Dietary Guidelines for Staple Food Adjustment Days: Calcium Supplementation and Weight Loss Prevention, Selection of High-Quality Protein, and Practical Techniques for Avoiding Starch Traps
Second, while eating cheese to supplement calcium, it's important to control calorie intake. Calcium helps in bone and teeth formation, aids in muscle growth and contraction, and participates in the activation of certain enzymes, thus having multiple functions. Foreign studies have found that increased calcium intake can also help with fat metabolism. However, dieters shouldn't overindulge in cheese to supplement calcium, as cheese is actually very high in calories when considered as concentrated milk. For dieters who typically eat a light diet (such as those controlling their calorie intake with boiled vegetables or high-fiber rice), their calcium requirement may be less than the adult's daily requirement of 1000 mg.
If you want a balanced diet that can replace regular calories, we don't object to eating a slice of cheese a day to supplement calcium. When aiming for calcium intake, it's best to choose low-fat, high-calcium foods; four servings a day is sufficient. Milk is the best source of calcium and has a high absorption rate; however, it's best to choose low-fat products, such as skim milk or low-fat cheese. Other good choices include legumes, tofu, dairy products, broccoli, kale, and seaweed.
Third, if you want to eat staple foods, you can only make an exception for one meal. For those who feel unsatisfied without rice or noodles, those who don't want others to know they are on a diet, or those who have unavoidable social engagements that day, it's okay to eat one meal of starchy staple foods, but not two in a row; otherwise, the weight loss effect will be less than ideal. If you find the weight loss results unsatisfactory the next day because you ate starchy foods the day before, you can try another meal.
The most common difficulty encountered by people starting to implement "staple food adjustments" is the question, "If I don't eat starches, what should I eat?" This is mainly because takeout meals, business lunches, social engagements, or dinners at home inevitably include staple foods. If you deliberately avoid them, you'll feel hungry and weak. So what should you do? There are three best times to implement staple food adjustments: for women, it's the day after menstruation ends; for women, it's the day they lose weight (the "easy weight loss day") based on their weekly weight measurement results; or you can choose any day as your easy weight loss day and implement the staple food adjustments on that day.
Limiting your intake of sugary foods to a single day isn't difficult; you can try to do the following:
Increase your intake of calcium-rich foods. Drink low-fat or skim milk, and eat cheese, legumes, or calcium-rich dried fish. Use less oil in your cooking. If you must eat fried foods, try to eat them before the afternoon. When eating fried chicken cutlets, remember to peel off the outermost layer that absorbs the most oil before eating the meat.
Choose protein. Make sure to eat plenty of protein. When you're not eating staple foods like noodles or rice, meat is the main source of satiety, but cooking should be light and simple. Eat plenty of vegetables. Eat plenty of warm vegetables and consciously consume fiber to increase your metabolic rate. Vegetables are the best source of minerals and fiber, but cooking should still be done with minimal oil.
Potatoes are edible, but should not be cooked with oil. Although potatoes are a starchy staple food, they are rich in important nutrients and vitamin C.
Therefore, you can choose one of these as a side dish. However, try to eat whole cooked potatoes, such as baked whole potatoes or mashed potatoes, and avoid fried potatoes. Don't eat overly sweet fruit after meals. Be careful with overly sweet fruits; fruits with too much sugar will halve the effectiveness of calorie control. If you want to eat fruit, choose varieties high in fiber and vitamin C, such as tomatoes, guavas, and dragon fruit.
Avoid elaborate desserts. In this rule, desserts are considered part of the main course. If possible, avoid tempting cakes, pastries, and other afternoon tea treats. Do not drink sugary beverages. Avoid consuming large amounts of sugary drinks served with meals. If you want a beverage after a meal, choose a sugar-free one; otherwise, drink plenty of water. If absolutely necessary, you can have one starchy main course. Those who must eat a main course can choose to have it at one meal, but must ensure it is not eaten two consecutive times.
How should people who frequently eat out manage their meals? On "staple food adjustment days," limit your intake of starchy foods and sweets, which are primarily carbohydrates. Actually, there are some tricks to skipping staple foods. For example, when going to a buffet, don't order rice; instead, choose to eat more lean pork chops, skinless chicken legs, plenty of vegetables, and drink several bowls of seaweed soup-you'll still feel satisfied. When having a business lunch at a Western restaurant, you can give the complimentary puff pastry soup and bread rolls to others, and finish all the meat dishes yourself. Alternatively, you can pay the difference for an extra salad. When ordering takeout, don't eat rice (you can tell the restaurant not to serve rice, or to serve less). Some people, when following this rule, simply order two takeout meals and only eat all the side dishes without touching the rice.
If you absolutely must eat rice, feel like you're going hungry if you don't eat rice, or don't want others to know you're dieting (especially if you're a woman looking to create a stunning miracle), you can choose to eat staple food at lunch but avoid it at dinner. By controlling your staple food intake for two consecutive days, you can still achieve the effect of losing one kilogram.