Is your goal to lose weight healthily? Do you want to use low-carb products such as low-carb muesli to help your diet? Or, maintain muscle by taking valuable proteins when dieting? Find our best diet products and answers to everything you wanted to know about diets, losing weight and weight loss.
Diet – Losing Weight and Weight Loss
Originally, the word
diet meant
way of life. Nowadays, it is used to describe the
reduction of nutrients with the aim of losing weight or in helping improve an illness. Diets aren't, as a general rule, maintained permanently – they are usually used for short-term weight loss. The so-called yoyo effect is quite a common feature following a diet, which means the original weight is put back again.
Diet – An overview of the most popular ones
Brigitte diet, low-carb diet, cabbage soup diet, pineapple diet or the eat-half (FDH) diet. To help you succeed, Body Attack has put together a handful of diets for you.
Low-Carb Diet The
low-carb diet is a diet low in carbohydrates and high in protein. Lots of vegetables, salads, meat, fish, egg, milk and dairy products are eaten and fewer potatoes, rice, pasta and bread. This diet leads to rapid weight loss.
Many people also know this diet as the LOGI diet, the
Low Glycaemic and Insulinaemic Diet – so, a diet or a change in diet to promote low blood sugar and insulin values.
Advantages:
- You can eat as much as you like and there is an extensive variety of low-carb foods available
- Constant level of blood sugar reduces hunger pangs
- The feeling of fullness is increased by the protein-rich diet
- The high protein consumption can increase the basal metabolic rate of energy because the body uses more calories in breaking down proteins than in breaking down carbohydrates
- No fiddly calorie-tracking during the diet
Disadvantages:
- A too strict low-carb diet can lead to low blood sugar
- Phases of tiredness, listlessness and lack of concentration
- If the low-carb diet is carried out for too long or too intensively, the bowel may become sluggish as there is too little dietary fibre from grains
Atkins diet With the Atkins diet carbohydrate intake is drastically reduced. The body converts more fat into ketone bodies for energy production which, in turn, accelerates weight loss. The main sources of energy for this kind of diet are proteins and fat from meat, fish, egg, vegetables and salad. Sources of carbohydrates such as whole grain cereals, pasta, fruit, rice and potatoes are to be avoided, especially at the beginning of the diet.
Nutrition during the Atkins diet is divided into different phases. During the first phase carbohydrate-intake is kept below 20 g. This amount is slowly increased. When increasing the amount of carbohydrates, there shouldn't be any weight gain.
Advantages:
- No fiddly calorie-counting
- Pigging-out on hearty foods is permitted (meat, fish, egg)
- No hunger
- Higher degree of feeling full thanks to protein and fat
Disadvantages:
- High intake of saturated fatty acids (cholesterol and purines)
- Occasional low blood sugar and tiredness
- Minerals, vitamins, roughage and secondary plant compounds are often in low supply
- Is often abandoned
Anabolic diet The anabolic diet is also known as the
Bodybuilder's diet, as it is often used by powerlifters and bodybuilders. The amount of carbohydrates are also drastically cut in this diet in order to lose weight,
gain muscle and speed up definition.
No more than 30 g
carbohydrates are eaten (around five per cent of the total energy amount). The main nutrients are proteins from lean meat, fish, egg, quark and low-fat cheese as well as good fats from oil and nuts. Proteins in this instance make up around 35 % of the total energy amount. Fats take up around 65 % of the total energy amount. This corresponds to a daily energy intake of 3000 kcal approximately 260 g of protein and 220 g of fat.
Bodybuilders and powerlifters use the anabolic diet for muscle definition and to burn fat quickly. Especially before competitions, many powerlifters want to lose some body fat still. After carbohydrate reduction, the start-up phase begins. Carbohydrate-rich foods such as pasta, rice and bread can be eaten for two whole days in order to increase insulin production and flow of nutrients into the muscle cells. This boosts muscle protein synthesis and mass gain.
Advantages:
- Rapid weight loss and definition
- Variation through the start-up days
Disadvantages:
- Enormous amounts of discipline needed to do it
- Good knowledge of nutrition needed to execute it properly
- The metabolism is put under huge stress because of the drastic change
Formula diet With this kind of weight loss, one to three meals are replaced every day by one protein shake. For this, the shake must contain vitamins and minerals in addition to the protein. Quite a number of calories can be saved using this method of losing weight. This is also accompanied by changes in diet in order to slowly reduce the number of shake meals and to maintain weight.
The following low-carb shakes are available from Body Attack:
My Supps 100% Casein,
Body Attack Power Protein 90 and
Body Attack Extreme Whey Deluxe.
Advantages:
- Can serve as a meal replacement
- Are extremely good at making you feel full
- Rapid weight loss
- Curbs hunger pangs
- Can protect muscle breakdown
- Contains hardly any carbohydrates and hardly any fat
- Can be sustained for longer
Disadvantages:
- Needs lots of delicious flavours (otherwise boring)
- Nutrition actually has to be altered afterwards, otherwise yoyo effect
There are a number of different diets. Everybody needs to try them out for themselves and decide which kind of diet is useful to maintain weight or to slowly lose weight because losing weight too quickly can put the body under a lot of stress.
Diet – Harmful to the body?
A diet can give the body a hard time. Lots of people have a poor metabolism and can't lose a single gramme more – because of the constant dieting.
Many overweight people eat extremely low amounts and wonder why they can't lose weight any more. One reason for this could be an extremely low basal metabolic rate, the amount of energy a body needs in the resting state. This means that the body requires fewer calories for cardiac activity, breathing and metabolism than somebody with a high basal metabolic rate. Why is that? Don't overweight people need more calories to live? Well, actually yes, but the body has got used to the low calorie intake and doesn't need any more. As soon as overweight people start to take in more calories again, all the excess calories are immediately stored in the fatty tissue – there could be such a
famine again.
Our body is set up for survival – hunger means stress and as soon as more calories are available again, everything is hoarded and stored. This means the yoyo effect is pre-programmed.
In addition, valuable
muscle mass can be broken down on a radical diet. If the brain gets too little glucose, the body can produce glucose from muscle amino acids (e.g. BCAA). This means weight loss through muscle breakdown. The body also loses a lot of water along with the muscle mass. It's great when looking at the scales but dehydration is bad for the body as the metabolic processes and the associated fat-burning that goes with it are blocked.
A further disadvantage are sluggish bowels. If the bowels don't get enough dietary fibre, they can become sluggish which can lead to digestive problems over time. As valuable dietary fibre isn't absorbed, colonisation of intestinal bacteria is lower. The healthy intestinal flora can be quickly destroyed as a result.
So, a radical diet brings precious little. On the contrary: radical diets have a number of negative effects.
- Muscle wasting
- Loss of water
- Slowing down of metabolism
- Lowering of basal metabolic rate
- Frequently abandoned
- Hunger pangs
- Digestive problems
When selecting a type of diet to permanently and effectively lose weight, think about whether it can be kept up permanently and whether it makes eating enjoyable again. Enjoying your food, being full whilst still losing weight – this is what a diet should be to combat any yoyo effects.
Diet – What should a diet look like?
What should a healthy and effective diet look like?
1. Proteins In a diet context, proteins are a veritable slimming aid as the body uses more energy breaking these down than it uses in breaking down carbohydrates and fats. So, it's accepted that the body burns more calories with a protein-rich diet than with a diet focusing on carbohydrates or fat.
The feeling of fullness is also increased through the protein-rich food, which automatically leads to a lower calorie intake. Losing weight is pre-programmed.
Through the amino acid tryptophan, a high intake of protein increases production of serotonin (the so-called
happiness hormone) and provides us with a pleasant feeling of fullness.
Protein also helps to tighten up tissue, to produce antibodies, gives us nicer skin and stronger nails. So, food rich in protein should be incorporated into every meal. To increase the amount of protein in the diet, meat, quark, yoghurt, cheese or egg can be added to every meal. However, if it's not possible to regularly eat protein because of time constraints, then the protein requirements can be covered by means of protein shakes.
2. Dietary fibres Dietary fibres largely come from indigestible plant materials. Dietary fibres include cellulose from grain, lignin from vegetables, pectin from fruit and inulin. Dietary fibres have the following functions:
- they bind water (drink plenty!)
- they swell and increase the feeling of fullness
- constant blood sugar
- they build up intestinal flora
Food rich in dietary fibres include wholemeal bread, muesli, oatmeal, natural rice, whole wheat pasta, pulses, all vegetables, fresh fruit (apples, pears, citrus fruit, berries), nuts and seeds.
3. Carbohydrates in moderation Carbohydrates nowadays seem to have taken on a real villain's role. They are said to encourage obesity and are to blame for fat deposits. But this is only half the truth. The body needs carbohydrates to produce energy. Without carbohydrates, we feel tired and lack energy and working out during an endurance session is really difficult to do. If the body has too few carbohydrates, the recovery process can be impaired.
So, carbohydrates shouldn't always be rejected. But, keep in mind: Everything in moderation and at certain times of the day. Carbohydrates can be taken in the morning and at lunchtime to supply the organism and keep blood sugar levels constant. Carbohydrates should be limited in snacks and in the evening. Except when performing a strenuous training session with the goal of building muscle. In this instance, it also makes sense to give the body small amounts of carbohydrate after training.
4. Minerals/Vitamins Vegetables are especially rich in vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and phytochemicals, which boost metabolism and fat-burning and promote weight loss.
Vitamins not only strengthen the immune system, they also combat free radicals and oxidative stress, thereby preventing damage to body tissue. They influence utilisation of nutrients and improve their transportation. Hence, vitamins support metabolism, promote concentration and memory performance.
Minerals are of particular benefit to athletes, since many valuable minerals are lost through sweating during exercise. Minerals maintain the body's water balance, support almost all metabolic processes and activate enzymes and hormones, without which metabolism would collapse. Muscle contractions couldn't take place without minerals and transportation of oxygen and nutrients to the muscle cells couldn't be ensured. Minerals, like vitamins, are also involved in formation of white blood cells and strengthen the body's own immune defence system.
So, sufficient vegetables should be incorporated into every meal. You can eat loads of vegetables whether they're raw or gently cooked.
5. Healthy Fats Of course, fat with nine calories per gramme has loads of energy but they should just be used sparingly. It's a good thing to reduce saturated, fatty acids and to increase mono-saturated and poly-unsaturated fatty acids because these can even promote lipid catabolism.
Fats increase the feeling of fullness and can (like the essential fatty acid CLA) boost fat metabolism. They improve the blood flow and hence the uptake of nutrients and oxygen into the muscle cells. Good fats are found in high-quality vegetable oils (rapeseed oil, olive oil, walnut oil or linseed oil). But these oils should also only be taken in moderation as one tablespoon of oil can easily add 130 calories. Watch out for hidden fats in sausages, meat and bakery products – they contain a lot of calories and can hinder weight loss.
Diet – A Look at the Best Tips
There are lots of different reasons for a diet. While some people mainly just want to get rid of smaller or larger amounts of fat for aesthetic reasons, other people need to lose weight for health reasons. And there are athletes who need to go on a diet either because they need to reach their competitive weight (e.g. boxers) or because their muscles shouldn't be covered up by a layer of fat (e.g. bodybuilders).
Whatever the reason for a diet – everybody wanting to lose weight should keep the following points in mind:
1. A diet can really only work if the body burns more energy than it's given.
2. When on a diet, to avoid any deficiencies make sure there is always an adequate supply of essential nutrients. An unbalanced diet is unhealthy.
3. If possible, fat is what you should be losing on a diet – not muscle. So, give muscles protein when on a diet. Because proteins help to maintain and increase muscle mass.
Body Attack Diet Tip Number 1 A diet can really only work if the body burns more energy than it's given. That's the only way to lose weight.
The best way to do this is through a combination of low-calorie diet and so-called fat-burning training, which boosts fat metabolism. Endurance sports such as Nordic walking, slow jogging, cycling and swimming are a really great way to burn fat. But even training on the cross-trainer or the stepper helps. Fat-burning is most effective when the pulse rate is between 125 and 130 over a 25 minute period.
Body Attack Diet Tip Number 2 When on a diet, to avoid any deficiencies make sure there is always an adequate supply of essential nutrients. An unbalanced diet is unhealthy.
A calorie-controlled diet doesn't mean you have to do without valuable and vital nutrients. So, even when dieting you should make sure your diet isn't one-sided (like on a so-called pineapple diet, for example). Only by eating a varied diet with different types of products can you protect yourself against any deficiencies – vitamins, minerals and Co. are a must. To supplement a low-calorie or weight-controlled diet, products such as the
Body Attack Diet Shake can also be used. The product meets the dietary regulation (§§ 14a paragraph 2, 21a paragraphs 4 and 6 and Annex 17) - and prevents any deficiency of essential nutrients while dieting.
Body Attack Diet Tip Number 3 If possible, fat is what you should be losing on a diet – not muscle. So, give muscles protein when dieting (e.g. with special protein products). Because proteins help to maintain and increase muscle mass.
When dieting, benefits can be gained by not going without foods containing protein (e.g eggs, poultry, fish, lean meat, low-fat milk, cheese or yoghurt) or nutritional supplements containing protein or fitness products (e.g.
Body Attack Power Protein 90 with L-Carnitine,
Body Attack Casein Protein or
Body Attack Carb Control). Because the body is then supplied with essential proteins to maintain muscle.
Diet – How can I motivate myself?
It's often only possible to stick to a diet for a short time because the goals are too high and diet food often doesn't taste good. But, it doesn't have to be that way! A diet with 600 calories less per day can still be tasty. There are more than enough recipes for this around. Here are a few tips for motivation:
- have realistic weekly targets
- give yourself a reward when the target has been reached
- find allies to give one another motivation
- carry around the lost weight (e.g. as a bottle of water)
- don't weigh yourself more than once a week
- self-reflection – when do I eat, why do I eat, what do I eat? A journal can help
- Write down alternatives so you don't pig-out (e.g. recipes for evening meals or healthy sweets)
Diet – Suitable Nutritional Supplements
Nutritional supplements are a great way to help your diet and also promote weight loss. The most effective nutritional supplements for a diet are proteins and fatburners.
Proteins boost metabolism. The body needs a lot of calories to breakdown the protein molecules. Plus, proteins make you feel full and can replace an entire meal, take the protein Shake 100 % Casein or
Power Protein 90, for example.
Feel free to ask our experts for advice on finding the most suitable nutritional supplement for your diet target!
Do you already know the Body Attack
Protein Shaker. You've got to
give it a try!
Diet - The role of Diuretics
The body consists of about 65 % water. Man can't survive without water. Water not only serves for transporting substances, it is also a solvent, for regulating body temperature, as a swelling agent or as reaction material. However, it may be that excess water is being stored in the body.
Diuretics or "water tablets" can help to get rid of excess water retention. Although water is essential, excess water retention can strain the body and may lead to an increase in weight.
Natural foods can speed up drainage of fluids, for example, asparagus, dandelions, nettles and parsley – however, you need to take a lot of these to get a suitable diuretic effect. So, when pushed for time many diet-conscious people fall back on diuretics.
Make sure to follow instructions carefully when taking diuretics in order to achieve the desired effect and protect the body from dehydration.
Image sources: Shutterstock (Ioana Davies (Drutu)/Dmitry Melnikov/Julian Rovagnati/Tony Northrup)
Diet-products 
Buy Creatine at Body Attack Sports Nutrition