Sunny Health

Research indicates that what you eat is a greater determining factor for weight loss than exercise.

Here are some types of food that are not only low in calories, but are fat burners! They’re also easy to incorporate into your daily diet as well.

Whole grains

The body burns more calories to break down whole foods as compared to processed foods. Examples of whole foods include oatmeal and brown rice. If rice is a staple food for your dinner, replacing white rice with brown rice is half the battle won!

Lean meat

Watching your diet doesn’t mean cutting down on meat. Yes you should cut down on fatty meat, but proteins are essential to growth and repair, and meat is a good source of protein. Additionally, protein has a high thermogenic effect. You burn calories digesting it!

Low-fat dairy products

Dairy products are rich sources of calcium, and they help to preserve and build muscle mass from the food you consume. Strong muscles also promote higher metabolism, which is essential in turning fat into energy. Just be sure to stick to low fat ones!

Green Tea

According to an article published in the “Journal for Nurse Practitioners" in 2010, green tea supports weight-loss efforts through reducing appetite and boosting metabolism. This is further supported by a report by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition which states that drinking four cups of green tea a day helped people shed more than six pounds in eight weeks. They probably accomplished a calorie deficit with a healthy diet including green tea and ample physical activity though, so don’t assume you can simply chug green tea to get the figure you want. Sugarless hot green tea is much more effective than processed green tea with sugar added.

Spice

Contrary to what some advocators of spicy food for weight loss believe, it is not quite possible that spicy food helps with weight loss by ‘melting’ fat away. But it does curb hunger pangs and reduces your desire for salty, sweet and fatty foods. Additionally, heat and energy often go together, and spicy food helps to increase energy expenditure. Go for pure spices like chilli peppers and capsicum, which you can easily include as a side dish, not chilli sauce or chilli paste. This is not an excuse to binge on laksa and curry, whose calorie content outweigh the benefits of spice.

“I’ll just exercise more tomorrow.”

This is a favourite excuse to resort to when we can’t curb our inner devil to resist sinful delicacies. Unfortunately, the British Journal of Sports Magazine has negated the effectiveness of this solution by publishing an article that an unhealthy diet consisting of high levels of sugar and carbohydrates is the main reason for obesity. The main way to effectively lose weight is to maintain a healthy diet.

This journal was published in reiteration to the food industry’s shaping of public perception that obesity is entirely due to lack of exercise. The constant trumpeting on how it is all right to eat unhealthy treats with regular exercise has also been misleading.

If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. If exercise alone was so effective for losing weight, athletes and celebrities, who often train under a strict regime, would not have to adhere to a an equally strict diet to maintain their fitness levels and figures. Meanwhile, we had professional footballers like Brazil’s Ronaldo, who, despite having undoubtedly spent a lot of time on football training, managed to get a paunch and chubby appearance due to his partying ways. That would also solve the mystery as to why some people who don’t seem very physically active remain svelte.


Of course, that is not to say that one should stop exercising. Between physical inactivity and eating unhealthily, the latter is the greater of both evils, and contributes more towards weight gain. However, exercise reaps many benefits like emotional wellness, reduces the risks of cardiovascular diseases, some chronic illnesses and cancers, and keeps your body in a better shape and condition, allowing you to safely enjoy a greater range of physical activities. Exercise will also increase metabolic rate (ability of the body to use up your carbs), and high-intense activities will divert fat cells towards muscle repair and growth. These will indirectly stimulate weight loss.

Keep doing those fitness plans to be fit and healthy, but don’t use them as an excuse to go on an eating binge.

Stay tuned for the next post for advice on healthy eating. It’s not as unpleasant or difficult as you might imagine!

• Obsession with body image or weight
• Avoiding social situations where there is food involved
• Excessive exercising
• Dieting even when thin
• Going to the bathroom frequently right after meals
• Social withdrawal
• Moodiness and irritability
• Eating a lot when stressed or unhappy. This tends to end in the toilet when all the food is being vomited out due to guilt.

• Drastic changes in weight
• Looking ill
• Dry and brittle hair
• Loss of menstrual period in girls
• Blisters on knuckles and fingers from sticking fingers down their throats

Singapore General Hospital Eating Disorders Programme (Tel: 6321 4377)
Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) Eating Disorders Helpline: 1800-774-5935
Singapore Association of Mental Health (Support for Eating Disorders Singapore SEDS) Helpline: 1800 283 7019

Other sources:

These days, Singaporeans are making visible attempts to become more health-conscious. Many nationwide marathons and sports events are held in Singapore, often receiving huge turn outs. HDB residents are happy to utilise the exercise corners below their flats to work out regularly. It is a common sight to see people jogging and cycling in the parks and around the HDB estates. Yet obesity is a pressing problem, and the belly fat phenomenon remains the bane of office workers who spend the bulk of their office hours glued to their computers.

Fats are being stored in our body as a form of reserved energy, to be used during times of need like famine. However, when too much fats are stored and we are not active enough to burn off those stored energy, we pile on the fat.

The fats accumulated around our waist are the effects from eating too much unhealthy food. Much of our diet in today’s day and age contains a high content of refined sugars, trans fat, saturated fat and refined carbohydrates. When consumed, these fats are stored around our body, mostly under our skin. But the fats that are stored at our tummy area surrounds the stomach organ and cannot be burnt off easily.


Foods to avoid
Many of our favourite foods tend to be those that are high in fat, sugar or both. These include fast foods, unhealthy snacks and pastries. Fatty meats, such as steaks, lamb, hot dogs, pepperoni and bacon, are high in saturated fat, a fat form linked to an increased risk for obesity and heart disease.
Foods high in sodium, also known as salt, is also one of the culprits that cause us to put on weight. While taking in salt won’t make you accumulate fat, the salt inflates the fat cells with water, making us feel and look bloated. This results in what is commonly known as water retention.

What should we eat?

We should eat foods by the appropriate serving size according to the food type. Use the food pyramid below as a guide.

The New Year will be here in a few hours! What are your resolutions? Like most girls, to lose some weight is one of my dearest New Year resolutions. However, it is very important to lose weight healthily and gradually. You wouldn’t want to fall ill or have wrinkly skin from crash diets and starvation!

Here are some common myths pertaining to weight loss! Get your facts right and you’ll be able to draw up an effective weight loss plan for the new year!

Myth: I can slim down quickly by only eating vegetables and fruits

Truth: Research indicates that there are fewer obese vegetarians in comparison to non-vegetarians. However, if you intend to turn vegetarian, you must plan your diet carefully to ensure that you do not leave out any types of nutrition essential to your wellbeing. Vegetables and fruits alone will not provide you with all your body’s necessities, such as iron, calcium, vitamin D, VitaminB12, Zinc and animal protein. So be sure to include non-vegetable foods that contain these in your diet.

Foods rich in iron: Cashew, Spinach, Bean products, black fungus
Foods rich in calcium: Diary products, soybean products, tofu, rice, flour, spinach, cabbage
Foods rich in Vitamin D: Skim milk, cheese, nuts
Foods rich in Vitamin B12: Soya bean, Tofu
Foods rich in zinc: Bean products, peanuts, rice, carrot, cabbage

Not all meat is fattening. You can also include lean meats in your diet.

Myth: High impact exercises will turn me into muscle woman

Truth: High-impact exercises like weight-lifting, sit-ups, push-ups etc are good for weight loss. They also tone your muscles. It’s not so easy to turn into a muscle woman. Doing high-impact exercises for a few minutes twice or thrice a week won’t generate so much muscle. You get hard muscles, not big ones. Athletes on the other hand, exercise vigorously on a daily basis so small wonder that they develop muscles!

You can do medium-impact activities on a daily basis, such as 30 minutes of brisk walking a day, and inculcate sit ups, push-ups and weight-lifting into your exercise regime thrice weekly.

Myth: Eating food containing starch will make me fat

Truth: A lot of food products contain starch, so if that was true, there would be a lot more overweight people in the world! Food like bread, rice, spaghetti, oats, soya bean, potatoes, even fruits are rich in starch, but they contain little calories. Overeating such food or adding all sorts of sweet and fattening ingredients are the reasons why people seem to get fat from it.

Myth: People who claim they can eat anything they like without getting fat are liars!

Truth: Pretty sure most of them are being honest as there isn’t much point in lying about such matters. The lucky ones can count on their high metabolism rate to utilize energy fast so it doesn’t stay in their body and become fats. Others just do lots of exercise to burn off the energy. If you don’t have illnesses, you are pretty much free to eat any sinful food without worrying as long as the amount of calories you consume is equivalent or under what you can burn off. And of course, eat with moderation.

Myth: Cutting down 1 or 2 meals a day is an efficient way of losing weight

Truth: Research indicates that people who skip breakfast and meals are more likely to become fatter than those who eat 4 meals (breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner) a day. Eating little at each meal helps to contain your appetite, whereas skipping meals, especially breakfast, only makes you ravenous and over eat for the next meal.

In short, don’t skip any meal, but keep your servings small.

Myth: Fast food must stay outta my sight if I want to lose weight!

Truth: While most fast food is indeed unhealthy, there is no need to avoid it like plague. Depending on what you choose to eat, fast food isn’t so scary!

Don’t choose the set meals. One burger and drink are usually sufficiently filling for most people, especially girls. You really don’t need fries or mash potato to go with it. Going ala carte is the best way to prevent yourself from eating more than you need, or share the meal with your friend. Choose skimmed milk, tea or plain water in place of soft drinks. Choose a salad to go with your meal.

Myth: Eating after 8pm will make me fat

Truth: Putting on weight isn’t related to when you eat, but rather, how much energy you consume. People put on weight when they eat at night because they tend to consume extra energy that they do not need, such as TV snacks and supper. However, it is still good to avoid eating late at night because it disrupts your sleep by overworking your digestive system.

Myth: Diary products contain fats and are unhealthy

Truth: Diary products are necessities because of their calcium content and shouldn’t be avoided just because they contain higher fat content. Choose skimmed products instead, these contain less fat while still retaining equal nutrition value. The downside is that it doesn’t taste so good.

Myth: I'll just starve myself until I lose weight which won't take long, and then I can easily get back to eating proper meals!

Truth: Never go on crash diets or low calorie diets. They may produce results within a short amount of time, but having been put on a stringent diet for a long time, most people fall back to their past eating habits, even binging on the unhealthy stuff because they’ve missed it so much. And thus it’s back to square one. Worst, food ends up putting some people off and as a result, succumb to illnesses like anorexia or bulimia. Unnaturally quick weight loss (3 kg and above within a fortnight) results in gallstones. If your daily energy intake is less than 800 calories, you may contract heart diseases in the future.

The best way to lose weight is to exercise regularly, eat small but regular meals and eat unhealthy food in moderation. If you’re enjoying your weight loss regime, you’ll stick by it!

Good luck and Happy New Year!

My best friend always gets agitated when we’re eating together. The reason being she can gobble down her sandwich in less than 5 minutes while I take my time to savour it and finish in no less than 10 minutes. Apparently waiting for me for another 5 more minutes means life or death to her. I try to explain to her over and over again why I eat slowly, but it just gets her more agitated.

Well. Here are the facts, standing at 1.76 m and weighing close to 80kg, my best friend is a significantly bigger person than me. I on the other hand stand at 1.56m and weigh less than 50kg. Now, I don’t mean to brag, but the facts are clear and I am physically lighter than her. I do attribute this to many of my other healthier habits, however, eating slow, I believe, has helped me maintain my lighter weight.

Not interested in weight loss? Well here are some other reasons why you should eat slower:

1. Portion Control
Eating slowly helps you with your portion control. Eating slower helps you feel full easier, It is suggested that it takes about 20 minutes for you stomach to produce the hormones telling your brain that you are full.

2. Weight Control
Japanese researchers have found strong positive correlation between higher eating speed and obesity.

3. Other than taking up a little more time, eating slowly really does not have any disadvantages. It does not have any negative effects on your health and can really bring you a number of benefits without extra cost

4. By eating slowly you will be able to appreciate your food better. You can enjoy the textures, foods and flavours of the food you eat.


5. Eating slowly aids digestion. Eating slowly allows the food to be chewed into smaller pieces while saliva continues to break it down. This makes the food easier to digest.

6. It will lessen the chance of heartburn. Eating food quickly may cause a type of indigestion called gastroesophageal reflux.

So why not spend more of that 10 minutes (if you can afford it, but how many of us dare say we can’t?) enjoying the simple pleasures of life. Eating is a simple luxury that many of us forget we have. Truly, get to know that sandwich or that bowl of wanton mee today.

Obesity is linked to many things. One of those things is cancer.

In 2002, about 41,000 new cases of cancer in the United States were estimated to be due to obesity.

There have been numerous reports on this subject, and there is a general consensus now among many doctors that preventing weight gain can reduce the risk of many cancers.

If you are already overweight or obese, do try to shed that excess fat through adopting a healthy, low-calorie diet and regular exercise. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be able to offer some ideas on how you can do so, so watch out for it.

Even a weight loss of only five to 10 percent of total weight can provide health benefits. So don't wait any longer.. act to ensure that your life is free of cancer!

References:

http://www.cancer.gov