In dialogue with WEEK, Marián “Boticaria” García talked about the process that people who want to lose weight and enter a healthy lifestyle must face with her book “Your brain is hungry.”
Week: In the book you mention three big changes that will help you lose fat, what are they?
Marián “Boticaria” García: They are changes focused on the brain, mainly to manage emotional hunger, because we eat not when we are physiologically hungry, but because we really have emotions such as stress, anxiety, so the first change would be to learn to identify what emotional hunger is and how to manage it. .
The second change would be related to diet, but not complicated diets or diets that have been seen to be very aggressive. I lay out the pillars of the diet, explaining which foods should be eaten more, which should be eaten less, and which should be exchanged for one another.
And the third main change would be based on physical exercise, which consists of exercising the muscle. Strength exercises from initial level at home in 10 or 15 minutes a day, with very simple exercises that people can do. Those would be the main changes.
Week: At what point did you decide to start writing about obesity issues?
This creates a very important prejudice and stigma about people who are obese or overweight, and that made me wonder and understand: How does inflammation work? How do hormones work? because there are a lot of people who really fight their mind every day, and I think it’s very important for people to understand how the brain works, what inflammation is.
MBG: Understand What are adipocytes? And if they do not send the satiety signal to the brain well when this happens, the person continues to be hungry and it is not that they are anxious, nor that they are hungry, it is that their brain is hungry. So seeing the stigma that exists in society, seeing how it is criminalized, how people are demonized for their bodies made me reflect, understanding that the world has changed, that 50 years ago we did not have the food that we have now, that Obesity, overweight, is multiplied by three and this is not because people are to blame, it is because there are many conditions around it. We must understand that there is bodily diversity, that is important, but beyond appearance we have to take care of ourselves on the inside.
Week: What are the types of hunger and how to differentiate them?
MBG: I propose asking questions about our hunger, what happens is that we don’t listen to it. We can ask our hunger if it has appeared suddenly or is it progressive, that is, gradual hunger. There is emotional hunger, stress hunger, physiological hunger. Physiological hunger is going to ask you to eat rice, meat, some potatoes, it is going to ask you to feed yourself, emotional hunger is going to ask you for sugar.
This emotional hunger also seeks dopamine in other ways, for example, music, music generates dopamine, singing, listening to a song, playing an instrument, going for a walk, getting out in the sun, talking with a friend, personal relationships between people. .
Week: What do you recommend for a person who wants to lose fat?
MBG:Diet is important and we need calorie restriction. That is, if there is a calorie deficit, we do not have to enter less than what we are spending to burn fat, but it has to be progressive. How are we going to do this? Each person has to evaluate their physical activity, but a good strategy may be to perhaps increase protein consumption. If we are quite sedentary people and do not move much, protein is satiating.
MBG: Because they really are very aggressive diets, in fact at the beginning you lose fat very quickly, because you don’t eat as many calories, and your body says, “That’s good?”, but, well, it has to burn what it has, it has to get it from wherever it can and that’s where the fat is lost. muscle.
Week: In the book you also mention the term traffic light diet. Why do you classify it this way?
MBG: I think it’s very visual, everyone understands a traffic light. What is red is prohibited, do not pass because if you pass you may die. Everyone understands that green is without a problem, cross. Ámbar is yes, but with care, as if in expectation. So we have at the red light the diets that science has said can be dangerous, even harmful, the shakes, from the proteins, the single-thematic diets, I am referring to the grapefruit diet, the pineapple diet, the idea of X’s diet.
In Amber we have intermittent fasting, they can be useful diets for some people, but not for all, so it has to be done with caution.. In intermittent fasting there are studies that have shown that it can increase longevity, that it can prevent some types of cancer, that it can be good for the microbiota, however, for some types of people, such as those who have had disorders, it may not be It is not advisable to do this type of diet.
M.B.G.: And in green we have the pillars of the diet, which are the foods we should enhance. This varies, but we would all do better if we ate more whole fruits and vegetables, if we ate more legumes, more refined foods for whole grains and then changing, for example, potatoes from time to time for vegetables, I have nothing in mind. against potatoes and even less in this country, we are not going to criticize the potato, but it is true that potatoes for sedentary people provide us with a lot of energy with less vitamins and minerals than other vegetables.
Week: Here in Colombia there is a phrase that says, “I am obese by constitution.” Does genetics really influence obesity?
We do not have certain control, although it is true that the genes are there and that in the coming years we will see great advances in a test that can tell us if you have a predisposition to use sugars or fats, you should use or maintain a diet that is good, well with a higher proportion of carbohydrates, proteins, or fats.
Week: What Are there any upcoming projects for Marian García?
M.B.G.: I am writing a book for children because I think it is important to manage the focus from below, and for children to understand and also learn to make better decisions. Sometimes when we are adults we have already arrived late and I also have a fantastic project with Dr. Javier Butragueño to explain the “Tris Tras” method with videos on a platform so that everyone who wants can know how to have the technique to do those exercises and know how not to get injured.