With spring, many people plan to not only spruce up their apartment, but also themselves. This very personal spring cleaning often includes living healthier, moving more and perhaps shedding a few kilos of winter weight.

But the reality often looks less easy, Most diets fail. The number of those affected is increasing every year; according to the Robert Koch Institute, there are currently almost 70 percent of men and just over every second woman in Germany. A quarter of adults are obese, i.e. obese. People with one fall into this category BMI of at least 30. Why is that?

When we lose weight – and when not

These facts are actually inexplicable because there are countless diets and weight loss programs. But it has long been known that most diets fail. 90 percent of those who want to lose weight actually weigh more than before they tried the diet and are victims of the yo-yo effect.

Nutritionists uncover the reasons for this. One of the most important findings is: A simple equation that was previously considered the first and most important law for weight control does not apply at all to many overweight people. It read:

Overweight = the person ate more calories than they burned

The calorie balance fallacy

“The answer is far more complex than the simple formula ‘eat less, move more,'” physician Tim Hollstein recently explained in a paper Guest article on FOCUS online.

A negative calorie balance is not always associated with losing weight. The many chubby people who constantly chastise themselves and eat little, but still don’t lose weight, can tell you a thing or two about this. On the other hand, there are many people who eat more than they burn in energy every day and are still slim.

The brain decides

The second law – those who exercise every day become slim – are also being shaken by recent studies. In a study on losing weight through exercise, female test subjects tended to gain weight and did not become slim, as expected. Apart from top-class sport, exercise is far overrated as a calorie burner. Not a bit of recreational sport burns a lot of calories, but in reality our brain is a real energy guzzler. It consumes around a quarter of the total energy – even though the brain only makes up two percent of the body weight.

But anyone who thinks they can lose weight with brain jogging and learning languages ​​is unfortunately also mistaken. The calorie requirement only increases slightly. The brain processes most of the energy, exclusively in the form of glucose, in activities that we are not consciously aware of, such as hormone production and the control of metabolism and organ functions.

Calorie requirements are the same

Then the lifestyle would have to be the deciding factor – our Western lifestyle with constant sitting is often seen as the root cause of the obesity epidemic. An investigation could also disprove this. Scientists compared the daily calorie needs of typical (sedentary) Americans with those of an African tribe that lives as foragers.

The calorie requirements of both groups were the same: around 2,600 kilocalories for men and just under 2,000 for women, even though the Africans who were still living in their original state move constantly and rarely sit during the day.

The influence of food

However, the collectors were slimmer than the sedentary Westerners. There are several explanations for this. An obvious one: those with little exercise consumed many more calories every day than corresponded to their daily requirement (more than 500, which in the long term would definitely be significant).

However, what foods are eaten may have a much greater influence on this. And they differed significantly between the two groups. Certain foods are associated with weight gain, others with weight loss, says Andrew Greenberg. His studies have shown that the following foods lead to obesity particularly quickly:

• Potatoes – whether boiled or fried (because of their high Strength content)
• White flour products
• Sugar

On the other hand, the following support weight loss:

This is how the fiber trick works

The scientist goes so far as to say that anyone who primarily eats these inexpensive foods can eat enough of them until they are full – and still not gain weight, as is the case with foragers who primarily prefer plant-based food.

The explanation for this lies in the fiber, which vegetables, fruits and nuts provide in abundance. The body excretes calories unused with indigestible fiber. The plant fibers have been proven to make you slim another investigation shows.

In this study, two groups of people trying to lose weight were allowed to eat the same food with the same daily amount of calories. However, in one group all grain products were whole grain, in the other group they were peeled and processed. The whole grain group burned around 100 more calories per day – an amount that can lead to three kilograms of weight loss in a year.

Crucial: metabolism and genes

Fiber therefore has a positive effect on metabolism. However, metabolism, satiety, hunger and the number of fat cells cannot fundamentally be influenced. Much of this complicated interaction is conditional. That’s why some people find it easy to lose weight or are slim anyway and stay that way, while others constantly struggle against being overweight despite their best efforts.

Diet changes appetite

But they too can hope. Because with the right diet, your appetite changes. This increases the desire for healthy food that makes you slim rather than fat: fiber-rich foods such as fruit, vegetables, whole grain products and protein-rich foods such as fish, poultry and yoghurt. The appetite for pizza, burgers, fries and sweets is dwindling.

Sounds untrue? True, like one six-month study showed: Here, half of the test subjects ate the listed foods rich in fiber and protein and were also given tips such as: Eat before the lunch session because pizza is always served there. The control group, on the other hand, ate normally.

Brain scans of the subjects were carried out at intervals and they were shown different foods. Little by little, the reward center in the subjects’ brains reacted more and more strongly to the healthy foods. The appetite for whole grains and fruit increased, and fast food was hardly appealing anymore. At the end of the study, the test subjects had lost an average of eight kilos, while the control group had gained just under one.

Outsmart genetic predisposition

Even if it is difficult to lose weight, especially for people who are genetically predisposed, it can still be achieved with the right foods and a little perseverance. Maybe it’s a small consolation for them that annoying calorie counting has been overrated. This definitely makes it easier to incorporate a healthy diet into your everyday life and to become slim in the long term and not in a hurry.