this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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My parents always nudged me to exercise more while saying I can eat whatever I want. But do you guys think exercise or diet is more effective? Or it's a mix of both? Personally I think it's a mix of both, but sometimes I'd get fatter for no reason(even though I was still exercising) then I'd somehow get slimmer for no reason(I wasn't exercising during this period because I was exhausted from work). My diet was pretty much the same.
I really don't understand how my body works.
issue with malay and indian mxed rice is they never understand what is Kurang Manis, and the kuah and curry memang sedap can you guarantee you will portion control...? hahhaa... also the curry dishes require pecah minyak before they pour in the rempah, uses way more oil than Chinese cooking. typing this out already make me salivate yummmmm
Thanks for the tips in exercising! I normally go to mixed rice shops because they are cheaper haha
Ooh! I usually take less rice, a pile of veggies and a small portion of proteins haha
Coming in a bit late but I'll say this: if you want to exercise for fitness, yes please do. But exercise and/or dieting for weight loss is basically... Bunk. Yes there will be (short-term) results but much of the state of evidence in 2023 will tell you that TLDR your body is very good at staying alive and if your weight setpoint is such-and-such, then work with the body you have to give you the fitness that'll give you good long term prospects. Even your own personal experience (at your age) is telling you there's no real meaningful correlation, meaningful as in you can't minmax your way to a solution. General advice about living well seems sound, but nutrition and fitness science literature is showing there's really no standard pathway that you can hack. BBIAB with citations.
That's interesting... I've seen a lot of people on the internet saying something actually works for them, but it's usually something very extreme like keto diet and/or intermittent fasting. I haven't tried either yet, but I don't want to resort to these if possible.
I was trying to find all sorts of articles etc but then it would be overwhelming, so i'm gonna say, if you need to read anything, it's just this one: Training and Diet are Simple Because Your Body is Complex
the other comments you've got are all pretty much sensible advice, and try to figure out your best way forward using the state of mind in the article I linked. fwiw that site is very popular for people into strength training, but their advice has been very sensible. your body is optimized to keep you alive - being healthy while you're alive is pretty much only a bonus. The state of the literature like I mentioned shows the variety of pathways a person can be healthy with - I mean just a couple of months ago, apparently eating ice-cream regularly is probably good for certain types of diabetes (because of how it impacts the blood sugar level). One research (I'm sharing my other forum's discussion on it, because NYT and gated academic wall) indicates that there seems to be no optimal diet really for our species, based on the various cultures studied; despite the wide range of eating habits (don't forget the indigenous people near the Arctic basically live off of seal fat), people seem to show the same general range of good health.
ETA: And in this discussion, it's about the critical baseline flaw in obesity research (and subsequent findings, preliminary or otherwise, that inform the diet and fitness industry). And if there's one outmoded 'talking point' that no one actually takes seriously on the research side, is the idea of Calorie-In-Calorie-Out. Too much contradictory evidence especially since nutrition science honestly really became a thing in the 20th century, it's only recently we're getting more proper longitudinal/long-term data from the same groups of people.
Thanks for citing the article! I agree with it honestly because things just differ between people. Out body is just complex and even nutritionists can only speak in general
eating ice-cream is good for diabetes? did the ice-cream makers fund that paper? 😄
lolol see, how that "common sense" bias tripped you up? XD Nutrition Science’s Most Preposterous Result
sources cited:
2018 Sep 07: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Doctor of Science Dissertation: "Dairy Products and Cardiometabolic Health Outcomes" by Andres V. Ardisson Korat, advisor Frank B. Hu.
2016 Feb 24: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: "Consumption of dairy foods and diabetes incidence: a dose-response meta-analysis of observational studies" by Lieke Gijsbers, Eric L Ding [wait, that Eric L. (Feigl-) Ding? -- S.] et al.:
2002 April 24: JAMA (journal): "Dairy Consumption, Obesity, and the Insulin Resistance Syndrome in Young Adults: The CARDIA Study." by Pereira MA, Jacobs, Jr DR, et al. doi:10.1001/jama.287.16.2081
there's also evidence that the nutrient composition o potatoes for example, can lead to good health outcomes inc. weight loss.
ETA: forgot to add. re: ice-cream - this is one of those little petua pregnant women get, in order to control for the risk of gestational diabetes. BODIES ARE WEIRD.
Does it really affect our bodies that much? I know sleep and stress levels affect cortisol, but I swear there have been times where I got fat due to stress and sometimes I'm stressed but I still got slimmer 😂
yes, cortisol encourages fat to be deposited near abdomen to save them from later. whilst cortisol increase appetite, adrenaline according to my understanding will inhibit appetite. So it's actually a combination of factors? maybe sometimes one is higher than the others.
so many factors - your mental health, your genes etc may all play a role, in theory.
certain cultures, ie. south asian cultures are also more prone to obesity due to evolution.
Even if I have the urge to eat, I usually just restrict myself so it doesn't go that bad. So many factors... I think my mental health may also be screwing things up here and there lol
another free and harmless method you can try is portion control. I've found that drinking a huge glass of water BEFORE meal, like 30 minutes really help with satiety. The rationale is that the body is pretty bad at distinguishing hunger and thirst. so if you could quench your thirst, you can just focus on the hunger and stop feeding when you are satiated.
i've also seen people changing the order they consume food - ie. eating veggies first before consuming meat and rice. You can also try eating lots of veg and meat, but reduce carbs. Brocollis and cauliflowers should be good for this task. lots of "matter" to chew through for essentially zero calories.
If the purpose just to lose weight, I would say go with dieting.
Do exercise when you wanna get in better shape. Saw too many people got demotivated to lose weight because they think they need to exercise and push yourself but I'm the end they feel like eating more because of it.
So I would say focus on the diet first. It's a process, it'll take time. Slow and steady also take care yourself too.
Oh dear... I never really thought of it that way. Must be what happened to me during my previous failures. 🤣 But right now I am saving money on food anyway, so it's much easier to control what I eat. I'm already avoiding excessive outside food by eating dinner at home unless I'm outside.
Back when I was still living with my parents as a student it was much harder to control my desire for food(sry dad mom for wasting your money).
Off to a good start already, cutting down on outside food and also processed food. The less processed it is, much better for you. Can eat food with high water content to make yourself feel more full too.
omg i was typing a long ass comment but accidentally cancelled and now it's gone. Here I go retyping it.
The commenters here are right, but so are your parents.
Exercise regulates your hormones and keeps your hunger in check. But after exercising, you're gonna be hungrier than usual. Just make sure you're eating what you normally do. Drinking more plain water might help prevent overeating.
You're a woman so you have hormones that make you crave certain types of food. Give in to those cravings, but keep it in moderation - you want to satisfy your craving, not eat a whole meal of them. E.g. if you're craving chocolate, grab one or two small cubes and eat them slowly. If you're craving fried chicken, have a couple of wings or a drumstick but not too much more. If you suppress it, you're gonna stress yourself out which messes up your metabolism or your productivity.
I have a wall of text typed up which I'll put in a following comment, but you can ignore it because lots of people give diet/exercise advice but you should avoid information overload. Work on yourself little by little and don't feel obliged to apply every advice in your life right away. You can always come back and re-read later.
The wall of text:
I think you should continue to eat whatever you want like your parents say, but not however much you want. You're reducing your carb intake which is a good step! It's much better than completely cutting out carbs because your mind and body are gonna stress out over sudden diet changes.
A very difficult habit you could try to learn is to eat until you're satisfied, and not until you're full. If you'd like to start, it will help if you focus purely on eating when you're having your meals. That means no phones, no work, no TV - anything that causes you to mindlessly put food into your mouth because it makes you lose track of your fullness. You can kinda still do the above, but when you're performing the action of putting food in your mouth and chewing your food make sure to focus purely on those actions and yourself.
Also learn to be okay with not emptying your plate. It's a habit a lot of us learn as kids, but we should stop thinking about the kids in Africa because it's not our fault they're not getting food. And if you're worried about the farmers who painstakingly grew our rice, they have more machines that help them these days anyway.
With regards to snacking, obviously you should minimize it, but don't completely avoid it. Some tips are:
The easiest way to avoid guilt is to put the leftovers in the fridge, wait 2 weeks, then throw it away. The guilt is spread out across 2 weeks. It's like paying installments!
That's a new perspective on snacking that I've never thought of before. Thanks for the detailed writeup! I definitely got extra stress from trying to restrain myself from snacking. When I'm stressed because of work, my appetite increases a lot but then I know I can't eat because I need to control my diet, which adds to even more stress.
it's a mix of both. I have been doing intermittent fasting for 4-5 years now, i used to be able to lose my weight and maintain it at low -er level. my metabolism has perhaps slowed down and IF is no longer working on its own and I could no longer eat whatever the hell i bloody want. Perhaps try swimming, it's like the only sports that doesn't feel like Essesise imo.
Also are you a woman? I'm asking because women can gain weight due to hormonal fluctuations so it's natural? And if by fatter you mean appearance-wise, could be due to salt retention and what not - try cutting down sodium intake.
Yeah I'm a woman. I hate my hormones so much because they're been very weird lately. I'm not sure it's appearance wise or not since I don't have a scale here.
I can't do IF because a hungry stomach distracts me from my work
hungry stomach isn't a huge problem for me, but the fogginess does affect me when it comes to productivity work. If i want shit done i will still have brekkie lol.
Disclaimer: This is not health advice. I'm only describing what I know from chubbyemu's personal experience.
Always do diet control first. No point burning calories if the intake valve is wide open.
Basic exercise follows. Don't overdo it at the start. Go slow and steady. Only ramp up when progress plateaued with diet + basic.
Yeah Im doing diet control alright. I've definitely reduced my calory/carb intake and it's been working great. I want to go keto, but I'll have to prepare for every single meal and it's inconvenient when I eat with others(some places don't let you bring your own food)