Tips for dieting and choosing the right foods for weight loss

V. Tips for Dietary Weight Loss

For individuals with simple obesity, reducing food intake can achieve relatively ideal weight loss results, but it is essential to master the key techniques involved.

Controlling staple foods and limiting pure sugar and sweets are key to preventing obesity. Staple foods are the main source of calories in the diet. In my country, 53%–60% of total calories come from carbohydrates, 10%–15% from protein, and less than 30% from fat. Therefore, the focus of weight loss should be on controlling staple food intake, and the amount of staple foods should be reduced systematically and gradually. If your original food intake was large, you can use a gradual reduction method. Reduce staple food intake by 50 grams at each of the three meals, gradually reducing daily staple food intake to 0.250–0.30 grams, and develop the habit of eating until you are 70-80% full. Foods high in starch and extremely sweet, such as sweet potatoes, lotus root starch, jam, honey, candy, candied fruit, malted milk powder, fruit juice, and sweets, should be eaten sparingly or avoided altogether. Some surveys have shown that over 60% of obese people enjoy sweets. In addition, eat less "white" foods (refined white rice, refined white flour, white sugar), and it is best to combine whole grains, refined grains, and mixed grains in your staple food intake.

For obese individuals without heart or kidney disease, appropriately increasing protein intake can provide 1.5–2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. Protein has a high specific dynamic action, increasing calorie expenditure and aiding in weight loss. Fish, shrimp, seafood, chicken, and rabbit meat are high in protein and low in fat, containing 3–6 times fewer calories than pork. Low-oil soy products are also a good source of protein and are quite beneficial for lowering blood lipids.

Improving cooking methods can reduce the calorie content of food while still maintaining a feeling of fullness. Foods intended for weight loss require sophisticated cooking techniques and should avoid simplification. For example, pork has three to four times more calories than the same amount of fish, shrimp, chicken, or rabbit. Cutting it into shreds, mincing it, or making braised ribs (with bones) yields a larger portion and uses less oil than stewing. 50 grams of flour can be made into several small wontons or multiple thin pancakes (to be eaten with vegetables), which is a larger portion and more filling than making a small steamed bun. Hard-boiled eggs and tea eggs stay in the stomach twice as long as scrambled eggs, steamed cakes, or egg drop soup, helping to resolve the contradiction between low calories and satiety, thus reducing calorie intake. Weight-loss foods should be steamed as much as possible, with less frying and deep-frying. Stir-frying can be used occasionally, but in very small quantities. Some people believe that weight-loss diets should not be thickened with cornstarch because it makes oil adhere more easily to food and be ingested. However, if there's not much oil to begin with, thickening with cornstarch is fine, but a tablespoon of cornstarch contains 142 kilojoules (34 kilocalories), which must be factored in. The choice of cooking tools is also important; microwaves, non-stick pans, and ovens often require little or no oil when preparing food, making them more suitable for cooking weight-loss foods.

Adequate water intake promotes the full metabolism of adipose tissue, which is beneficial for weight loss. American medical researchers have discovered that any type of soup acts as an appetite suppressant. Experiments show that drinking soup before meals can slow down the eating speed, giving the brain's "satiety center" time to "shut down," thus preventing overeating. A dietary control experiment was conducted on obese individuals according to age, gender, and degree of obesity. After 10 weeks, it was found that the group that drank soup at least once a week with their meals consumed 228 kilojoules (51.5 kilocalories) less food per meal than other groups, and lost an average of 3.8 kilograms. Nutritionists have confirmed that those who drank various soups and consumed dairy products were the healthiest.

Eat less animal fat. Animal fat is high in cholesterol, and consuming large amounts of cholesterol-rich foods increases serum cholesterol levels, leading to thickening of blood vessel walls and decreased elasticity. It is currently believed that obese individuals should limit their dietary cholesterol intake to below 300 mg per person, replacing animal fats with plant-based foods, which is beneficial for cardiovascular health. Since animal foods provide some high-quality protein, it is not advisable to completely eliminate them; they should be consumed in moderation. Fat also plays an important role in maintaining normal physiological functions, and fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K are dissolved in fat to enter the body. Moderate amounts of fat can also increase satiety; therefore, dieters should not completely eliminate meat from their diet.

Overcoming False Hunger During Weight Loss: When controlling calorie intake, obese individuals may experience discomfort such as hunger, dizziness, and fatigue. These are generally harmless and will subside after a few days. Obese individuals often have large appetites, and many have developed long-term overeating habits that are psychological rather than physiological. Therefore, the hunger felt after dieting is often psychological, not physiological. This phenomenon will naturally disappear after a period of establishing new eating habits. To avoid this false hunger, eat more low-calorie, high-volume foods such as leafy greens, cabbage, celery, bamboo shoots, radishes, and winter melon.

Develop healthy eating habits, such as eating three meals a day and only eating until you are about 70-80% full. Eat at regular times and in appropriate portions. If you feel hungry between meals or before bed, you can eat some fruits that are high in water content and low in sugar. As the saying goes, "Eat a good breakfast, a full lunch, and a light dinner." Practice has shown that gradually reducing the amount of food at each meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) is the easiest way to lose weight. Therefore, in daily life, eat meals on time and avoid snacking; eat less at dinner, control your intake of high-cholesterol foods, and avoid late-night snacks. Because calorie expenditure decreases at night, excess calories will be converted into fat and stored in the body, so dinner should be light, with the lowest calorie intake of the two meals.

VI. How to Choose Weight Loss Dishes

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that different people have different constitutions-cold, hot, deficient, and excessive-and therefore, different methods should be used for weight loss. The pathological characteristic of obese individuals is yang deficiency and dampness accumulation. Those with weak constitutions should be warmed and tonified to replenish yang, while those with strong constitutions should be tonified to eliminate dampness and promote urination. Those with a hot constitution should clear heat and promote urination, while those with a cold constitution should use spicy foods to reduce fat. Obese individuals of different ages have different characteristics. Children are in a period of growth and development, and the premise of weight loss is a comprehensive diet, preventing picky eating. The physiological functions of the elderly gradually decline, and while losing weight, attention should be paid to the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Men and women have different physiological characteristics, and the mechanisms of obesity also differ. Obesity in women is often related to childbirth and endocrine disorders, while obesity in men is more often related to diet, genetics, and lifestyle habits. Therefore, the choice of weight loss recipes should be tailored to the individual.