Anyone considering a weight loss journey wants to do it effectively and quickly. However, losing a substantial amount of weight quickly often results in an excessive diet. Nonetheless, an excessive diet is not a long-term solution and oftentimes you gain that weight back.
Losing weight requires a significant amount of time and effort. Internal medicine specialist Woo Chang Yoon discussed the three crucial rules that must be followed during a weight loss journey.
Woo first explained why extreme diets are detrimental. The recommended weight loss is between 1.1 to 2.2 pounds per week, which equates to 4.4 to 8.8 pounds per month. However, if you try to lose more weight by starving yourself, your muscle mass decreases, and your basal metabolic rate drops. As a result, your body burns fewer calories while your craving for food increases. Naturally, your motivation will drop, leading to overeating and gaining more weight.
If that’s the case, how can one lose weight in a short period? Woo explained that there is a way to lose weight relatively quickly while maintaining your health.
The first rule is to cut sugar. People usually experience extreme hunger after losing a significant amount of weight. If you consume sugar, your blood sugar spikes and drops dramatically, leading to even greater hunger. In other words, sugar will only intensify your appetite. Therefore, to control your appetite through willpower, it’s best to cut out sugar.
The second rule is to consume complex carbohydrates. As mentioned earlier, it’s better to control your appetite moderately than to completely suppress it. Complex carbohydrates are satiating and help maintain stable blood sugar levels. Conversely, if you don’t eat carbohydrates, you won’t have enough energy. Consequently, your craving will worsen, and you won’t build muscle effectively.
The final rule is to engage in high-intensity exercises. Light walks or moderate-intensity exercises like swimming can stimulate our appetite. However, after high-intensity exercises like strength training, you won’t feel like eating anything. This is due to the hormones released during high-intensity exercise. It creates a state similar to a life-threatening situation, causing the body to divert blood away from the digestive tract and towards the muscles. Just 10 minutes of high-intensity exercise can suppress appetite and also help prevent muscle loss.
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