How not to get fat

The best way to not get fat is to not get fat.

Sounds simple and silly. But I weighted myself every morning when I wake up in Taiwan. I gained about 1kg by week 4 of in Taiwan, I saw this go up slowly and slowly.

I cut back eating just a bit the last week and started a little more cardio. I’m only up about .4kg from when I came from Italy. I’m not really “dieting” just cutting back those milk teas and eating late night. I could have probably lost that 1kg if that was my goal but I want to enjoy the food here while I can.

It gets harder and harder to lose weight the most you gain. If you catch yourself gain a little 1 week, it’s pretty easy to cut back a little the next without making huge efforts in dieting and exercising.

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Honestly, if most people try to walk at least 10k steps a day and not drink excessively or snack all the time, you will lose weight or never gain it. Really all weight gain/loss is is calories in/calories out.

You have defensive tools, like watching how many calories you eat and not going over the threshold for your height/activity level…

You have offensive tools too, like purposefully taking the stairs or walking the MRT escalator, or going out on runs/lifting weights etc, that help you burn calories, and/or convert excess calories into muscle not fat. Honestly, you can almost eat anything you want if you exercise enough. If you lift also, any excess calories can just turn into muscle.

So far I have found it much easier in Taiwan - Taipei - to be active than back home in the states…

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Write a book man write a book that’s the perfect title.

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Not to get fat in Taiwan is easy.
Food here is just horrible.

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Everyone knows this, but it doesn’t help most people. It’s hard to gauge the calories of things. And even harder to keep track. Not to mention not all calories are the same, so I don’t fully agree with this as other things like insulin also plays a huge role in fat storage. Your body also burns a lot of calories breaking down protein. There are other factors than calories at play like what your body is using for fuel and storing as fat.

Weighing yourself every morning is not hard to track. It’s easy to see if you start to gain .1, .2,.3 kg. And just cut back the next few days or go exercise a bit more before you let it continue.

It’s one of the ways I’ve found to be effective at keeping fat down. I’ve never found calorie counting effective. When I cut weight, I watch my macros way more than calories. And I’ve gone up and down 20kg in a year for different sports before. Calorie counting doesn’t work well for me.

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Not a huge fan of stinky tofu and duck blood cakes, eh?

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I’d count sugar and fat rather than calories. Like you said various levels of calories can be fine depending on the person’s habits and metabolism.

And I wouldn’t count all the time, that’d be a hassle. Rather, I’d single out one week and count my daily intakes for that week. Then I’d compare where I stand with respect to the recommended daily limits and decide of some permanent diet changes.

Also, the five fruits and veggies a day thing. 500g of fruits and veggies a day should be your minimum no matter what.

And then, as @bingobango said, break a sweat regularly and stop using the lazy conveniences of life. Use the stairs, walk/cycle when you can instead of taking the scooter/bus/whatever, if you’re doing groceries for one use the baskets instead of the pushing carts, etc.

Or you just have horrible taste.

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Man Taipei is just a dream with that regard. The only city I know where you can pick a bicycle for peanuts, ride to your destination and stop on the way to a pull-up bar in a park. In the same spirit there’s these bicycle machines in Da’an park that pump water for fun, thumbs up to whoever designed that.

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I follow pretty much the same strategy. It’s easier to stop it going up in small increments than trying to deal with it five KG later.
I also don’t count calories, I just try to check the calorie content of everything and know what to avoid.

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Eat two meals a day only!
No carbohydrates!
Lots of veggies and fruits only!

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How about the tasty fried chicken?

Exactly. 5kg is daunting for the average person who is busy with their personal and professional lives. Catching yourself at .5kg and you can cut back a bit and maybe get in a few jogs and you’ll lose that in a week without too much effort.

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I tell myself it’s ok because it has protein :grin:

It’s sort of true if you don’t over do it.

fruits are carbs lol.

But yea cutting out or cutting down the carbs is probably the easiest way.
Which means cooking. Outside most meals are 90% carbs.

Since i’ve came back home i’ve found it so easy to cook tasty healthy food. I hate the supermarkets in taiwan even more now.

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Once you seriously gain weight, like I did after an injury made me inactive for the better part of 6 months, it becomes your body’s “normal” and is crazy hard to lose.

Add in a pandemic, the dear of going outside and endless netflix with delivered groceries and booze at weird hours… I’m resigned myself to “more of me to love”

And yet, was just looking at ellipticals online and wondering if I could convert a spare room into a home gym…

Anecdotally, cutting carbs helps with your muscle vascularity, helps reduce facial puffiness (sushi face) and helps mitigate or even eliminate feelings of lethargy after eating a meal.

Calorie intake vs calories burned is really 90-95% of the battle - weird to me that there is an entire industry made out of convincing people the 5-10% optimization by controlling sugar/fat/carb intake is what they need to focus on more. I guess it gives them this idea that the reality is more complex and therefore they feel less bad if they do not get the result they want?

You eat the amount of big macs and fries needed to satisfy your calorie limit for your weight/activity…you won’t gain weight. Simple as that. Optimization is completely different, but let’s take one step at a time.

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I don’t agree. Hormones and timing play a huge role. Bodybuilders have known this for ages. Insulin manipulation and nutrient timing gets these guys huge while not getting fat eating massive amounts of calories. Of course anabolic androgenic steroids and HGH also plays a role, but these only make what they’re doing more efficiently.

Calories in and calories out is the advice that has lead to the current obesity problem.

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This advice is not tailored in the slightest to body builders, who are supreme outliers statistically and are doing everything they can to optimize. They are at sub 10% body fat. Totally different ball game. Advice for them is miles away from the advice for the average overweight/obese guy. There is no need to over-complicate 90-95% of the battle. You have a deficit of calories…you lose weight. You have an excess? Well if you worked out then you gain muscle weight. If you did not? Ta-da you will gain fat.

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I totally disagree.

Calories in calories out is the advice that probably got them fat.

100 calories from proteins or fat isn’t going to trigger a insulin spike that tells my body to store fat like 100 calories from carbs and sugar.

The same advice follows for the average person, bodybuilders just take it up a notch.

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