Fractional nutrition as the fight against overeating
One of the most annoying, indignant, and simply undetectable characteristics of menopause is nothing, it would seem, an unreasonable weight gain, and excess fat for some reason accumulates mainly around the waist. You try to eat less, but nothing changes. You try to play sports – this does not give the expected results. What is the matter? As if not only do you have constant mood swings, you are tormented by hot flashes, and menstruation comes when she pleases.
We have good news: there is no guilt in what is happening to you. When you go through the menopause at the age of 50 or so, your calorie needs are reduced by 15% compared to the time you were 20. The reason for this is a change in metabolism – the level of calorie burning. The metabolic metabolic rate drops by 5% every ten years. When you reach the age of 40, you are faced with the fact that the metabolic metabolic rate decreases already by 12-15%. The conclusion is simple: you need fewer calories that play the role of fuel for the body, providing it with energy reserves. If you do not change the diet, excess weight begins to accumulate.
In addition, when you reach middle age, if you lead a passive lifestyle, another danger lies in wait for you: loss of muscle mass. Every ten years, in the absence of regular physical activity, you can lose 3–3.5 kg of muscle mass. This means that in the future even fewer calories are required, since it is the muscles that are the main “consumers” of calories. By reducing your diet by 400 kcal, you still maintain your true weight.
In light of the foregoing, it is not surprising that many women eat less than usual, but still gain weight. Calculating the exact amount of calories you need and not spoiling your mood is not an easy task, but we found a way out. Everything ingenious is simple. Perhaps our plan will be a revelation for you, because it goes against what was suggested to you on the pages of many magazines. For example, you were told that eating between meals is unacceptable, and we say the opposite.
Our strategy is to ensure that you do not have a snack between a hearty breakfast and lunch, and eat more often, but in smaller portions: it will be easier for you to control your appetite when the interval between meals is short. Judge for yourself: if you haven’t eat all day, it’s hard to resist and say “stop” to yourself in time. Fainting out of hunger is harmful precisely because there is a greater risk of destroying all available food supplies every time you get to the refrigerator. A fractional and frequent diet will allow you to control the amount of food consumed and, perhaps, force you to make a choice in favor of more wholesome dishes. When you are not starving, this allows you to think twice before grabbing a packet of crisps or a chocolate bar.
With fractional frequent meals at a time, you consume from 250 to 400 kilocalories, while maintaining a reasonable balance in the intake of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. And this is important, because studies show that the more often you eat, the more calories are absorbed. And this means that you must be careful with the choice of products, otherwise you can waste your efforts in vain.