It is not surprising, considering that we do not stop seeing information and news that encourage us to get the totally unnecessary – and fruitless – ” bikini operation “.
It is possible that, in the rush that comes with this season, we will look for quick ways to lose weight. These efforts usually end in absolute failure, if not unnecessary risks to our health. Therefore, we have spoken with two experts, Juan Revenga dietitian-nutritionist and with Víctor Reyes creator of to give us their opinions on how to start taking care of our health and get in shape without fall into insecure follies.
Not dieting is the first step
With regard to this, Juan Revenga is very clear: ” do not diet; dieting fattens .” He is clear, his recommendation is that he does not give any recommendation for people to go on a diet: “every four months – before summer, in September, as a New Year’s purpose, etc. – we have a call to dietary uncontrol” he tells us, “but this has been spreading throughout the year ”
Víctor Reyes points out the follies that are done on these and other dates: the months before the summer are usually, along with the post-Christmas time, one of the most complicated when we talk about weight loss and in which the craziest things are committed. It is not because in these months it costs more to lose weight or fat by magic, but because people see themselves with summer on top, they want to have a certain physique that needs an important job and notes that they do not have the material time to achieve it. And then the rush and with them the follies.
From the point of view of Revenga, this is not a new situation: “for 50-60 years the same recipes have been given to lose weight at specific times and with these, the only thing that happens is that we are on a ‘diet’ all year round”. Any advice given about feeding at these specific moments is to encourage doing so temporarily – while the official time of weight loss lasts – to abandon them later.
Revenga explains to us the little use of dieting periodically: ” populationally speaking, dieting makes you fat. The more periods of diet people make, the more you get fat.” For the nutritionist, one of the problems is that they have sold us – and continue to sell us – the importance of weight when it is not the most important as it is in El Comidista.
Get away from the ideal of short-term weight and think about a change in habits
Reyes is very clear: “the reality is that many people who want to lose weight for this summer … are already late .” He knows that this is not what we want to hear, but he encourages us to get away from the rush: “in my experience, the rush is too bad to achieve goals .”
Both focus on long-term habits: “What has to be clear is that if a person leads a sedentary life, with nefarious eating habits, never trains, sleeps badly and has a high degree of stress (all crucial factors when it comes to losing body fat and maximizing body composition) you can’t expect to change this in 1-3 months and expect long-term results, “Reyes says.
Juan Revenga also focuses on healthy habits: “when you do things right (in terms of life habits) your weight will be what it has to be with your healthy habits. Depending on the habits we have, the weight will surely be influenced, but it will be the one that has to be, the one that corresponds to you “. In this way, the nutritionist puts the focus and importance on health by taking it off the weight: “Now, in my office, there are many times that I don’t weigh certain patients” he tells us.
The importance of focusing on health rather than weight
And, as Victor Reyes tells us, trying to achieve a radical change in two months or less usually involves many risky behaviors that can affect our long-term health: “Yes, if you do crazy nutritionally and with the exercise you may lose a significant amount of weight for summer. But let me tell you, even if it seems like this, this is not a victory. ”
Among other things, because as indicated, by focusing on weight loss we do not look at whether it is fat that we lose and we can take muscle mass ahead. In addition, these follies and radical actions are extremely difficult to balance with our normal life and: ” What goes fast, comes back fast. Success does not lie in losing a lot of weight in a short time. If you do something you cannot do to In the long term you cannot pretend that when you return to the previous habits, your body will not be as it was before. ”
But not only that, is that losing weight if we are not healthy is not going to help us live better or extend our life expectancy. Revenga himself reminds us: “If you do not follow the ones that have been considered the four most important and healthy lifestyle habits (not smoking, not drinking alcohol, doing habitual physical activity and increasing the consumption of plant foods ), both people with normal weight As overweight people have the same risk of death.
Therefore, the really appropriate thing at this time – and at any time – would be to change habits to take care of our health and not with the sole motivation to lose weight. To do this, Juan Revenga recommends analyzing ourselves: “analyze what things you are doing wrong and what things you want to change. If you do not have the necessary tools for this, go to a dietitian-nutritionist .”
Reyes encourages us to have some realism towards our situation: “This means that you now have work to do, but the objective is in the medium term. It means that you begin to gradually change your lifestyle towards a much healthier one. Without hurry, incorporating healthy habits little by little and without effort so that it is not something momentary and that after the summer it goes to waste, but that it becomes part of your lifestyle and you can maintain the results in the long term ”
Revenga leaves us with one last valuable advice: “Don’t look at the weight. Let the figure not be the yardstick of measuring your successes in your life changes.