Can you lose weight by not eating staple foods?

First of all, we need to know that the principle of weight loss is: control the calorie intake throughout the day to be less than the calorie expenditure throughout the day.

So how do you control your calorie intake throughout the day?

The total calories consumed by the human body throughout the day comes from all calorie-containing foods taken orally, including staple foods, meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts, milk, beans, etc.

The reason why food is rich in calories is because it contains the three energy-producing nutrients: carbohydrates, protein and fat.

These three energy-producing nutrients are widely present in all kinds of food. If you want to control the total energy intake of food throughout the day, you must control the total amount of these three energy-producing nutrients, that is, the total amount of various foods, rather than just controlling the staple foods.

In this way, as long as the total calories consumed throughout the day do not exceed the standard (less than the total calorie consumption throughout the day), it will have the effect of losing weight. In other words: the essence of weight loss is not to eat or not eat a certain food, nor is it to eat or not eat a certain meal.

Therefore, if you only control the intake of staple foods and consume excessive amounts of other foods, you will not only fail to lose weight, but may also gain weight. On the contrary, if you consume other foods in a balanced amount and appropriately pair them with staple foods, you can also lose weight.

*The picture comes from the Internet

One thing that needs to be noted is that the staple food in the diet of many people currently seriously exceeds the standard, and the proportion of carbohydrate energy supply is too high.

Under this premise, controlling the proportion of staple foods and eating less staple foods (normal intake of other foods) will significantly reduce the daily energy intake to a certain extent, and the weight loss effect will be better.

But it must be clear that this is not the result of not eating staple foods, but the effect of controlling overall calorie intake.

Editor’s Note:

A healthy weight requires reasonable "eating" and scientific "exercise".

When it comes to diet, don’t forget our balanced meal plate, and physical activity is essential!

Finally, here is a weight loss recipe from the Nutrition Navigator for your reference~

*Recipe from: Nutrition Navigator May 2020

Author: Wu Mei | Registered nutritionist and popularizer of Chinese nutrition knowledge

Reviewer Fang Aiping | Associate Professor, School of Public Health

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