Weight loss study (IX)
In this issue I am going to do a review and summary of the Weight Loss Research series. There may also be a tenth issue in the future, in which I intend to detail the equipment, meal plans and workouts that I personally used for this round of weight loss. But that is all very personal experience and experience, and only appropriate to appear as an appendix to the full series. So, today’s “Weight Loss Study (IX)” is the end of the body of this series.
At the beginning of the article, I would like to thank all the readers who have stuck around to read this far. At this point, the readership of Chapter 1 is 56,000 and Chapter 8 is 23,000. I haven’t seen such a dismal readership since the public website had reading statistics. You may not be aware that the eight consecutive days of serialization caused more than 700 readers to cancel their subscriptions. So, I am grateful that you all have supported this feature with your reading. Now let’s review together.
The first article in this series should actually start with “Fasting Research” on October 9. At that time, I had already had a lot of doubts about the various methods of weight loss, and I started to seek answers. In that article, I raised far more questions than solutions. You can also get a glimpse of my personality through that article, always skeptical about the conclusions, always asking questions, and only then doing something to solve them.
In my opinion, “Weight Reduction Study (I)” is the most important one in the whole series. If you look at it from a pragmatic point of view, it does not propose a single executable solution in it, does not give a single answer, is uncompromising nonsense. But I insist that it must be. If we don’t discuss the heart and the inner change at the beginning, then no real change will ever come about. A few weeks ago on the street in Beijing, there was a scene that struck me deeply. It was a middle-aged woman selling vegetables, yelling at her husband, “We’re doing the right thing, then we’re not afraid!” . I was impressed by her determination and assertiveness. I believe she had little social resources and little power, but her inner conviction, her strong belief in what is right, clearly became her leverage.
Specific exercise programs, fitness equipment, fruits and vegetables, nutritional supplements, and medical theories are all external forces and cannot be relied upon for long to overcome one’s inertia and avoidance. The power from within is much stronger, not only because it is right, but because it has the will to make real change. I’m flattered to hear from some readers that they are reading this series over and over again. In fact, much of the series is just the same old story, with many similar ideas and expressions. If you want to read it again and again, I suggest reading the first chapter. Most of the time, people don’t lack understanding and methods, but they lack confidence in themselves.
In Weight Loss Research (II), I use intermittent fasting as an example to show how to analyze and understand this type of weight loss. Some misunderstandings may arise here; I am not saying that intermittent fasting is best, nor am I saying that everyone should intermittently fast. I am using it as a sample because it is currently more popular and because I have studied and researched the theory of it. Let me stress again: the point is how to analyze and understand a certain way of weight reduction, not to recommend it and tell you to take it over and implement it straight away. If I thought that way, there would be no need to write such a long series.
The Weight Loss Study (III) tells the story of why I abandoned calories as the core of the data for weight loss, and instead focused on insulin. In fact, it is the tendency to identify high carbohydrates and sugars as having the greatest impact on body weight, with a hint of their impact on metabolic syndrome. The discussion in subsequent chapters also never departs from this idea of reducing high carbohydrate and sugar intake. From this, it is clear that I do not agree that calories are equivalently replaceable, and that eating different foods with the same calories does not have the same effect on the body. In my opinion, calories are not a reliable and convenient indicator.
The Weight Loss Study (IV) was actually an accident that interrupted the rhythm of my original narrative. The reason for this is that a crossover came along and I had to interrupt my original plan to talk exclusively about the starting point of my research on weight loss methods: you can always choose a weight loss method that is conducive to your execution, less painful, and likely to translate into long-term behavior. Starting with this issue, I’m not interested in anyone who barges in and yells “just …… Just ….” The one-trick pony has become very rude. I don’t want to hear about the so-called “easy way” given by another set of mindset because we all have different starting points and naturally different ideas.
The Weight Loss Study (V) discusses the body’s work patterns and energy sources, analyzes the possibility of switching from glucose to fat mode of operation, and the problems to be faced. Some readers have assumed on this basis that I am recommending a ketogenic diet, which is not really true either. There are many ways to put the body into a mild state of ketosis, and the ketogenic diet is not the only way to do it. To be on the safe side, I also don’t think it’s good to have four plus signs of ketones in your urine at any time and keep it that way for long.
The Weight Loss Study (VI) is a continuation of the Weight Loss Study (III), where I continue to discuss insulin resistance with insulin as the core. This way this series goes beyond the obese population and is informative to a larger population. I will not deny that there is a preference for me here. Through my self-study, I have a preference for the insulin resistance doctrine. Think of it as the beginning of the metabolic syndrome, and also from there through to the subsequent obesity and hyperglycemia. If you want to lose weight, reducing insulin resistance in the body may be something that needs to be done throughout.
The Weight Loss Study (VII), which focuses on cholesterol, is the most complex article in the entire series and has the largest geographic span of time. I hope to make the reader aware of the complexity of cholesterol through historical review and experimental reports. So, it discusses from saturated fatty acids to cholesterol, from cholesterol to lipoproteins, from lipoproteins to lipoprotein structure, and from lipoprotein structure to apolipoproteins. Sort of the least readable article, but I hope I made one thing clear: don’t look at the LDL elevation thing in isolation, you need to consider it in combination with HDL and other chronic diseases, genetics, lifestyle habits, age, and other factors. One thing I forgot to mention at the end of the article: trust your primary care doctor, if he is going to prescribe you a lipid-lowering drug, then you should listen and take it first.
The Weight Loss Study (VIII) gets away from the matter of weight loss itself and goes on to talk about how to read medical papers. On the matter of cholesterol, by analyzing different papers, it talks about how to find an executable solution for yourself in the midst of the opposing conclusions. In the comments section, I talked about the main idea of this article: if the way of thinking that we have learned and trained for years cannot be applied to real life and solve real problems, then we have not learned anything at all. I have always believed that weight loss is a personal matter, and that individuals need to take responsibility for it. My goal in writing this series is not to give the right answer and check off the only option. Rather, it is to encourage people to think about it, take their own different actions, and finally reunite on the side of successful weight loss and restored health. Here again, we return to the first chapter, “Weight Loss Research (II),” which emphasizes the role of the mind. If we have the right heart and the primary purpose of pursuing the truth, then we will not be deceived and fooled by pursuing the answers we want to hear, and we can more or less find a way out that can be implemented.
Through this round of weight reduction “research” - some people can’t bear to see me write the word “research”, which probably means “you deserve to be called science”, so I’ll put it in quotation marks - my deepest My deepest feeling is that what mankind knows is only a small group of light in the darkness. Around this light, there is infinite darkness. Therefore, all efforts seem to be somewhat tragic. The little that doctors and medical men know is a little bigger than any of us in the field of health, but it is still nothing compared to the vast darkness of ignorance that surrounds us. Therefore, I think we need to get rid of two tendencies.
One is the belief that an omniscient perspective needs to be opened, taking into account all the complex variables, otherwise we cannot make the right judgments. This view is a knowledge barrier peculiar to intellectuals, knowing that in most things in the world, people start making attempts with partial knowledge and analyzing the exceptions. Then, because of these attempts to gain more understanding and knowledge, and then correct the implementation. Otherwise, mankind would not have had the age of great voyages, legions would never have been able to leave their barracks, business owners would never have been able to specify business plans, and no one would have been able to marry and have children.
Another kind of mass stupidity, thinking of the correlation between various things in the world as linear, is like treating it as a giant machine. If you press button A, you are bound to get result B. Even if you are a vending machine, potato chips may still get stuck and not fall down, let alone a sophisticated human body controlled by countless enzymes and hormones. In contrast, a long and tedious analysis like mine is indeed very troublesome, far better than “don’t ask, you can run”, “don’t ask, you drink vinegar every day on the line”, “don’t ask, you don’t eat meat on the line “, “don’t ask, you eat 10 black beans in vinegar every day on the line” to so simple and direct.
No, I have to ask. I ask, that’s why I am me. You can also be you without asking, but that has nothing to do with me.
Finally, I have a message for readers who have lost or are losing weight: just as your body resists the fat you deprive it of, so does the world resist you. If you’ve read the comments below each article in this series, you know you’re not alone in the sarcasm, blowback, denial, lack of understanding, and intolerance you’ve suffered in the weight loss process. With a reputation as fierce as mine, I am not exempt from those malicious messages, let alone the gentle you. Some people say I wrote a series of science fiction, no, I don’t think I am science fiction. Because that’s all common sense, preached and taught for various health practitioners and nutritionists, and you can read it anywhere. I think the greatest value of the Weight Loss Research series is to give confidence to those of you who have lost or are losing weight. In this world, you are not the only one who is alone single running, brisk walking, push-ups, chewing lettuce leaves, doubting whether you can keep going, worrying whether you will bounce back again sometime in the future, calculating how long before you hit the wall with your weight loss, weighing yourself too often every day so that the scale needs to change the batteries often …… Here’s me too, I’m on my way, please believe in yourself.
Go for it!
—THE END–
Title photo by Markus Winkler
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