CHECK Magazin - Gesundheitsmagazin für Männer No.12

Nutrition
Text: Ernesto Klews
Summer
again?
The new year is in full swing and many are already in the middle of planning
their 2023 summer body and are storming the gyms. Why treadmills
are not yet designed to generate green electricity when in use remains
a mystery. But what should help with weight loss quickly are diets. And even
though I’ve tried almost all of them, I still ask myself: which one is right for me?
Which one do I actually stick with? Which one is not torture to do?
A look at the dieting madness.
Illustration: AdobeStock, ©Ivan
et’s start by not calling it simply diet, but a
change in diet. As after all those annoying
Lpounds shouldn’t come back after the diet is
over. Incidentally, every change in diet also includes
more exercise. A rule of thumb used by nutrition and
fitness experts states that diet is 70% and exercise
is 30% of successful weight loss. So, get out of the
comfort couch potato zone and jump into the new you.
Just Eat Half
Don’t count calories, just simply half the portion
size. It sounds simple and seems to be a very practical
diet to implement in everyday life. However, constant
abstinence can eventually trigger ravenous hunger
attacks and loss of concentration. I therefore
recommend halving only fatty and high-calorie foods.
Furthermore, you should look at your own eating
habits and food honestly without embellishing it. Do
fries always need mayonnaise or ketchup? What about
the Sunday cake? Sugar or sweetener in my coffee –
or rather nothing at all? Most of the time you can turn
just the small screws to change your eating habits.
Low-Carb Principle
There are several versions of this diet. The so-called
Atkins Diet largely does not allow any carbohydrates
at all. Only meat, fish, cheese, eggs, sausage, butter and
cream are allowed. No pasta or potatoes, no bread and
no sugar in any form. You can actually lose weight with
this diet, but you don’t eat any vitamins or fibre
either. And the extra salt in the diet can cause blood
pressure to spike. It is therefore better to choose a
weaker version of a low-carb diet: carbohydrates in
the morning and then less and less in the evening.
Intermittent fasting
based on the 18/6 principle
That means fasting for 18 hours and eating for the
remaining 6 hours. Depending on how you set the
times, breakfast or dinner should be omitted. Basically,
it’s about regular, short-term renunciation. The big
difference to other crash diets: the metabolism
is not throttled and the muscle mass does not break
down. It also triggers an extremely smart body mechanism,
autophagy. In short, this is a kind of recycling
system of the human cell, through which unneeded and
diseased cell components are broken down and used
elsewhere. More on autophagy can be found in our
issue #7 on the website www.check-mag.com. →
33 CHECK MAG #12