Budget Management and Energy Conservation: The Ironclad Rules for Weight Loss

Budgetary Management and Austerity Policies

In terms of fiscal integrity, extra-budgetary funds are the most difficult to manage and the most prone to problems.

The hardest thing for gluttons to control is snacking outside of regular meals.

The author advocates that fruits, drinks, and even foods with weight-loss benefits should be included in the total intake. In financial terms, all snacks outside of regular meals should be included in the budget and managed accordingly, rather than being treated as a secret stash of money to be distributed and squandered at will.

Many obese people, when they eat a regular meal, may not seem to eat more than others. In fact, for obese people, a regular meal is often just a prelude to eating. Afterwards, they will intentionally or unintentionally indulge in snacks such as fruits, melon seeds, and drinks without restraint.

For people with a normal body shape, snacking outside of regular meals is almost unthinkable, and even if they eat some occasionally, it won't become a long-term habit.

The most overlooked snacks are fruits and beverages, especially since many women consider fruits essential for health and beauty, while ignoring their powerful energy and nutritional benefits.

When obese people try to lose weight, they have to disrupt the balance of income and expenditure, adopt a "deficit policy," and implement fiscal austerity.

Ancient mammals had a genetic predisposition to prepare for war and famine, a predisposition that modern society often tries to suppress and reject.

Unexpected wealth is acceptable, but weeds should be avoided, and excessive fat accumulation must be strictly prohibited.

Society has developed to the point where even if there are troubles, it won't reach the point of famine, and the body doesn't need to accumulate too much fat to prepare for famine.

Theory of conservation of energy

Many people lack confidence in their ability to lose weight, which involves theoretical issues related to weight loss, the most basic premise of which is the theory of conservation of energy.

Obesity is the result of the body's long-term energy intake exceeding its expenditure. If expenditure exceeds intake, the body will gradually lose weight.

Popular theories categorize people prone to weight gain as those who accumulate fat, while those who can eat whatever they want without gaining weight are categorized as those who burn fat.

This theory is a simplistic and flawed classification that can lead obese individuals to neglect body control and lament that their obesity is due to their "bad luck."

In reality, there is no such thing as a person who can eat anything without gaining weight.

Excessive intake leads to accumulation in the body, while a balanced intake prevents accumulation.

The differences in energy metabolism between individuals are very limited and cannot be the root cause of weight gain or loss.

Of course, there are differences in the density of body fat. People with the same BMI may appear heavier in some cases and lighter in others. This is most evident in men and women of the same height and weight.

However, if intake exceeds expenditure in the long term, the health risks of those who appear not fat may be even higher than those who are obese, because they will exhibit "internal obesity," making them a high-risk group for tumors, tissue hyperplasia, nodules, stones, etc. The excess energy intake will not disappear into thin air, but will instead nourish the "tigers and wolves" in their bodies.

Due to individual differences in physique, there are slight differences in food intake among people of the same body size. This does exist, but the difference is generally not enough to make people exclaim that they "can eat a lot and not gain weight".

How to be more discerning – a mindset to avoid being scammed

In a market economy, various interests, whether intentional or unintentional, distort much of social life.

Do not blindly follow the "dietary therapy" advice of some professionals. You should use logic to examine it and make a reference judgment after thinking for yourself. Otherwise, you will be harmed and have nowhere to seek justice.

For example, if you hear that corn silk can cure diabetes, you should ask yourself, is there any research showing that the diabetes rate is very low in major corn-producing areas?

For example, when someone recommends a certain ingredient for its supposed medicinal and health benefits, just think about it: if you believed it and included it in your diet, could you possibly eat it all? A friend of mine has a list of 36 different foods listed on the wall of his refrigerator, each with its own therapeutic function.

If people can't eat all that, it means that healthy, long-lived people didn't eat like that in the first place.

Humans are called omnivores because they have a wide diet and can digest and utilize many kinds of food, rather than necessarily eating a very diverse range of foods.

For example, when searching for information related to your health online, if the information comes from pharmaceutical companies, drug dealers, or hospitals, you should be wary of misleading claims.

For example, someone posted that cancer doesn't actually need treatment; maintaining a good attitude will keep you healthy.

If that's truly the case, how can we understand those who die without ever knowing they have cancer?

Some food products are labeled "sugar-free," so you should think twice when you see that.

Sugar-free simply means that no sucrose has been added; it may contain fructose, beet sugar, etc.

When you need to control your sugar intake, you need to control the entire sugar family.

If you see someone on TV recommending that eating their tofu has weight-loss benefits.

It should be noted that this is from Mengcheng. In the countryside, if a family makes and sells tofu, their piglets are hard to sell because piglets that eat tofu residue are fat and expensive, and it's difficult to continue feeding them after buying them.

Moreover, consuming too many soy products may increase uric acid levels.

If someone simply believes that eating organic food will definitely lead to health and longevity, then think about it: people who lived in rural society in the past ate what is now considered organic food every day, so they should have had lower disease rates and higher life expectancies, but that is not the case.

Be wary of any recommended food that says "you can eat more of it" without adding a "do not eat more of it" part; consider discounting the recommendation.

There's nothing that humans can eat in excess.

IV. Using Multiple Approaches – Strategy

While drastic weight loss and diet control can be valuable, it can easily lead to side effects and is difficult to maintain in the long term.

We must be good at fighting and employ more tactical methods. This will reduce suffering and be more effective.

A Closer Look at a Balanced Diet – It's Not Just About Adjusting the Structure, But Also the Total Amount

Many people's understanding of a balanced diet can be summarized as "eating a variety of foods and avoiding picky eating".

For people who are healthy, following these guidelines is already a good way to maintain good health. However, for those who want to lose weight and control their weight, there are many more aspects to consider when trying to achieve a balanced diet.

The first principle is dietary balance based on the law of conservation of energy. The general principle is to maintain a deficit or balance between the energy intake from food and the energy consumption of the body each day.

Secondly, it's about maintaining a balanced diet among high-protein foods like meat, carbohydrates like rice and noodles, and fruits and vegetables.

As higher primates, humans are originally omnivorous. Eating only meat or only plants goes against our ancestral nature. A balanced diet of meat and vegetables is necessary for a healthy body.

The most common misconception about balancing the intake of meat, grains, vegetables, and fruits is that some people switch from eating more meat to eating more vegetables and fruits and less staple food.

But strangely, even after doing this, I still couldn't lose weight.

When asked how much he was eating of fruits and vegetables after reducing his intake of meat and staple foods, he replied matter-of-factly, "Of course I'm eating more of those."

Such dietary adjustments can improve the balance of nutrients in the body, but they will not be effective in controlling weight.

This adjustment method simply replaces some of the energy from meat and staple foods with fruits and vegetables; it does not reduce the total energy intake.

In academic terms, this situation can be described as having focused on structural adjustments but neglecting overall control.

Speaking of national industry capacity regulation, for example, my country's shipbuilding industry currently has a serious overcapacity. If regulation is implemented at this time, such as simply reducing the capacity for manufacturing large ships and then having them switch to producing small and medium-sized ships, the total capacity will still be excessive.

The third is the balance of intake between salt, sugar, and water, which is the most misunderstood element of life.

Fourth is the balance between foods with different levels of dryness and moisture content.

To delve deeper, we should also pay attention to the balance of the cold and hot properties of food.

In traditional Chinese medicine theory, not only are drugs classified as neutral, cold, or hot in nature, but ordinary foods are also classified as having cold or hot properties.

In daily diet, one should not favor cold or hot foods, but rather choose foods in a reasonable combination according to one's own condition; otherwise, various health problems may arise.

Western medicine doesn't pay much attention to this aspect, generally only classifying foods as easily digestible or difficult to digest, or acidic or alkaline.

The traditional Chinese medicine theory of the properties of things, whether hot or cold, roughly corresponds to the Western medicine theory of acidity and alkalinity.

A reasonable dietary structure is very important, but the requirement of overall balance is a restrictive premise. That is, you should eat a balanced diet with reasonable nutrition, and you should not eat too much.

The common problem among all obese people is that they do not pay attention to the required amount.