Fat kids have many health risks, and losing weight scientifically is not easy!

The traditional Chinese concept of "being able to eat is a blessing" is deeply rooted in the subconscious of most people. Parents believe that children who eat well, eat a lot, and grow fat are cute and healthy. Many elderly people encourage their children to eat more and more, but they don't know that behind the "little fat boy", there are health risks that should not be underestimated!

Obesity has many and serious effects on children's health. In fact, obesity itself is a disease, and it is also a risk factor for many chronic diseases. Obese children's bodies secrete too much insulin, which makes them always hungry, which will create a vicious cycle of eating more and getting fatter, and getting fatter and eating more. Often when many parents realize that they are obese and want to lose weight, these children have already suffered from fatty liver, hypertension, hyperuricemia, hyperlipidemia, hyperinsulinemia, and even diabetes, liver damage, metabolic syndrome and other chronic diseases that affect their lives.

Facing the reality, I hope parents will pay attention to the problem of childhood obesity. Scientific weight loss is not an easy thing! It takes time for a child to lose weight. The most important thing in this process is that we must correct the family lifestyle, including all-round adjustments in sleep, diet, exercise, etc.

Regular diet includes three aspects: meal time, meal location, and meal content. Meals include three main meals and one or two snacks a day, all of which should be at relatively fixed times. The dining location and environment should be appropriate. There should be no television, mobile phones or other electronic products accompanying the children during meals. Parents should also try not to criticize and educate their children during meals, as these will have a negative impact on the children's digestive function.

For children who gain weight too quickly, we first talk about a light diet. This includes two aspects. One is the cooking method, less oil and salt, no more than 25 grams of cooking oil per day, and no more than 6 grams of salt. Try to choose steaming, boiling, stewing, and cold cooking methods, and avoid braising, frying, and stir-frying. Another aspect is the choice of ingredients, especially meat. Try to choose some lean meat, such as tenderloin, beef, chicken breast, and sea fish and shrimp; and try to choose less skin, fat, bone, and animal offal, such as chicken wings, pork belly, ribs, elbows, chicken hearts, pig livers, etc. Eat less. In addition, nuts with high fat content should also be controlled in quantity, 10-15 grams per day is enough.

In addition, if we want to control the total energy intake, we must control the intake of staple foods. But parents often fail to notice some "invisible" staple foods, such as potatoes. Both parents and children think of potatoes as vegetables. When asked what they usually eat, the answer is often fried shredded potatoes and stewed potato cubes. In fact, these are all wrong perceptions. Root vegetables with high starch content, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, taro, etc., should be used as coarse grains in the staple food, not as vegetables. And for vegetables, we should choose more stems and leaves, such as cabbage, spinach, lettuce, etc. Eggplants, melons, and mushrooms are also OK. In addition, we must ensure a cup of milk, an egg, and a piece of fruit every day.

PS: Although the total energy is limited, it is important not to go on a blind diet or skip meals. Many parents or children themselves hope to lose weight quickly after problems arise, so they go too far, such as not eating staple foods or meat at all, which are all wrong ways to lose weight. The most important thing about nutrition is balance and diversity. Balance refers to the balance of nutrients. Our staple foods provide carbohydrates; meat, eggs, dairy products and soy products provide protein; cooking oil is the main source of fat; vegetables and fruits provide vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. They each have their own functions and the proportions must be balanced. The lack of any one of them will disrupt the body's balance.

To give a simple example, if we don't eat staple food at all, it will first affect our brain function. Because under normal circumstances, glucose is the only source of energy for our brain. Without staple food, there is no carbohydrate, and without carbohydrate, there is no glucose. How can our brain function? It is bound to be slow to react, decreased attention, and emotional instability. If there is no effect of weight loss, the spirit will have problems first! This is one of the reasons why dieting is not allowed. Nutritional diversity refers to the diversity of our ingredients. The Chinese Residents' Dietary Guidelines recommend that we have no less than 12 kinds of ingredients per day and no less than 25 kinds per week. If conditions permit, you can have more.

In addition to paying attention to diet, exercise is equally important. Exercise can promote energy consumption and create a negative balance of heat energy in the body; it can suppress appetite, maintain normal blood pressure, lower blood lipids, and improve cardiopulmonary function; it can improve a person's psychological state and help eliminate anxiety; exercise can also prevent the loss of lean body mass during weight loss. When it comes to lean body mass, we have to talk about the issue of human body composition. Human body composition refers to the total composition of various tissues and organs that make up the human body, and the sum of their weights is body weight. The total weight of our body comes from muscle, fat, bone, water, and so on. Then the most important question about our weight loss comes: weight loss, what exactly are we losing? We must be clear that the core of our weight loss is to reduce body fat.

Losing weight is easy to do. If you use dieting, diarrhea, dehydration and diuresis, you can lose weight quickly in a short period of time. But as soon as you stop this weight loss method, the weight will rebound quickly, and many side effects are likely to occur. Therefore, the most critical indicator to evaluate whether the weight loss method is correct is whether it can minimize the loss of body muscle. That is, to minimize the amount of body fat, but maintain or even increase the amount of body muscle.

Children and adolescents are generally recommended to have 1-2 hours of moderate-intensity exercise every day. Of course, long-term low-intensity physical activity (such as walking and cycling) is as effective as high-intensity physical activity, but the key is long-term persistence.

Scientific weight loss is not easy! We hope that parents and children will learn about food knowledge, improve health literacy, and establish a new nutritional life from now on. Let nutrition awareness and healthy behavior start from now on. For your own tomorrow, for the happiness of your family, and for the progress of society, take action now, pay attention to health, and create a better future together!

Author: Pan Changlu

Reviewer: Yang Wenli