Whether it is necessary to make a boot day in a diet during weight loss.
You have long been observing a strict diet that you can not remember exactly when you started? Have you reduced your calorie intake to a minimum to overcome the plateau effect? If you answered yes to at least one of the two listed questions, you most likely need to make a boot day.
If you have an experience in losing weight, then you probably have a plateau effect or even a small set of weight. Such a body reaction is usually observed after several weeks or months of dieting.
Weight loss may slow down every week until the balance arrow stops in place. The intelligence and scientific approach at such moments suggests that we must move on, adhering to the lack of calories, in order to accelerate the achievement of the cherished goal.
However, science also suggests to “deceive” our body for a while, which has just adapted to the caloric deficit of dietary nutrition.
Why Does Weight Loss End?
The diet minimizes the level of leptin, triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) with elevated cortisol levels. Leptin suppresses hunger, T3 and T4 increase the basal rate of metabolism, and cortisol raises blood sugar levels and accelerates protein breakdown.
In the course of evolution, the human body learned to preserve fat deposits due to loss of muscle mass. The trick is to reverse these negative processes, forcing the body to think that you are no longer limited to calorie intake.
What is a boot day?
The loading day is a special part of the strategy of cyclic consumption of carbohydrates. Instead of days with high carbohydrate intake, medium and low, you have days with normal carbohydrate intake and boot days.
By increasing the consumption of carbohydrates, you increase the level of leptin and energy consumption. With increased intake of carbohydrates, the release of insulin hormone in the blood increases, which is useful as a substance that suppresses the breakdown of protein in the muscles, as well as stimulating the production of testosterone (in men).
The boot days are especially important for women, because at insufficiently high levels of leptin, menstruation may stop. That is, loading helps maintain longevity and health.
The loading days and the percentage of excess carbohydrates that are consumed these days depend on many factors:
- Duration of the diet;
- The level of calorie deficit, carbohydrates;
- Percentage of body fat in the body;
- Genetics;
- Physical activity.
Usually, the more you limit the consumption of carbohydrates in the diet days, the more carbohydrates you need to consume on the days of loading.
An increase in the consumption of fats on the day of binging interferes with an increase in the level of leptin.
The use of boot days
Boot days will ease the heavy struggle against overweight. It is tedious to keep caloric deficiencies at long lasting times (although this helps to increase longevity).
Sometimes an increase in daily caloric content, especially due to carbohydrates, can:
1. Reduce hunger! Not only due to the consumption of more food, but also due to an increase in the level of leptin – a “hormone of satiety.”
2. Increase energy consumption, despite the caloric deficit. Our body reduces energy consumption while reducing energy consumption. Increasing carbohydrate intake from time to time will help increase energy consumption even with a long diet.
3. Facilitate diet compliance: It is much easier to keep caloric deficiencies, if you know that on certain days you can eat more. This approach to weight loss is much more effective in helping to avoid frustrations and obesity. And also allows (in case of acute need) to enjoy the consumption of your favorite product / dishes.
4. Liven up the diet due to more carbohydrates, making it more tolerable.
5. Avoid breakdown: Calorie deficit is difficult to sustain for a long time. Almost the entire period of diet compliance with “drying” the person is stressed. Therefore, very often breaks occur: once the goal of the diet is reached, the person starts to eat everything in a row. The loading days will make the output of the diet smoother, with no breakdowns.
6. Increase energy consumption and labor productivity. Rapid fat burning occurs with the loss of a small percentage of muscle. Fighting for their safety and striving for their growth while keeping the diet is needed constantly. Increased carbohydrate intake, occurring rarely, but periodically, allows you to replenish the stock of glycogen in the muscles and, consequently, to maintain muscle tissue.
What is cheat meal?
Having eaten a hamburger, french fries and ice cream (especially if it is finally eaten), a person can become very happy. But do not forget that chitmil and boot days are of a completely different meaning from the point of view of good physiology. After all, the ratio of macroelements (proteins, fats, carbohydrates) in them is fundamentally different.
Are there other approaches to cyclic consumption of carbohydrates and calories?
There are several other approaches to the cyclic consumption of calories. Some of them, for example, are traditional, are similar to loading. Others are based on completely opposite principles.
For example, all week eat physiological norm of calories and 1-2 days do low calorie. At the heart of the approach lies the same loading principle, which makes the diet more tolerable, because there are “full” breaks between the “hungry” days. But the levels of hormones are different and differently affect body changes.
This approach works without fail, even taking into account the adaptive mechanism of metabolism.
Do you need boot days if you are NOT on a diet?
There is no proof of the need for a load with excess calories or consumption of physiological norm. It can be assumed that loading is appropriate when an excessive amount of calories is consumed.
Drinking days help keep a diet, avoid frustrations, reduce appetite, increase productivity and energy, regardless of your calorie intake that is typical of you.
What is the point?
The human body easily adapts to any diet, resulting in weight loss slowing down. The load will help to accelerate the weight loss again due to the temporary increase in carbohydrate intake. This approach will ease and revitalize the diet, make it more tolerable and provide a smooth transition to higher calorie content at its end due to the lack of excessive hunger and craving for food.
If the download negatively affects at least one of the factors described above, it may not be worthwhile. But the accumulation effect of the loading days makes the method a very powerful tool for burning fat.
There are a few studies of the effect of loading, it is difficult to generalize, besides, there are a lot of approaches to the application. Successful use of loading can be at an increase in consumed carbohydrates by 50%, and by 100%. And you can reduce / increase the amount of fat consumed, depending on the metabolism and the body’s response to diet changes.
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