A friend brought a weight loss advertisement he saw online and asked me, “Do you think this is reliable?” ]
I looked at it: [So-and-so product, let you lose 90 kg in three months! ]
This is a typical use of everyone’s psychology of losing weight quickly to attract your attention, with only one purpose: to let you pay a lot of money to buy his products!
Not to mention whether his products really have such miraculous effects, is it really good to change the angle and reduce 90 kg in 90 days?
Rapid weight loss, large side effects
I once had a patient, which is a real example.
Two years ago, she heard a [magical] weight loss method somewhere and began to strictly control her food, eating only a little bit every day.
Three months later, she lost 90 kg. However, she suffered from severe dehydration and venous thrombosis of her lower limbs. What is even more terrible is that the thrombus fell off, causing acute pulmonary embolism. She was inserted into the tracheal intubation, admitted to the ICU (Intensive Care Unit), stayed in the hospital for a month, and walked before the death.
These three months of rapid weight loss did not enable her to learn any useful healthy diet and living methods. After leaving hospital, she returned to her previous high-calorie diet and lifestyle of little exercise.
Now, two years later, the 90 kg lost before has not only rebounded, but even grown more!
So this time, she came to my clinic. She still wants to lose weight, but it is no longer a quick but useless and harmful way, but under the guidance of doctors, she really learns how to balance diet, live a healthy life and achieve the goal of long-term and stable weight loss.
Sudden and rapid weight loss will bring many side effects to the body, such as:
- Inducing the occurrence of gallstones and gout; The body has no time to adjust to the rapid disappearance of subcutaneous fat, resulting in excessive skin relaxation. Too strict diet control causes gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and vomiting, as well as physical weakness such as fear of cold, dizziness and general fatigue. Female menstrual disorder and even amenorrhea; Inadequate protein intake will lead to alopecia, thin and brittle nails, poor skin elasticity, etc. Serious cases will also lead to dehydration, electrolyte disturbance, thrombosis, and even pulmonary embolism, arrhythmia or renal insufficiency.
Losing weight is a process of changing bad living habits.
The purpose of losing weight is to make us healthier. If we lose weight improperly, it will do more harm to our health.
The appropriate weight loss speed is 1 ~ 2 kg per week (not 1 kg per day! ), preferably about 1% of the body weight. For example, for a person weighing 200 kg, it is acceptable to lose 2 kg per week, but more is too fast. With the weight loss, the basal metabolic rate will decrease and the rate of loss will also slow down.
Everyone’s weight is a reflection of the difference between daily energy intake and energy consumption.
If you consume more than you consume, you will gain weight. If you want to lose weight, you must reduce your intake or increase your consumption to break the weight balance and achieve the goal of losing weight.
Weight does not grow in a day, nor can it be lost in a day or two. This is a long-term process of changing bad living habits in the past.
Don’t believe those [mysterious formulas] and there are no [magic weight loss drugs], just like don’t believe the small advertisement on the telegraph pole [cure all diseases]. Losing weight is more like a tortoise and hare race. Stable and sustained weight loss is better than fast weight loss.
As the old saying goes, [shut up (reduce intake), take your legs (increase energy consumption)], diet and exercise are the king of weight loss.
How much is appropriate for a day?
Daily energy intake and the energy contained in food are generally estimated in calories, and the unit is usually kilocalories, also known as large calories.
Each person’s daily energy demand is related to his weight and also to the amount of activity.
- People with light activity (75% of the time sitting or standing, 25% of the time exercising or exercising) need about 25-30 kcal/kg of energy per day; People with moderate activity (50% sitting or standing, 50% moving) need about 30 ~ 35 kcal/kg of energy; People with heavy activity (25% sitting or standing and 75% exercising) need about 35-40 kcal/kg of energy per day.
For example, a person weighing 70 kilograms, with moderate activity, needs about 30 x 70 = 2,100 (kilocalories) of energy per day.
In other words,
- If he consumes 2,100 kilocalories a day, his weight will basically remain unchanged. If he wants to gain weight, he must eat more than 2,100 kilocalories a day. If he wants to lose weight, he must consume less than 2,100 kilocalories of energy per day, or increase the amount of exercise, in order to break the energy balance between daily intake and consumption and achieve the goal of losing weight.
How much can you eat to lose weight?
Generally speaking, if you eat 500 kilocalories less every day, you can lose 1 kg a week.
Eating 500 kilocalories less every day is not a particularly difficult thing in what, that is, eating one hamburger less, or drinking two cokes and a few biscuits less, it can be easily done.
The following food pictures hope to help you have a concept of food calories.
What does 200 kilocalories look like?
However, it is much more difficult to achieve the same goal by increasing the amount of exercise. It takes at least one hour of high-intensity exercise every day to consume 400-500 kilocalories.
Therefore, in the early stage of weight loss, diet control is more effective. After weight loss, the basal metabolic rate slows down. Exercise becomes important if you want to continue to lose weight or maintain the weight you have lost.
In the above example, if a person weighs 70kg and has moderate activity, wants to lose weight and 1 kg a week, then his daily calorie intake should be: 2 100-500 = 1 600 kilocalories.
There is also a simple and easy method, without such careful calculation, that is, girls about 1,200 ~ 1,500 kilocalories per day, boys about 1,500 ~ 1,800 kilocalories per day, such a diet plan, can also achieve effective weight loss!
Summary
Some people may wonder, the stricter the daily diet control, the easier it is to lose weight. Eat less than 500 kilocalories a day and you can lose 1 kg a week. If you eat less than 1,000 calories a day, you can lose 2 kg a week. Wouldn’t it be better for me to eat only a little less every day?
Indeed, in the 1980s and 1990s, a very low calorie (400-800 kilocalories per day) diet was popular, which was to strictly control the daily energy intake and achieve the goal of fast weight loss.
However, as we mentioned earlier, too strict control of daily intake will bring many side effects and seriously affect your health. Moreover, such weight loss does not last long, and the weight rebound is very obvious afterwards.
So slowly, the medical profession has abandoned this practice and is increasingly adopting a low-calorie diet (800-1,500 kilocalories per day) or a balanced diet (more than 1,500 kilocalories per day, but still 500-1,000 kilocalories less than the daily energy demand) to achieve the goal of healthy and reasonable long-term weight control.