What you need to do to lose weight? Professional nutrition consultant Yvonne von Salis, a member of the medical team for the weight loss programmes at the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz in Switzerland, talks about the best ways to shed a few pounds by eating better.
Is it really possible to lose 10 pounds in a week?
Well, it is possible but of course it depends on just how overweight the patient is and also how strictly they will stick to our weight-loss-program.It usually requires a combination of personal training and our “Cuisine Equilibrée”, a balanced cuisine that’s been created by our doctors, dietician and chefs. In two of our eight restaurants, we offer “Cuisine Equilibrée” menus.
The facilities at our medical wellness resort make it possible to achieve short-term results you might not manage yourself, but losing 10 pounds in a week is less important than making long-term and sustainable lifestyle changes.
What is a healthy way to lose weight?
Our target is always to motivate the patient to change their lifestyle. This is the only way to be successful and not to end up with a yoyo-effect. It’s not just a question of what food you eat, but also when you eat and how much you eat.After a nice but heavy dinner with friends, you should compensate by eating less the next day - then you never will get into serious weight problems.
Think about it as a question of how much and how often. That means if the patient has realised how it works, we guarantee our weight-loss programme will work.
Do you need an individual diet plan?
Individual diet plans aren’t necessary for success. But we prefer having an individual programme for each patient, because it’s more efficient and sustainable to take into consideration every element of a particular patient‘s lifestyle.
What are the most important elements of weight loss?
We all read constantly about the importance of physical exercise, daily diet and nutrition, and weight loss diets. But as I mentioned above, most overweight people need to change their lifestyle.
You have to consider what you eat, how much you eat and at what time you eat. We burn most of our fat as we sleep. It sounds silly, but because our body is resting and we are not active, our body burns a lot of energy to keep our body temperature at 36.5° as we know.
So that means, if you eat less for dinner and don’t eat late, your body will burn fat, since this is its engine for maintaining body temperature. It sounds very easy, but we all know how difficult it is to go to bed with an empty stomach.
If you incorporate light, early dinner sessions once or twice a week into your lifestyle then you won’t need to diet. And of course exercise, exercise, exercise! This is something you should do at least 3 or 4 times a week. Or walk every day at least 30 minutes.
