Almost in every instance the cause of excessive weight is obvious: those people are gaining weight, who eat more than their body needs. Some full-figured ladies say: “But I nearly starve myself and still put on weight!”

It’s true, their breakfast, lunch and supper are not more abundant than those of their slender friends, but in between those meals they have so many bites that nearly double their daily ration.

Those “little bites” usually include sweets, biscuits, jam served with tea, or a small bag of pistachios, 100 g of which contribute 700 calories and by one third increase the nutritive value of the day’s ration.

Abandon this ruinous habit of having a bite between meals and profit from the advice of famous Russian opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya. When she feels that her stage dress cannot be easily zipped, she switches to soups and soups alone, eating one plate for breakfast, lunch and supper. Ideal for such diet will be okroshka, a cold low-calorie fat-free special yogurt soup with vegetables and cooked meat.

Forget about salty and spicy dishes and appetizers. Use instead greens, such as parsley, dill, mint, coriander (kinza), fennel, caraway, estragon, savory… Substitute salt, at least partially, with lemon juice. Stuff yourself full with fruit and vegetables, especially marrow squash, gooseberry, laminaria and cabbage: they contain much of dietary fiber which will give you a feeling of satiety. But take note: vegetarian food is easily digested, so have at least 4 to 6 meals a day, and, which is very important, at regular time.

About half an hour before the meal take an anti-aperitif. A glass of mineral water or a cup of vegetable bouillon will give you a feeling of full stomach, and you’ll be satisfied with a smaller amount of food during the meal. Sweet and sour beverages or strong beef bouillons whetting the appetite must be rejected. Begin your lunch or supper not with the main course, but with a low-calorie hors d’oeuvre, e.g., a hard boiled egg, lettuce, grated carrot, celery stalks or a cucumber. The plate should appear full of food. Prepare light dishes that look large. Meal is a pleasure, so try it to last as long as possible. Do not swallow hastily all you have on plate before you: chew carefully every piece. If the change of courses takes 10 or 15 minutes, you can easily sacrifice the rest of your lunch and feel yourself quite satisfied without the dessert. If you want to eat less and not to feel hungry you can add food cellulose to your meals. Put 5 to 8 tablets into each 100-150 g serving of minced meat or fish cakes, vegetable rissoles or mashed potato. Also you may take this amount of tablets 3 times a day 20 minutes before meals washing it down with ⅓ glass of boiled water, juice or yogurt. Take at least 1½ liter of liquid during the day, this quantity including beverages and first courses. Do not eat high-calorie ice-cream, and take frozen fruit juice instead, which is as tasty but much less hazardous to your figure. Give preference to freshly squeezed or whole natural fruit, and not to juices bought at stores (they always contain added sugar). Well known ashberry will bind carbohydrates in your intestines not allowing them to transform into fats. Take 7 parts of dried ashberries and 3 parts of nettle leaves, or equally ashberry and rose hip. Brew 2 to 3 table spoons of mixture with 2 glasses of boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes, let to infuse for 4 hours and strain. Take ½ glass in between meals 2-3 times a day. Prepare fresh infusion every day.

“Life is locomotion” – let it be your maxim. Physical activity not only helps to burn fat deposits (a minute of fast walk consumes 5-6 Kilocalories, and one minute of jogging 10-11 Kcal), but distracts from thoughts about food. Take the measurements of your body. Assume a relaxed posture and measure your waist at the navel level, and your hips at the broadest. The respective normal ratio should not exceed 0.85. If it does, there is some hazard for you heart, vessels and carbohydrate metabolism. One more number is important, that of Body Mass Index (BMI). We get it if we divide the weight of our body in kilograms by the figure of our height brought to a square. A normal ratio will be 20 to 24; 25 to 30 is indicative of excessive weight, and the values over 30 mean obesity. For example, with height of 1.7 m and weight of 65 kg
BMI = 65: (1.7 x 1.7) = 65 : 2.89 = 22.5. At BMI higher than 25 the risk of diabetes increases by 3 times, and accumulation of fat in the belly area heighten this risk tenfold.