Gaining 3 pounds every holiday season? Learn the "10 fists" principle and lose weight without dieting!

After a baptism of delicious food during the Spring Festival, have you successfully gained 3 pounds? After the holiday, many people put their weight loss plans back on the agenda.

However, there are also some opinions on “how to lose weight”.

Some impatient friends choose to "starve themselves to death" or "lose weight quickly", and they would like to eat only one meal a day... This method may be effective in the short term, but it will affect your health in the long run.

How to control your diet scientifically? In fact, as long as you use your "fist", everything is not as difficult as you think.

The "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents" states that the food we consume every day should be as diverse and reasonably matched as possible. We should eat at least 12 kinds of food in a day. If expanded to a week, we should eat at least 25 kinds of food .

These foods can be roughly divided into four categories: cereals and tubers (staple foods), livestock, poultry, fish, eggs and milk (animal foods), vegetables and fruits , and soy beans and nuts . As for how to distribute each category, we can refer to the "ten fists" principle.

01

What is the "Ten Fists" principle?

The "ten fists" principle refers to a scientific and balanced daily diet, where the total weight of food consumed is roughly equal to the weight of your ten fists .

So, how heavy is “a fist”?

Generally speaking, for a woman of medium build, a fist-sized piece of food weighs 150g; for men it is slightly heavier, weighing 200g; and for children and some very thin women, a fist-sized piece of food weighs 120g.

That is to say, the total weight of food that women need to consume per day is about 1500g, men is about 2000g, and children is about 1200g .

Note that the food weight here refers to the weight of raw food, and the inedible parts are removed, such as the weight of food after removing egg shells, chicken bones, fish bones, uneaten fruit peels, etc.

When allocating it to each meal, you should also pay attention to the inclusion of coarse, fine, meat, vegetarian, and colorful food, avoid monotony, and match them properly. It is not recommended to have a meal that is all vegetarian, all meat, or all coarse grains.

02

How should daily food be proportioned?

Cereals and potatoes (staple foods) should account for the weight of "two fists"

Specifically, for staple foods, we advocate a combination of coarse and fine foods.

Why should we eat whole grains? Whole grains usually refer to whole grains, such as whole wheat, brown rice, oats, buckwheat, millet or some whole beans. Because they are not refined and still retain the complete germ, ectoderm and endosperm, they contain higher dietary fiber, B vitamins, minerals, protein, etc. than refined white rice and flour, and have relatively higher nutritional value .

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However, eating only coarse grains a day is not recommended.

Because whole grains also have the disadvantages of poor taste, being difficult to cook and difficult to digest, some beans can also cause bloating if eaten too much.

In addition, although whole grains are rich in crude fiber, which can increase the amount of stool in the digestive tract and thus prevent constipation, they will also hinder the absorption of micronutrients, such as vitamins (A, D, E, K, B, C) and minerals (calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium) .

Therefore, it is recommended to pay attention to the combination of coarse and fine foods when eating staple foods every day.

For groups with weak digestive functions such as the elderly and children, they should also pay attention to the fine processing of coarse grains . For example, they can beat the coarse grains into powder or noodles and mix them with refined rice or noodles, or add some beans to rice. The total weight of food intake per day should be controlled at about the weight of "two fists", or it can be slightly reduced.

Fish, poultry, meat and eggs should account for the weight of "one fist"

Although you are losing weight, you must still ensure a certain amount of animal food intake.

We generally divide meat into red meat (pork, beef, lamb), white meat (chicken, duck, goose) and aquatic products (fish, shrimp, etc.). The heme iron in red meat is an important source of iron in the body . In order to avoid anemia during weight loss, we should eat some red meat appropriately. We can try to choose lean meat to reduce fat intake, or eat animal blood or animal liver 1-2 times a month to help us supplement iron.

White meat, especially chicken breast, is high in protein and low in fat, making it a very suitable meat for people who are trying to lose weight. In order to minimize the intake of extra energy, we can choose skinless poultry.

In addition, we can also use seafood such as fish and shrimp to replace part of the red and white meat . Not only is the energy lower, but the EPA in it can help lower blood lipids, and DHA can promote brain development and prevent Alzheimer's disease.

When choosing cooking methods, we can try to choose stir-frying, steaming, blanching, or making meatballs, meat stuffing and other low-oil cooking methods , which can more easily help us lose weight healthily.

Milk and soy products should account for the weight of "two fists"

During weight loss, high-quality protein is absolutely essential.

For example, we can choose to drink about 250 ml of skim or low-fat milk every day, and add 50 grams of soy products made from soybeans , such as 100g of tofu skin, tofu shreds, or 200g of tofu.

Vegetables and fruits should account for the weight of "five fists"

We can make a proportion based on the pattern of one pound (500g) of vegetables and half a pound (250g) of fruits, and add or subtract according to our own situation. It will be more conducive to weight loss if we try to choose vegetables and fruits with low energy and low sugar content.

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03

Beware of the "hidden fat" in your food

Where does fat come from?

The first is the cooking oil we eat. Generally speaking, the daily intake of cooking oil for adults should be controlled below 30g, while for the elderly and obese people it should be controlled below 25g . Try to eat less salt, oil and sugar.

In addition, there are many foods that contain "invisible fats" that are not easily detected, such as spare ribs, duck skin from roast duck, chicken skin, and even melon seeds, walnuts, peanuts, Western snacks (including butter), biscuits, and bread with a lot of seasonings, which also have high fat content. We should also pay attention to reducing the intake of these foods.

Author: He Li, researcher at Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Reviewer: Wu Xueyan, Chief Physician, Peking Union Medical College Hospital

Submitted by: Chinese Medical Association

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