"Slow food" replaces fasting and helps you lose weight healthily after the New Year

Traditionally, the Lunar New Year lasts until the Lantern Festival. Recently, many people have had spring wine gatherings, and gaining 2-3 kg has become the norm. Therefore, some people resort to fasting to lose weight quickly. However, the quick effect of this weight loss method is only short-lived. What is lost is not fat, but muscle and water. It is difficult to sustain for a long time and is not good for health. Controlling diet should be about taking in appropriate calories and supplemented by the "slow eating" method to avoid fat accumulation in the body.

Excessive calorie intake will turn into fat accumulation, but it is not so easy to eliminate fat. Many people lose weight by fasting, and these people usually do not have the habit of exercising, which will cause the blood sugar level in the body to drop rapidly.

After the human body detects this message, in order to function smoothly and maintain blood sugar concentration, it will not only lower the basal metabolic rate, but will also prioritize releasing glycogen in the muscles, leading to a decrease in body muscle mass.

Dr. Xiao Dunren, a gastroenterologist specializing in obesity medicine, said that eliminating fat is a laborious task because there is no single action that can simply eliminate fat. Therefore, in addition to controlling calorie intake and not exceeding daily needs, healthy weight loss also requires sustained moderate-intensity exercise for a period of time, such as jogging, swimming, and cycling, in order to consume fat.

The appropriate amount of calories varies from person to person, and varies with each person's daily activity level and basal metabolic rate. Dr. Xiao Dunren said that fasting is definitely not a good way and is difficult to sustain.

Modern people become fat due to bad eating habits. People who eat too much in a hurry tend to eat a lot and take in too many calories. Therefore, instead of fasting to lose weight, it is better to adopt the following "slow eating" principles to let the brain recognize that it is full enough to avoid eating too much.

1. Eat for at least 20 minutes: It takes at least 20 minutes for the stomach to send the "full" message to the brain, so don't swallow the food within more than 10 minutes.

2. Chew each mouthful at least 30 times: Chewing more often allows food and saliva to mix thoroughly, which can aid digestion and increase satiety.

3. Concentrate on eating: If you watch TV or do other things while eating, it will prevent your brain from receiving the message that you are full, causing you to eat more unconsciously.

4. Replace refined food with coarse food: Coarse food requires more time to chew and digest, which makes blood sugar rise more slowly and is less likely to cause fat accumulation.