I am NOT going to ask you to go hungry, weigh your rations, nor count calories. Neither am I going to send you an old hipocaloric weekly menu with five strict meals a day. No. I am going to ask you to turn your life upside down.
Universal optimal diets do not exist.
Find yours.
Excess weight is not a consequence of gluttony and sloth, of eating too much and exercising too little, no. Overweight is a metabolic disorder with a much more intricate background than the (unfortunately) notorious ‘calories in’ minus ‘calories out’. Metabolism is a complex chain of reactions (regulated by biochemical messengers, basically hormones and neurotransmitters) that depends as much on your genes, as on the plethora of factors that have influence over them (i.e. diet and nutrient availability, exposure to toxins, physical activity, medical and pharmacological history, stress level, sleep quality, circadian rhythm synchrony, and composition of the gut microbiota), both directly (by modulating the synthesis of the above biochemical messengers) and indirectly (through epigenetic mechanisms that affect gene expression). In summary, metabolism is utterly complex. And every ‘diet’ and worn-out hipocaloric menu that do not contemplate this complexity are doomed to become a very ineffective torture.
If the number on your scale and the size of your pants seem to grow alongside every birthday you celebrate, pay attention to your body. It is talking to you loud and clear. It is telling you that it is malnourished, that the diet you follow neither nurtures it, nor satisfies its requirements. And that is why it keeps sending you signals of continuous hunger to which, regardless of your willpower, you end up succumbing.
Hunger always wins
You need to find your optimal diet, the one that your genes are comfortable with and that provides your cells with the micronutrients they need to thrive. And once you find it, you will need to stick to it, but not just for a month or until you lose those extra pounds. No. If you do not want to go back to where you started, do not go back to what took you to there.
Relapses will most probably be unavoidable, but you can use them to get back on track with more determination and renewed motivation. And there will come a day when you feel so comfortable within your new you that no doughnut will look tempting anymore!
