Diet taboos to pay attention to when losing weight

The core dietary taboos that you really need to avoid when losing weight are never the one-size-fits-all rules of not eating rice or having milk tea, but "deliberately creating extreme dietary gaps in order to quickly lose weight, and copying other people's taboo lists regardless of your own metabolic characteristics." All dietary requirements that make you feel painful and difficult to adhere to for more than 3 months are essentially invalid taboos, and can easily lead you into a vicious cycle of "diet-overeating-rebound."

Last year, I had a best friend who cut out all carbohydrates in order to take beautiful photos in a wedding dress. She only ate boiled vegetables and a palm-sized piece of chicken breast. She did lose 8 pounds in the first two weeks, and she was so proud. However, her hair started falling out in the third month. My aunt postponed it for almost 20 days. She couldn't help but eat a bowl of tomato and egg noodles. She gained 2 pounds the next day, and her whole mood collapsed. Having said this, someone must ask, isn’t the low-carb ketogenic weight loss method that is very popular now a lot of people losing weight? Indeed, for people who are insulin resistant and usually eat a lot of refined sugar, short-term reduction of refined carbohydrate intake can indeed quickly reduce weight. There are also many studies supporting the role of low-carb diet in improving metabolic indicators. However, on the other hand, the dietary guidelines of the Chinese Nutrition Society also clearly state that the daily carbohydrate intake of ordinary people should account for 50%-65% of total calories. Long-term insufficient carbohydrate intake can lead to memory loss, hormone disorders, and is especially likely to affect the menstrual cycle for women. There is actually nothing wrong with both views, but they are suitable for different people. There is no need to compete with each other.

In addition to abstaining from carbohydrates across the board, there is another pitfall that many people don’t take seriously, which is that they regard zero-calorie foods as a “magic tool for losing weight.” I also went through this pitfall when I was trying to lose weight two summers ago. I felt that zero-calorie had no calories anyway. I showed off three bottles of zero-calorie Coke a day and had to eat two zero-calorie jelly. As a result, my weight remained stuck for a whole week. Later, I asked a nutritionist friend and I found out that although zero-calorie sweeteners themselves have no calories, they stimulate insulin secretion and make the body mistakenly think that there is sugar intake, which will reduce the efficiency of fat decomposition. There are also studies showing that long-term large intake of sweeteners will disturb the intestinal flora and increase appetite. Of course, you don’t have to treat zero-calorie food as a scourge. I have friends who used to drink 2 cups of full-sugar milk tea every day. After switching to zero-calorie, they unknowingly consumed nearly 8,000 fewer calories in a month and lost 5 pounds. The key is quantity. It’s okay to drink a bottle occasionally to satisfy your cravings. If you show off three or four bottles a day and expect to lose weight, you will definitely overturn.

What many people don’t know is that those foods that you think are “healthy” and “don’t have many calories” often contain hidden calories that you can’t see, which are the culprits of weight stuck. I once had a student who was very restrained in eating three meals a day. As a result, her weight remained stuck for half a month. After keeping a food diary for three days, she discovered that she had to eat a handful of daily nuts every afternoon, plus a cup of sugar-free latte with milk cap. The two added up to almost 400 calories, which is equivalent to eating an extra bowl of white rice. After replacing the nuts with cherry tomatoes, she lost 2 pounds in a week. Do you think it is unfair? There are also vegetable salads that many people love to eat. If half a bottle of Thousand Island dressing is used, the calories are higher than eating a bowl of braised beef noodles. The dishes in restaurants outside are even more so. The surface is thickly coated with oil. Now when I go out to eat, I am used to rinsing the dishes in warm water first, which can reduce the intake of a lot of invisible oil and salt.

There is also a widely circulated saying that only by skipping lunch and dinner can you lose weight. I have tried this before. I endured it for three days. On the fourth day, I worked overtime until 10 o'clock in the evening. Later I learned that this rule actually applies to different people. If you go to bed at 9 o'clock every day, then it is indeed okay to finish dinner at 6 o'clock. But if you stay up until 12 o'clock every day, and your stomach is growling in the middle of the day, but you insist on not eating. Either you cannot sleep and affect your metabolism, or you can't help but eat too much. It is not as practical as eating a small apple or half a cup of sugar-free yogurt 1 hour before going to bed. Of course, if you are someone who can adapt to the 16+8 light fasting model and control your eating window from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., then skipping dinner is completely fine. Again, what suits you is the right one.

To be honest, in the five years I have been working as a fitness instructor, I have seen too many people come up and ask, "Does it mean that you can't eat rice to lose weight?" Are you not allowed to drink milk tea? 」, in fact, how can there be so many things that must not be eaten? The essence of weight loss is to create a long-term, mild caloric deficit, not to torture yourself with an ascetic diet. If you can be happy all day long by drinking a cup of full-sugar milk tea, then drinking one cup a week will not affect your weight loss at all. On the contrary, it will be better than holding it in for half a month and finally showing off 3 cups at once. The so-called dietary taboos have always been about restricting those bad eating habits that make you gain weight, rather than depriving you of the joy of eating. After all, only those who can happily persevere in losing weight can really avoid rebounding.