Weight management dietary guidance

There is no universal "universal weight loss diet". A diet structure that can last for more than 3 months without feeling pain and maintain a stable calorie deficit is the most suitable weight management plan for you. All recipes that make you feel so hungry that you feel dizzy and unable to walk after seeing hot pot for a week are all short-term self-abuse, and a rebound will happen sooner or later.

A while ago, I helped a girl who works in Internet operations to adjust her diet. She followed a celebrity's fat-reducing diet for half a month, boiled vegetables and chicken breasts every day. Last week, she couldn't hold it back when she stayed up late to catch up on a project. She showed off two boxes of chocolate chip cookies and a cup of full-sugar milk tea at 2 a.m., and she gained 3 pounds in two days. She cried and told me that she had "poor willpower." In fact, what is the issue of willpower? That kind of recipe, which is completely out of touch with the pace of ordinary people's lives, was not originally designed for ordinary people who have to work overtime every day, occasionally have dinner parties, and want something sweet when they are greedy.

Speaking of this, some people may ask, are those diets that are so popular on the Internet all IQ taxes? That’s not true. Different schools of people are suitable for very different programs. If you find the right one, you will get twice the result with half the effort, but if you find the wrong one, you will just suffer. For example, my friends who compete in bodybuilding competitions use ketogenic low-carb water during the preparation period. They reduce the carbohydrates to less than 10% of the total daily calories. In the first two weeks, the scales fall off the scale frighteningly, and they lose a lot of fat without losing much muscle. But ordinary people should not try it blindly. My friend took it for 3 months in a row last year, and his uric acid level soared to 580 in the physical examination, and he also lost a lot of hair. If you don’t have the need to achieve extremely low body fat in the short term, you won’t be guilty of this crime. There is also the 16+8 light fasting method that many office workers love to try now. It compresses the eating time into 8 hours, and the remaining 16 hours are fasting. To be honest, if you work regularly from 9 to 5, you don’t have to stay up late or get up early to catch up on work. This method is really worry-free. You can naturally eat less without counting calories, but if you often work on projects until one or two in the morning, or have to get up early to send your children off in the morning, and cannot eat until 10 a.m. on an empty stomach, there is a high chance that you will not be able to make it through the meal, so you will grab the office snacks and eat more. As for the Mediterranean diet, which has been praised by the nutrition community for a long time, the elderly in my family are now eating according to this structure. It has enough unsaturated fatty acids and dietary fiber. Long-term eating not only controls weight but is also good for cardiovascular disease, but the threshold is indeed not low. You must often buy deep-sea fish, virgin olive oil, and various fresh vegetables. If you are usually so busy that you don’t even have time to buy groceries, and rely on takeout every day, it is unrealistic to apply this model rigidly.

In fact, there is really no need to make it so complicated. I have been managing my weight for almost 6 years, and my body fat rate has been maintained at around 22% all year round. I have never accurately calculated calories, so I use a fool’s version of the fist rule. I put it on a plate for each meal: one punch of staple food (try to replace half of it with corn, sweet potatoes, oats and other grains, I really like it) It’s okay to eat white rice and noodles, just don’t overdo it), two fists of green leafy vegetables, one fist of protein (eggs, chicken, fish, shrimp, and soy products are included), plus a thumb’s worth of oil. You can apply this standard even when eating takeout, add one-third of the rice in the rice bowl, and add two more bites of vegetables, it’s better than anything else.

Oh, by the way, don’t believe the rumors about “negative calorie foods”. The more you eat celery and broccoli, the slimmer you will become. This is pure nonsense. The food itself has calories, but the digestion of these high-fiber foods requires more energy. Even if you eat 10 pounds of celery in one meal, you will still have excessive calories. Those who say "eating carbohydrates at night will make you gain weight" should rest. I have a programmer friend who doesn't get off work until 1 a.m. every day and eats a bowl of multi-grain rice and stir-fried vegetables for dinner at 9 a.m. He has steadily lost 20 pounds in half a year. The key is whether there is a gap in total calories throughout the day. It really doesn't matter what time you eat.

I am also greedy. I drink two cups of milk tea with 30% sugar every week. Occasionally I go out to eat hot pot with friends and eat fat beef belly. I also take two bites of cream cake. I never hold back. To put it bluntly, I eat these high-sugar and high-fat foods. Count it into the total portion of the day. If you drink milk tea, don't eat the afternoon biscuits. If you eat cake, don't take a mouthful of rice. There is really no need to engage in complete abstinence. You are not a monk. You won't be able to persist for long if you do something too anti-human.

To be honest, weight management is a lifelong matter. You don’t just lose 20 pounds and then you can completely let yourself go and eat all you want. Those methods that make you eat boiled vegetables every day and count calories every time are like ill-fitting tights. They really show off your figure when you first put them on, but after a few hours you have to take them off, which may even deform your body. It is better to find a way that is comfortable for you, without having to compete with others on how quickly you lose weight, and slowly adjust to a diet that you can eat all the time. This is the secret to not rebounding.