10 points to consider for those who have decided to lose excess weight. What is usually omitted in popular articles?

Excess weight is a real problem for many people. I have collected interesting facts from a variety of research findings that will hopefully help you shape your body in a desirable way.

1. Don’t get obsessed with counting calories. Our calculations are not always objective.

It doesn’t matter how many calories the food contains. What’s more important is whether the food was metabolised or not. According to the research, the harder our body works to digest food, the more calories it will spend on metabolising it, and, therefore, the fewer calories will be absorbed.

Food that’s not processed, (it contains a lot of fibre), such as raw products, and rare meat, makes our gut actively spend calories on metabolising them. Therefore, this kind of food delivers fewer calories than easily-digestible food. Calories indicated on a product’s label doesn’t objectively reflect what happens in our body. If your diet consists of fresh, natural, not pre-packed products, it will give you huge benefits in terms of having reduced calories’ consumption.

 2. Take care of your gut.

According to the research by American scientists, the gut of people who are fighting with excessive weight has more bacteria classified as Firmicutes, in comparison to the bacteria classified as Bacteroidetes.

Bacteria Firmicutes wonderfully extracts calories from food, meaning that these people get more calories from food. This is in comparison to people whose gut has fewer bacteria that are calories-friendly.

How can we change this situation? You can’t change a set of bacteria by consuming probiotics. Let’s turn our attention to enriched fats (margarine, animal fat, coconut and palm oils) and sugar. Experts are convinced that they help Firmicutes flourish. The fewer enriched fats and simple sugars, we have in our diet, the higher chance of changing the bacteria balance towards the bacteria classified as Bacteroidetes.

So what practical advice emerges from this? — Less pizza and cakes, more fruit and vegetables.

3. Take a cold shower to store the beneficial “brown fatty tissue.”

We gain weight with age. One of the reasons for this is a gradual decline in the activity of the “brown fatty tissue”.

In contrast to white fat, brown fat burns calories, which increases our metabolism.

Various ways to reanimate the activity of the “brown fatty tissue” are currently widely researched by the weight-loss professionals.

Cold temperatures can activate brown fat due to its functional properties. Timothy Ferris, in his book “a 4-hours body” offers a full range of activities. The copy can be downloaded here. Nothing substantial apart from the cold therapy is currently being offered. I recommend using it wisely to avoid pneumonia, occurring instead of losing weight.

4. Melatonin fights with excessive weight.

A research group from the University of Granada (Spain) together with their colleagues from the American Scientific and Wellbeing Centre solved the puzzle of melatonin’s benefits to weight control, by showing how this hormone helps to treat diabetes and hyperlipidaemia. As a rule, this hormone is generated in the pineal gland at night, which helps us sleep. The scientists found that melatonin induces the creation of brown fat tissue, a special type of fat cells that burns calories. The results of this study are published in Journal of Pineal Research.

This hormone in its natural form exists in some fruit and vegetables, such as cherry, oranges, pineapple, almond, sunflower seed, mustard, goji berry, cardamon, fennel and coriander.

5. Does 30- or 60-minutes of training help us to lose more body weight?

Wonderful discoveries were made by scientists at the University of Copenhagen. Those who spend 30 minutes training lose more weight than those who train for an hour.

Why? Because a short session makes us work more intensively and we end up doing more exercise.

I can confirm from my own experiences that if there is a limited time to exercise, there is a greater motivation to train more intensively. Sometimes I ask someone in the gym: “Why did you work with half strength? In the end, you weren’t able to complete the program, you didn’t work to your full capacity, and you didn’t gain the result you were hoping for. Most of the time I receive the same answer: “I saved my strength so I could work to my maximum capacity at the end of the workout.

What else can I say?

6. Fitness is not the only solution for losing weight.

Yes, physical activity is important, but what about undertaking a diet?

The findings of the University of Michigan, the USA, show that those who believe in the effects of physical exercise for losing weight, have higher body weight than those who believe that changing their diet will give them better results.

“When people increase their physical activity in an attempt to lose weight, they often gain more calories or they overestimate the number of calories burnt. This lowers their result,” says the researcher, professor Brent MacFerran.

Exercise regularly, but don’t forget to examine what you eat. Only this way, you will gain maximal results from your efforts.

7. Don’t lie on a couch.

You already know that a lack of sleep is directly related to weight gain. However, the latest research findings suggest that the reason for it is not only the quantity, but also quality of sleep.

Sleeping patterns mean a great deal for our health and, therefore, for weight control. American researchers found, that those who have irregular sleeping patterns (including the time lying on a couch) have more fat than those who have a regular sleep schedule.

8. Do everything quickly.

You can’t go to the gym today? No biggie. You can just do your everyday activities at a faster pace.

Research concludes that those who don’t go to the gym burn more calories when they do their usual work more energetically, than when they try improving their physical shape by doing formal exercises in a gym.

Physical activity specialists recommend dedicating at least 150 minutes per week to walking fast. It will allow you to control your body weight, blood pressure and cholesterol.

9. Ask yourself why you are hungry.

Deepak Chopra, doctor of medical sciences and author of bestselling books, offers interesting ideas in his book “What are you hungry for?” “If you are not happy with your life, it will be hard to have a control over your weight,” says Chopra. You will always try to fill the hole in your life with food, even if you are not hungry. If you can find a better way to be happy, your body will find its balance.

10. Remember that your stomach can’t count.

Dr Brian Wansink discovered, that snacking (a few chips, a chocolate bar or an apple) suppresses the feeling of hunger just like a portion that is 10 times bigger.

The secret lies in eating a tiny portion of a meal and then doing something else for 15 minutes. You will discover that you will lose the urge to eat once you distract yourself.

Enjoy the process of losing weight!