Текст книги "Burn That! 20 kilos in 8 weeks"

Автор книги: Alex Chuiko

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Water

Some people believe that if you drink less liquid, your weight will decrease as well. People carrying excess weight are convinced that they’re just «overloaded» with water! I’m ready to give you a glimpse of reality on this. The water constitutes as much as 70% of the body weight. Water is the source of life. Humans cannot live without water for more than three days, so its essential nature is indisputable. And I feel sorry for people who use diuretics to lose weight, because this is the fast track to dehydration. People don’t realize that 1 kg of fat is 3 times greater in volume than 1 kg of muscle! Thus, fat creates a feeling of being filled with water. For example, in bodybuilding there is a term «covered abs,» which does not mean that the abdominal muscles are covered with water, but rather that they are hidden under a layer of fat. Of course, your feet or face can get swollen, but I would say that is the result of neglecting your health, perhaps by eating junk food at night (I mean foods containing a lot of fat or salt, which contribute to fluid retention). A person who drinks 2-3 liters of water per day will feel just fine. It facilitates digestion and speeds up the metabolism, which helps us lose calories even in a state of tranquility. Can’t understand how that’s possible? Let me explain! Our bodies lose calories even when we aren’t active; we lose calories while we sleep, as the calories are required for organs to function and for survival in general. And if the person consumes a sufficient amount of liquid (that is, not less than 2 liters), the metabolism accelerates, largely due to better blood transporting nutrients. It can be mistakenly assumed that if the legs and face become swollen, the body has accumulated too much liquid under the skin. But this is not the case. Our bodies are very prudent and forward-thinking: if we do not consume enough liquid, our bodies react by preserving it and «storing» for the future. Yesterday you drank 1.5 liters of water, but today only 1 liter, and the body «calculates» that it might suffer from a considerable lack of water in the nearest future, so it actively protects itself by «collecting» liquid, not allowing us to get rid of it. And when the body doesn’t suffer from the lack of water intake, it doesn’t accumulate it.

A common misconception is that excessive liquid intake overloads the kidneys and leads to kidney stone disease. Fortunately, this is only a myth, and the most dangerous liquids for our kidneys are alcoholic and carbonated drinks! Water is our first supporter, and you must remember that from now on you should drink 10 glasses of water a day. The most convenient and useful way to do this is to follow the simple rule: take a glass of water 30 minutes before a meal and 30 minutes afterwards. Keep in mind that if you exercise, you should drink one liter of water during a 60-minute workout. Adequate water intake is the first rule of WEIGHT LOSS!

Calculating calories

Succeeding at weight loss is all about understanding this chapter. I’m not going to exaggerate by saying that your life has changed forever now that you’ve opened this book. You know that the problem is in the infamous calories. But how do you understand what’s beneficial and what’s not? It’s not easy, but you need to sort it out! The energy content of 1 kg of human fat is 9,000 calories! Olive oil has the same calorie content. What does this mean? If your body consumes more calories than it needs, the excess will be stored as fat. The body of an adult male of 80-90 kg needs 3,500 calories just to remain functional (the issue of quality of calories will be discussed later on). If he consumes more, there will be excess, and he will therefore gain weight; if he consumes less, then he’ll lack calories and lose weight. That is, if the man does not consume 3,500 calories but 2,500 calories, the deficit in the space of one day will have reached 1,000 calories. And we know that the energy value of 1 kg of fat = 9,000 calories, so the man needs 9 days to lose 1 kg of fat. If the calorie intake is reduced by 1,500 calories, then 1 kg of fat will be lost in 6 days. As you can see, the calculations make it all clear.

It is also necessary to understand that you will lose weight faster because the body will shed not only fat but also waste! If you’re a female, your optimal daily calorie intake is 2,500 calories. And you need to reduce the daily intake to 1,000 calories. Do not think you will lose only fat. The transition to a healthy diet will result in the elimination of wastes and toxins, so you need to drink lots of liquid.

There’s no direct connection between the energy content of your daily menu and your weight, so both an overweight woman and a plump girl will find it equally hard to lose 10 kg. Let me explain what I mean. When we analyze a person’s weight in order to calculate optimal calorie intake, we should take into account not the weight in general but the qualitative weight. For example, if a man weighs 150 kg, theoretically it can be assumed that he will need 7,000 calories to maintain his weight, but this is not true. We need to evaluate a person’s weight without fat, as our body expends calories on maintaining the optimal functionality of muscles and organs. In order to be maintained, the fat does not require calories to be burned, so we don’t take it into account! We’ve already figured out that the calorie intake of a slim girl weighing 45-60 kg is equal to the calorie intake of a girl weighing 120 kg. And a slender girl who needs to lose weight to go from 64 kg to 60 kg will find this as difficult as a plump girl who wants to lose weight from 120 to 116 kg. The same calculations can be applied to the male body.

I guess failure to understand calorie intake obscures the reasons for further failure. Let’s identify the negative aspects of this issue. When a woman whose weight is 100 kg and whose calorie intake reaches 5,000 calories begins to reduce the number of calories she consumes little by little, it does not result in prompt weight loss, since the range from 2,500 to 5,000 calories leads to weight gain. Hence, the woman should significantly revise her daily diet to start losing weight. If she reduces her calorie intake at least to 2,450 calories, she will begin to lose weight, but, unfortunately, the process will be so slow that she won’t even notice it.

To conclude, you need to monitor the calorie intake of foods you eat all the time! The good news is: this is easy! One only has to look at the label on the product, and it will immediately provide information on how many calories there are in 100 grams of this product. But it is also necessary to understand that although the energy content of cookies and buckwheat might be the same, eating cookies while losing weight is – of course – not advisable. The consumption of buckwheat, by contrast, is a must! Control your calorie intake. It is the second rule of LOSING WEIGHT!

Energy – Carbohydrates

Now let’s talk about the caloric content of products, because there are good calories and bad calories… For example, 100 grams of a cream cake contain 500 calories, 5 bananas are also 500 calories and 150 grams of rice give 500 calories too. But a cake contains a lot of sugar, which gives fast carbs, i.e., calories that will store directly on the hips! Bananas, vegetables and cereals contain slow (or good) carbohydrates. It means that they slowly deliver energy to your muscles, and won’t be deposited on your sides.

It should be also noted that carbohydrates are a source of energy. Carbohydrates can be fast and slow. Fast carbs can be found in sweets (these are bad calories). Slow carbs are found in vegetables, some fruit and cereals (these are good calories but only in case we know how to burn them properly).

Please note that carbs can be consumed only until 14:00! NOT LATER than that! Otherwise, they simply turn to fat (this statement doesn’t apply to fruit and vegetables as their carbohydrate content is too low). The lion’s share of carbohydrates daily intake should be taken at breakfast. Even during the weight loss, the minimum amount must be 50 grams of buckwheat cereal for breakfast! But it is highly unlikely that you will need to go that extreme. We will return to discussing this issue later.

You should take carbohydrates 1-2 hours before the workout, that is, if you work out in the evening, then since today stop working out in the evening! Workouts should be moved to the daytime or, even better, to the morning. Because if you start to exercise, and the body doesn’t get energy in the form of carbohydrates, it’ll start burning your muscles within the first half an hour, which can cause the significant deterioration of your health. After a workout, carbohydrates are not mandatory, but a banana or 200 g of grapes will be fine. It should also be mentioned that lots of diet systems proclaim potatoes being high-calorie and potentially dangerous. I do agree with them in respect of the fact that potato contains starch, which is not very helpful during weight loss, but you can have 100 grams of boiled potatoes in the morning instead of cereal, for example, jacket potato but without sunflower, olive oil or butter!

You can use ketchup or adjika (a Georgian hot sauce) to improve the taste of food, especially carb-rich foods, but pay attention to the calorie content (if 100 g of ketchup has more than 80 calories don’t include it into your menu). If you have a question about the carb content in a particular product, you can always use the internet search engine: just type the name of the product and you will get the information you need; for example, carbohydrate content in sultana grapes is 17 carbs per 100 g or 70 calories. It means that you can have this food at any time. Just remember that 3 hours before bedtime we eat only fat free cottage cheese (it will be discussed in details later). To make it more delicious, you can add 1-2 apples, but no more! Having fat free cottage cheese for dinner is the last meal. You are not to eat after it. To conclude this chapter, I will remind that monitoring the carbohydrates intake is the third rule of WEIGHT LOSS!

Building material for cells and tissues – Proteins

Our health depends on the condition of our organs, bones, muscles, and skin. And health in general depends on the proteins. Meat, fish, cottage cheese and egg whites belong to high-protein foods (proteins can be found not only in these products, but we’re especially interested in them). You’ve probably noticed that the content of proteins, carbohydrates and fats is always indicated on the foods in the supermarkets. It is time you should develop a new habit and start paying attention to this kind of information. Can this product be included into your daily menu? For example, let’s look at a pack of low-fat cottage cheese. What do we see? It contains 15 g protein, 1.8 g carbohydrates, 0.2 g fat and 69 calories per 100 grams. Let’s get back to discussing proteins. Does the number of 15g of protein per 100g make it little or much?

First of all, it should be noted that a man is to consume 100-140 grams of protein per day; a woman needs 60-90 grams of protein. Now you know that 120 grams of protein can be found in 800 grams of fat-free cottage cheese. But eating only cottage cheese is not recommended. For example, 100 g of fish contain approximately 22 grams of protein, chicken breast (of the same serving) contains 20 grams of protein, 100-gram serving of veal contains 20 grams of protein too, and one egg white contains 5 grams of protein. Now there’s an assignment for you. Make up your daily menu of different dishes to cover protein intake you body needs. For example: 200 g of cottage cheese, 300 grams of chicken breast, 200 grams of veal = 140 g protein. It should also be noted that our body can consume and digest only about 30 grams of protein per meal. Whatever is above this limit will turn into fat. It means that the very proteins that you considered to be useful might do you harm once you ignore the basic rules of their consumption.

Lots of people trying to lose weight are aware of the harmful effects of carbohydrates and fats excess so they think that they can consume protein in unlimited quantities: they can eat 300 grams of veal for dinner but our body can absorb only about 30 grams of protein, and we already know that 300 grams of veal contain 60 grams of protein. Therefore, 30 grams of protein participate in building up muscles, and other 30 grams will turn into fat and store on the hips. The same rule applies to chicken: for example, the regular meal is 250 grams of chicken breast and a vegetable salad, which would be enough as an adult male’s lunch. But now we know that 250 grams of chicken breast contain 50 grams of protein, which is considerably above our limit of 30 g! What is the conclusion? Every time you purchase food reduce the amount to one unit: if it’s a big piece of meat, ask to divide it into several smaller ones of 300-400 g, so that you could control yourself and decide how much you need for each meal.

You should also remember that the protein is absorbed within 2-3 hours. And here we need to discuss misleading concepts that halt the weight loss. If you are a young woman and your daily intake of protein is 80 grams and your body can absorb 20-30 grams of protein per meal, then you need to eat 3-4 times a day! If you’re a man and your rate of consumption of protein is 120 grams, then you need to break it up into 4-5 meals. Let us consider, for example, fat free cottage cheese and its remarkable nutrition properties. First of all, fat free cottage cheese contains minimum of carbohydrates and fats (later you will realize that it’s excellent), and cottage cheese contains exactly the sort of protein that is digested by the body within 5-6 hours. Yes, you got it right: there’re proteins that can be digested within 2 hours and within 6 hours. So cottage cheese contains the proteins that are being absorbed by our bodies gradually. And perhaps this is the only and most important reason why we have to take cottage cheese mostly at dinner, that is, 3 hours before bedtime.

I understand that you used to have chops, baked pork, or sausages for dinner… But this is a disastrous choice for weight loss. You need a different approach, you need to «switch a mode» in favor of healthy food! If fat free cottage cheese isn’t enough, you can cut some apples and add them to your cottage cheese; it’ll make this dish much more delicious! You can also have cottage cheese when you know that during the next 5-6 hours you’ll have to skip on food. But don’t overuse this option, because you need to intake the certain amount of proteins per day. Otherwise, the body begins to absorb protein from your muscles, and when a person loses weight due to depleting muscles, it can have unpredictable consequences. What makes us attractive is the minimum content of fat and sufficient muscle mass, – nobody would resist having well-toned hips and butts!

If you think that this mission is difficult to be accomplished, I will not try to convince you that it’s so easy. You are right! It’s difficult indeed! If you regard these issues as of minor importance, you’re wrong because we discuss the basic rules of being healthy. After all, my goal is not only to help you lose weight (losing weight is probably the easiest). You can achieve considerable weight loss by giving up meat and cereals and eating only apples. But it has nothing to do with healthy lifestyle. My goal is to make you happy, so you can enjoy your life, health and your beautiful body. And in this case you need not only to lose weight but also keep it up, strengthen your results with sports, which I’ll discuss later. Once again, my book is not fiction that can be discarded after reading once; you won’t be able to remember everything so you’ll have to read this book again and again throughout the process of weight loss because you will come across questions that will require answers!

So, monitoring an adequate supply of protein to your body is the fourth rule of WEIGHT LOSS!

Fats

It is time we spoke of fat, one of the most terrible enemies of ours. What dangers are hidden in eating one piece of cake? Is eating pastry that harmful? In some ways, yes, but it is butter cream, which is 50-60% made up of fat, that ruins the chances of being slim. The same applies to roasted meat, because you roast it in oil; it means that meat absorbs fats. It’s important to understand that calories consumed with eating fats differ from calories consumed with eating carbohydrates. For example: mashed potato is a dietary dish, but adding a good piece of butter, which is known to contain 70% fat, will surely remove the status of dietary meal. It means that adding fat makes food really delicious, but at the same time really harmful: the classic example is potato chips deep-fired in sunflower oil and thoroughly saturated with fat, and thus having the impossibly high calorie content. Almost all the recipes include sunflower oil, or butter. Is there any solution to this problem? Yes, there is! Ignore fats!

For example, the fat content in sausages (even expensive ones) is 30%. It means that one out of three sausages will store on your hips. No need to panic. I understand that you’re getting now a lot of new information, you have lots of questions, and one of the most important is «What am I allowed to eat»? I promise you that you will not starve! The actual menu will be presented in the next chapters. And now you should learn the theoretical part as it’s important for moving on to a new life! If you think that there’s nothing wrong with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil then you’re wrong, because we are now able to read the information labeling the products and if we look at the bottle of olive oil, we will see that there are 900 calories in 100 grams. Hence, there are 270 calories in 30 grams. To be precise, two tablespoons of oil equal 270 calories, – I am sorry but this kind of culinary luxury is not affordable when losing weight.

Now let’s talk about the nature of fats as not all fats are bad, and there’re useful fats! For example, fats contained in fish oil are not even absorbed by our bodies for the purpose of energy storage. They actually participate in solving such problems as pain in joints. Fats found in egg yolk are also useful, but mostly for men, as they facilitate production of the male hormone testosterone. Of course, during the weight loss, you need to reduce fat intake to the minimum. Moreover, you need to completely remove all kinds of sausages from your menu. Let’s be honest: the manufacturer doesn’t care about the health of the consumer. It is all about how to make sausage at minimum cost and enhance its taste. A minimum cost is achieved by adding maximum fat content to the product. Smoked meat products also belong to the foods with high fat content.

For example, some people love ice cream. I have to disappoint you – there are 500 calories in 100 grams of ice cream due to fats contained in the product. Just imagine that some people can eat 3-4 packs of ice cream at a time, which is about 2,000 calories. Yes, I know that information I am giving to you might sound horrifying, but these sufferings are the price of uncontrolled eating the junk food. Don’t worry, all these prohibitions are not forever, but only for the time you plan to spend on weight loss. Next, I’ll disclose a secret of how to eat all the delicacies without gaining weight, and if you gained you would know how to lose it within a week. Now your task is to monitor your daily menu very carefully, because as the saying goes: «We are what we eat».

At the festive table

I think you already guessed of a «hiding place» of a huge amount of fats. Of course, I mean times of celebrations when you and your family traditionally sit at a festive table. The very first week of my weight loss I had to «go through» celebrations of 3(!) birthdays. All of them were celebrated at home, and, therefore, each dish served was with at least 30% content of fat. It’s amazing how we manage to make a seemingly dietary vegetable salad such a high-calorie dish that it starts to compete with calorie content of cream, which, by the way, contains 25% of fat! Of course, mayonnaise as the ingredient is to be blamed for, as it is usually 60% fat and the same applies to the olive oil as well as sunflower oil. Besides, people can serve sprats in oil that are also fatty despite the fact that it is a fish dish. The cod liver in oil should also be mentioned as the source of fats. The cod liver itself is very useful but manufacturers manage to ruin its usefulness completely by placing it in sunflower oil.

On the first birthday celebration I was invited to I asked in advance to prepare boiled potatoes and several fresh tomatoes for me. On the second birthday celebration I ate 30 grams of baked cauliflower and 30 grams of boiled potatoes. On the third birthday celebration I ate caviar (no bread allowed). I am sure that three hosts I congratulated on their birthdays might feel insulted and considered me tactless and rude, although I firmly believe that if all the guests behaved like me, those hosts would save a significant amount of money, and the guests wouldn’t gain at least 0.5 kg in one day.

The birthday celebrations usually last 2-3 hours and during that time people eat the enormous meals. Let us be frank, people lose control easily while sitting at a festive table as they decide «Let the diet wait for another day». In fact, dear friend, it is your choice. I made mine, and as a reward I lost 4.5 kg the very first week; now the choice is yours! Minimize the fat intake, and make it the fifth rule of WEIGHT LOSS!