Eat rice to lose 18 kg and avoid high-glycemic foods

Will eating make you fat? In order to look good on camera, many celebrities try every possible means to lose weight, and one common thing they hear is that they stop eating starchy foods, including rice. However, doctors say that a diet structure that is biased towards high fat and refined carbohydrates is the cause of obesity. In fact, as long as calories are controlled, eating non-over-processed rice can also "happily lose weight."

Rice is rich in dietary fiber and lysine and low in fat. Moderate consumption will not cause weight gain. (Photography by Huang Zhiwen)

In order to correct the misconception that rice makes people fat and reawaken people's enthusiasm for eating rice, the China Medical University Hospital and the Agriculture and Food Agency have cooperated to call on adults with a BMI greater than 30 to join the MSN weight control course. The iron triangle consisting of physicians (Medical), sports therapists (Sport), and nutritionists (Nutrition) will let participants understand the benefits of rice for weight control through a 12-week nutrition course, adjust their diet structure and habits, increase the frequency of rice consumption, and combine it with regular exercise to achieve the goal of losing weight by eating delicious and chewy rice.

Particularly, the results of the students' weight loss showed that those who consumed rice more frequently had significant differences in body weight, body fat, waist and hip circumference, as well as blood pressure, liver function, blood sugar, total cholesterol, and triglyceride levels.

Among the students of the course, there is a Mr. Wu. Before losing weight, he preferred high-calorie food and lacked control over his food intake. However, after correcting his wrong dietary concepts, he reduced high-fat food, increased high-fiber fruits and vegetables, adjusted the amount of rice he consumed, and combined it with continuous exercise. In just 12 weeks, his weight dropped from 108 kg to below 90 kg, a difference of 18 kg. His waist circumference also shrank from 114 cm to 95 cm, with the most obvious weight loss effect.

Another participant, Mr. Yang, saw his weight drop from 92.8 kg to 77.8 kg, a total of 15 kg, after participating in the course. But what was most talked about was that his waist circumference dropped from 103 cm to 80 cm, a difference of 23 cm, winning him the title of "No. 1 in Waist Slimming".

After attending a nutrition course, Mr. Yang (second from left) reduced his waist circumference by 23 cm in 12 weeks through dietary adjustment and exercise, which was a very good result. (Photo provided by China National Medical University Hospital)

Lin Wenyuan, deputy director of the Preventive Medicine Center of the China Medical University, who specializes in obesity medicine, said that in recent years, many celebrities and entertainers have always excluded starches, including rice, when talking about their weight loss experiences. In fact, overly refined carbohydrates such as donuts and cakes have a very high glycemic index and can easily cause a surge in blood sugar after a meal, which is one of the sources of overweight and obesity.

Dr. Lin Wenyuan said that compared to other grains, non-overprocessed rice has a higher proportion of lysine and contains dietary fiber, which can bring a feeling of fullness, but the fat content is low, which can help lose weight.