What are the dietary principles for weight management

To put it bluntly, the core logic of a weight management diet is never to go hungry, but to create a stable and moderate caloric difference on the premise of satisfying fullness and complete nutritional intake. The essence of all specific eating methods is to achieve this core.

A while ago, I helped a best friend of mine who wanted to lose 10 pounds to take wedding photos adjust her diet. She had lost 8 pounds in half a month by eating two eggs and a cucumber every day. After taking the photos, she ate three hot pot meals, and the 10 pounds immediately gained back. She also made her aunt postpone it for half a month. This is a typical pitfall of only focusing on the calorie difference and completely ignoring nutrition and sustainability.

There is a lot of debate online now about whether to completely quit refined sugar and heavy flavors. The views of different practitioners are quite different: one group believes that refined sugar and trans fat are calorie bombs and must be completely eliminated from the diet to avoid rebound; the other group believes that as long as the total calories are controllable, leaving 1-2 relaxation quotas per week, drinking a cup of milk tea and eating hot pot, it can actually reduce the probability of overeating and increase the possibility of long-term persistence. Among the more than 200 students I have taught myself, the half-year weight maintenance rate of the latter is indeed about 30% higher than that of the group who are required to completely avoid food. After all, we are all ordinary people, and there is no need to treat ourselves harshly according to the standards of ascetic monks.

Take the ordinary office worker’s meal as an example. You really don’t have to eat boiled chicken breast with brown rice every meal. The chicken breast fried in 1 tablespoon of olive oil is much more fragrant. With a fistful of multi-grain rice and two tablespoons of stir-fried green leafy vegetables, you will be full and you won’t have to fish for cookies in the drawer all afternoon. It is much more cost-effective than if you only eat a bowl of salad without sauce at noon and can’t help but order a cup of full-sugar milk tea at 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

There is another small detail that many people don’t take seriously, which is the order and speed of eating. I used to have a male programmer student who always wolfed down his meals. He would eat until he was full before putting down his chopsticks. Later, he was asked to drink half a cup of warm water before meals, eat vegetables first, then meat and finally the staple food. He chewed each mouthful of rice 20 times. He did not deliberately diet, and he quietly lost 5 pounds in the first month. Even he did not feel guilty.

As for extreme eating methods such as ketosis and fasting, which are very popular now, the controversy is even greater: some people say that weight loss is fast in a short period of time and is suitable for emergencies. However, many studies in the nutrition field have pointed out that long-term use of this method will increase the metabolic burden of the liver and kidneys, and may also lead to muscle loss and lower basal metabolism, which will lead to a body prone to obesity. I don’t recommend it for ordinary people to try it casually. I once met a girl who was doing ketosis at home. She suffered from ketoacidosis and was admitted to the hospital in just half a month. It was really not worth the loss.

To put it bluntly, weight management must be coordinated with your eating habits of 20 to 30 years. The way you choose to eat must first be something that you can stick to for three to five years without feeling uncomfortable. If you feel like you are worse than dead after eating for a week, then no matter how "scientific" the principle is, it will be useless to you. After all, the way you can stick to it for a long time is the most suitable for you.