How to lose weight naturally?

Nearly one in two French people are now overweight, and six in two want to lose weight. But restrictive slimming diets don’t work in the long term. What are some tips for naturally regaining your healthy weight? How to lose weight without dieting ? What plants can help you lose weight?

Lose weight quickly: why is it a bad idea to want to lose weight quickly?

Every year, particularly in spring, new diets flourish, promising generally rapid weight loss with less effort. However, according to recent surveys, diets result in 95% of cases in weight regain after 5 years. So, how can you lose weight sustainably and naturally?

Lose weight: how to lose weight?

Weight loss is the result of a calorie deficit in the body. For our body to function, it needs energy, which we provide in the form of calories from food. The greater our energy expenditure – linked to the functioning of our organs (basic metabolism) and our physical activity – is, the greater our caloric needs are as well. We are talking about the intake/expense balance , which must be in balance for the weight to be stable.

Lose weight quickly: why is it a bad idea to want to lose weight quickly?

The only way to lose weight quickly is to force the body to draw on its fat reserves by drastically reducing caloric intake and/or significantly increasing expenditure. Which therefore involves following a strict diet, with numerous food prohibitions, significant frustrations and risks of vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

The more rapid a diet causes weight loss, the more taxing it will be on the body , which will gradually put in place survival mechanisms consisting essentially of adapting its level of expenditure to the low caloric intake it receives. It will thus go into an “energy saving” mode, like an electrical appliance if it goes into standby mode, to survive this shortage.

After a first phase of very rapid weight loss, there will therefore be a slowdown in weight loss , requiring a further reduction in caloric intake to continue losing weight at the same rate: which is impossible in the long term, because no one can starve yourself without breaking down for years. When stopping the diet or at the slightest breakdown , the body will automatically store the calories received , to prevent a future calorie deficit. Weight regain is likely to be as rapid as weight loss, and often even more significant. It is by functioning in this way that people who are perpetually on a diet display an upward sawtooth weight curve., with an organism that is more and more resistant to diets and which stores kilos more and more easily.

Miracle diets therefore unfortunately do not exist, because although it is indeed possible to lose weight very quickly, it is on the other hand impossible not to gain back in the long term the pounds lost quickly and at the cost of great deprivation. To lose weight sustainably, it is essential to take your time and reconnect with your body and the signals it sends us to tell us its needs.

Wait until you are hungry to eat

As obvious as it may seem, it is essential to wait until you are hungry to sit down and eat. Humans and animals alike, we are all equipped with a very efficient and effective internal clock, which sends us the right signals at the right time so that our body functions correctly. It thus sends us the feeling of hunger, when it is in a calorie deficit and the intake/expenditure balance is no longer in balance.

When we eat without having time to feel hungry, the calories absorbed will not be used very much and therefore risk being quickly stored as fat.

Furthermore, eating before feeling hungry prevents us from having access to satiety – defined by the fact of no longer feeling hungry – which is the second most important point for successfully losing weight without dieting.

Respect your satiety to lose weight easily

Satiety is the second essential signal to recognize and respect in order to regain your healthy weight without going on a diet. It is the one that our body sends us when it has received enough calories so that the “intake/expense” balance is in balance. Continuing to eat when we are full risks storing calories that our body no longer needs.

This second point is as important as it is difficult to observe, because we have all been conditioned to finish our plate so as not to waste or upset our host. So much so that many of us no longer know how to recognize it.