Weighty Problems
Natural ways of shedding kilos
Nowadays, obesity is seen as a type of disease and is commonly found in people living in modern society. Anybody with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 25 is considered overweight.
What is BMI? The equation for BMI in the metric system is your weight in kilograms divided by your height in metres squared.
BMI = Body weight (kg) height (metre2)
As everyone knows, the main causes of obesity are an improper diet and a sedentary lifestyle. There are also several other factors involved. Stress can be a major cause in that it can make people eat too much in order to cope with it. And taking medicine is not the answer to combatting obesity.
Many medicines used for weight loss usually come with many other side effects including weakness from losing vital fluid from a diuretic effect, heart palpitations caused by an increase in the metabolic rate induced by thyroid hormonal like substances and more.
In addition, taking medicines to reduce weight usually leads to a "yoyo" effect. Body weight will suddenly rise after quitting weight loss drugs.
Therefore, a natural way of controlling your diet and having a healthy lifestyle is the only way out. Naturopathy advocates the following methods for weight control.
1)Taking two meals per day
The fact is that what we eat for breakfast will be 100% burnt off for energy. Only 50% of the lunch we eat will be utilised for body fuel. The other half will be accumulated as body fat. As for dinner, the entire meal will be accumulated towards obesity.
So it will be healthier and more practical to have a bigger breakfast, a lighter lunch and forget about dinner. But since many social gatherings and some business meetings usually take place at dinner time it would be wiser to have a very light dinner which contains little starch and carbs.
When having dinner with your friends you could try eating a plate of vegetables accompanied with other delicious foods such as tom yum seafood, fried chicken, Thai dips with fish and the like. The trick is to quit eating pasta, potatoes and rice at dinner.
I, who have practised naturopathy, am an example. Thirty years ago I was overweight at 75kg. By practising this method, my weight went down 10kg within 10 months.
2)Fasting for health
This is a classic and effective weight control method, if it is done properly.
Natural medicine recommends mono-diet fasting one day a week. You may do it at the weekend.
You can start by quitting regular food for that day, eating no fat, no meat and no rice. Then you can eat one kind of fruit for the whole day. The key is not to choose too sweet or starchy fruit such as durian, jack fruit, ripe mango, and banana. Some fruit like papaya, guava or dragon fruit are recommended. Eating one kind of fruit will help rest the body by reducing the need for digestion. It also needs only one kind of enzyme for digestion.
You can eat as much fruit as you need. However, you should not consume more than 800 cal per day.
By fasting like this once a week, you will be able to gradually lower your body weight.
3)Low carbohydrate diet
Paradoxically, obesity is not caused by eating too much fat or meat. It's mostly caused by overeating carbohydrates.
Fast foods like French fries, hamburgers, soft drinks and many other carbohydrate-based snacks are the main cause of obesity in America.
This led to the concept of a non-carbohydrate diet recommended by Dr Robert Atkins.
Even though his diet goes against advice by some conventional nutritionists, it has proved to be quite effective for a certain group of people.
A compromise between the two is a low carbohydrate diet.
In my own experience, I have advised many obese people to eat a protein and vegetable diet.
Eating one portion of meat with two portions of vegetables and leaving out rice, pasta etc will be helpful.
By doing this for six days combined with one day of fasting, you should be able to reduce your weight quite satisfactorily.
Prolonged practise of two to three months, should be broken up with a week of eating regular food to relieve body stress.
Besides dieting, physical workouts and mental relaxation are also needed. Good results can be guaranteed for anyone who possesses self-discipline.m
Credit: Bangkok Post
Thanks for share.
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