For some friends, losing weight has become a difficult task to face every day. In addition to eating grass for three meals, you also have to use the APP to record the calorie intake one by one "must not exceed ×× kcal today".
But...... There are still people who will "cry" and count calories every day to lose weight, surprisingly...... Not! Yes! Use!
In fact, it doesn't have to be like this. Gaining weight or losing weight will be affected by various factors, and simply counting calories will only lead you to a dead end, so let's talk about this in this article.
1. People don't eat as much as they eat
Many friends may have heard of the "energy deficit" theory, which refers to the relationship between energy intake and consumption, that is:
Energy deficit = energy expenditure - energy intake
Theoretically, the larger the value, the more weight can be lost.
However, this method is actually only a reference and is not accurate, because energy expenditure and energy intake are difficult to estimate accurately.
Let's talk about energy expenditure first, energy consumption includes three parts: basal metabolism, food thermal effect and activity consumption.
1. Basal metabolism
Basal metabolism is the majority of energy consumption, accounting for about 60%~70% of daily energy consumption. [1]
Everyone basically uses a body fat scale at home, or goes to the gym to measure basal metabolism with a body fat meter, both of which use the method of bioelectrical impedance to measure basal metabolism, and the results are really inaccurate.
2. Food thermal effect
In order for the energy in food to be converted into energy available to the body, it must be digested, absorbed and metabolized, and the energy consumed by this is the food thermal effect.
Different foods are consumed, and this part of the consumption can be very different.
For example, if the ingredient is 100 kcal, if the ingredient is carbohydrates, the increased energy consumption is only 5-10 kcal, and if the ingredient is protein, the increased energy consumption is as high as 20~30 kcal. [1]
Sometimes we eat more carbohydrate-rich staple foods for our three meals, and sometimes we eat more protein-rich meat, eggs, milk and beans, and the increased energy expenditure is definitely different.
3. Activity consumption
How much energy does running half an hour use? Look no further than sports watches. In order to accurately monitor energy consumption, many friends bring sports watches to activities.
It's a pity: sports watches often overestimate energy expenditure and make you happy.
In 2017, Stanford University School of Medicine reviewed the energy consumption of 7 major brands of sports watches using two methods of accurate energy consumption in the study, and the results showed that sports watches overestimated the energy consumption by at least 20%, and the fatter the person, the more overestimated the energy consumption, [2] and really encouraged fat people to lose weight.
Basal metabolism, food thermal effect, and activity consumption are all inaccurate, and the energy consumption of this day cannot be estimated.
Let's talk about energy intake.
It's too difficult for you to estimate accurately.
For example, if you eat potatoes, carrots and stewed beef for lunch, even if you weigh it on a scale and enter the grams into the APP, it is difficult to determine how much energy you have consumed, why?
The chefs of major restaurants don't cook according to the recipes in the APP. Can the energy be the same with more meat and less meat, more oil and less oil?
What about cooking by yourself? To be accurate, you have to do this.
1. After cleaning and draining each ingredient, weigh the raw weight
2. Weigh the cooked weight when cooked
3. Weigh the leftovers after eating
4. Calculate the weight of the food intake
Three meals a day, 7 days a week, weighing and cooking like this every day, many people will go crazy.
Therefore, it is not certain how much energy is consumed, and how much energy is eaten is not certain.
2. Eating strictly according to calories may bring new problems
Consuming too much energy without realizing it is possible to lose more and more weight.
Another possibility is: for fear of gaining weight, I dare not touch high-energy food, and the more I don't touch it, the more I want to eat, which is an unnamed desire, just like adolescent children have a rebellious mentality, and as a result, I encounter pot-wrapped pork, braised pork ribs, potato chips, pastries, ice cream, I can't help but eat and eat, and I feel guilty after eating, which is a dilemma.
There is another possibility.
After calculating the energy to be consumed every day (regardless of whether the calculation is scientific or not), try to eat according to this energy, for example, eat about 1,200 kcal a day, and as a result, the chest is attached to the back every day.
Although losing weight is starving, but being hungry is so ruthless but falling into a big misunderstanding, which shows that the energy deficit is large, and micronutrients are also easy to lack, and many girls lose weight and lose anemia, hair loss, and delayed menstruation come to the door, which is the reason.
In fact, if you want to lose weight, you really don't have to calculate like this, and you don't care about calories, if you don't believe me, look at the study below.
Published in the journal Cell Metabolism in 2019, the study [3] randomly divided participants into two groups, group 1 ate highly processed foods for the first two weeks, group 2 ate coarsely processed foods, and the next 2 weeks the two groups switched to eating coarse processed foods, the first group switched to coarse processed foods, and the second group switched to refined foods.
The energy, fat, carbohydrates, protein, fiber, and sodium content of highly processed and coarsely processed foods were very similar, and the participants felt that the meals in both groups were delicious, they ate as much as they wanted, and they were very full and satisfied, and the study did not limit the amount of food eaten.
The result?
When eating highly processed foods, participants had about 500 kcal more energy intake per day and gained about 1 kg of body weight compared to the crude processed group, while when eating rough processed foods, the participants lost about 1 kg of weight.
So you see, instead of trying to count calories to eat, it is better to adjust the overall food combination, such as eating more coarsely processed foods like in the study.
In this way, it saves the tedium of calorie counting, saves the anxiety of calorie calorie, and is so wonderful to be able to enjoy delicious food and "lose weight" by the way.
3. Calories are a good tool, but don't let it kidnap you
Seeing this, some friends may think that calories are meaningless.
NO
If you have a concept of calories, whether you eat at a restaurant, buy packaged food at the supermarket, or cook your own food, you will pay attention to the energy of the food.
For example, a hamburger set has nearly 1,000 kcal, a pack of fried potato chips has more than 500 kcal, and 3 mahjong-sized pork belly has 180 kcal.
We white-collar women only need about 1,700 kcal a day, so we can know that these high-energy foods cannot be eaten regularly.
Therefore, as long as you don't go to the extreme point that every gram of food counts as calories, don't become a slave to calories, calories are really a good tool, it lets us know which foods are high in energy and suitable for occasional cravings.
Then we have an overall understanding of food nutrition and combination, and we can eat nutritious and delicious without being easy to gain weight.
The following plate, we can refer to it.
Plate diameter is 9 inches (23 cm)
▶1/4 plate is a starch-rich food, which is what we often call staple food, mainly providing carbohydrates, including grains and beans and potatoes, of which buckwheat, oats, red beans, mung beans and other grains and beans account for 1/3. This is because whole grains are richer in dietary fiber, which can enhance satiety, and are also richis in B vitamins than fine grains.
▶1/4 plate is rich in protein, mainly referring to meat, eggs and beans, of which meat eats more poultry meat and aquatic products, and less red meat.
▶1/2 plate is a non-starchy vegetable, mainly referring to leafy vegetables, mushrooms, melons and eggplants, and young stems, which can provide dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins and other nutrients, strong satiety, and are conducive to weight loss.
▶ It is recommended to eat fruit or dairy products when adding meals, and eat enough 300 grams of dairy products per day.
Eating it together in this way can eat enough nutrition and control calories.
In addition, if you make some changes in your eating habits, you can lose weight better. For example, from gobbling up to chewing slowly, from multi-purpose to concentrating on eating, from large tableware to small tableware, from direct entrance to shabu-shabu and then eating, from Ge You lying down after eating to washing the dishes and walking after eating.
Summary:
Calories are just one of the many characteristics of food, don't work hard to "card" calories, it is not easy to stick to, and you may not be able to lose weight or malnutrition.
Understanding the nutrition of food, knowing how to match reasonably, and developing healthy habits are the keys to healthy weight loss.
Today's sharing: Have you ever had the experience of eating strictly according to "calories"? Or what do you have to say about weight loss?
