SLIM WITHOUT A DIET! EXPERT ANSWERS THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

Count calories, go hungry - no thanks! Losing weight is also a pleasure and a 24-hour plan. Nutrition and fitness professional Patric Heizmann explains how this works .

Lose weight with three healthy meals a day

What is the ideal weight loss program?

You should eat more vital substances, water, protein, omega-3-rich oils and fatty fish, but less carbohydrates. The problem with this is that we actually know all of this. Everyone knows that vegetables are rich in vitamins and water is the healthiest drink, that home-made has a higher nutritional value than ready meals. Only the implementation in everyday life is difficult. With a "perfect day" it is easier to break out of old eating patterns.

What belongs to the perfect day?

You eat three healthy meals, in between four to five hours without food during the day. These breaks are important so that we have a low insulin level towards the end of the day to regenerate the cells and stimulate fat metabolism. If you still need a snack, you can drink a coffee with milk foam (without sugar), enjoy a smoothie or nibble a few almonds. Exercise is also part of the perfect day.

One should change the eating behavior slowly

How many such days are needed?

If you consistently implement the perfect 24 hours once a week, you will very soon feel exactly which of the rules are doing you good. These are then automatically, i.e. unconsciously and therefore without discipline, taken over into other, less than perfect days. In the same way, we change the eating behavior at a leisurely pace with which we were previously dissatisfied, and thus achieve as many perfect days as we would like.

How long does it take for it to become a habit?

If you consistently stick to a certain new behavior for three weeks, you have 80 percent integrated it into your habits. Since we consciously allow ourselves more time on the perfect day, six weeks with permanent changes are very realistic.

In addition to protein and vegetables, fast food is also allowed

What tricks help?

As amazing as it sounds, one trick is to eat more fat. For example, a fatty sauce or gratin cheese refines a vegetable meal. This still contains fewer calories than carbohydrate food like pasta or rice with low-fat sauce, but tastes just as good. And at the same time, you consume many important vital substances with the vegetables. Protein is also a good satiety. Those who consume more protein products, which have a significantly lower influence on blood sugar and insulin levels than typical flour and sugar products, will eat less of these. We stay full longer. And that is exactly what ensures that we absorb fewer total calories over the course of the weeks and months - without starving!

How much protein is useful?

Protein should be included in the diet three times a day. The amount varies depending on the product. Your own hand provides the best clue: with quark, cottage cheese, soy products and eggs, an ideal portion corresponds to the size of the clenched fist. You can consume double the amount of milk, protein shakes and yoghurt. Fish, meat, sliced ​​cheese and sausage should each correspond to the size and thickness of the palm.

Are fast food, cola & co completely taboo?

No. Of course, regional, fresh goods in organic quality are always the best choice. Lemonade, burgers or french fries are also allowed. Enjoyment is always important! If you enjoy a Coke with friends, it is different from drinking it out of habit because you are thirsty or very stressed. Experts estimate that every second person in industrialized countries balances psychological pressure with frustrations. On the other hand, physical exertion helps much better! Whether jogging, cycling or punching in a punching bag - all of this is better than running to the fridge.

More everyday exercise can replace jogging laps

How effective is daily exercise?

In science, one speaks of the so-called NEAT (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis), i.e. all the everyday movements that we do not consciously perceive: bobbing our legs, sliding around in the chair, getting mail, etc. Anyone who follows a heavily reduced-calorie diet regulates these movements automatically - so unnoticed - down. But it is important to counteract this. If you exercise a little more in everyday life than before, you can save yourself the weekend jogging session. Or do it additionally in "nerd mode".

Isn't sport the perfect day?

Yes, but at the beginning more everyday movement is enough. Anyone who manages to walk 10,000 steps on the perfect day is already moving their muscles more than 95 percent of the population.

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This is what the perfect day looks like

7 am breakfast time: The perfect start to the perfect day is a balanced breakfast. After getting up - no matter what time. This includes vitamins, minerals and good carbohydrates. Whole grains, fruit, nuts, cheese or egg and little sweets are ideal in the morning. Just as warm as fried eggs or wholegrain wholemeal bread.

9 a.m. endurance training: Those who start the perfect day for the first time can also take a brisk walk. Worthwhile purchase and motivation: a pedometer. For your orientation: 3000 are quite good to start with, 7000 a realistic goal, 10000 very good. Climbing stairs, cycling etc. should become a habit.

11 a.m. Snack-Time: Are you feeling a little hungry? Sometimes a glass of water or an herbal tea is enough to fill the stomach. If it should be something more substantial, a coffee with milk foam is recommended. The protein in it keeps you full for a while. Important: do not add sugar! So you hold out until lunch.

1 p.m. Lunch: At lunchtime there are few carbohydrates such as potatoes and the like, but plenty of vegetables, lettuce, olive oil and protein in meat, legumes or tofu. Important: Enjoy the food consciously, preferably in company. It also relieves stress. Eating your meal in front of the computer while working is rather unhealthy.

3:00 p.m. strength training: If you want to stay slim for a long time, you cannot avoid a short, effective workout . Because our muscles are perfect calorie burners. Anyone who has been training for a while should give new incentives. Full power for 3 minutes is enough at the beginning. You can slowly increase to 10 minutes.

4 p.m. Snack-Time: Time for a snack again! If you can't stand it until dinner, you should choose a healthy source of protein that lasts longer. About a handful of almonds or a natural yoghurt. But an apple is also good: its ingredients stimulate the metabolism. Slow chewing sends satiety signals to the brain.

7pm dinner: the last meal of the day! In the evening you should only really eat enough with vegetables and protein, for example in eggs, salmon or lean meat, but also in tofu, curd cheese and legumes. Especially in the evening it is good to eat low in carbohydrates, so the body burns fats overnight - all the more if you have moved a lot!