Article 20: I can eat more while losing weight by carefully controlling calories and learning how to eat vegetarian food.
If I lose weight, I can eat more.
Recent research shows that the degree and speed of weight loss are exactly the same when comparing eating only one meal of 500 calories a day with eating three meals a day totaling 1000 calories.
Dieters can indulge in a wide variety of foods within a 1000-calorie limit without suffering from hunger.
Experts point out that during the first 1-2 weeks of dieting, weight will drop rapidly, but as the body's regulatory functions improve, the body will respond to the energy shortage caused by dieting by reducing the cell metabolic rate to reduce energy consumption.
Many dieters' "crazy" dieting can lower their cellular metabolic rate and reduce energy consumption.
Later on, even if you only eat a little bit every day, you can't lose weight because your metabolic rate has become very slow, and your body fat can't be burned quickly and effectively.
To lose weight and reduce fat, you must rely on a rapid and effective metabolic rate to burn excess body fat.
Therefore, for those who are dieting to lose weight, scholars advocate that the daily calorie intake should not be less than 1000 calories.
The purpose is twofold: to prevent the formation of new fat and to maintain a rapid and effective metabolic rate to burn off old fat. If you do aerobic exercise (continuous exercise) more than 3 times a week during the diet, you can effectively maintain a rapid metabolic rate, and your weight will definitely continue to decline.
For those who try to lose weight through dieting, this method is worth considering. You can regain a slim figure without starving yourself-why not give it a try?
Careful calculation and control of calories
Everyone knows that losing weight starts with reducing calorie intake, but do you know exactly how many calories you need to consume each day? Let's calculate it.
Step 1: Your activity level is ------
Quiet type: You spend most of your daily life sitting or standing, walk very slowly, and only exercise occasionally.
Active type: Your work or daily life requires a lot of activity, such as cleaning the whole house, running around, or doing aerobic exercise for 30 to 60 minutes at least 3 times a week.
Very active type: Do at least 60 minutes or more of aerobic exercise at least 4 times a week.
Step 2: Your activity level is ----
Calculate your activity index based on the activity level and gender you selected in step 1:
Women: Quiet type 10, Active type 13, Very active type 16
Male: Quiet type 12, Active type 15, Very active type 18
Step 3: Daily Calorie Intake Calculation Method
Formula: Activity Index × Target Weight (lbs)
For example, if a quiet, demure woman's ideal weight is 100 pounds, her daily calorie intake would be calculated as follows: 10 x 100 = 1000 calories.
Other calculation methods may yield a lower calorie intake, but it's important to note that consuming too few calories per day will only have the opposite effect.
Because when you eat very little, the rate at which you burn calories also slows down. In addition, excessive dieting can make people more prone to binge eating, so never eat fewer calories than recommended.
Learn how to eat vegetarian food
Nowadays, healthy eating has become a top concern for people, and hamburgers and fried chicken legs no longer seem as appealing as vegetables and fruits.
People are embracing the new century with simpler lifestyles, and their hearts are returning to simplicity and plainness. All of these factors have led to a daily increase in the number of people eating vegetarian food.
Whether driven by health concerns or simply for simplicity, humanity's yearning to return to its original, natural state is once again manifested in its sense of taste.
Although vegetarianism can be broadly categorized into vegan, lacto-vegan, ovo-vegan, and lacto-ovo vegetarian, in principle, vegetarianism generally refers to abstaining from animal protein.
Because they don't eat meat, they can lower and regulate their cholesterol levels, and avoid ingesting excessive uric acid from eating meat, which increases the risk of kidney failure and kidney stones.
In addition, the human body is slightly alkaline, and eating too much meat can make the body more acidic, increasing the chance of getting sick. Eating vegetarian food helps to neutralize the body's acid-base balance.
The benefits of a vegetarian diet are well-known, but eating the wrong kind of vegetarian diet can be just as harmful.
For example, consuming excessively processed foods not only reduces the amount of nutrients, but the chemicals and pigments they contain can also negatively impact the body; using excessive oil during cooking can also burden the body.
Therefore, when cooking vegetarian food, avoid using overly complicated cooking procedures and eat more fresh vegetables; use oil in moderation, and choose raw and unprocessed ingredients (traditional tofu is better than packaged tofu, and sesame seeds are lower in sugar and higher in nutrition than sesame paste); frequently change the type of rice, occasionally eat some brown rice, or add whole grains, oats, etc. to rice, which are all good ways to achieve balanced nutrition.
Knowing the benefits of a vegetarian diet, perhaps your only concern is not getting the nutrients found in meat.
In fact, as long as you choose a variety of dishes when eating vegetarian food and don't prefer a few specific types, you can still get enough nutrition.
In addition, because the cellular structure of meat is similar to that of the human body, the body absorbs it more easily. Vegetarians, by reducing their meat intake, need to follow several dietary principles:
(1) Whole wheat bread, germ bread, brown rice, etc. should be used instead of white rice and white flour.
(2) Meat is high in protein, but beans such as soybeans, edamame, mung beans, or bean products such as tofu and dried tofu are also rich in protein, which can make up for the lack of protein due to not eating meat. Moreover, there is no worry about high cholesterol from eating more beans.
(3) Consume more nuts such as cashews and almonds, as their rich oils can supplement the body's required calories.
(4) It is best to have four or five different kinds of green vegetables; the iron contained in meat can be supplemented by consuming more iron-rich fruits such as tomatoes, kiwis and grapes.
(5) Do not use more oil to cook vegetarian dishes in order to make them more flavorful. You should follow the principle of making vegetarian dishes light, low in salt and sugar in order to meet the health orientation of vegetarianism.
(6) Vegetarians are prone to vitamin B₁₂ deficiency, which can be improved by eating more multivitamins.
For women who want to maintain a slim figure by eating vegetarian food, it's not so easy. If you cook incorrectly, use too much oil, or choose fried foods like fried tofu skin or sweet foods like mung bean cakes, even though these foods are vegetarian, the high oil and sugar content will make it hard for you not to gain weight.
If you are a vegetarian beginner, you may find that you feel very full but get hungry very quickly at first. This is because plant-based foods are more easily absorbed by the digestive system.
Don't worry, if you persevere, you will deeply feel how good a vegetarian diet is for your health.