Summer is just around the corner, and it's time to get ready for a light body!
Being overweight or obese is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also a breeding ground for chronic diseases. But weight loss is not achieved overnight, it requires a scientific approach and persistent efforts. The National Health Commission's "Dietary Guidelines for Adults with Obesity (2024 Edition)" provides us with a personalized weight loss plan under the wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine, let's explore how to eat healthy and lose weight scientifically!
Traditional Chinese medicine distinguishes the constitution
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that obesity is a symptomatic syndrome involving phlegm, dampness, heat and other pathological factors, often combined with phlegm dampness, blood stasis, qi depression and other standard evidence, and its disease location is mostly in the spleen and stomach, which is closely related to kidney qi deficiency and can involve the five organs. The common syndrome differentiation and clinical manifestations are as follows:
Symptoms of stomach heat and depression: obesity and excessive eating, eliminating grain and hunger, unpleasant stool, or even dry knots, yellow urine, or dry mouth and bitter mouth, liking to drink water, red tongue, yellow moss, pulse count.
Phlegm and dampness syndrome: obesity, heavy body, drowsiness of limbs, full chest, dizziness, dry mouth and no desire to drink, sticky stool, craving for fatty and alcoholic wine, lazy and lazy, pale or large tongue, white greasy or slippery, and slippery pulse.
Qi depression and blood stasis syndrome: obesity and laziness, joy and rest, chest tightness and flank, dark face, dark lips, not fresh color of the extremities, or even bruising, can be accompanied by dry stools, insomnia, decreased libido and even impotence in men, irregular menstruation in women, small amount or even amenorrhea, dark menstrual blood or blood clots, dark tongue or ecchymosis and petechiae, thin tongue coating, pulse string or astringent.
Spleen deficiency and bad luck syndrome: obesity and bloating, fatigue, body sleepiness, belly and abdomen, or mild edema of the limbs, light in the morning and heavy in the evening, especially labor, diet as usual or less, history of overeating in the past, unfavorable urination, loose stool or constipation, pale tongue, tooth marks on the side, thin white or white greasy, thin pulse.
Spleen and kidney yang deficiency syndrome: obesity, easy fatigue, warm limbs, or even cold limbs, like to eat hot drinks, clear and long urine, pale tongue, thin white tongue, thin pulse.
Eat and nourish in a proper way, and choose the quality of food and medicine reasonably
Following the theory of "", combined with TCM syndrome differentiation and treatment, and selecting the right food and drug quality, you can get twice the result with half the effort.
Stomach heat and depression: Recommended ingredients to help clear stomach heat and eliminate stagnation.
Phlegm and dampness are abundant: and other ingredients, dissolve phlegm and eliminate stagnation, and light the body.
Qi stagnation and blood stasis syndrome: and other ingredients, regulate qi and dispel blood stasis, and promote blood circulation.
Spleen deficiency and bad luck: and other ingredients, strengthen the spleen and invigorate qi, and improve digestion.
Spleen and kidney yang deficiency syndrome: and other ingredients, warm yang to replenish deficiency and enhance physical fitness.
*Consult a doctor, nutrition instructor or other professional for the specific consumption method
Understand the 6 principles of "eating thin" diet
If you want to lose weight through dietary intervention, you must not go on a blind diet right away. This is not only bad for health, but also affects the sustainability of weight loss and is prone to rebound. Six principles and recommendations are put forward for daily diet.
1. Control total energy intake and maintain a reasonable diet.
The use of other dietary weight-loss interventions, such as high-protein diets, low-carbohydrate diets, intermittent fasting meals, or nutritional meal replacements, needs to be done under the guidance of a professional such as a physician or nutrition coach.
*If you are interested in this part, please refer to the Guidelines for Medical Nutrition Therapy of Overweight/Obesity in China (2021) and the Expert Consensus on the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity in Chinese Residents.
2. Eat less high-energy foods, eat a light diet, and limit alcohol consumption.
To quantify, high-energy foods are foods that provide more than 400 kca1/100 g of energy. In layman's terms, fried foods, sweets, and sugary baked pastries are all in this ranks.
3. Correct bad eating behaviors and eat scientifically.
Pay attention to breakfast, do not skip meals, and eat dinner from 17:00 to 19:00.
4. More activity and less stillness, sufficient sleep, regular work and rest.
It should be followed by a circadian biological rhythm to ensure about 7 hours of sleep time a day, and it is recommended to go to bed before 11 o'clock at night.
5. Eat and nourish in a proper way, and choose food and medicine materials reasonably
Follow the theory of "homology of medicine and food", combined with TCM syndrome differentiation and treatment, and choose the food and medicine qualities that are suitable for you.
6. Lose weight safely to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
You can refer to the recommendations given in the "Dietary Guidelines for Adults with Obesity" issued by the Continental Health Commission: reduce 5%-10% of your current body weight within 6 months, and lose 2-4 kg of weight per month. Although there are slight differences, the core of both is to avoid the damage caused by losing weight too quickly.
Then again, do you really need to lose weight?
Don't blindly pursue a low weight
BMI
To determine whether you are overweight, a well-known indicator is BMI.
BMI = weight (kg) / height ² (m²)
The normal range is 18.5 kg/m²≤ BMI < 24.0 kg/m², 24.0 kg/m²≤ BMI < 28.0 kg/m² is overweight, BMI ≥28.0 kg/m² is obese, and BMI < 18.5 kg/m² is underweight. The BMI suitable for the elderly over 65 years old is slightly higher (20~26.9 kg/m²).
BMI has its own drawbacks: on the one hand, for friends who exercise all year round and have low body fat and large muscle mass, only calculating BMI may lead to the judgment of "(fake) obesity"; on the other hand, for those who lack exercise and have high body fat but not too much weight, only counting BMI may be considered "slim", in fact, such people may already have the problem of central obesity.
Body fat percentage
To solve this problem, we can use "body fat percentage" to determine it. The body fat percentage should be less than 25% for normal adult men and less than 30% for normal adult women. However, body fat percentage often requires professional instruments to accurately measure, which is not friendly to ordinary consumers.
waistline
There is also a "flat" indicator of body fat percentage - waist circumference. Indeed, waist circumference can reflect the degree of central obesity and the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. In order to reduce the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, it is recommended that the waist circumference of adult males in mainland China should not exceed 85 cm and that of females should not exceed 80 cm.
For ordinary people who do not exercise at a high intensity, it is advisable to combine BMI and waist circumference (body fat percentage) with a physical examination report to more accurately reflect their health status.
Losing weight is not the goal, health is our pursuit!
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[1] National Health Commission, "Dietary Guidelines for Adults with Obesity" [M], 2024.2.8.