Can you lose weight without starving if you exercise enough? A doctor reveals the truth about "shoveling 15 kilograms of meat": Every bite must be measured!
Interview with expert/Nephrologist Dr. Wang Jieli
Q: You shared on social media that you lost weight from 90 kilograms to 75 kilograms in 8 years. In the process of successful weight loss, what roles or functions do you think “exercise” and “diet” have?
Dr. Wang Jieli: The main reasons for exercising are “to improve physical fitness”, “to live healthier” and “to live longer”. In fact, I did not set weight loss as the main goal at the beginning. The most common exercise method is the “333” mode - exercise 3 times a week, 30 minutes each time, and the heart rate reaches 130 beats after each exercise.
At first, I bought a sliding machine to exercise at home, and exercised for 30 minutes each time. Later, due to the high frequency of exercise, the sliding machine was damaged, so I bought a flywheel machine and started practicing pedaling at home. It was only during exercise that I gradually noticed my weight loss. Friends I hadn’t seen for a long time said I had lost weight, and then I started to weigh myself regularly.
After experiencing the weight loss caused by exercise, I gradually began to pay attention to the intensity and length of exercise, and also began to adjust the resistance of the flywheel and increase the pedaling time. At the same time, I also learned to wear a heart rate monitoring device and adjust my exercise intensity. Later, because there were treadmills in the community gym, I tried to use treadmills instead. When you find that the treadmill burns more calories, start running more and more. From flywheel to road running, a forward cycle is formed.
Q: You mentioned that “you can lose weight without going hungry”, which can only happen when you are overweight. How will you break through the bottleneck of weight loss and achieve your body fat goal? Can you share your menu at different stages of weight loss?
Dr. Wang Jieli: To me, the so-called “avoiding starvation” means eating whatever junk food I want without fear of gaining weight again. This matter is not too difficult when combined with a large amount of aerobic exercise when the weight is “overweight”. However, when your weight has dropped to the standard range and you need to continue to reduce body fat because you want to have better sports performance, it will be almost difficult to achieve this if you do not control your diet. After all, eating a McDonald’s meal contains at least as many calories as jogging for 2 hours.
My method of diet control is to follow the basic principles of healthy eating. In addition, I will strictly calculate the calories of my diet compared to professional athletes. I will weigh myself before eating anything. In the most strict cases, I will even “measure every bite”. quantity". Set your own daily caloric intake limit, achieve qualified protein intake within this limit, and deliberately eat high protein levels.
Regular daily intake of foods includes: salmon, shrimp, broccoli, edamame, mushrooms, corn shoots, baby cabbage, green vegetables, lettuce, seaweed salad, and chicken breast. The general dietary principle is to favor seafood and vegetables, while the specific ingredients are arbitrary, based on the principle of convenience and ease of preparation.
Q: Due to lifestyle habits and dietary content, “weight loss” is an unattainable goal pursued by many people, and it may also bring some psychological pressure. Can you share how to relieve the psychological urge to eat delicious food when you are under great pressure on weekdays? How do you relieve stress in your life? How should the average person view changes in weight figures and what is a healthier concept?
Dr. Wang Jieli: When life is too stressful, I will eat a lot of sweets, but after eating, I will go for long-distance running to exhaust my energy. For me, eating sweets and running long distances are both ways to relieve stress. The intake and consumption of calories can just offset each other.
It is recommended that weight changes should be based on long-term trends. However, long-term trends are combined from many short-term monitoring to have the greatest reference value. For example, the weight of a certain month cannot just be randomly captured on one day in that month. It is best to average the weight of each day of that month. Only by comparing it month by month can the trend change be effectively judged.
Q: 168 fasting is very popular recently. Who do you think it is suitable for? Which people do not recommend it? If you are of normal weight and the goal is to reduce body fat, do you think 168 fasting is helpful? Or is it better to combine it with exercise?
Dr. Wang Jieli: 168 fasting is suitable for generally healthy people without chronic diseases. 168 From my point of view, fasting is mainly to improve cell metabolism, not to lose weight. Because if there is no overall calorie control, you will still eat excessive calories during the resumption of eating, and your weight will not reach your weight loss goal. If you want to lose fat, you need to control calories so that the calories metabolized are greater than the calories absorbed. Your body will become thinner and body fat will naturally fall off.
