Smart diet, better outcome

David Lee, an undergraduate freshman of UIUC, walks into the dining hall of his dormitory. “Wow, they are serving fried chicken today,” he says. He happily runs toward the food but stops when he finds the Nutrition Facts chart that says “Calories 319, Fat Cal. 185.” Discouraged, David decides to eat some more lettuce instead of the fried chicken that looked as if it were from heaven. Sadly, David is not the only one who suffers from this dilemma when eating. Modern society tells people to be fit and slender, and sees obese people as ugly. In order to be confident about their appearance in this world, people should keep themselves in shape.
Then how? While the majority of people want to be fit, not all of them achieve their goals because it is not an easy task losing weight while keeping the body healthy. Apart from the fact that it is a hard task losing weight, a lot of people do experience that their effort does not pay off. In order to efficiently lose weight and not damage the body’s overall functioning, it is important to know what to do and what to avoid.

Many people know that low-fat diet is necessary in keeping the body in shape, but they seem to ignore the impact carbohydrates have upon the body. Carbohydrates are, just like fats, stored as extra body fat when surplus calories remain. And, because it is easy to consume carbohydrates from many different sources, people tend to eat excessive amount of carbohydrates while not noticing it. In order to lose weight, people should not only reduce the amount of fat they consume but also cut off the amount of carbohydrates they eat throughout the day.

What about protein? Protein is important because it keeps the person from losing muscles when the calorie intake is significantly reduced. Muscles are very important in losing weight, because more muscle results in higher metabolism, which means that the person can eat more and still lose weight. (Kim, 2010) This is the main reason muscular exercise is more important than aerobic exercise in losing weight. More muscle, as stated above, increases the body’s metabolism, and later on prevents the so-called yo-yo effect in which the lost weight comes back rapidly. Foods that are low in fat and high in protein include chicken breast and beans. One thing to be careful about protein is that the surplus is stored as fat, just like any other nutrients.

Of course, it is important to exercise both aerobically and muscularly. However, one cannot lose weight if he/she does not change his/her diet. Eat smart and lose your weight efficiently. Always remember that vegetables can help you fill up your stomach without many calories being taken in, and that drastically reducing calorie intake can have detrimental effects to your body, such as hair loss.


Information source taken from: Korean Ministry of Health & Welfare