Overweight

Seventy-two percent of women and 59 percent of men have tried a diet at least once in their lives. But no diet really lives up to its promises. That is why the cabbage soup diet is followed by the Atkins, Pineapple, South Beach, Low Fat and Egg diets. All diets have one thing in common: Six kilos (13 pounds) less are followed by 8 kilos (17 pounds) more on the scales. So if you want to reduce your weight, you have to change your basic diet. The best way to do this is to activate your metabolism.

Two kg (4 pounds) of weight lost in two days, but not a single gram of fat!

Some people are happy to see after their first days on the diet that the scales show a good two kilos (4 pounds) fewer. But what have you really lost?
 Carbohydrates, or sugar building blocks, are the easiest for our body to metabolize. So the body first accesses our carbohydrate reserves. We only have a small carbohydrate storage, called glycogen, of about 500 grams (14 ounces) in comparison to our fat reserves, which can be immense. After just two days of dieting, the carbohydrate storage has emptied. But the fat remains untouched!

Five hundred grams (14 ounces) of glycogen binds two liters (34 ounces) of water in the body. If glycogen is consumed during the dieting phase, 2 liters of water are released and excreted. It looks great on the scales! But the sad truth is, we only lost water and a little sugar. Not a gram of fat! With the first portion of noodles, rice or bread that we now eat, the glycogen storage fills up again and 2 liters of water once again binds to the carbohydrates. Result: The scale shows a return to original weight. Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with losing weight.

Muscle atrophy instead of fat burning

And what happens if you extend a diet over a longer period of time? Will you at least lose fat? Unfortunately, not at first. The body has to produce new carbohydrates constantly to feed the brain. Brain metabolism is dependent on carbohydrates in the form of sugar. There are basically two metabolic pathways available to us for sugar production, from protein or fat.


During the next days of the diet, protein will unfortunately be used to produce energy, because this is easier for the body. Our muscle mass is broken down and converted into sugar. Only after a few days does the body switch to fat burning. But then most diets are over again. On the other hand, we gain weight all the faster because we have decommissioned our only fat burner, the muscle.

The intelligent solution to combat weight: Convert your metabolism to combustion!

So forget about diet and calorie counting and learn to lose weight intelligently. All you have to do is eat the right foods at the right times. Diet and starvation are a thing of the past. Those who only eat 1,000 calories a day can still gain weight if they eat the wrong foods. The fattening hormone insulin plays a decisive role in weight gain. Carbohydrate-rich meals promote insulin production and therefore weight gain because insulin blocks fat burning. Consuming high-quality protein to protect the body's own blood protein is also crucial to smart weight loss.

Which carbohydrate and protein sources rank as best for you depend on the metabolic group to which you belong.