Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
You're listening to Roundtable.
I'm Niu Honglin, joined by Steve and Yushan.
For years, the internet has promised that weight loss can be hacked through timing tricks, liquid cleanses or carb-free weeks that seem to define biology itself.
But behind the glossy videos and before and after photos, doctors are seeing a very different picture.
Emergency room visits, collapsing metabolisms and diets lifted from social media rather than science.
Today we look at why these fast fixes are failing, what new research actually tells us about hunger and health, and how a responsible, long-term approach differs from what the algorithm rewards.
If your feed looks anything like mine, you have probably been told that all you need for abs is skip breakfast, skip carbs, skip chewing and maybe skip joy after all all together.
But What if the miracle method you saved last night is less of a wellness trick and more of a wellness trap?
Today, we break down the diets that go viral and the realities that don't.
Let's determine.
Are you on the right track to be fit and healthy?
Or are you treating your body like short-term experiments?
And Gudi has charged ID.
Do some crazy diets.
I'll share that personal experience a bit later.
But what is going on?
Why are we talking about this?
Any serious... things happening with people using or practicing these diets?
Well, yeah.
There's one recent news happening on a Beijing resident named Ms.
Zhang.
So Ms.
Zhang, she's been following a viral liquid-only diet.
They call it a diet, but apparently in Ms.
Zhang's case.
That caused her emergency trip to the hospital, which led to a blackout at her office desk.
Very serious.
Meaning that liquid-only That she doesn't take any food.
She just take water as a way of survival.
Oh, you did?
I did.
When I was in college, I tried it for a week.
Couldn't bear.
But the idea is that you still consume kind of like carb because there's sugar in the liquid form of food you take.
Yeah.
And also, but I think at that time it was because I couldn't stand not chewing things.
But I tried it, but it was not that serious for me, but definitely not for everybody.
I had never heard of this before so I looked it up and I'm not sure if this is what Miss Zhang was doing the lady from the news but a full liquid diet is where you only consume liquids or foods that turn into liquid at room temperature.
For example, like yogurt or strained soups or fruit juice or ice cream or milkshakes.
Yeah, so there's a lot of sugar and some carbs in some of the things.
There's a reason for a diet like this because it can help with recovery from gastrointestinal procedures.
Also the management of difficulties with chewing and swallowing.
Maybe if you had some sort of jaw surgery, something like that, where you had difficulty chewing, then a diet like this can be beneficial to you.
But it puts stress on your digestive system over a period of time and you really really have to be careful to make sure that you're getting the nutritional needs for your body.
So a diet like this yes, sometimes yes, sometimes no, but it can be dangerous when used ineffectively, just like it did for Ms.
Chang.
Yeah, and experts are all urging people to be very cautious when you try diets like this, because they can really lead to serious problems like nutrient deficiencies, electrolytes imbalances, and add up strain on the heart, the liver, and the kidneys.
And that's all citing from Dr Liu Pengzhu, who is the deputy chief physician in clinical nutrition at Peking Union Medical College Hospital.
And Dr. Liu, he even specifically mentioned this case where Ms.
Zhang kind of blacked out at her office.
So this type of diet the liquid fasting diet kind of require people to consume mainly liquids, like you mentioned earlier Steve, or foods that are liquid before processing, which means that the energy intake is extremely low, which can be an extreme form of dieting, and sticking to it for too long can really disrupt your health, your just general behave and your whole person's functioning.
Yeah, um they.
They can be dangerous, as we said before, or without using them in the proper way, and that's why, back in april, there was a press conference that was held by the national health commission, and it was there that experts publicly advised against some of these weight loss trends, for example, keto diets or the liquid fasting, meal replacement based weight loss plans.
They were all mentioned on in that meeting, suggesting that they come with significant health risks.
And part of the risk too, is that when we go online and we see these diet recommendations from influencers who look like they're the ultimate success story from these diets, they're kind of suggesting that All of these diets might be perfect for everyone.
But that's not the case.
A lot of experts have talked about this.
And one of the key points is that, even though there are plenty of trendy and Internet famous weight loss methods out there, none of them work for everyone.
It might one might work for you, but it might not work for your friend.
Everybody's body is different and that needs to be taken into account.
Then let's take a look at these crazy choices.
For example, I personally have tried the 16 plus 8 plan.
Oh, that's the intermittent fasting, right?
Yes.
The idea is that you only eat within an 8-hour window and fast for the remaining 16 hours.
And remember, I am not someone, I'm not the morning person.
That is why sometimes my eating period starts from 12 o'clock at noon till around 8, eight o'clock at night.
It worked somehow for me, but I doubt my diet or my eating routine was that healthy.
You know, when I first heard about 16 plus eight, as we mentioned it for the first time on the meeting, I was like oh, that sounds healthy.
You eat for 16 hours and sleep for eight.
That's how I do it.
But yeah, now I understand it's the other way around.
And that in research that's reported by various medias, BBC included.
Some researchers looking at data from more than 1900 adults found that people who ate within less than eight hours a day actually had a much higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
That's up to 135% higher compared with those who spread their meals over 12 to 14 hours.
That's really eating for 16 hours plus eight hours of sleep.
So is it really that helpful?
It can be, but still rising up the risks for our body to take up more pressure, especially for the heart and cardiovascular.
It's not for everyone.
Experts will say for pregnant or breastfeeding women, for children and teenagers, older adults or anyone with any kind of underlying health issues, then the intermittent fasting method might not be for you, but it can be you.
I had a friend.
He was a young guy at the time.
He was about maybe 34 35 years old and he had a serious hip issue and it had bothered him for years and he had tried so many different methods to try to take care of this and for some reason he thought intermittent fasting because he had done a tremendous amount of research on this and it worked for him.
He couldn't believe it.
So for him it worked, but he was really responsible about Doing it the right way.
And I think we could say this about all the things we're going to talk about today.
If you do it the right way, it can work for you.
One of the dangers of intermittent fasting, you have that eight hour window to eat.
A lot of people will do it noon to eight like you did.
But what if you only eat ice cream and pizza?
Because you're thinking because it's an easy mistake to make, right?
Because you're thinking, OK, this is my window.
That was one happy day.
You gorge, right?
You gorge on really unhealthy foods and that is not going to be good for you at all.
Okay, next up.
What about carb restriction?
Is it good for you?
Because I tried it a little bit and have to admit the reason I gave it up was because during my pregnancy several years ago, I was told by the doctors that when you do this, your body because the lack of carb in your blood and in your body, your body would assume that you're under a certain kind of famine and it's not the right stage to give birth.
It will hurt the baby.
Why have you tried all of this?
Like I said, for now. experiment.
Yes, like you said, it's judging by the name.
It's just cutting down on all staple food root vegetables, fruits and anything with carbohydrates.
But if you practice it on a long term, that can really backfire on your body, because eating very few carbs for a long time can make your blood sugar drop too low, causing dizziness or raising heartbeat and poor nutrition, etc.
And if you keep carbs extremely low that's about eight 8 of your daily energy for around three months your blood sugar may swing more sharply than you'd like it to be.
And your insulin level become less responsive, which is something we don't want.
We want our insulin to stay as accurate as it can to get response immediately when there's a blood sugar change.
But if you do it on a long term, cutting on all the carbs, that's going to backfire your own health.
So I'm glad your doctor called a stop for you at the right time.
And actually, the carb restriction one is only restricting the amount amount of carb you take in.
But if you go entirely to no carb, it's a different type of diet.
And it's not a good one.
Your body needs those things, which is why we say be careful.
Have you tried the keto diet before?
No, I cannot.
There are just too many things that I want to eat.
Yeah, this was popular.
I had plenty of friends who were really into this.
This was a big trend about maybe 10 years or so ago.
I'm not sure if it's still as hot as it used to be.
But in the West, anyway, yeah, this was all the rage.
The keto diet came from those big headlines like challenge seven days without carbs, only eat meat.
The caveman style of eating cave person, excuse me.
And it kind of starts out as a curiosity for many people.
Or perhaps your friend is doing it, so you'll try it out too.
But a lot of people will get involved with keto without even really knowing what it involves.
So the diet itself promotes a pattern that's very high in fat that should account for about 70 to 80 percent of your calories and very low in carbs under 50 grams a day and kind of moderate in terms of your protein intake.
And it works by simulating starvation to force the body to burn fat for energy.
So these are only the examples that are common popular, iconic diet that are out there on the internet in the market.
And we're not saying these are definitely going to be super bad for you, even if you only try it for several weeks or under the direction of doctors.
We are saying that they might not all work. be good for you.
And being able to again go under a doctor's advices or understand your body or understand the principles of what is a healthy diet, what are different things do in your body and what are different nutrients are for in your diet is also important, which is why I provided, or I prepared, a little bit of a quiz here to see whether or not we can learn a bit more about going on different type of diets.
So let's try this.
Question number one, both of you.
All calories are equal.
Yes or no?
No.
Steve!
Steve!
One point for Steve.
Okay.
Why?
Well, some are good and some are bad.
You can still get calories from unhealthy carbs and sugars and stuff, but they're still calories, but they're not good calories.
Yes, and they've done an experiment in putting two persons I think they're twins into two separate rooms for a month, I guess.
And the team.
Well, they volunteered, by the way, the team gave them the same the food group that contains the same amount of calories, yet some are perfectly healthy, like vegetable and uh, other type of different types of food, and the other one would be fried chicken, ice cream, bad carb, and even though the calories are equal, they ended up being in different shape, of course.
Yes yes, you ever see that documentary about the guy who only ate The Golden Arches food for one month?
Yeah, I've heard of it.
That didn't really go that well.
All right.
Question number two.
Healthy food is always low calorie.
Steve, no.
Oh, come on.
You know this one.
I thought I was getting in trouble for answering.
No, that is the correct answer.
Yeah, and it's because, for instance nuts, avocados and olive oil they are great for you and also they're calorie dense.
And healthy doesn't mean they are low calorie and also it doesn't mean you should eat unlimitedly.
So yeah, but as a kid who grew up really skinny, I was always the skinny kid, so I was on the opposite end of the spectrum because I was always trying to gain weight.
So yeah, I'm familiar with these foods that are healthy yet also really high in calories.
So if you're trying to put on muscle or put on some extra pounds, those types of foods, like nuts and avocados, for example, can be really beneficial to you all.
Right okay, question number three weight loss is solely about diet and activity exercise.
Go ahead explain, because it's gonna be a holistic lifestyle kind of change that you need to practice in order to Get weight loss and maintain it in the long term.
So other elements, including sleep, your general metabolism control like and, and exercising, and All that combined together Forge a good habit which can be concluded or appear to be a weight loss on your body.
Definitely.
Factors like genetics, sleep quality, chronic stress levels and hormone balances also play significant roles in weight management.
So don't blame on yourself solely.
It has something to do with the genes that you hold.
So everybody has a comfort zone when it comes to your weight and do not push yourself too hard as well.
And, uh, Last question here.
I think it can also be quite interesting.
That is sweating equals to fat burning.
Nope.
Oh, good for you.
I answered unsure.
I think it's a nope.
Because too much sweating can backfire too.
It doesn't always equals weight loss.
See, that is a no, not so very correct explanation, because sweat is just your body cooling itself.
You're losing water, not fat, and that is why you gain the weight back once you rehydrate.
But exercising is definitely a good thing and sweating a little bit would make you freshen up as well and the exercising actions depending on what kind of exercise you're doing, how long have you been doing it?
And uh, I mean one session.
How long is one session?
And how long have you been?
Continue to do it?
For a month, for a year, forever?
Like Steve, who's always very fit.
These would make a huge difference.
Oh, the belly's there.
Trust me.
It's been there forever.
And wish all of us have a healthy diet and healthy lifestyle.
And that brings us to the end of today's roundtable.
Until next time, keep the conversations going and the ideas flowing.
I'm for listening.
Bye-bye.
