How Families Should Plan Weight-Loss Diets
How Families Should Plan Weight-Loss Diets
1) Choose low-calorie foods based on balanced diets: Balanced diets require each person's daily meals to include four categories: grains; meats, eggs, dairy, and soy products; vegetables and fruits; cooking oils. Weight-loss diets should follow the same principle. Practical evidence shows that different foods within the same category vary in calorie content. Those aiming to lose weight should prioritize lower-calorie options. For example, aquatic animals like fish, shrimp, crab, sea cucumber, and jellyfish have low fat and thus lower calories than other meats. Among poultry, birds have lower calories than fattened poultry. Among livestock, beef and mutton have lower calories than pork, and lean meat has fewer calories than fatty meat. In dairy products, skim milk has lower calories than whole milk. Among vegetables, leafy greens and cucurbit vegetables have lower calories than root vegetables. Therefore, weight-loss individuals should pay attention to selecting these foods in daily meals.
2) Mix coarse and fine grains in staple foods: Chinese diets traditionally center on grain products as the main source of carbohydrates, meeting the body’s energy needs. Grains also provide proteins, B-complex vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber. Since ancient times, China has advocated “grains as the foundation,” believing grains are essential for maintaining vitality. Weight-loss individuals still need grains as the core of their diet. When planning staples, mix coarse and fine grains instead of consuming only refined rice and flour. Coarse grains contain richer vitamins, minerals, and especially dietary fiber, which increases satiety. Other coarse grains like oats, buckwheat, corn, and sweet potatoes also offer lipid-lowering, blood pressure-reducing, heat-clearing, bowel-regulating, and metabolic disease prevention benefits. Regular consumption of coarse grains is beneficial for weight loss.
3) Eat more vegetables and fruits: Vegetables and fruits are high in water content, large in volume, and low in calories, while being rich sources of vitamins and minerals. Fresh leafy greens contain abundant vitamin C, beta-carotene, vitamin B2, calcium, iron, zinc, copper, magnesium, and potassium. Eating low-calorie vegetables and fruits helps regulate physiological functions and reduce body weight. Moreover, they are rich in dietary fiber. Multiple studies show that dietary fiber effectively lowers lipids and blood sugar, aids digestion, promotes intestinal movement, and facilitates bowel elimination—thus helping with effective weight loss. Obese individuals should consume over 500 grams of vegetables daily, especially deep-green leafy vegetables. For those with large appetites, reduce meal portions to normal levels. To alleviate hunger, supplement with cucumbers, tomatoes, and radishes. Also, pay attention to consuming melons and edible fungi to enhance health and reduce weight.
4) Use proper cooking methods to reduce dietary calories: Even with identical ingredients, cooking methods greatly affect the final calorie content. Methods like steaming, boiling, stewing, braising, light stir-frying, blanching, braising, marinating, and cold mixing use less oil and result in lower-calorie dishes. In contrast, frying, pan-frying, deep-frying, oil-braising, and dry-braising use more oil and produce higher-calorie dishes. Additionally, dishes with strong flavors often contain added oil or sugar—such as fish-flavored, sweet-and-sour, and home-style dishes—which are high in calories. To reduce dietary calories and limit calorie intake, weight-loss individuals should prefer low-calorie cooking methods and use plant oils instead of animal fats.
5) Prefer foods with weight-loss effects: Nature offers many foods with slimming, lightening, and lipid-lowering properties. These should be emphasized in weight-loss diets. Such foods include cucumber, winter melon, white radish, leeks, spinach, mung bean greens, chrysanthemum greens, shiitake mushrooms, black fungus, kelp, bamboo shoots, hawthorn, tofu, jellyfish, corn, buckwheat, oats, sweet potatoes, konjac, rabbit meat, oysters, etc.
6) Avoid high-calorie, high-fat, and high-cholesterol foods: The primary principle for obese individuals’ diets is to restrict high-calorie, high-fat, and high-cholesterol foods. Avoid pure sugar, chocolate, candies, desserts, ice cream, sweet drinks, peanuts, pine nuts, honey, fatty meats, butter, cream, offal, animal brains, fish roe, and animal fats to support weight loss.