Article 39: Emotional Regulation, Preventing Obesity in Extraordinary Times, and New Concepts in Exercise

The stability of a person's mental state is often key to the success of their weight loss efforts. Many obese individuals initially feel embarrassed but actively participate in weight loss programs. However, they often fail to achieve good results and eventually give up, or even become despondent and stop making any further efforts to lose weight.

Therefore, those trying to lose weight need to manage their mindset and emotions and never give up easily. First and foremost, it's important to understand that losing weight is a perfectly valid thing; it can make you fitter, healthier, and happier. Making the decision to lose weight is admirable, and sticking to it long-term is even more admirable.

Secondly, there are countless ways to lose weight, but all require great perseverance and willpower to be effective. To ensure your willpower lasts, try this: ① When starting your weight loss journey, weigh yourself at the same time every two weeks using the same method. Each small improvement will motivate you to continue, allowing you to experience the satisfaction of success. This will help you develop a habit, stabilize your emotions, and happily stick to your weight loss plan.

② If weight loss is not significant or shows signs of relapse, this is the most frustrating thing, often causing people to lose their determination to lose weight. At this time, it's crucial not to be impatient and to learn to control your emotions. Everyone can influence their own emotions; as long as you strengthen your willpower, consciously control yourself, and make psychological adjustments, you can try to stabilize your emotions, reflect on whether your weight loss methods are suitable, consult a doctor about any shortcomings, and continue losing weight. Ultimately, you will succeed.

③ Finally, don't view weight loss as something restrictive. The more you try to restrict yourself, the more you'll remember the deliciousness of food and the bitterness and hardship of weight loss. You should think of controlling your food intake as a necessary part of weight loss, and focus on the joy of successful weight loss. Furthermore, never relax your efforts just because you've seen results. You must maintain good lifestyle habits for life to consolidate your weight loss achievements and strive for a brighter future.

Modern people all desire a slim figure and robust physique. Therefore, it's essential to understand some basic knowledge about preventing obesity, especially during periods when weight gain is more likely. Research indicates that the following periods are times that people wishing to maintain their figure should pay attention to.

(1) When experiencing setbacks: Once misfortune or setbacks occur, emotional tension may arise, or one may feel anxious, suffer from insomnia, or frequently feel guilty. This can easily lead to vagus nerve excitation, increased insulin secretion, and accelerated fat synthesis and metabolism, manifesting as a strong feeling of hunger. This can lead to excessive and rapid eating, resulting in obesity.

In addition, some people with mild to moderate obesity experience intentional or unintentional ridicule and cold treatment from others, which leads to feelings of inferiority. They become even less inclined to participate in various social activities and physical exercise, and some even turn to overeating and drinking to seek mental comfort, resulting in becoming increasingly obese and forming a vicious cycle.

(2) After stopping exercise: With the improvement of living standards and changes in lifestyle, more and more people have switched from heavy physical labor to light physical labor, which easily leads to insufficient exercise.

In particular, when athletes stop their athletic careers, or when some people reduce their exercise due to age, or due to illnesses such as tuberculosis, chronic hepatitis, fractures, or long-term flare-ups of chronic bronchitis, they can no longer participate in sports, which will gradually lead to obesity.

If external factors prevent you from participating in physical exercise, you should still do some light activities in bed, appropriately reduce your calorie intake, eat more whole-grain foods and foods high in fiber, and control your weight.

(3) Postpartum lactation period: In order to meet the energy needs of breastfeeding, women generally gain weight and increase body fat storage during pregnancy. However, most of this weight gain will return to normal after the lactation period.

However, in real life, many women experience rapid weight gain during the postpartum breastfeeding period, leading to various physical inconveniences. The reason is that during the several months of breastfeeding, physical activity is significantly reduced. In addition, spending all day at home with the baby means that many tempting foods are readily available, which they grab and eat without thinking. With nothing else to do, hunger strikes quickly, and they eat more.

To avoid rapid postpartum weight gain, one method is to replace refined foods with whole grains, and eat more fiber-rich fruits and whole-wheat bread. Another method is to be more active, the simplest way being to take the baby out for walks more often. This is good for your own weight and allows the baby to get more sunlight and fresh air, which is also beneficial for future generations.

(4) When meals are irregular: Irregular meals refer to the fact that the number of meals and the time of meals are not fixed. Due to the long fasting period, the body's internal food storage function is actively mobilized, resulting in excessive absorption when eating again.

In addition, when a person is hungry, their body temperature drops, and the body maintains its weight by reducing physical activity and suppressing energy consumption. As energy consumption is suppressed, it is stored as fat. Conversely, when a large meal is consumed, the body's digestive and absorptive functions are abnormally active, and excess sugar is converted into fat for storage.

Some businessmen gain weight not necessarily because they eat too much, but also because of irregular mealtimes.

(1) Muscle activity requires a lot of energy. This is a feasible way to consume excess energy and promote fat burning. Exercise can increase the metabolic rate, which increases with the amount of exercise.

In addition, exercise can act as a stimulus for fat consumption, promoting fat metabolism through neurohumoral regulation. The main factors affecting the body's energy expenditure are biological factors (the type of muscle fiber structure), physical exercise, and environmental factors. Physical activity is one of the important factors affecting energy balance. Physical activity is negatively correlated with body mass index (BMI).

Studies show that obesity is not common among competitive athletes, but weight gain is common after their athletic careers end. The obesity rate rises with declining physical activity levels and increased sedentary lifestyles. The amount of time teenagers spend watching television can be an indicator of body mass index (BMI) increases several years later; increased low-intensity recreational activity predicts a significant weight gain within the next five years.

Exercise can influence the body's energy requirements and its ability to consume and select food. In short, improved physical fitness after exercise can alleviate various discomforts caused by obesity, especially in the elderly, and can further increase the energy expenditure from voluntary movement. Therefore, regular physical exercise can prevent the positive increase in the body's energy balance under modern living conditions.

(2) Exercise can lower blood lipids, reducing blood cholesterol and triglycerides. After physical exercise, the body undergoes adaptive changes, the most important of which is an increased ability to utilize fat, especially after prolonged physical exercise.

Obese individuals who regularly engage in moderate-intensity physical exercise can maintain a balance between fat content and energy intake even when consuming meals containing up to 40% fat. In contrast, those leading a sedentary lifestyle can only maintain a balance of energy intake when consuming meals containing less than 20% fat.

This is because regular physical exercise increases muscle mass, and the body primarily consumes fat for energy, thus increasing fat consumption and promoting energy balance.

The body's ability to utilize fat varies depending on the intensity of physical activity among obese individuals. During strenuous exercise, muscles primarily rely on the breakdown of glycogen and glucose for energy; while during endurance exercise, muscles mainly rely on fat for energy. Multiple short bursts of intense exercise are more effective at stimulating the body to utilize fat than prolonged, low-intensity physical activity.

Because muscle fat burning occurs not only during exercise but also continues afterward, the amount of fat burned is directly proportional to the intensity and duration of physical activity.

(3) Exercise helps improve myocardial metabolism, thereby improving myocardial working capacity, strengthening myocardial contractility, and enhancing the cardiovascular system's ability to adapt to physical load in obese individuals, reducing cardiac load, and thus improving the function of the entire human vascular system.

(4) Exercise can enhance breathing power, increase the range of motion of the chest and lung capacity, improve lung ventilation and gas exchange function, accelerate gas exchange, and help to oxidize and burn more excess fat.

(5) Exercise can improve the regulatory function of abdominal visceral activity, enhance gastrointestinal motility and blood circulation, and reduce complications such as abdominal distension, constipation, varicose veins of the lower extremities, hemorrhoids, and drowsiness.

(6) Exercise can adjust the activity state of the cerebral cortex, make people feel energetic, improve their enthusiasm, and enhance their confidence in overcoming diseases.

Obese individuals should undergo a medical examination before starting exercise therapy to determine their suitability. If the doctor deems it appropriate, a preparation period of approximately 10-14 days is recommended before commencing exercise.

Obese individuals may experience discomfort when suddenly starting exercise therapy, such as difficulty breathing, palpitations, and fatigue. In this case, they can engage in light exercises to adjust their breathing and gradually strengthen their cardiovascular function.

Once you've adapted to physical activity, to lose weight, you should gradually transition to exercises that focus on high-intensity muscle training and long-duration endurance training. The principle for choosing exercises is to select those that are suitable for your physical condition.

Generally, the following points should be considered: ① Choose based on your own preferences and existing exercise habits. ② Consider your physical condition and obesity level. ③ Consider the surrounding environment. ④ The choice of exercise intensity should be based on specific circumstances; each obese person should consider their existing exercise habits, physical condition, and adaptability to exercise. For elderly obese women, walking and jogging are particularly recommended as good weight loss exercises.

Some women have uneven weight gain, with obesity protruding in one area. For this type of obesity, gymnastics exercises can be used to achieve weight loss. Exercise therapy is a proactive weight loss method. Like dieting, it requires strong willpower and perseverance to be effective.

(1) Exercise should be enjoyable, fun, and rewarding. Intense exercise can cause shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, or intolerance to heat and sweating, making it difficult to feel happy and comfortable. Therefore, exercise should be moderate, based on the level at which you can still talk to your partner while exercising. The skill level or difficulty of the exercise should not be too high, so as not to cause the person trying to lose weight to feel frustrated and unsuccessful.

(2) Exercise should be done anytime and anywhere. The basic principle is to increase opportunities for physical activity and reduce sedentary lifestyles. Watch 30 minutes less TV each day and take a half-hour walk; sleep 1 hour less each day and spend 1 hour more chatting with friends or shopping, preferably spending time at a sports center or fitness club. Choose some exercises that suit you, such as step stools, which are a great home exercise that doesn't take up much space and is convenient to do at home.

(3) Lowering insulin levels. For the body to burn fat, insulin levels, which regulate fat metabolism, should drop to a low level. Therefore, exercise for weight loss should last at least 15 minutes. This is because in the first 5 minutes, the energy needed for exercise comes from blood sugar and glycogen, not fat. After that, insulin levels drop, fat is released for metabolism, and this "burning" effect is only achieved under sufficient oxygen conditions.

(4) Reduce the proportion of fat in total body weight. Muscle training is essential for weight loss through exercise. Increasing muscle mass not only improves athletic performance but also increases the resting metabolic rate, thereby increasing daily energy expenditure and reducing the chance of fat accumulation. Additionally, it's important to incorporate exercises that improve cardiovascular function, such as running, hiking, swimming, and cycling.