03 - Iron Evidence: There's Only One Right Path to Successful Weight Loss
Hello, welcome to the "Scientific Weight Loss Course." I am Jessica.
weight loss and the first principle of scientific weight loss. With the
right goals and scientific theoretical guidance, what remains is
choosing the correct way to lose weight.
However, while all aiming for weight loss, methods vary tremendously:
Fitness trainers will tell you that exercise is important, then arrange
training toward developing abs; Traditional Chinese Medicine weight
loss will say that acupuncture, cupping, and meridian massage can make
you thin; your girlfriend who's currently losing weight might tell you
she saw some minimalist recipes on social media with good results; of
course, online reports often mention how certain female celebrities
have been dieting rigorously for decades to manage their figures...
It seems like all roads lead to Rome, but is this really the case?
Which method can truly help us lose weight and keep it off?
What Is the Most Effective Weight Loss Method?
To solve the global problem of obesity, the world invests billions of
dollars annually, using top doctors and scientists to research
effective weight loss methods. After decades of research, what have
they discovered? Is the most effective weight loss method desperate
dieting? Crazy exercise? Taking special weight loss drugs?
Sorry, none of these. Among all weight loss methods, the globally
recognized first choice by scientists is lifestyle intervention,
because it's not only the most effective but also the safest and most
cost-effective. It sounds almost too good to be true, but this is
indeed fact.
The reasons for a person's obesity are complex, resulting from the
combined effects of multiple gene loci, social environment, and
psychological factors. But have you ever thought that almost all these
factors must work through unhealthy lifestyles to affect us and
influence our weight? Therefore, lifestyle is the most direct cause of
obesity. Correspondingly, weight loss must start with lifestyle
adjustment.
Remember the water tank model from the last lecture? Water flows in and
out of the tank, maintaining dynamic balance between input and output.
If you approach from a single tap with force, such as desperate dieting
or crazy exercise, the water level might indeed drop quickly, but the
system's balance will be broken. Subsequently, the body will undergo
various retaliatory changes, including protecting fat accumulation,
lowering basal metabolism, 10-fold hunger sensations, etc... Finally,
weight rebounds, and efforts are wasted.
So what we need to adjust cannot be one aspect alone, but must be the
overall inflow and outflow of the tank - simultaneous efforts in diet,
exercise, stress, and sleep. These combined constitute our lifestyle.
Therefore, the method of scientific weight loss can only be the
cultivation of healthy lifestyle habits. Lifestyle adjustment is the
royal road to weight loss. Please remember this sentence.
Hearing this, some students might ask: I heard there are also weight
loss drugs and weight loss surgery! Friends around me have lost weight
this way - aren't these also effective weight loss methods? Aren't
these also viable paths?
Indeed, besides lifestyle adjustment as the royal road, there are some
alternative paths to choose from, such as drug treatment, weight loss
surgery, meal replacements, etc., which we'll discuss in detail later.
Here I'll just tell you one thing first - regardless of which weight
loss method, it must be combined with lifestyle management to be
effective. In other words, if you don't adjust your lifestyle, even if
you take weight loss drugs or undergo weight loss surgery, you will
definitely gain the weight back.
You see, all roads lead to the same destination - back to lifestyle
adjustment.
Cultivating Healthy Lifestyle Habits
What specifically does lifestyle adjustment involve?
It mainly includes three aspects: diet, exercise, and psychological
factor management. Psychological factor management primarily involves
managing stress and sleep.
If we compare lifestyle to a triangle, then diet, exercise, and
psychological factors are the three sides that form the triangle. All
three sides are indispensable. If any one factor is not handled well,
it could affect weight loss results or even make all efforts futile. As
for specific methods, we'll explain them separately later - I'll keep
you in suspense for now.
I know some people might be thinking about something else:
Jessica, I can't manage all that. I've gained 4kg this year
compared to last year. To fit into last year's pants, I'll make an
effort - I'll only eat salads for lunch and skip breakfast. Doesn't
this align with your energy deficit theory? In one month, at most two
months, I'll definitely be able to wear those pants. Your lifestyle
management is too difficult. Socializing, work pressure, dining out,
staying up late - these are all parts of modern life. You can't expect
me to become a primitive person, right?
If you think this way, it might represent a misunderstanding about
healthy lifestyles. Here, Jessica wants to help you establish the
correct view of lifestyle. As the saying goes, "you must break before
you can build" - to establish the correct view, we must first break two
wrong viewpoints.
The first wrong viewpoint is that lifestyle adjustment is slow to take
effect and has low cost-effectiveness.
I must admit that cultivating healthy lifestyle habits is not an
overnight matter. So many people want to try dieting and crazy exercise
for quick results. Little do they know that for weight loss,
comprehensive healthy lifestyle is the most cost-effective approach.
Because weight loss is a systematic project - how you eat, how you
move, how you manage stress all affect weight loss results. Focusing
only on one factor is destined to be inefficient. Research shows that
if a person cannot cope with work stress, they might need to invest 4-5
times the exercise time and intensity of others to achieve the same
weight loss effect; if they don't sleep well, no matter how much they
exercise, they cannot lose weight...
Healthy lifestyle naturally includes all three aspects: diet, exercise,
and psychological management. If other methods are single-dimensional
efforts, lifestyle management is multi-pronged simultaneous action,
naturally achieving the best results.
The second wrong viewpoint is thinking that healthy lifestyle is too
difficult to achieve.
In many people's minds, healthy lifestyle means going against nature -
eating grass every day, not being able to eat what you like, while
insisting on exercise and early sleep. What's the point of living like
this? Or, "I understand the principles, but I can't do it!"
First, I must say that healthy lifestyle is actually not as harsh as
many people think.
Take sleep, for example. Healthy sleep only requires rhythm and
duration. As long as you sleep regularly, have normal sleep quality,
and get 6-8 hours daily, that's enough. The rest is up to you. If you
want to sleep early and wake early, fine; if you're a night owl who
always stays up late, making your late nights regular is also okay. As
for other aspects like diet and exercise, there's also great freedom.
You see, isn't it because of incomplete understanding that you've made
healthy lifestyle seem too harsh?
Furthermore, cultivating healthy lifestyle habits isn't that difficult.
Take eating, for example. Giving up junk food might be very
uncomfortable at first. But after repeated self-control, your taste
nerves and gut microbiome will change. Before long, when you eat
unhealthy food again, your body will actually feel uncomfortable and
unadapted, and you'll subconsciously choose healthy foods.
You see, cultivating healthy lifestyle habits isn't difficult - it
begins with your actions. Don't build so many high walls for yourself.
Starting today, starting after listening to this lecture: get off work
transportation one stop early and walk briskly; when shopping for food,
buy less junk food; go to bed at a fixed time at night... Once, twice,
after continuing for three weeks - just three weeks - it will not only
solidify into your habit but also bring an unexpected storm to your
thinking.
Establishing Your Own Healthy Lifestyle
Having broken the two wrong viewpoints above, the royal road of healthy
lifestyle cultivation becomes natural. I believe that healthy lifestyle
is the sum of various behaviors that make you live more healthily while
satisfying your personal social attributes.
Naturally, it has two levels of requirements:
First, of course, is health. As mentioned before, achieving health
makes weight loss just a side benefit.
On the weight loss journey, all actions must revolve around "health."
Only this way will your weight loss truly succeed rather than being
precarious.
As a quote from "Walden" says, "When you realize your dreams, the key
is not what you get, but what kind of person you become in the pursuit
process."
Second, it must conform to a person's social attributes, meeting
their family, work, and social needs.
Healthy lifestyle has great autonomy and doesn't force people to become
machines they don't recognize. Truly healthy lifestyle must belong to
you personally, something you can persist with long-term or even become
very accustomed to. It not only doesn't interfere with your daily life
but empowers your life, helping you better play your social roles. So,
above principles, there's freedom - you can freely choose according to
your work and habits.
For example, under the premise of energy deficit, whether you want more
meat or more cheese in this meal, or even if you want to socialize
today and occasionally eat junk food - no problem, it won't
significantly affect weight loss results. For exercise, under the
exercise principles I give you, whether you persist in brisk walking or
swimming daily; whether you exercise one hour today and not tomorrow,
or exercise 30 minutes daily - these are all your freedoms.
As long as you establish your own healthy lifestyle, these are all
things you can control yourself. You see, doesn't this actually resolve
many people's inner concerns?
Key Points
1. Weight loss must start with lifestyle adjustment.
2. Weight loss cannot rely on one-sided effort; adjusting diet,
scientific exercise, managing stress and sleep are all indispensable.
3. Cultivating healthy lifestyle habits isn't difficult. Starting now,
21 days of action can help you develop a new habit.
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