How to Lose Weight? The Complete Scientific Guide Explained by Dhruv Rathee

How to Lose Weight? The Complete Scientific Guide Explained by Dhruv Rathee



Hello, friends!  This is one of the most searched questions on the internet.  How to lose weight?  And this is probably the most popular New Year's resolution in the world.  Weight loss.  On this one question, millions of YouTube videos have been made, thousands of articles have been written, and so many rumours have been spread. Some tell you to eat Maggi for a muscular body, some tell you to go on a low-carb diet, some tell you to go on a low-fat diet, some try to sell their fake products.  An entire industry has been built on weight loss.  In today's blog’s post, let's understand this concept in a scientific way.

What's true and what's myth?  To lose weight, what should you eat and what should you not eat?  And which diet is the best?  Let's find out.   

The logic behind weight loss is quite simple.  Imagine that you have a bank account.  All the money you earn gets accumulated in your bank account.  All the money you spend is deducted from your bank account.  So, if you want to increase your bank balance, you either have to increase your earnings or reduce your expenses.  Similarly, our body has a calorie bank. The calories you consume, accumulate here.  And the more you spend, it is deducted from the stored calories. This calorie bank is our body.  To store calories, they are converted into fat and stored by the body, which increases our weight.

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So, if you want to lose weight, either reduce your calorie intake or spend more calories.  To spend calories is known as Burning Calories.  Let's talk about how calories burn later, before that, let's know where do calories come from?  The food you eat, whatever you drink, except water, all of them have energy in the form of calories.  In nutritional science, the definition of calories is that "it is a unit of energy."  So, the food and water you are consuming, that is where the calories are coming from.  Since calories are a form of energy, everything for which the body uses energy, calories are burned for those.  The most obvious thing that comes to people's mind to burn calories is exercising.  This is true, our body needs energy is needed for every process, so calories are burned for everything.

To make your heart beat, for your lungs to breathe, to digest food in your stomach, energy is needed for all.  For this reason, even while sleeping at night, your calories are burned.  You heard it right.  On average, a normal person burns 400 calories during 8 hours of sleep.  And these calories are burned merely to keep the body alive, this is known as Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR.  Every person has a different Basal Metabolic Rate.

It depends on your height, weight, muscle mass and many other factors.  There is an online calculator through which you can calculate your BMR. For example, I am 28 years old and my height is 186 cm and weight are 80 kg.  So, my BMR is 1828 calories per day.  So, I will burn this many calories every day without doing anything.  Now, apart from this, I told you that eating provides calories to the body. But do you know, depending on what food you are eating, your food can burn calories too?  Here comes the concept of the Thermic Effect of Food, in short TEF.

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The logic is very simple, when you eat food, your body has to digest the food, absorb nutrients from the food and store the food.  In all these processes, the body uses energy and burns calories.  So, some things have a low thermal effect.  Like fats, oil, flour, and butter.  Our body digests these things very easily.  There is almost no need to burn any calories.  On the other hand, whole grains or protein rich foods, Dairy, eggs, high-fibre vegetables and fruits, spinach, broccoli, these have a high Thermic Effect.  Our body has to burn a lot of calories to digest these foods.

That is why it becomes difficult to gain weight by eating this type of food.  Now you will wonder, if this means that some types of food may provide negative calories.  The calories available in that food, the body is burning more calories to consume that food.  This is a myth, friends.  To achieve this, the thermic effect of any food should be more than 100%, which is impossible. 

This can't happen.  The highest thermic effect possible is around 30%, usually found in proteins.  This means that if you are eating 100 calories of protein, you are spending 30 calories to digest that protein and your body is actually gaining only 70 calories.  Now, there is no need to go into the math too much.  I am not asking you to find out the thermic effect of every food before eating.  I just wanted to give you a basic idea so that you know that this kind of concept exists.  Now, let's talk about weight loss.  After listening to what I said till now, people might wonder why should we exercise at all.  If you consume fewer calories than your body’s basal metabolic rate, you will lose weight automatically.  Theoretically, this is true, but practically, it is very dangerous.  Eating fewer calories than your BMR without exercising means that your body's hormonal balance can deteriorate.  You will be more tired.  You will become more irritable.  It will be very difficult for you to focus on your studies and work.  Do you know which body part consumes the most calories in the human body?  Our brain.  Almost 20% of the energy usage of the human body is consumed by the brain.  It becomes difficult to self-control for the body.

weight loss transformation images

Many people have this problem where once they start eating less, they become weak, their mood is disrupted terribly, they will go on a diet for some time, but after that, they will start binging and their diet will fail.  That's why our goal should not be weight loss, but healthy weight loss.  And for healthy weight loss, exercise is very important.  In fact, four main things are very important.  Diet control, exercise, proper sleep, and keeping yourself stress-free.  The last two points are quite obvious, but if you struggle with them, keeping yourself stress-free and getting 8 hours of sleep daily, then it means that you are not managing your time properly.

Have you ever had a feeling that even though you have eaten a whole chocolate bar but still you are feeling hungry?  After eating certain things, you still don't feel full.  The reason behind this is the Satiety Index.  The thing is that there are some types of food after eating which you feel full and some types of food aren't like that.  In 1995, some researchers   tested 240-calorie servings of 38 types of food.  They found that boiled potatoes had the highest satiety index among all potato dishes.  Potatoes were given a score of 323.

There are some other things like pulses, high-fibre foods, low-fat dairy products, eggs, and nuts.  These things also have a very high index.  This means that for the same number of calories, if you eat high-satiety food items, you will comparatively feel fuller.  You will feel less hungry, even though the number of calories is the same.  Now, some people will say that they would eat boiled potatoes throughout the day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  So, they consume the least number of calories in the day while feeling full, they’ll go on a potato-only diet. But again, this is a wrong approach.  It is alright to tweak a few things here and there, but overall, the body needs a nutritious diet.

Your goal here is healthy weight loss.  Meaning, you don't want to lose muscle, you don't want to lose your health, you just want to lose weight.  There are 6 different essential nutrients that the body needs for optimal function.  Proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water.  So when you are on a healthy weight loss diet, you will definitely need proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water.  Now the question is about fats and carbohydrates.  What about them?  Many people suggest different types of low-fat, low-carb diets.  So, let's talk about carbohydrates first.  Carbohydrates, in short carbs, what is their relation with weight loss?

The sugar that comes out of carbs is an important source of energy for the body.  If our body does not use that energy immediately, the energy from the carbs is converted into glycogen and stored in the liver and muscles.  If a person eats more carbs than his body needs, the body converts those carbs into fat cells and stores it as fat.  If this energy is not used later, it remains in the form of fat cells and you gain weight.  You might think that carbohydrates should be avoided but this is the wrong conclusion.  I apologize in advance for disappointing the fans of keto or low-carb diet.  In 2017, a meta-analysis was done of 32 controlled feeding studies.  Keeping the level of protein and calories the same, they found out whether high-carb diet is better or a low-carb diet.  This research found that there is no benefit in weight loss whether you follow a high-carb or a low-carb diet.  Weight loss, ultimately, works only due to Calorie Deficit.

weight loss transformation images

The same calorie bank balance that I explained in the beginning.  In 2012, another study was conducted in a Swedish University to compare whether a low-fat diet is better or a low-carb diet.  This study monitored people for 2 years and ended with the same conclusion.  Weight loss has nothing to do with these things.  Only calories are important here.  Now, some people go on a high-protein diet to lose weight.  Because some people have a perception that if they eat fats or carbs, they will convert into fat cells leading to weight gain.  But if they eat protein only, their muscles will grow bigger.  It is true that protein is usually used for muscle building and muscle repairing.  So, if you do weight training, exercise more, wrestle or such, then naturally you will need more protein.

But if you sit on the sofa all day, don’t move, don't exercise, then the excess protein you are eating also converts into fat.  Now some people will say after watching this video that they went on a low-carb diet and lost weight, thinking that it works for them.  But here I would like to say that if your body is suddenly deprived of carbs, then your body loses water weight.  Glycogen stores help in retaining water in our body.  So if you go on a keto diet for a week, you will lose 1-2 kgs of weight for sure.  And that will be because your body has lost its water weight.  As soon as you start eating carbs again, that water weight will come back.

Dr Sara Seidelmann and her team of researchers did a study on 15,400 people for 6 years.  It was published in the famous Lancet Public Health Journal.  And it studied people who are on a low-carb diet but are eating more animal protein.  This study found that this diet can actually reduce the lifespan.  When a low-carb diet is replaced by plant protein and fat, then it will be beneficial.  I have talked about this in the video of World's Oldest Human what are the things that can be done to extend our lifespan.  Now, if we have to go low-carb, then how low should we go?  This study found that if less than 40% of total energy is coming from carbs or more than 70% of total energy comes from carbs.  Both pose a higher risk to our health.  It means that what we were taught in school is very important here.

A balanced diet.  While doing a healthy weight loss, you don't need to completely remove carbs from your diet.  Rather, you need to eat healthy carbs.  " Carbohydrates is the food for the brain.  If you stop eating carbs, your brain health may start declining.   Aggression, depression, nervousness, anxiety, trepidation, all these are part of it."  What are healthy carbs?  Carbs that are absorbed by the body slowly.  These don't raise or lower the blood sugar level.  And give the body a steady source of energy.  Examples of these are whole grains, fruits, and starchy vegetables.  And now, let's talk about fats.  When you hear the word fat, you might think that they make you fat.  But this fat nutrient is also an essential nutrient and the body needs it too.

Many vitamins like vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K are fat-soluble vitamins, so the body needs fats to absorb them.  Apart from this, fats are needed for hormonal balance, energy storage and to protect our vital organs.  Human brains are made up of 60% fat.  And this advice was given by the popular nutritionist Pooja Makhija.  This trend of eating a low-fat diet, she was against it.  She said that fats don't make you fat.  Rather, eating more fat and eating the wrong kind of fat makes you fat.  So, a healthy weight loss diet is a balanced diet in which carbohydrates, proteins and fats are present.  The next question is, what is the optimum percentage of each of them?  What is the healthy proportion?  There is a range called Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges (AMDR).  According to this, 45-65% of your daily calories should be from carbohydrates.  20-35% of calories should be from fats.  10-35% of calories should be from protein.

The percentage you should be in this range depends on your personal lifestyle choices.  Your age, how much muscle you want to gain, are you diabetic, what kind of food you prefer.  For these you can consult a professional dietician, and it will be a good idea, to get a diet plan customized for you.  If you do not want to consult a dietitian, then for an average person who is not facing any health problems, it would be better to stay within this range.  So, the next question you will ask is, how can you stay within this range?  What to eat and what not to eat?  Let's clear this point by point.  What should you eat?  You should eat whole grains.  Complex Carbohydrates.  Other than wheat and rice, you should eat different types of grains like corn, oats, barley, ragi, buckwheat (kuttu), amaranth, which is also called chaplain, or pearl millet (bajra).  Eat them as flatbreads (roti) or porridge.  Apart from this, you should eat legumes like grams (chana) or different types of lentils.  These are good sources of complex carbohydrates.  And they also have fibre and protein.  Then you focus on other healthy foods like fruits and vegetables.

Kidney beans (rajma), chickpeas (chole), soy protein (soya chunks), gram powdered (sattu), fruits, berries, dry fruits, peanuts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, spices, eggs.  Dairy items like milk, curd, and cottage cheese (paneer) contain healthy fats.  They should be eaten in controlled amounts.  It is important to mention that many people think that they are eating a balanced diet.  But in reality, their diet is not balanced.  In North India, you must have seen many people eating 3-4 rotis with half a bowl of vegetables.  This is not the right proportion.  Unknowingly, in their home-cooked meals, many people eat more rotis in a higher proportion of carbs.  They should increase the number of vegetables.  "Other than water, what else should one eat?  Drink water, eat green vegetables, green is very good for the body.  It contains antioxidants, it is good for the skin.  I eat a lot of vegetables."   Don't be stingy in buying vegetables.

And second, don't bargain with the vegetable vendor.  Even if you save ₹5-₹10 by paying less to a poor person, you won't be able to build a palace.  If you want to save money, don’t spend ₹150 on burgers, don’t spend ₹400 on pizza.  The online food delivery apps that you use, on which you spend thousands every month, save money there.  I would say, stop relying on food delivery apps.  Use that money to buy nuts, seeds, fruits, and other healthy food.  If you don't want to cook food, hire someone.  Someone will get employment and you will be able to eat healthy and tasty food.  Now let's talk about what you should not eat in a healthy weight loss diet.  First of all, refined flour.  Refined carbohydrates like refined flour get digested very quickly in your body.  You can see unhealthy spikes in your blood sugar levels because of this.  And if you eat many things made of refined flour then after 1-2 hours of eating you will start feeling hungry again.

Because shortly after eating these, your blood sugar levels drop rapidly.  The second problem with refined flour is that it has bad cholesterol, known as LDL cholesterol, which causes arteries to clog, increase in blood pressure, increases hunger, increases craving for sweets.  Second, stop eating sugar.  This is the same problem with refined sugar, which is also called added sugar.  I explained this in the video on cold drinks.  This added sugar is not only found in cold drinks, but also in ice creams, candies, biscuits, etc.  Third, stop eating bad fats.  As I told you earlier, there are two types of fats.  Good fats and bad fats.  Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are beneficial for us.  We get these good fats from plant sources.  Like peanuts, olive oil, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, almonds, pistachios, walnuts, sunflower oil, flaxseed oil.  On the other hand, we need very little saturated fats.  But most people eat a lot of saturated fats.

They are found in butter, raw coconut oil or clarified butter (desi ghee).  If you eat a lot of saturated fats for many years, it increases the risk of heart attack.  Palm oil also has saturated fats, which is found in most packaged foods in India.  And then comes trans fats, which are the most harmful.  These trans fats are found in refined oil, which is usually in everything that you eat out.  Fried food, fried chicken, fried memos, fried doughnuts, French fries, Indian street food, golgap pas, samosas, all of these have high value of trans fats because they are deep fried.  Deep-fried foods should be avoided.  Some people watch this and say that I am fear-mongering.  There's a channel called Food harmer; they make good health-related videos.  But people accuse him of fear-mongering since he points out things that one shouldn't eat.  Fear-mongering means spreading fear about something unnecessary.

But the thing here is that these things are they are, actually, very dangerous.  Avoid eating as much packaged food as possible.  These are ultra-processed food items made in factories.  They are made of everything that's harmful to us.  Refined flour, added sugar, artificial sweeteners, palm oil, artificial food colours, harmful preservatives.  First, let's look at the things made of refined flour.  Biscuits, Rusk, Mathi, Chakli,  Nama pare, Fan puffs, Samosa, Kachodi,   Pav Bhaji, Vada Pav, Aloo Patty,  Hot Dog, Bhature, Kulcha,  Tandoori Roti, Naan, Malabar Paratha,  Pizza, Donuts, Chowmein,  Spring Rolls, Momos, Jalebi,  Ghevar, Gulab Jamun, Pancakes,  Muffins, Cakes, Sandwiches, Phew!  In fact, even your favourite Tandoori Masala Chhaap has 40% refined flour.  And what are the other harmful things  in these food items?  Bad oil, the deep-fried things,  like Bhature, Samosas, Kachori, Momos,  the examples I just listed out,  Added sugar, apart from this, cold drinks, ice cream, candies, chocolates, biscuits,  cereals, packaged juice, and even the expensive biscuits  which are sold as high-fiber, multigrain digestive  contain refined flour, sugar, palm oil,  raising agents, artificial flavouring substances.  Most people consume these on a daily basis.  I would like to give you a 30-day challenge stop eating these which contain these 4 things.  Maida, added sugar, bad oil or trans fats, and packaged food.  Don't eat these things for 30 days  and you'll see a transformation in yourself.  After these 30 days, you'll feel  much more healthy.  You'll have more energy.

You'll be able to concentrate more on work and studies.  You might be thinking  that I haven't left out any ingredients.  What can one eat if not these things?  Don't be disheartened.   Because there're so many things to eat other than these.  You can eat roti-sabzi with very little ghee or butter.  Idli, Upma, Poha, Dhokla,  Omelette, Moong Dal Cheela, Dosa,  Uttapam, which is made with very little butter,  Milk, Curd, Lassi,  Boiled Eggs, Natural Fruit Juice, Cheek shake,  Anjeer Shekh, Misi Roti, Tawa Paratha,  Raita, Butter Milk, Jeera Rice, Biryani,  Hara Bhara Kebab, Mushroom Tikka, Paneer Tikka,  You can eat these if they are made in desi ghee, butter, or olive oil.  The interesting thing is that when you  start eating more of these things  and less of the unhealthy things,  you will notice a transformation,  your taste buds will start changing.

You will stop craving for that unhealthy food.  This happens a lot to me.  I never feel like eating packaged food.  You will crave fresh fruits and fresh vegetables.  If you are not used to eating all this fresh food, you can start with your favourite fruit or vegetables.  Also, learn to control your portions while eating.  Always drink a glass of water before eating so that you don't need to eat much.  Eat on small plates, with small spoons, and eat slowly.  Don't eat so much that your stomach is 100% full.  Eat till it is 80% full.

There are three different types of exercises.  First, stamina or cardio exercises,  which are important for your cardiovascular fitness.  Like swimming, running, or playing any other sport.  The exercises that increase your heart rate.  Second, stretching exercises, they are very important for your flexibility.  These include exercises like Surya Namaskar and Yoga.  And third, strength training, which is important for your muscle strength and muscle endurance.  These include lifting heavy weights, going to the gym, doing push-ups, squats, planks, or lifting dumbbells.  So ideally, all these 3 types of exercises should be balanced in a healthy lifestyle.  But for weight loss, it doesn't matter what type of exercises you do as long as these exercises are helping to burn calories.  Some exercises obviously burn more calories than others.  Like running, rope skipping, playing badminton, football, and squash.  Some exercises burn fewer calories.  like playing cricket, doing yoga or stretching.  So, broadly speaking, you have to keep in mind that you should burn more calories if you want to lose more weight.  But you should do the exercises in the form you like.

Whether you do Zumba for 30 minutes or run for 30 minutes, it's up to you.  Apart from this, movement should be included in your day-to-day life, like walking or cycling as much as possible.  The extra calories that are burned by these activities, adds up throughout the day.  Always remember, doing something is much better than doing nothing.  Some people search for "best exercises" to lose belly fat.  Or the "best exercises" to lose facial fat.  Friends, these are only myths.  To some extent, particular muscles can be toned, but spot reduction is more or less not possible.  Most of the research and studies that have been done, do not support this.  The areas where our body stores fat and the areas where the fat is burned by burning calories, depends entirely on the body.  Your job is to exercise, your body will decide for itself from where the fat should be burned.  When you do this consistently, then overall, one day your body will get into a good shape.  This depends on genetics the areas where your body will lose fat.  I would like to mention a final point here, stress.

There is a significant link between weight gain and stress.  When you feel stressed, your body's cortisol levels increase.  This reduces your metabolism and increases your craving for fat and sugar.  So if you want to lose weight, it is important to manage stress as well.  For this, you can do meditation, play sports, or spend time with friends and family in real life.  I have told you a lot of things in this video, but I have summarized all the useful information on weight loss for you.  Let's do a small rewind so that you remember everything.

The simple principle behind weight loss is Calorie Deficit.  Control the calories you are eating and increase the calories you are burning.  The calories you are eating should come from your nutritious, balanced diet.  Eat more whole grains, fibrous fruits, vegetables, and proteins so that your stomach feels fuller.  So that you feel less hungry.  Avoid eating refined flour, white sugar, bad oils and packaged food so that your food cravings can be reduced and you can focus on healthy nutrients.  Move your body daily in some way or the other and include exercises in your regular routine.  Cardio exercises, strength training, and stretching exercises. 

Make sure to sleep for 7-9 hours daily and keep stress away from your life.  And also remember that spot reduction doesn't work and being healthy doesn't mean you have to fit some beauty standard.  These things make a perfect plan for healthy weight loss.  If you want to follow this plan, then write your goal in the comments below.  And after a month, after completing this 30-day challenge, give us an update in the comments how the transformation was for you.  To manage your time in life, you will find the link to download the course in the description below.  And if you liked this video, then you will definitely like this one.  In this, I have talked about Blue Zones.  The zones all over the world where people live the longest.  What is the secret behind their health?  It's all in the blog’s post.  Thank you very much!  

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