A bewildering array of weight loss malpractices: Dieting is the dumbest method.

A bewildering array of claims reveals a chaotic situation-weight loss doesn't necessarily mean true weight loss.

8.1 Dieting is the dumbest thing to do.

8.1.1 Dieting leads to malnutrition

Why do the obese people in the picture below appear malnourished, while the slender people seem to have normal nutrition? The reason is that the obese people have excess fat and are malnourished. Most obese people consume too much sugar and starch in their early stages, leading to varying degrees of glucose metabolism disorders, glucose intolerance, or insulin resistance in later stages. Glucose metabolism requires B vitamins, vitamin C, various minerals (such as iron, vanadium, selenium, zinc, chromium, etc.), and coenzyme Q. Unburned sugar is converted into fat, causing further obesity and glucose metabolism disorders. As a result, obese people consume more nutrients than normal people, leading to malnutrition and unstable blood sugar levels.

Many people mistake excess calories for excess nutrition. We call this malnutrition in obese individuals' fat metabolism. Metabolism requires enzymes and coenzymes, so malnutrition can actually lead to obesity. Because they have excess calories but lack essential nutrients, the more obese they are, the more they need to supplement their nutrition.

Every year, the World Health Organization publishes a treatment guideline for major diseases with high incidence based on the latest research findings. The obesity treatment guideline published in 2005 pointed out that 95% of obesity is caused by malnutrition.

Eating only fruits and vegetables and not meat or staple foods may be effective for short-term weight loss, but it cannot reduce fat and poses many long-term risks. This is because our body's energy mainly comes from fat, carbohydrates, and protein. If we don't eat any meat or staple foods, we will be severely deficient in protein, fat, and carbohydrates, resulting in a significant reduction in energy intake. This greatly increases the probability of malnutrition, anemia, and osteoporosis, which in turn affects various bodily functions and damages health.

The human body is very clever and can cope with a variety of different situations: it stores energy when food is plentiful and consumes stored energy when hungry-when you are dieting, your body thinks a famine is coming, so it will conserve energy as much as possible and lower its metabolic rate.

The reality is that if you excessively restrict your food intake, you will lose weight, but you will lose more muscle than fat. This is because the burning of carbohydrates and fats requires enzymes and coenzymes, and when these enzymes and coenzymes need to be obtained from food, the body cannot obtain enough of them without food.

But you won't stick to it for long. The intense hunger and appetite will gradually outweigh your determination to lose weight. At that point, you'll revert to your old eating habits, or reward yourself for thinking you've succeeded in your weight loss plan, causing your weight to quickly return, or even exceed your original weight.

While appropriate dietary restriction can indeed contribute to weight loss, excessive dieting can lead to weight loss. Repeated cycles of excessive dieting can lower the body's energy requirements for normal functioning, making it easier to gain weight.

8.1.2 Dieting leads to muscle loss

When we are hungry, our bodies prioritize using glucose in the blood for energy. As hunger persists, glucose is depleted, and blood sugar levels drop sharply. To reduce the risk of hypoglycemia, the body stops burning glucose and begins to use protein as an energy source. Since protein is a crucial component of muscle, its depletion directly leads to muscle loss. Eventually, even protein levels decrease, so weight loss is not the same as fat loss!

Because the body's protein is consumed, the muscle ratio decreases, and the basal metabolic rate drops, it is easy to quickly regain weight once normal eating resumes.

8.1.3 Dieting does not reduce fat at all.

Even if you sleep all day, you still burn a lot of calories to maintain basic physiological functions; this is called your basal metabolic rate. When you diet excessively, your body mistakenly thinks you're in a crisis and tries to conserve energy by reducing calorie expenditure. In this case, your metabolic rate can actually decrease by 20% to 30%, meaning your free calorie-burning allowance is forced to decrease!

Fat is the last line of defense for the body, ensuring sufficient resistance and energy supply in extreme environments, making it an essential element. For example, when you are starving, your body breaks down protein in your muscles, while the excess fat you desperately want to lose remains intact.

The human body's weight is composed of water, bones, fat, skeletal muscle, and organ tissues; a reduction in any of these components can lead to weight loss. While weight loss is inevitable due to fat reduction, weight loss does not necessarily mean a reduction in fat. Dieting primarily reduces the amount of organ tissue, not fat.

95% of obesity is caused by excess calories and malnutrition. Dieting increases the body's efficiency in storing fat, ultimately leading to a situation where the body gains weight despite dieting. Dieting leads to muscle loss, slows down metabolism, and reduces fat breakdown. Dieting deprives the body of the catalysts needed for fat breakdown, so what is lost during dieting are healthy protein tissues such as the heart, liver, kidneys, and skeletal muscle, as well as water.

For example, a girl who weighs 60kg might lose weight to 50kg by not eating for days. However, once she starts eating again, she quickly gains back to 60kg. This is because dieting lowers metabolism, so when she eats again, she burns less calories, resulting in excess calories that are stored as fat. Fat is a storehouse of excess energy. Since she didn't lose much of her original fat, the extra calories are stored as fat, causing fat to make up a larger proportion of her 60kg weight. This explains why dieting can lead to weight gain, and it's related to metabolic rate.

A person is like a Christmas fireplace. The strength of the fire depends on the amount of firewood. If the firewood is all small twigs, compared to a large, dry log, the large log will definitely burn brighter. Similarly, the strength of the human body's fire depends on the amount of protein that makes up the body. The higher the protein content, the faster the metabolism, and the faster the metabolism, the stronger the vitality. If you reduce protein through weight loss, it means you've removed a lot of firewood from the fireplace, making the fire smaller and lowering your metabolism. So, why does dieting primarily reduce protein?

When carbohydrates are nearly depleted, the body then consumes fat, and only when fat is exhausted will it begin to break down protein. This is the normal functional process provided that the conditions for the breakdown of these substances are met. However, when a person is in a state of starvation, all the carbohydrates stored in the body are used up, and the body directly begins to break down protein.

This is a major difference between human biochemistry and traditional biochemistry. Because humans are evolved animals, they've developed a safety mechanism: proteins. In the chemical reactions of all life processes within the human body, there's a substance that can be broken down directly without a catalyst. Normal fats require enzymes to break down, and proteins break down in this process because they need energy. However, proteins don't normally break down. Since the heart, liver, and kidneys are all composed of proteins, this ability to break down proteins without enzymes is a crucial self-protection mechanism. When the body is in a crisis, proteins begin to break down, including tissues like the heart, liver, and kidneys. This breakdown is irreversible; no amount of protein intake can replenish it. Young women, in particular, often experience a decrease in heart size during weight loss. For a long time, they may not feel it, but their heart has indeed shrunk. Do you know when you'll start to notice it? If you run in an extreme environment or climb the Himalayas, you'll feel it and problems will arise. This is because every organ has a reserve function called cardiac reserve. Normally, the heart might only use 30% or 40% of its energy, reserving 60%. If a rabid dog is chasing you, you need to run desperately. This requires glucose to be oxidized and broken down, and since glucose comes from the blood, it releases all the energy from your heart. Weight loss reduces this by half, meaning your heart only has 50% of its original capacity. As you age, the heart's contraction strength weakens, and even a normal person's cardiac reserve will decrease. While others might decrease from 70% to 50%, yours might decrease from 50% to 30%, or even 25%. So, by your 30s or 40s, you'll start to feel weak all over, with your legs feeling limp, because of insufficient cardiac supply. This damage is irreversible.

When your liver is only two-thirds its original size, its detoxification ability begins to decline. When you are young, not all liver functions are working simultaneously; there is still a liver reserve. However, as you age, this reserve decreases. If you drink alcohol and eat fatty meat, the liver's workload becomes very heavy, and the decline becomes even more pronounced. If you force your liver to work harder when it can no longer handle the workload, liver failure will occur. This is why many people who diet to lose weight feel weak and listless as they get older, yet medical examinations reveal no problems. What causes this? It's because their heart is only half its original size, but without myocarditis, coronary heart disease, or other ailments, no problems can be detected, and no treatment is effective because the heart cannot recover. After knowing this, would you still diet to lose weight? That would cause permanent damage, so you must stop self-harm.