Be wary of obesity-related malnutrition and proper meal planning during weight loss.

Beware of obesity-related malnutrition

Many people believe that obesity is related to overnutrition. Is this view correct?

Changes in body weight follow the law of conservation of energy, indicating that obesity is related to energy.

The seven major nutrients that provide energy are: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

These three nutrients exist as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins respectively before we eat them.

After food is ingested and absorbed by the body, any remaining food will eventually be converted into fat, causing us to gain weight. Therefore, there is some scientific basis to the idea that obesity is caused by overnutrition.

However, it should be noted that the nutrition mentioned here is limited to the three macronutrients: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. An excess of one or more of these three can lead to obesity, but not all nutrients are in excess.

If you consume too much fat in your diet, your energy intake will exceed your energy expenditure, leading to weight gain.

However, it is entirely possible that the other six nutrients are also lacking.

Therefore, obese people should be more careful about malnutrition. Obesity can make people mistakenly believe that they are over-nourished, but they may actually develop iron-deficiency anemia and calcium deficiency leading to osteoporosis.

How many meals a day should I eat to lose weight?

There are countless ways to lose weight. Some suggest skipping breakfast, some suggest skipping dinner, some suggest skipping lunch, and some even suggest not eating any of the three meals a day. Which meal should you skip for the best healthy weight loss results?

The necessary condition for weight loss is that energy intake is less than energy expenditure. As long as there is an energy deficit (energy intake is less than energy expenditure), weight loss can be achieved.

So many weight loss methods suggest skipping certain meals, simply to reduce energy intake at one meal. This way, with other physical activities remaining the same, an energy deficit will occur, leading to weight loss.

How fast you lose weight depends on the calories in the meal you skip. More calories will slow you down more, and less calories will slow you down more.

This type of fasting for weight loss conforms to the law of conservation of energy and can indeed help with weight loss.

However, there are also the following issues:

Question 1: Use it or lose it.

Fasting reduces the use of our digestive tissues, and long-term fasting may lead to a decline in digestive function; even a decrease in basal metabolism; and in some cases, it may even cause anorexia.

Question 2: When we are hungry for a long time, if we are presented with various energy levels of food to choose from, our bodies will instinctively choose high-calorie foods. This will make up for the calories of the meal we missed, and may also lead to overeating and other problems.

Question 3: Fasting can create an energy deficit. When eating resumes, the energy deficit disappears. At this time, because of the weight loss, the basal metabolic rate also decreases accordingly, and energy consumption decreases. It is very likely that there will be an energy surplus (energy intake is greater than energy expenditure). Where does the excess energy go? It is converted into fat and stored in the body, and the rebound begins.

Therefore, skipping any meal is not good for healthy weight loss.

So how many meals a day should you eat for healthy weight loss? It's generally recommended to eat smaller, more frequent meals, with three main meals and two snacks per day.

Please note that eating smaller, more frequent meals means that the total energy intake after each meal must be less than the total energy intake for the entire day. It is incorrect to eat a smaller amount at each meal but add up to more energy intake than the original total energy intake for the entire day.

Conversely, this means reducing the total energy intake throughout the day and breaking it down into 5 to 6 servings per day.

The purpose of doing this is:

(1) Ensure that the digestive organs work normally and are not idle too much, which will lead to a decrease in digestive function.

(2) Stabilize blood sugar and reduce hunger.

Many people may not know that the feeling of hunger is actually controlled by blood sugar, not by the stomach. Except for a few people with chronic gastritis or other diseases, this pathological hunger should be distinguished from the hunger of normal people.

The reason why hospitalized patients don't feel hungry even after several days without eating is that the glucose in the IV drip replenishes their blood sugar, keeping their blood sugar level above the level they feel hungry.

To reduce hunger during weight loss, you need to keep your blood sugar level above the level at which you feel hungry.

Eating smaller, more frequent meals can achieve this goal.

(3) Stabilize blood sugar and reduce fat accumulation.

Blood sugar levels rise after meals. If this blood sugar cannot be used up in time, our body's regulatory substance, insulin, will convert the excess blood sugar into fat and store it. Therefore, we should not eat too much at each meal to avoid giving fat a chance to accumulate.

(4) Reduce stomach capacity, increase satiety, and make weight loss enter a virtuous cycle.

The stomach is related to the feeling of fullness.

Obese people generally have a good appetite and a large stomach capacity, which is not conducive to weight loss.

Eating smaller, more frequent meals can gradually reduce stomach capacity, increase satiety, and promote weight loss.

A balance between diet and physical activity is essential. For people who are very active, if their activity level suddenly decreases, they must reduce their calorie intake to maintain their weight; otherwise, they will gain weight.

For example, many athletes gain weight after retiring; some manual laborers also gain weight easily as they age because their physical activity decreases, their basal metabolic rate decreases, and their energy requirements decrease significantly, but their appetite remains the same as when they were young.

For people like this, it is necessary to reduce stomach capacity.

Reducing food intake, thereby lowering energy intake, is the only way to maintain a stable weight.

Some people undergo gastric bypass surgery to lose weight, with the aim of reducing stomach capacity.

Isn't this reduction in stomach capacity achieved through eating smaller, more frequent meals a natural and healthier process compared to surgery?

Now you know, healthy weight loss not only means avoiding fasting, but also eating more meals.