Why haven’t you lost weight after eating so many fat-reducing meals? You may have fallen into these four traps

In summer, when people want to show off their bodies, the word "weight loss" is frequently mentioned. People who want to lose weight start ordering fat-reducing meals with great reluctance the moment they make up their minds.

A fat-reducing meal costs from a dozen yuan to several dozen yuan. But after eating it for half a month, I was shocked when I stepped on the scale. Why did my weight go up instead of down? I even suspected that I bought a fake fat-reducing meal.

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01

I haven’t lost weight after eating a fat-reducing meal. What’s wrong?

In fact, people have the following 4 misunderstandings about fat-reducing meals:

Myth 1: Fat-reducing meals = diet pills

Fat-reducing meals are a kind of diet, not a diet pill. Taking them won’t cure your disease . It is not advisable to take fat-reducing meals as a snack or as a “life-saving straw” for losing weight.

Myth 2: “Diet food” = the more you eat, the thinner you get

Some foods that appear to be low in calories will not actually make you thinner, but will make you fatter. When choosing the following six foods for fat-reducing meals, you should keep your eyes open.

Oatmeal “family portrait” : processed oats with added sugar and oil have a glycemic index comparable to that of rice [1]. Moreover, the slogan “added with abundant dried fruits” makes it look like a food rich in vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. In fact, in the process of turning fruits into dried fruits, most of the vitamins are lost along with the water.

Freshly squeezed juice : After being juiced, the fiber of the fruit is filtered out along with the pomace. The juice will be quickly absorbed when it enters the intestines, and blood sugar will rise rapidly.

Salad dressing : Salad dressing is high in fat, with one spoonful containing more than 100 kcal, and most salad dressings contain trans fatty acids. Trans fatty acids are unnecessary nutrients for the human body and are one of the important causes of hyperlipidemia and fatty liver .

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Whole grain biscuits : Wheat flour is the main ingredient, high in calories, fat and carbohydrates.

Dried fruits and vegetables : Deep-frying dried fruits and vegetables at low temperatures will increase the fat content of the fruits and vegetables.

Black sesame paste : The main ingredient of most black sesame pastes on the market is actually rice. Rice increases blood sugar levels quickly. After being ground into powder, combined with the effects of white sugar and glucose in the black sesame paste, the blood sugar level rises even faster.

Myth 3: If you want to lose weight, you must first cut out carbs

Eating less or no staple food is not conducive to digestion. Staple food provides about 65% of the energy required by the human body every day, and mental workers need even more. [4] Cutting out carbohydrates will not help us lose weight and is also very irrational.

Myth 4: Dieting can help you lose weight

In fact, what people who want to lose weight really want to lose is not weight, but fat. And the first thing to lose when dieting is muscle . Blind dieting will cause the body to redistribute energy and reduce necessary energy consumption, but fat is used to store and provide energy, so fat will not be used first.

02

Why can fat-reducing meals help you lose weight?

The reason why fat-reducing meals can achieve the effect of reducing fat is that they create a calorie gap for the human body under the premise of balanced nutrition. The most basic energy consumption to maintain the body's life activities is basal metabolism. When the body's energy consumption is greater than its energy intake, an energy gap occurs.

To give a common example, an adult woman weighing 60 kg has a basal metabolic rate of about 1,400 calories. If she only eats one hamburger a day and the hamburger has 750 calories, she will have an energy gap , and in the long run, she will achieve a fat-loss effect.

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But obviously, eating like this is to blindly create an energy gap, which is unscientific. So if you want to lose weight with a fat-reducing meal, you should choose the right amount of food for you and make a good combination to achieve good results .

During fat loss, the intake ratio of carbohydrates, proteins and fats is generally 2:1:1[2].

That is, based on the recommended total calorie intake, carbohydrates account for 50% to 55% of the total calories, protein is at least 25%, and fat is 20% to 25%.

However, fat-reducing meals need to be used under the guidance and evaluation of a nutritionist and are not recommended for long-term weight loss .

03

How to pair a fat-reducing meal?

Faced with the high prices of fat-reducing takeaway meals, how can you prepare your own fat-reducing meals in a scientific and cost-effective way? Here is a set of suggestions for three meals during the fat-reducing period.

Breakfast : Replace common breakfast items such as fried dough sticks, steamed buns, and pies with whole-wheat bread, milk, eggs, and vegetables. This avoids a lot of oil, salt, fat, and condiments, greatly reducing the nutritional density of food.

Lunch : The oil and salt in this meal is difficult to control, so you need to master some basic principles, such as avoiding cooking methods such as frying and braising that can easily increase calories. Vegetables are not high in calories, generally not exceeding 50 calories, but dishes such as sauced eggplant and roasted eggplant have more calories in oil than the vegetables.

The staple food can be corn, purple sweet potato, whole grains, two-grain rice, pumpkin, mashed potatoes, and black rice balls;

Vegetables and fungi include chrysanthemum, lettuce, bean sprouts, celery, rapeseed, broccoli, cauliflower, shiitake mushrooms, seafood mushrooms, and king oyster mushrooms;

Protein choices include chicken breast, beef, lamb, shrimp, fish, etc.

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Dinner: According to the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents", the recommended salt intake is 5 grams and cooking oil is 25~30 grams.

Adding roughly processed staple foods to dinner and appropriately increasing the intake of coarse grains is equivalent to free supplementation of minerals and trace elements . Moreover, coarse grains are more filling than fine grains. You can pair them with two or three shrimps, enoki mushrooms, nuts, and celery.

Of course, in order to achieve good fat-reducing effects and slow rebound, fat-reducing meals are not the only path to success. Some "auxiliary operations" are also needed to achieve twice the result with half the effort.

1. Drink water scientifically

It is recommended that adult men who engage in light physical activity drink 1,700 ml of water per day in a mild climate, and women drink 1,500 ml of water per day. If the weather is hot or the amount of exercise increases, the amount of water you drink should also be increased accordingly.

2. Combine with exercise

Combine aerobic and strength training. For many people who want to lose weight, they do aerobic exercise crazily as soon as they think about losing weight. At the same time, if the energy gap is too large, it will cause the skin to sag, and strength training will make the body tighter.

3. Go to bed early and keep a good mood

Cortisol is a stress hormone. Its function is to instruct the body to break down glycogen, protein, and fat. It can also make people tired and increase their appetite.

When we are in a bad mood, under a lot of stress, or lack of sleep, cortisol will rush out and stop breaking down fat, and instead break down protein in our body, which is muscle. This is why we overeat at night, leading to a state where we eat less and exercise more, but our weight remains unchanged.

In general, if you fall into the misunderstanding of fat-reducing meals and have the wrong weight-loss concept, fat-reducing meals will not achieve the goal of fat-reducing . Pay attention to waist circumference, weight and body fat percentage, do not blindly diet or short-term overeating, find a comfortable state of fat-reducing, and do not be a false self-disciplined person, so as to achieve the goal of happy fat-reducing, and thus achieve less or no rebound after fat-reducing.

References:

[1] Six “weight loss foods” that make you fatter the more you eat Chen Lijuan Health Times [J] September 1, 2022, Page 012 Scientific Diet

[2] A brief discussion on the strategies and methods of controlling diet during fat loss Li Yu Sports World (Academic) [J] Issue 7 (Issue 781) July 2018

[3] A study on the effect of intermittent fasting on fat loss Xu Boqi, Zhang Yimin, Graduate School of Beijing Sport University [J] The 15th National Nutrition Science Conference of the Chinese Nutrition Society

[4] Eating staple foods actually helps you lose weight [J] Contemporary Health News

Author: Xu Lang Popular Science Creator

Reviewer: Zhang Na, Associate Researcher, Doctoral Supervisor, Peking University School of Public Health