podcast
Fasting or dieting: this is the best way to lose weight
The temptations are great: chocolate, cake, sweets. We treat our bodies less and less to stop eating. That’s no longer healthy. Fasting can reverse this development.
© Viacheslav Lakobchuk/ Adobe Stock
Sport alone is not enough to lose weight. Diets have long been considered the most effective way to shed a few pounds. But mostly the yo-yo effect struck afterwards. Now it is becoming increasingly clear: Fasting seems to work better.
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The art of losing weight interests many. It’s about the latest knowledge about the diet that may finally be effective – or fasting, which is becoming increasingly popular. For runners, it’s also about how to convert fat into muscle. And it’s a pressing issue: In Germany, a constantly growing crowd of millions is plagued by their weight. It doesn’t matter whether you’re overweight or overweight: It’s a huge problem that more and more people are lugging around too many pounds in this country.
All of this is easily said, but not so easily done – this truth is uncomfortably known to most of us. But the science of weight loss is making significant advances, it’s not just telling us plain cabbage and carb trend stories. There are now trend-setting findings about the effect and prospects of success of changing and abstaining from food.
Diets are torture and hardly have a long-term effect
Many generations have struggled with dieting. And in most cases only small and not very sustainable successes are achieved. On the contrary: If the fat deposits shrank under the food deprivation, they were back quickly as soon as normal eating was resumed. That’s the crux of the diet. They go against our nature. And fail because of it. According to a survey by the Federal Association of German Pharmacists’ Associations, 60 percent of all Germans tried at least one thing in 2020: FdH, less bread, no carbohydrates, extreme protein diets, ketogenic short-nutrition plans and, and, and. At the core of all these weight loss approaches is that you are halfway starving in one way or another. For a while. That usually goes horribly wrong, again and again. Much to the chagrin of sufferers, much to the delight of hyperactive diet marketers. According to statistics from the University of California, 95 percent of those who have reduced their weight with a diet regain the lost kilos after five years at the latest – often even more than before. 95 percent flop rate!
Mainly because the body mercilessly takes revenge after the end of the diet. During a diet, when energy is scarce, the organism reduces consumption. When it’s over, he answers instinctively: with greed. Additional cushions are intended to prevent future phases of the shortage. Because our instinct apparatus understands nothing else than a poorly planned diet – which has long since become a bad habit for notorious yo-yo victims. Year after year you pick up a new defeat and gain new pounds.
Is Fasting Better Than Dieting?
This is frustrating. So what to do? Is it somehow better? An important question, because for many, their health depends on it. That’s why we deal with it in the new episode of the podcast “She runs. He runs”. Because there are also many runners who struggle with being overweight. And who soon find out: Training makes many things better – but in many cases it is not enough on its own.
The way out of the diet dilemma could be a radical one. Fasting instead of dieting – a method that is also experiencing a boom in all sorts of variations, from daily to alkaline fasting to doing without 14 or 16 hours a day. Yes, there are even running fasts. But isn’t all dieting extreme, you might be asking? After all, those who practice it eat next to nothing: pure deprivation. And yet it has been proven that many people find it easier to completely abstain from eating than to stick to a conventional diet. Andreas Michalsen is Professor of Clinical Naturopathy at the Berlin Charité and one of the leading nutrition experts in the country. He says: “Fasting has positive effects on the psyche. Maybe that’s the secret why it doesn’t trigger a yo-yo effect.”
In the podcast we talk about how the different forms of fasting work. Why fasting is superior to dieting – and how radical abstinence from food makes us healthier overall. Listen in!
And on our own behalf: The running podcast “She runs. He runs” is at the start of the German Podcast Award in the public vote. We would be happy if you vote for us. click here, then you can vote for us. Thanks very much!