If you’ve read our previous articles on kefir, you’ve learned that this beverage packs a lot of healthy nutrients for your body. Not only it’s delicious but also nutritious and comes with plenty of health benefits. We also mentioned that kefir helps with weight loss and this is true if you take care of your other daily habits.
In this article, we’re going to delve deeper into weight loss and we will see how you can utilize kefir to your advantage when it comes to losing some fat.
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2 Most Important Benefits Of Kefir For Weight Loss
1. Losing Fat Through Improved Digestion
Did you know that your digestive system can cause you a lot of trouble when trying to maintain or lose weight? Poor digestion can lead to several complications, including vitamin deficiency, fatigue, and bloat. Kefir, as you probably know, is essentially a probiotic beverage. Probiotics are good bacteria that help you with your digestion. That’s why, when you have stomach flu, your doctor will tell you to drink yogurt. Yogurt is much, much weaker probiotic than kefir. Kefir is on a whole new level and this characteristic itself makes this beverage almost magical.
It’s not about its calories. Kefir doesn’t have a ton of calories in itself. We have some fat and some proteins in it. Its nutritional value is similar to yogurt or milk, yet it’s slightly lower. Kefir itself can’t make you skinnier if you eat junk food, chocolate, donuts, etc. First and foremost, kefir can only HELP you get the desired results by improving your digestion system and by making better use of what you eat.
2. A Slow-Digesting, Long-Lasting Source of Protein
Protein is essential when trying to lose fat. Many people think that, by eating fats, they get fat. It’s not true. You gain fat by eating a lot of carbs. Carbs are essentially what gives us energy and when you live a sedentary lifestyle, you don’t need a lot of them. On the other hand, kefir offers a slow-digesting protein called casein. Casein is a type of protein located in dairy products such as cheese, milk, yogurt, and kefir. This type of protein is specific when it comes to digestion.
It digests very slowly thus it’s recommended before you go to sleep, to keep your muscle mass intact. When a particular food digests slower, it means that it keeps you full for longer. This also means that you’ll eat less for your next meal, resulting in a significant weight loss over time. Studies showed that those who consume four servings of kefir daily, lose weight faster. Kefir also has an insignificant amount of carbs, as it’s lactose-free, meaning that your insulin won’t jump all over the place when you consume it. This is great for people with diabetes.
6 Popular Kefir Diets for Weight Loss
In order to get fast kefir weight loss results you really have to follow guidelines of these kefir diets for weight loss. The best thing about kefir diets is that they are affordable and really simple to follow. In this section, we’ll give you a couple of diets that are based on kefir and that are proven to aid in weight loss.
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Buckwheat-Kefir Diet
We’ve started with the well-known buckwheat-kefir diet, as it’s one of the most popular out there. This diet lasts a maximum of 2 weeks and consists of 1 liter of kefir and 150+ grams of dry buckwheat daily. As said, you shouldn’t boil the buckwheat but steam it in boiling water overnight. Furthermore, be careful not to completely drench the cereal in water. The recommended proportion is to put 1 part of cereal to 2 parts of water. This way, the fiber from the cereal will remain intact and with more fiber in your diet, you’ll lose fat more easily.
It’s very important that you DO NOT eat kefir and buckwheat in the same meal. One meal should be kefir and the other is buckwheat. There’s also a more aggressive version of this diet, which includes eating only kefir one day, and then buckwheat another day. However, we don’t recommend this, as your hunger will skyrocket and make you overeat the first food that falls under your hands.
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Banana-Kefir Diet
We all love bananas and if you’re like me, you can eat them in mind-boggling quantities. But, unless you want to raise your sugar for nothing, I suggest that you don’t go guns-blazing. Instead, this diet focuses on decreasing your hunger through sugar consumption. As bananas have a lot of sugar, the number of them during the day depends on your weight. Approximately, you should eat 1 banana per 30 kilograms of weight. As for kefir, once again, you’re going to consume 1.5 liters, including 1 liter of mineral water.
Just like in the previous diet we’ve mentioned, you’re going to eat bananas and kefir in separate meals. Since this is a very aggressive diet, the recommended duration is 3 days – nothing less, nothing more.
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Dried Fruit-Kefir Diet
Dried fruit isn’t something we eat very often but it tastes very good. We have all sorts of fruit here and there isn’t a limit in what fruit you can eat. Of course, there’s an approximate amount of dried fruit you should eat and it’s not more than 2 full hands. You shouldn’t eat dried fruit and kefir at the same time but split them between different meals. This is also a very aggressive diet and isn’t recommended for more than 3 days before you take a break of another 3 days and repeat the cycle.
The amount of kefir to consume is around 1.5 liters or about one glass per berry. Our advice is to hold the fruit in your mouth a bit, before swallowing it. This informs the body of the amount of sugar that’s going to be ingested, reducing the feeling of hunger. Seven to ten snacks a day should do the job.
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Avocado-Kefir Diet
Avocado-kefir is another 3-day diet. This is a relatively new trend which involves avocado, a fat-rich fruit, in conjunction with kefir. The diet is really simple. You take one avocado, peel it, take out the bone, and then put it in the blender with kefir. The amount of kefir you put in translates to the texture of your cocktail or cream soup. If you add a small amount of kefir, you’ll get a cream soup and vice versa. The limit is to drink 3 of these cocktails a day and pure kefir two more times.
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Kiwi-Kefir Diet
Kiwi is a very delicious fruit that’s very beneficial for our bodies. Not only that it helps you lose weight but also keep your body young and beautiful. It regulates your metabolism thanks to the enzymes that easily break down fats. Since it’s very low in calories and has a respectable amount of vitamin C, it’s one of the best fruits out there. In this 4-day diet, you should eat a maximum of 4 kiwis a day, in conjunction with 1 liter of kefir.
We can say with confidence that this diet works wonder. When two low-calorie foods join together, the weight loss is imminent. Needless to say that kiwi and kefir should be in different meals and not together.
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Long-Term Kefir Diet
If you don’t want these short-term solutions, you can turn to a more healthy and efficient diet in the long run. This diet is basically staying away from sugar, white flour, and sweetened beverages. Essentially, this is the diet we’ve talked about at the beginning of this guide. You should eat more proteins, high-quality carbs, and fats, and drink kefir. Great sources of proteins include eggs, cheese, meat, fish, and kefir. As for the carbs, you should eat a lot of greens, rice, oats, and sweet potato. Quality sources of fat include the aforementioned avocado, olive oil, eggs, and walnuts.
By incorporating this diet into your life, you could lose a lot of weight over time. Not only that, but you’ll also feel much healthier, stronger, and you’ll look younger. By adding some kefir into this type of diet, you’ll improve your digestion and this quality food will have its full effect on your body.
Take Care of What You Eat
Today, we learned that kefir can aid in your weight loss endeavor but only if you take care of what you eat. In that case, kefir is really a must-have in your house. Beware that drinking a gallon of kefir a day can lead to weight gain. After all, it still has some calories in it. But, up to 10 glasses a day, depending on your food intake, should be more than enough.
There is not an excuse for not trying kefir. It’s not expensive, it’s healthy, and in most cases, it’s really delicious. If you don’t like the taste, you can always put in some healthy fruit and enjoy its health benefits.
Until next time, drink kefir, eat quality food, and be healthy!