Some people are born lean, while some unlucky people are deemed to be fat. This is a simple truth. Your genes determine your fate. In this case, the life long struggle of shedding extra body weight is your unfortunate reality.

But there is no need to feel depressed. Think about it, more than two thirds of the whole population are suffering the same fate as you do. In fact, evolutionally, it is us who have the advantage of surviving the frequent famine just 200 hundred years ago. During the period of starvation, our stored fat saved us. It is lucky that those evolutionally disadvantageous thin people can ever survive. Sadly, the wheel has turned. It is now those lean people are evolutionally advantageous in this affluent society, while we heavy people slide down to a hellish state.

To fight against the genetically determined tendency of gaining weight, there are only two methods. Both are excruciating. One is to increase energy expenditure, for example, through tedious exercise, and the other is to decrease energy intake by dieting. The latter is much more efficient.

Why is dieting more efficient?

The answer is simple. For a person with energy requirement of 2000 kcal, if the person switches to a low calorie diet, say 1400 kcal, the 600 kcal difference amounts to that of running more than 5 miles every day at a speed of 12min/mile. I can safely claim that very few people can persistently exercise like that every day. It is just impractical.

On the other hand, most people who undergo calorie restriction can achieve this after a couple weeks of adaptation. That’s the reason that dieting is so popular in weight loss program.

Indeed, numerous studies (not those Atkins diet stuff) suggest that restricting calorie intake for six month can reduce weight by 10%, while increasing exercise along only reduces about 2% weight. Certainly, combining calorie restriction and increasing physical activity yields the best weight loss result. It not only loses weight quickly and efficiently but also improves the overall physical fitness. This is the strategy I am taking right now.

My weight loss program consists of a low calorie intake plan. Studies have shown that a low calorie diet (800-1200kcal) is safe, manageable, and effective. In the long run (for example, six month), the overall weight loss is similar to those who adopt the very low calorie diet (less than 800 kcal) which requires physician supervision and may have more unfavorable side effects.

I have some humble suggestions regarding the tens of if not hundreds of diets on the market. To be honest, I don’t know which diet is the best because I generally don’t trust those diets not fully based on scientific research. Instead, I have designed my own dieting plan based on dietary recommendations and guidelines from government research agencies.

In my first week of dieting, I reduced my energy intake from baseline 2000kcal per day to 1700 kcal, simply by eliminating morning egg and night snacks. In addition, I gradually cut back my fat intake by reducing the portion size of meat products. By the second week, I started with half size meat pieces and more vegetables. The calories were reduced to about 1500kcal per day. I watched my energy intake closely, and by the third week (this week), I was on a 1000-1200kcal diet already.

This transition is by no means smooth. Since the second week, I constantly felt hungry and my stomach protested vehemently. Late in the second week I even developed some slight diarrhea. I am not sure why that happened. I worried but stuck on my plan. I believe the diarrhea is one way of body adaptation. I took medicine to reduce gastric acid. I drank a lot of water to alleviate the stomach pain. I keep my fingers crossed.

In this week, although I am on a more strict diet, the hunger feeling is not as severe as before and I didn’t have diarrhea anymore. Things are getting better.

As all dieters have experienced, temptations from delicious foods are unavoidable and we deemed to have some lapses. This Monday, when my wife served me my favorite steam buns, I just couldn’t control myself and I ate four of them in addition to my regular meal. It was not a lot of calories but I felt sort of being defeated. Yesterday evening, I ate two extra pieces of meat just because I craved them so much. I felt bad thereafter. However, I still have confidence that I can stick to my dietary plan. It just needs more work.

Last week I talked to my parents about the diet. My father joked that they were so unfortunate because when they were young, they couldn’t afford any meat; but now when they can afford it, they can’t eat them. In their whole life, they never ate meat two days in a row (except during spring festivals, of course). I comforted them by telling him that because I have been eating meat every day, now I have to switch to a no-meat diet and have to run every day to lose weight. It is not fun, I assured him.

Yes, for my parent generation, their diet was always less than 1500 kcal per day. They suffered lot. And now, I have to live on that type of diet for another reason. What a life!