conclude that they are “cheating” on a diet.

Exercise can prevent or overcome the aforementioned side effects of a caloric deficit, and research shows that adding physical activity to a diet improves weight loss maintenance. However, most people show a low level of adherence to recommended physical activity over a long period of time.

Lack of calories also leads to changes in various cognitive functions, so dieters become focused on food. Studies assessing focus, attention, and attention state that people’s attention is directed toward stimuli in food. MRI studies of the brain reveal increased activity in areas important for attention when calorie-deprived individuals are shown pictures of palatable foods (compared to pictures of water or unpalatable food).

What is the role of willpower?

Self-control is “the ability to change or overcome dominant tendencies in the regulation of behavior, thoughts and emotions”. Self-control is a statistically significant predictor of body mass index (BMI) in longitudinal studies that measured self-control in children and followed their body weight from three to 30 years later.

It is clear that self-control plays a role in weight. Failures of self-control erase previous successes. For example, food in the immediate environment (say, cookies on someone’s kitchen table) may need to be resisted multiple times, each time someone notices them. If an individual resists cookies ten times in one day, but gives in and eats three cookies when he sees them for the eleventh time on the kitchen table, he has erased, or nullified, the self-control he has exercised ten times. People with lower self-control (who likely succumbed to the much earlier encounter with the cookie) and people with stronger self-control (who succumbed to the later encounter) had similar outcomes: they ate tempting but unhealthy and high-calorie foods. Clearly, calorie deprivation puts people in a situation that requires much more self-control.

The only solution is to make a good choice at the right time, that is, when we go shopping for food, and not to buy or bring into the house food that is unhealthy, high in calories, highly processed and has no nutritional value. Here I mean all bakery products, as well as most canned, packaged and boxed foods, then carbonated drinks, fruit juices, all sweets, chocolates, cakes, biscuits, ice cream and fruit yogurt. By the time this food reaches our kitchen table, it’s too late, no matter how much self-control we have.

What should people do?

I often meet people in my practice who state that increased stress is the cause of their overweight. I advise them to find balance and moderation in all things, including their diet. This principle is especially important when considering dietary tips to combat stress.

Regular consumption of high-calorie foods indicates behavior that is maintained in response to physical and emotional needs. When a person is physically and emotionally exhausted, the mind will automatically look for anything that will satisfy its own needs and the needs of the body at that moment. It will do this regardless of the fact that we are aware that these foods are not healthy: the immediate needs of the body / mind will override the conscious desire for healthier foods.

If we refuse to acknowledge the body’s true need for proper nutrition, rest and relaxation, then we will seek energy in unhealthy foods that act as our support, as our support system, which is essentially unhealthy and inappropriate.

I don’t usually recommend restrictive diets, as most diets are unlikely to sustain weight loss. This is why I recommend eating as many vegetables as possible without counting calories. If vegetables are eaten before other foods are visible or available, people will have a harder time opting for unhealthy options that are sometimes tastier and more tempting.

In addition to increasing the amount of vegetables in your diet, there are some unhealthy foods that should be kept to an absolute minimum including added sugars, refined grains and highly processed foods.

The feeling of hunger, which I mentioned at the beginning, is the organism’s signal that something is missing, that something is always missing. People who are used to starting the day with unhealthy, highly processed and high-calorie foods with no nutritional value (e.g. muffins with some spread for breakfast) are often hungry, exhausted, tired, because the body is not “fed” with healthy foods such as vegetables that contain abundance of minerals, vitamins, enzymes, antioxidants and micronutrients, and healthy proteins that provide the necessary energy and help in the regeneration and recovery of the body. When they start making good choices, when they start buying and consuming larger amounts of vegetables during the day, they will notice that they have more energy and enthusiasm, and that they are less hungry and less tired.

Furthermore, I recommend easy to perform. pleasant and relaxing physical activities, such as walking in natural surroundings.

In conclusion, the body is a powerful self-regenerating organism. It has all the necessary systems for regeneration and restoration. When you provide it with the right conditions, including adequate healthy nutrition, the body will function at its optimal level. Losing weight should not be a short-term plan, but part of a healthy lifestyle. Only in this way will the unwanted pounds not return.