Geektimes is a resource for it professionals. Long sitting at the computer (that is, a sedentary lifestyle), snacks, biting, fast food, on-the-job lunches and other companions of this lifestyle often lead to excess weight. In view of my gender, this problem, perhaps, worries me more than males, so for myself I figured out something. I want to share my knowledge and experience with others. I do not pretend to be true, I have no medical education. Not criticism is welcome, but useful advice.

An important addition is that there are diseases (most often associated with hormonal disruptions in the body) in which it will not work to lose weight with proper nutrition and sports. In this case, let one go to the doctor and the sooner the better – these are very dangerous diseases.

First, I’ll explain why fat = sick . Overweight people are the first on the way to diabetes mellitus, hypertension (and it leads to heart attacks and strokes – “leaders” among the causes of death), diseases of the musculoskeletal system (muscles do not develop, and the load on bones due to high weight only grows ). Often, food seizes stress, then they get upset looking at themselves in the mirror, again seize this disorder and so on in a circle. Often fat people do not like themselves – and this is already a psychological problem. How to understand if you are overweight or not? The most common “home” methods – calculating body mass index (BMI) = body weight in kg / (height in meters) 2 For example, my BMI – 50 / 1.62 * 1.62 = 19 Norm – from 18.5 to 25 (very average ). In my opinion, girls with an index of 24-25 are overweight, but this does not critically affect their health.

The second way – many ordinary scales consider the% body fat. Doctors in fitness centers (that is, not gurus of dietetics and all that) consider it in simple programs like this (link taken from Wikipedia) . Specifically, about this link – the indicators of kilocalories for a person there are some too cruel, I would not focus on them. What happens in the body, where does the fat come from? There are 2 processes in the body – lipolysis (breakdown of fats) and lipogenesis (their accumulation). How to turn on lipogenesis? As easy as shelling pears – eat a cake (sweet + fatty), eat a big mac and wash it down with cola (the same). There is a lot of insulin in the blood (due to sugar) and a lot of fatty acids. + 10-15 grams of belly fat. This is the simplest example, there are others, but in principle, the knowledge that fat + sugar (or other simple carbohydrates – those that are absorbed quickly) will give 100% weight gain is enough. For stability (that is, maintaining weight), it is necessary to prevent sharp jumps in blood sugar, eat slow carbohydrates, do not drink Big Macs with cola. But for weight loss, this is not enough. What ways are there for losing weight? First is fasting . Perhaps only under the supervision of a doctor, because your body will simply slow down the metabolism to the utmost, which is fraught with a huge number of possible adverse consequences. Yes, there are examples when people from 200 kg threw off up to 120 kg while starving, but (in my opinion) if your excess weight is less than 50 kg, you shouldn’t even think about it. And if you consume less than the baseline level of kilocalories per day (for women about 700-900, for men 1000-1200) – you are starving! It is also known from the school biology course that our body can make fat from proteins and carbohydrates (which is why special lovers of rigid mono-diets can gain weight from salad), but it cannot make anything from fat.

Or leave it as it is or use it up for energy. 1 gram of fat = 8-9 calories. 10 kg of fat – 85,000 kilocalories, divided by 30 days (in a month) – 2833 kilocalories per day. This is aerobic exercise every day for 4-5 hours (which is unrealistic for a full and poorly trained person). Secondly, physical activity . Everything is pretty simple here. Muscles are made up of fibers that contract. To reduce them, energy is needed, energy is taken from the ATP molecule, to replenish the supply of ATP, the body needs glucose (glycogen is a chain of glucose molecules).

What we need is for the body to receive glucose by the oxidation process (there are other faster, but not relevant processes), which is why the loads should be aerobic . And oxidation is a rather lengthy process (that’s why they say that fat is “burned” after 30 minutes of jogging or other type of exercise). That’s why you won’t lose weight from jerking barbells, and yes from cycling. The logical conclusion is that in order to lose weight, you need to load muscles, but at the same time adhere to certain nutritional rules. In methods of losing weight, I do not mention diets, since mono-diets (10 days on kefir / buckwheat / rice) are starvation and violence against the body, and I want to consider diets as ways of eating later. About what, how, how much and when to eat, as well as how to physically load myself, I want to tell you in the following parts. If the topic is interesting, I can tell you about some tricks for losing weight.