Lena Mandziuk: "Healthy people don't need diets"

In an interview for our online portal, opinion leader and online trainer Lena Mandziuk talked about creating her sports YouTube channel, her attitude to trendy interval training, and shared her tips on how to get fit as soon as possible.

Lena, you recently launched a sports YouTube channel with workouts. Tell us how this idea came about.

It was my second attempt to launch a YouTube channel. First, I overcame the lack of time. But when the first lockdown began, many women like me were at home. We were sad, afraid of the future, had a lot of free time, and I decided to unite us all for one thing that would be useful and bring us good mood and well-being.

I started recording my workouts and uploading them to the channel, and thousands of women across Ukraine breathed a sigh of relief because I gave them the opportunity to create their own little gym without leaving home (smiles).

What is the difference between your channel and other similar ones?

Do you know many Ukrainian-language channels on YouTube, especially among sports channels? It is always a priority for me to develop Ukrainian-language blogging. Although, yes, it’s not very popular and doesn’t bring in a large audience. But everything is just beginning.

What is the peculiarity of your training? What is their effectiveness?

As strange as it may sound, my main identity is “normal”. I’m just normal (smiles): I don’t go to extremes and I don’t teach others to do so; I show girls that they shouldn’t complicate their lives with fancy diets, strange exercises, and strict prohibitions. It’s the only way to stay healthy, both physically and psychologically, and for some reason, for many people, this is nonsense. Feeling full of energy is so damn easy! This is my specialty, and I teach it to hundreds of thousands of women.

How often and for how long do you need to exercise to stay in great shape? Should I combine cardio and strength training – what should I emphasize?

To be in good shape, it is enough to do your favorite exercises 2-3 times a week, where a workout can take from 20 to 60 minutes. It’s great when you start every day with exercises, like I do, right in bed. Sometimes you can replace your workouts at home with a morning or evening run because outdoor workouts work really well, plus your favorite music in your ears will definitely put you in the mood. And most importantly, you should know that you don’t lose weight from training. Weight is reduced by a calorie deficit, and exercise helps to speed up energy burn and tone your muscles.

Do you think it’s better to exercise in the morning or in the evening, and why?

There is no right answer (smiles). It’s very important to listen to your body, because some girls are good at training in the morning, while others feel exhausted afterwards. You should also understand that the most important rule when it comes to time is to train regularly. According to science, our bodies are most ready for physical activity from 3 to 7 p.m. This is due to human circadian rhythms. That’s why we spend the most energy during this period. So, try training at different times of the day, feel when you’re most comfortable, and add regularity.

Lena, is it possible to get in shape without changing your diet, or do you still need to follow some basic rules?

You can do anything, but what do you get in the end? You can eat 800 calorie fries a day, run marathons, and lose 5 kilograms in a week, but what will happen to your body and well-being? The most important thing that each of us has is health, and it is seriously affected by what we eat and how we spend our day.

That’s why I’m always in favor of a balanced diet and regular physical activity, which is the basis of a beautiful and healthy body. Therefore, if you have a sedentary lifestyle and constantly overeat, you won’t be able to change anything without changes. The basis of weight loss is a calorie deficit with a balanced diet, and the basis of a healthy and fit body is moderate physical activity. If you want change, start with the basics.

Which of the trendy diets do you think are the most absurd, and which do you never advise anyone who doesn’t want to ruin their health to go on?

I’m generally a fan of the idea that a healthy person doesn’t need diets. If you have health problems, the diet will be chosen and prescribed by your doctor. But in most other cases, diets and strict restrictions have a negative impact on health and lead to eating disorders. These include all the so-called “fasting days,” the keto diet, the Dukan diet, and others like it.

Many girls gain weight in winter. Why is this happening? And is it true that it’s easier to lose weight in spring and summer than in cold weather? How can this be explained?

This is true, and even I am no exception. At the end of winter, I usually weigh 2 kilograms more. I’m used to it and never worry about it. There are many reasons for this, and I will mention the main ones. In the cold season, we take fewer walks, spend less time with friends and children, and even walks with our pets become shorter – that is, activity in the winter period is quite seriously reduced. Accordingly, we spend less energy, fewer calories are burned, and they have to go somewhere. Therefore, they can be stored in our fat depots in the form of several kilograms.

Our diet is also changing in the direction of increasing calories. While in summer we eat more fresh vegetables and fruits, in winter, when we lack sunshine and positive emotions, we want more fast carbohydrates, which is usually something sweet, pastries, bread, and so our diet changes a little bit for the worse. We get fewer vitamins, fewer macro- and microelements, and more empty calories. But as soon as the sun and warmth return to our lives, we immediately become more active, we want changes, and many people return training and sports to their lives. We want to go out, spend time, and plan vacations. This includes swimming and many other activities, plus we are starting to monitor our diet more closely.

And what do you think of the intermittent fasting diet that is popular now? And does it even make sense to limit yourself to eating at certain times?

There is one interesting thing – for a healthy adult, two or three meals a day with clean intervals are enough. That is, it is enough to have a balanced breakfast, lunch, and dinner, or even just two meals, choosing your own calorie and nutrient intake. So, it is very important to have clean intervals between these meals (hunger), not to have snacks during this period – this is the norm.

A healthy person doesn’t need snacks at all, and intermittent fasting is almost the same as two or three meals a day. It’s that simple: everything we have known for a long time that we need to have breakfast, lunch and dinner can now be compared to the same fashionable intermittent fasting and it is worth understanding that this is not a diet, but one that is aimed at losing weight. It is suitable for people who understand nutrition, the basics of a healthy and balanced diet, who do not have stomach problems, do not know what constant overeating, fasting, etc. means. And in fact, this is very, very important.

There are several types of intermittent fasting, and each person chooses the period during which they will not eat. It is important to additionally observe circadian rhythms: to have healthy sleep (go to bed no later than 23:00, be sure to sleep at night, wake up around seven) and not to have stress in your life. And if you follow these basic rules, of course, you can achieve a certain balance in feeling your body and feeling good.