An honest conversation with one of the country's main nutritionists, Alexei Vladimirovich Kovalkov, about what makes it so difficult to lose weight after childbirth and why bran should be in the diet of any woman.
Perhaps it was a conversation that had every chance to drag on for the whole day. It turned out that there are so many questions about weight loss and nutrition that with each new answer of the professor, the editor-in-chief of Letidor had more and more requests to clarify this or that myth. So if the PP-topic (short for “proper nutrition” - ed.) Concerns you not so much because it has become fashionable, but because it has become crowded, then this interview will be especially informative for you!
You will find out how long after giving birth you can take on yourself, which product must be urgently excluded from the diet, and which one must be added, why swimming and aerobics are unlikely to help you lose weight, and also how exactly a young mother should better build her diet during the day. And yes, I bet you want to put that packet of cookies aside?
How it all starts
Alexey Vladimirovich, so my mother decided to get back in shape. Where do you start?
How should mom eat? An individual program is compiled by a nutritionist based on a variety of indicators, including hair analysis for trace elements. Because if the child takes trace elements, the mother's teeth begin to fall out - this is the specific fault of the doctor who is taking care of the patient. Not a single antenatal clinic now takes a hair analysis for trace elements, but it must be repeated constantly.
Why exactly hair and not blood?
Because the hair grows for a long time and it is cut over a long period of time. And if we take a blood trace element test, this is a snapshot of what you ate yesterday. Clear? Our hair analysis for trace elements is done by one Skalny laboratory, and this is a very serious analysis. I saw such an analysis done in Switzerland and in Russia - they coincided one to one.
Hair analysis can be sent by mail. We have a video on our site on how to cut hair correctly, put it in an envelope, write instructions, clearly print from the site, fill out everything and send it by mail. We are sending a detailed answer, which trace elements need to be added. Moreover, we are starting online consultations of nutritionists for residents of Russian regions. The cost will be microscopic, only one and a half thousand rubles per month of consultations. Considering that the average salary in our country is 20 thousand, we decided to make such a gift to our people.
And how quickly can a woman who has given birth begin to lose weight?
This is very important: do not immediately try to lose weight. According to our legislation, a woman should, perhaps, have the right to lose weight no earlier than 6 months after giving birth.
The main reason for excess weight is hormones
Whatever the birth, right? Natural or Caesarean?
Two full cycles must pass, otherwise we can bring down the hormonal background.
We do not take women to the clinic unless 6 months have passed since the birth.
And there are many like that, as I understand it?
Yes, and even more people who cannot give birth. Who have been going to different hormonal procedures for years and not a single doctor will tell them that they need to lose weight in order to give birth. And dozens of people come to us, who then give birth, and we cannot explain to them that for some time you need to protect yourself, because the word “protect yourself” was not taught to them at all. As a result, they become pregnant, do not carry, they again have psychological trauma, they again gorge on weight. Despite this, we have already given birth to, probably, pairs 12 or 15. And they all swore at their doctors, said: “Why didn’t they tell us that we need to lose weight? Or they said, but did not send us to a professional clinic, but simply some idiotic advice was given like to eat less and run in the morning."
After all, you must understand: fat cells are a large endocrine tumor, they interfere.
And no injections will help, even in vitro fertilization will not help.
According to your observations, what is the most common reason that a woman gains weight after giving birth?
This is endocrinology. Especially if after the second birth.
Why is this hormonal change happening?
And because during childbirth there is one hormonal background, after childbirth it becomes another. It will not recover immediately, it should take 6 months. Someone in 6 months normalizes, someone does not. And if a woman underwent the first birth normally, and after the second she gained weight, this is our patient.
That is, this metabolism is disturbed precisely because of hormonal imbalance?
Yes. And this is not nonsense at all, as one might think. If you have an imbalance in the hormone progesterone, you simply won't have your menstrual cycle. That is, you even stand on your head - it still won't start. And the hormone progesterone is formed from cholesterol and phospholipids. If there is no cholesterol in your diet, that is, you do not eat butter, fat, but eat exclusively vegetable oil, then a lack of cholesterol can lead to problems with progesterone
About the connection between energy and fat cells
And if, after all, it's not about hormones, then what else could be the reason for excess weight after childbirth?
Hormonal imbalances are always present. And up to 50 different reasons can already be layered on it. Well, let's take this example: here is a man and two glasses. One glass is the energy that enters it and which it consumes. And the second glass is energy that is transformed into fat. Let's take the ideal standard. This is a child. And we will see that the more we feed him, the more he burns energy, he cannot sit still, he screams all the time, rushes, his energy is simply generated powerfully - and he cannot sit still
It's just that the child does not yet know how to transform this energy into fat, so he must burn it.
And there is a waste of energy. That is, the first glass is full, the second is empty. Then something clicks, breaks, in particular growth hormones. And he begins to store most of this energy in fat. That is, he begins to transfer energy from the first glass to the second, where we have fat. He feels that there is not enough energy, he becomes lethargic, lazy. Everything is hard for him, even carrying a briefcase. There is no energy. Thinking is hard. He sleeps in class. And he wants to eat, because there is no energy. And the more he eats, the more is poured into the second glass again, and very little remains in the first. And his parents say to him: “Look, look at yourself, you are fat, everyone at school teases you. You need to go in for sports. What's his sport? He barely comes home from school, he has enough strength just to sit on the computer.
And he begins to develop an eating disorder: when he secretly begins to eat.
When his guys tease, when he eats everything he sees. Here are the pies. Everyone will pass by, but he has a lack of energy, he wants to get this energy with anything. Do you understand? And depression is constant, which he feeds with a lack of endorphins: he eats fatty and sweet. And it starts to gorge even more. It turns out a vicious circle. This is a complex of problems, and it can only be broken in a complex manner, and therefore there are centers that are engaged in an integrated approach. And there are only a few of them in Russia. The rest are all dealt with individually: someone is psychology, someone is cosmetology, someone is purely nutritional. And this is already a dense past.
The modern approach is always an integrated approach with the identification of the dominant cause.
Perfect Formula & Versatile Diet
Is there some kind of, let's say, "Dr. Kovalkov's formula"?
You know, there is a phrase that was said at one time by the director of the Institute of Nutrition, Academician Pokrovsky. It sounds like this: the diet should be balanced, taking into account the individual characteristics of each patient - age, physical development and those tasks,which the doctor sets himself in the treatment of this patient. That is, the nutrition of a young girl should be different from that of a bodybuilder, and the nutrition of a child should be different from that of the same mother.
So, it is assumed that all these common diets - Ducan's, protein-carbohydrate alternation, the Kremlin's - have a right to exist? They just suit someone, but categorically not for someone?
Let's say you have a burst battery. And you wipe off the water. Each time you come and wipe the water off with different rags, in different ways. But the water still flows until you close the pipe.
On average, a woman goes on a diet 33 times in her life. I think: where is the female intuition?
33 times a rake hit in the head, she still tries to lose weight through a diet. Ducan's diets and many diets are based on the principle of removing water. That is, this mop came up to someone, but to someone it is better to have this one in his hand. I admit that this mop can remove water, but the fact that it runs over again is 100%. And therefore, according to statistics, only 5% can lose weight on their own. Of these 5%, only 5% can maintain weight for one year.
Why? Because the water is dripping. This is the first thing.
Second. The body clearly remembers the mop with which you removed the water. He will not let you remove the water with this mop the second time.
I'm friends with Ducan. He says, who hasn't sat on me all these years, so every time you have to come up with something of your own. The person is changing.
All cells in the human body change over the course of a year. Therefore, what worked a year ago does not work now.
Hormonal metabolism changes - that's all. Therefore, it is necessary to take a regular hair analysis for trace elements: once every 4-6 months.
It's all the fault of carbohydrates
What are the main enemies of the female figure? What should any mother give up with reinforced concrete?
The hormone insulin reigns over the fat cells. And carbohydrates reign over insulin, so the less carbohydrates we eat in our diet
Do you mean both fast and slow carbohydrates?
When we have carbohydrates in the blood, they are carbohydrates. These are always monosaccharides. It doesn't matter where they came from: from buckwheat porridge or refined sugar. It's just that they appear from refined sugar a little faster than from buckwheat porridge, and, accordingly, insulin is released more rapidly. But both are carbohydrates. If carbohydrates reign in your blood for a whole day, then sooner or later, and most often very early, your fasting insulin level, when there are no carbohydrates in your blood at all, will be about 12-15-20. That is, it will already be increased on an empty stomach.
What about the norm?
And the norm is up to 10. And what happens when the insulin level rises? There are free fatty acids that are constantly circulating. They are called free. They freely enter and exit fat cells. In and out. And so, as soon as the hormone insulin rises above a certain norm, then all fatty acids rush into the cell, solder together and form a dense formation of triglycerides, which, due to its size, cannot pass through the pores of these fat cells, and it remains there for a very long time.
And if your insulin level is high, even on an empty stomach, then you will never lose weight.
If you practice in the gym, you will waste the energy of carbohydrates, and after the gym you will have tremendous hunger and fatigue. Colossal hunger, because with hypoglycemia, an almost uncontrollable hunger occurs. And fats will not burn.
Therefore, hundreds of mothers go to aerobics, jump and do not lose a single gram of weight.
Is this called insulin tolerance?
Even if tolerance has not developed yet. It may be even earlier. For example, 3 hours before physical activity in the gym, before aerobics, you eat one apple. We just woke up, ate an apple, so that there was energy to jump. This apple has raised your insulin levels so much that your fat cells are tightly closed on the exit of fatty acids. And you even stand there on your head, you won't burn a single gram of fat. But energy is needed, and you will take energy atn, glucose, muscles. It is limited, so after that you will have a dip in blood sugar, that is, hypoglycemia.
And hypoglycemia is characterized by tremors in the hands, severe headache and the desire to eat something sweet.
So where does it come from?
It is taken because insulin lowers blood sugar. The body adapts to the fact that insulin is high. And the more carbohydrates, the more insulin. It doesn't matter what kind of carbohydrates - fast or slow. This is important to understand. It used to be thought that only fast carbohydrates were harmful. It is now believed that total carbohydrate intake also affects insulin secretion.
It turns out that the most harmful thing in the diet is carbohydrates?
Therefore, the 57th session of the World Health Organization proposed to reduce the amount of carbohydrates to only 55-80 g per day.
What about fats and proteins?
The minimum protein norm for Russia is 70 g of pure protein. The minimum norm for fats is from 30 to 40. Optimally, it is somewhere between 60-80.
How to stop eating carbohydrates
But what about those mothers who are accustomed to such a diet_?
We need to change our habits.
_I mean, through overcoming and torment?
Well, it's like an addiction. The most interesting thing is that Ducan has now written a book in which he proves on hundreds of scientific studies that the use of such an amount of carbohydrates destroys the pancreas not only of the mother, but also of her unborn child. And the child is already born insulin-dependent. Awesome book, due out soon.
How can you restrain yourself?
We must understand that carbohydrates are a poison that kills us.
But what about the fact that the brain works when the same glucose is supplied?
You don't have to worry about the brain.
The brain will not die, even if you starve, you will dry up all over, and the brain will remain as it was.
After 3 days, he switches to nutrition with ketone bodies. The destruction of fats and proteins begins.
That is, you have to withstand 3 days?
The reserves of carbohydrates in the body in the form of ATN energy are small, but enough for 3 days. After 3 days, the brain is nourished due to gluconeogenesis, when the body takes 2-3 amino acids and makes glucose from them. And due to nutrition with ketone bodies, which are formed due to the breakdown of fats. And this is the last most effective and healthy food. A protein-fat or ketogenic diet is most optimal, because redistribution occurs and the body begins to feed on ketone bodies, which are formed due to the combustion of fats.
What about fruit? It's also carbohydrates.
Also carbohydrates. If you go home now and eat only apples, your blood fats will be enough for 3 days exactly to drive all of them through the energy of insulin into the subcutaneous fat.
The norm of carbohydrates - 40-50 g per day - is about 5 apples or about one bowl of buckwheat porridge.
What to eat to lose weight
So, we realized that we must exclude all carbohydrates from the diet. And what, on the contrary, should everyone include in their diet?
I would still include yoghurts, not kefir. Because kefir has an acidic environment, adds an acidic environment to the stomach, and not all stomachs can withstand this load. But yogurt does not have an acidic environment, so yogurt is optimal.
And what else?
Bran. This is a type of carbohydrate that has a certain calorie content, but they are not absorbed by the body, but pass through the entire intestine. Therefore, it was previously believed that this is an absolutely useless product, and it was thrown away. And now, by the way, bran is considered the cheapest product.
So what's their use?
Bran has three health benefits. First: they swell in the stomach upon contact with water, that is, they must be washed down with some kind of liquid. Stretches the walls of the stomach, creating a feeling of fullness. Second: due to the rigid structure, they stimulate intestinal motility, which means that the food lump does not linger or rot in the intestine. Third: they cleanse the villi of the small intestine. In them, like in a forest, bifidobacteria live, which are able to break down proteins.
After all, it is important not so much how much protein you ate, but how much protein and amino acids got into the blood.
But it is bifidobacteria that break down into these amino acids. The bran, like a comb, pierces the villi, clearing them of mucus, after which an army of bifidobacteria sits there, begins to live there, colonize new places.
But that's not all. They also have porosity properties and, like activated carbon, remove various toxins from the intestines.
They can be eaten every day, but not more than 100 g.
About counting calories
Let's talk about the daily diet of a healthy mom who wants to be slim. Does she need to count calories or is it a waste of time?
Calories are irrelevant, they are a measure of the energy released into the combustion of a substance in a calorimetric bomb. And if you think logically, then you can throw slippers, they will burn there, but this does not mean that the slippers will be absorbed in your stomach, right? Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
And calories are complete nonsense.
After all, then you need to take into account how much of the product you will assimilate, and how much will transit. For example, you eat chanterelles - they are very high in calories, but they go in and out. Or the same bran - 500 calories, but they went in and out. Moreover, in order for the product to be assimilated, a certain energy is also needed. There are foods with so-called negative calories. That is, for the assimilation of which the body spends more energy than these products themselves contain. So it turns out that when calculating calories, all these nuances must be controlled.
About sports and fitness
So, BZHU calculated what we do with physical activity - do we increase it or not?
A lot of physical activity is also complete nonsense. It just has to be strong.
Interval training gives the maximum result.
Tell me, please.
We burn fat on a treadmill, on an ellipse due to the fact that the hormones adrenaline and norepinephrine are secreted, but they stop acting in 15-20 minutes after you leave the treadmill. To prolong this pleasure, it is necessary to drive these hormones into the muscle fiber, then they continue to effectively burn fat for a week. And for this you need to do a 25-minute aerobic exercise for interval training, so that the last 5 minutes there will be a phase of asphyxiation of the lungs, when you choke. And then - some physical exercises, when you just stretch and squeeze the fiber with a pump, so that these hormones go into the fiber. This works best on the problem area. Then again 25 minutes on the treadmill, then again. This is interval training.
Is aerobics, swimming, Pilates just for fun? Not for effect?
Let's think logically again. Tell me, please, which fitness center has a buffet where pies and sandwiches are sold?
I have not met.
Show me at least one pool that doesn't have a buffet. This is an indicator that while swimming you are wasting carbohydrates, and after swimming, you are wildly hungry.
How can mom deal with stress
So good. With nutrition and sports figured out. But now mom is reading us and at the same time eating a cookie. Do you know why? Because being a mother is psychologically difficult: tantrums, whims, age crises. She just needs to seize this stress with harmful carbohydrates. And how to be?
We need to relieve stress with other food. For example, make yourself a khachapuri. Or a kebab. Better barbecue.
But it’s not a shish kebab that relieves stress, but a cookie. How to be?
How to be? There is no other way out. My son has gained weight now, but I don't bother him especially because I understand that he has sessions and everything else. He already has enough problems. And as soon as the session is over, I will put him on a strict diet, send him to the gym - he will drop everything that he typed!
Well, such a life, you have to adjust.
That is, you just need to have an iron willpower?
Exactly! By the way, even ragged sleep prevents many mothers from losing weight! After all, growth hormone is produced in our country at night, in the phase of deep sleep. And if a mother gets up to her child at night, you can wave her hand to her growth hormone. There will be no fat burning, only accumulation will go.
Therefore, dad needs to get up to the child at night, and not mom. Well, or at least in turn.
Mom's ideal diet
Alexey Vladimirovich, and the last! For example, the mother of a 3-year-old child, who does not play sports, is reading us now. Such is the average mother. Write down the ideal diet for the day for her.
Excellent. So, we get up in the morning, take the child, drink a glass of water. We accept one tube of l-carnitine. We take the child and go for a walk with a stroller for at least an hour. We walk at such a pace: that is, we pass 2 pillars, increasing the pace, so that, approaching the last pillar, we gasp a little, our mouths open. Then we go slowly, rest. Then we increase the pace again.
And so we walk with a stroller for an hour and a half.
Then we come home, eat nothing for an hour. And in an hour we can eat something from protein: for example, fish, meat with vegetables.
Cottage cheese?
No, cottage cheese is just not needed, because cottage cheese contains casein, and casein retains water, leads to swelling of joints, ligaments, and so on. Better a piece of meat or a cutlet. Only without bread, but with vegetables, because vegetables will fill the stomach, the enzyme pepsin will be released, and there will be full digestion. And in the evening - again a walk, but already, perhaps, on a full stomach. And some seafood for dinner.
So, what about during the day?
In the afternoon, you can cook yourself a light soup, without fat, without meat, vegetable. Throw the bran there - it turns out very tasty. Mushroom soup is very healthy. In the evening: fish, meat, whatever you want with vegetables too. But before going to bed, only bodybuilders need cottage cheese. It is better to eat 2 egg whites before going to bed. The yolks can be fried in a skillet, mushrooms, vegetables, herbs, peppers, spices, garlic can be added there and also eaten during the day. And for the evening, you have a huge salad bowl filled with any vegetables, in any proportions, with herbs, and one or two tablespoons of olive oil is added there. Plus a glass of wine.
My husband comes home from work, you put salad on him, yourself, talk, drink wine.
This is how the evening passes. Then, before bed, your treat is two egg whites, fried right before bed.
That sounds good! But it seems difficult to do.
Come on, come on! The most important line of our conversation: who wants - is looking for a way, who does not want - is looking for a reason.
And an excuse.
Exactly!
Thank you very much, it was very interesting. No more cookies!
