Dietary Guidelines for Weight Management

The core dietary logic of weight management has never been to create a large short-term caloric deficit through extreme dieting, but to achieve a long-term and stable caloric balance by flexibly adjusting the diet structure, eating rhythm and food selection on the premise of satisfying one's own basal metabolism, appetite needs and living habits - there is no need to copy Internet celebrity recipes, no need to be hungry to the point of dizziness, and no need to completely quit the food you like to eat. A plan that can be adhered to for a long time is an effective plan.

There are all kinds of dietary methods on the market now, and the practitioners I have come into contact with all choose any one. There is no absolute good or bad, only whether it is suitable or not. For example, low-carbohydrate or even ketogenic diets are recommended. My former colleague tried it last year. He gave up all refined rice, flour, sugar, and ate avocados, fatty meats, and green leafy vegetables. He lost 9 pounds in the first month and felt refreshed. But then he couldn't bear the fact that his family cooked braised pork rice every day. After breaking the guard once, he couldn't help but eat staple food for a week. Not only did he gain back 7 pounds, but because he consumed too little carbohydrate during that period, his aunt postponed it for half a month, and her hair loss was scary. This method is indeed effective, but it requires too much willpower and nutritional knowledge from ordinary people. If you don’t have a particularly urgent need to lose weight in the short term, there is really no need to try it easily.

A registered dietitian friend I know follows a Mediterranean diet. She usually uses olive oil for cooking, eats deep-sea fish two or three times a week, and eats a handful of nuts every day. Whole grains account for half of her staple food. It took her 8 months to lose weight from 132 pounds to 115 pounds. She has maintained it for almost two years without rebounding, and her blood lipids are much lower than before. But she also said that this model has relatively high dietary requirements. If you are an office worker who eats takeout every day, you either have to prepare your own meals in advance, or order takeout and spend a lot of money to pick out the ingredients. Many people find it troublesome and cannot persist.

Oh, yes, there is also the "pure calorie deficit" idea that many people believe in. To put it bluntly, you can eat anything, as long as the total intake is lower than the total consumption. I have a fitness friend who does this. He counts calories every day and even eats a small piece of chocolate every day. He also lost 10 pounds in three months. But the problem with this kind of food is that many people tend to get carried away. I received a private message from a fan before. In order to accurately calculate the calories, she weighed every bite of food and dared not touch even a bite of food when going out for dinner. Later, she became anxious when seeing food, developed an eating disorder, and gained 12 pounds more than before losing weight. In fact, it is true that the calorie gap is the basis of weight management, but it does not need to be accurate to single digits. If you usually eat two bowls of rice, now change it to one and a half bowls, add two more chopsticks of vegetables, and drink less one cup of full-sugar milk tea. This gap will appear. You cannot compete with food every day like a weight.

I have been managing my weight for almost 4 years, from 122 pounds to 98 pounds. I have never been hungry, and I have not missed going out to eat hot pot and skewers with friends. I will tell you a few little habits that I use. You can do whatever you can, and you don’t have to force yourself to do it all. For example, when I'm in a hurry in the morning, I don't have to get up half an hour early to make a fat-reducing meal. I buy an egg burger without sauce from the convenience store downstairs and add a box of sugar-free soy milk. It keeps me full until noon. It's much better than eating meat buns soaked in oil. If I have to attend a meal, I drink half a cup of warm milk half an hour in advance to make up for it. When I sit down, I eat two pieces of steamed vegetables or boiled shrimps. Afterwards, I don’t have to show off my staple food because I’m hungry when I drink or eat. I can’t eat many extra calories in one meal.

Oh, by the way, here’s another question that’s too bad to ask: Do you want to have dinner? In fact, there is really no unified answer. My mother is used to going to bed early and lies in bed after 9 o'clock every day. She stops eating after dinner at 6 pm. Her weight has been stable in the past two years and she has never had any stomach problems. ； But I stay up until after 12 o'clock every day. If I finish eating at 6 p.m. and feel hungry by 10 o'clock, I might as well eat some boiled broccoli and a peeled and braised chicken drumstick at 8 o'clock. Otherwise, I will be too hungry to fall asleep, and will easily get up and open a bag of potato chips to eat. The caloric intake is much higher than a light dinner. Some people asked if they could have snacks, of course they could. When I fished around 3pm, I would also eat a small orange or a handful of plain almonds. If you eat something to fill your stomach in advance, you won’t be so hungry after get off work that you stop to buy hamburgers and fried chicken on the way.

To be honest, I have seen too many people who have just started to engage in weight management and arrange their diet like ascetics. They dare not put soy sauce, dare not touch rice, and even eating a tomato counts as calories. They break their guard in less than 3 days, and then feel guilty after overeating. They fall into the endless cycle of "diet-break guard-overeating-self-blame". It is completely unnecessary. Weight management is a lifelong matter. You don't just have to eat whatever you want after you lose your target weight. You have to find a way of eating that you can eat for a lifetime. You don't have to compare yourself with others. Some people feel good eating brown rice every day, while some people just like to eat white rice. They can stay in good shape even if they eat less than two bites at a time. There is really no standard answer.

One final word, don’t believe those nonsense about “losing 10 pounds in 7 days”. What you lose is almost all water and muscle, which will come back as soon as you eat. The normal weight loss rate is 0.5-1 pound per week, which is slower, but all you lose is fat, which is not easy to rebound and does no harm to the body.