Thoughts on Weight Control
The Three Principles
I had a discussion with my family about weight loss and weight control today. It seems to me the whole thing is quite simple but requires a significant amount of discipline and self-control. To be clear, I’m not an expert in the field, and I probably know very little. Also, I’ll try to layout things that seem to work for the majority of people. Individual situations require much more attention and knowledge.
The three simple principles are:
Exercise.
Avoid sugar.
Fast.
Exercise
People usually feel much better after any exercise, but it’s a challenge to start. Not everyone can exercise with high intensity, but you should be able to find something instead of sitting on your sofa and watch TV. Even a 30 minutes walk is very beneficial for your health and weight control. The majority of people can do that, and it requires little to nothing willpower.
Avoid Sugar
You can find some fascinating insights about sugar in Prof. Robert Lustig's video below. Long story short, sugar is everywhere these days. It’s tough to avoid it since it is everywhere, but it’s possible. Again, not everyone will have issues with sugar, but the overall population doesn’t deal great with increased sugar consumption. We as humans don’t really need sugar which means it’s very plausible to avoid it. Of course, occasional moments of sweets consumption at family parties and similar won’t kill anybody. In fact, it will make everyone happy. On the other side, instead of buying cookies at the nearby grocery store, feel free to choose some fiber-rich fruits instead.
Fast
People talk about various diets and different eating schedules, but it’s really challenging to control weight if they have a bunch of meals per day. From my experience, sticking to 2 or 3 meals a day with various types of food works really well. My point is, if you stick to the low number of meals per day, you’ll easily reach the goal of 16 hours fast. After 12 hours of the fast, a person should switch to burning fat as a primary energy source (I have to find a source where I read that). You don’t have to fast every day, but it has to be consistent to get some results. From my experience, consistent fasting erases effects from those family party cookies.
A disclaimer related to fasting is also that women and men react differently to the prolonged period without any food. Out of these three principles, fasting is probably the most questionable. E.g., from my understanding, the majority of women should avoid fasting. Before doing any actions please make your own research.
Final Thoughts
As I said, this is not me trying to give medical advice. I’m just trying to share my thoughts. If one method out of these three is utilized constantly, some results will be visible. But the real power comes with all three combined.