Is it impossible to defeat "overwork obesity"? Not necessarily, learn these seven tricks or you may be able to "beat" it →

Many people have discovered that obesity is a work-related injury.

A woman said: I have only been working for 5 years and my weight has increased by 25 kilograms. Is this the rhythm of a square number?

Indeed, nowadays many people are getting fatter as they are busier.

In college, although there is pressure from exams, living expenses are provided by parents, school life is convenient, and teachers are usually tolerant of minor mistakes. After work, an adult has to face the financial pressure of making money to make a living, the pressure from work itself, the interpersonal pressure from leaders, colleagues and friends, and even the pressure of taking care of oneself and dealing with various unexpected small troubles. Especially when you first start working, the various skills to cope with life challenges are not fully mature, and you need strong psychological adaptability.

Anxiety, lack of relaxation, lack of sleep, disordered eating...depressed mood and mental stress may make people as thin as Lin Daiyu, but they are more likely to make people gain weight uncontrollably.

Long-term high levels of stress hormones will reduce the body's ability to break down fat, promote increases in blood sugar and blood pressure, and even increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer - these associations have long been confirmed by a large number of studies.

To break out of the stress-obesity cycle, we must address the root cause.

Improving your work skills, improving time utilization efficiency, establishing harmonious interpersonal relationships, and maintaining a positive attitude are all important measures to reduce the risk of stress obesity.

Decades ago, it was discovered that the pain of a broken heart can make some people fat, and being frustrated can also make many people fat.

People will find that successful people tend to maintain a relatively good body shape and posture compared to those who just muddle through. This is not only due to self-discipline, but also perhaps to their good mentality.

When you do something you love, you will feel passionate and excited; but when you are forced to work overtime or complete tasks, you will feel frustrated and bored. The body's metabolic state is also different under these two mentalities. Being ambitious, positive and confident, finding fun in work, and getting a sense of accomplishment after completing work can make people more refreshed and help maintain an active body metabolism.

On the other hand, personal life management is also very important. Increasing physical activity, ensuring sleep efficiency, regular meal times, and choosing healthy foods can effectively reduce the risk of stress-induced obesity. Here are some anti-obesity suggestions that can be used throughout your life.

1 Never skip three meals and eat until you feel comfortable and full.

In particular, you should not skip any meal, maintain a fixed amount of food, and eat until you are comfortable and full. Eating at regular times and in regular amounts helps prevent obesity, while irregular eating can easily lead to weight gain.

If you eat enough nutrients and have enough energy, you will not only be full of energy, but also avoid eating low-nutrition, high-calorie snacks during meals. Some people deliberately eat less food during meals in order to enjoy snacks, which is unwise. You should know that the nutritional value of most snacks is far less than that of meals. Even if the calorie value is the same, poorly nutritious food is more likely to cause obesity.

Don't skip breakfast . Eating a good and adequate breakfast can prevent you from overeating at lunch and dinner. If you really feel very sleepy after lunch, you can eat less staple food at lunch and drink a cup of milk oatmeal at 4 pm to refuel your body and avoid excessive hunger before dinner.

2 Eat on time and in appropriate amounts, and prepare food for emergencies.

Many people often say, "I'll eat after I finish my work," or "I don't want to eat now, so I'll lose weight if I skip this meal." On the one hand, delaying meals can increase appetite and make people overeat. On the other hand, delaying meals can cause high blood sugar levels after meals. When blood sugar levels are high, the body's ability to synthesize fat increases, while its ability to break down fat decreases.

Our research found that even if lunch is delayed for 2 hours, eating the same food will cause a significant increase in postprandial blood sugar response (Lu, Nutrients, 2023). If you really can't eat on time, it is recommended to prepare some "hunger-filling food" and eat it in advance to avoid excessive hunger and reduce the amount of food during the main meal and the postprandial blood sugar response. You may wish to prepare emergency foods with high nutritional value such as boxed milk, soy milk, yogurt, instant oatmeal, cooked chickpeas, plain nuts, dried fruits, etc.

3 Eat enough vegetables and use less oil and salt when cooking.

Many studies have confirmed that eating enough vegetables is an indispensable measure to maintain a good figure for a long time.

Eat 300-500 grams of vegetables a day, and at least 150 grams of vegetables per meal. It is best to have at least 200 grams of green leafy vegetables a day, which are particularly important for weight loss and disease prevention. If you are busy at work and eat out at noon, and fast food takeout cannot provide so many vegetables, there are three remedies.

One is to blanch some vegetables in noodles or porridge in the morning , or steam some pumpkin, carrot, etc. with the staple food to increase the amount of vegetables with less oil and salt.

The second is to prepare some oil-free and salt-free fresh vegetables (such as lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, etc.) at home and bring them to the workplace, and eat them together with heavy-flavored takeout dishes at noon.

Third, you must eat a portion of green leafy vegetables at night. You can steam, boil, stir-fry, or stew them in water or oil, but be sure not to add too much oil.

4. Remove oil and salt from food to easily reduce calories.

When dining out, it is inevitable that the food is too oily and too salty. In addition to giving priority to less oily dishes when ordering, you can also use hot water or hot soup to rinse off the oil and salt on the surface of the dishes. This alone can save several kilograms of fat and hundreds of grams of salt in a year . Cooking oil is pure fat, and too much salt will not only increase cardiovascular pressure, but also make people gain weight.

When washing off the oil and salt, don't pay attention to the strange looks from people around you. It is your personal right to manage your own food, and they have no right to comment on it.

5 Avoid sweets and sweet drinks, and eat enough whole grains.

Once they find themselves gaining weight, many people choose not to eat or eat less staple food, and only eat vegetables and fish and meat. However, the result of doing so is often an increase in stress levels.

A meta-analysis and review of studies found that a very low-carbohydrate diet can increase stress hormone levels, decrease testosterone levels, cause sexual dysfunction and decrease sperm count in men (Whittaker J and Harris M, Nutrition and Health, 2022).

For girls, if there is too little staple food, fish, meat and vegetables cannot make up for the lack of energy. If you cut back on staple food on weekdays, you will crave all kinds of high-calorie sweets before menstruation. Especially when you need to work hard, not eating staple food is more likely to cause physical and mental fatigue.

A woman said:

I used all kinds of methods to lose weight. I didn't dare to eat staple food for a long time. I felt uncomfortable in various ways. I often felt swollen easily, my face and legs were swollen. My hair fell out in clumps. I was also very depressed and sighed in various emo ways.

When I can't help it, I drink a big cup of sweet milk tea. It can relieve my mood at the time, but a few hours later I feel tired and even more depressed.

Later, after reading my Weibo, I realized the importance of staple food, and started to cook millet rice and oatmeal porridge by myself, and my body gradually recovered. After eating enough staple food, my body was no longer swollen, my hair stopped falling, and my mood became brighter. I was worried about gaining weight, but in the end, my clothes did not change in size, and my body became tighter.

When I feel tired and dizzy at work, I no longer drink coffee or milk tea, but milk oatmeal porridge or whole grains paste . After replenishing high-quality carbohydrates, I feel refreshed and my brain works better.

The significance of supplementing staple food is that it provides sufficient energy, saves protein, and increases the supply of vitamin B1. These effects are helpful for the work of the brain.

6 Adjust the order of eating and eat fruits and vegetables first before meals.

Studies on the order of food have found that eating less oily vegetables first, followed by oily meat and staple foods, can not only delay the rise in blood sugar after a meal and reduce fat synthesis, but also help control food intake and prevent hunger before the next meal. As long as your stomach and intestines can accept it, you might as well try this method. Please note that it is not about postponing meals, but about having some healthy snacks and drinks before meal time.

According to current preliminary research, protein-rich foods are suitable as hunger-satisfying foods between meals (Lou, Nutrients, 2024), such as dried meat, milk, soy milk, beans, etc., while fruits are more suitable to be eaten half an hour before meals . The same fruit has completely different effects when eaten after a meal, and it can neither delay the rise of blood sugar nor help suppress appetite.

7. Rest on time at night and take the opportunity to exercise.

There is enough research evidence that staying up late promotes weight gain. Instead of working overtime at 11 o'clock at night or playing with your phone, it is better to rest on time and get up at 5 or 6 in the morning to work. It is more efficient, clearer in mind, faster in Internet speed, but it will not make you fat.

Take advantage of every opportunity to stand up and move around. In addition to regular fitness, daily exercise is also crucial to prevent obesity. Even a few minutes before or after a meeting, don't sit still. Even a walk after a meal, even doing housework, can burn a few more calories and reduce the risk of obesity.

You don't need too many healthy measures to prevent obesity. If you can do just one, you will benefit . Believe that as long as you work hard, you can defeat stress obesity!