‘Thinking’ and ‘Time-Limited Eating’ – Do They Really Work for Weight Loss?
Everyone has heard of 'time-limited dieting', right?
This new trick refers to eating and drinking only for a few hours each day, with fasting during the rest of the time. There are no restrictions on what you eat or how much you eat during the allowed eating time.
For example, limiting eating to 10 hours: start eating breakfast at 9:00 am, and then eat whatever you want in between, but you must finish your last meal before 7:00 pm, and then don't eat anything until the next breakfast.
However, Tech Guy has also heard of diets that require eating to be controlled within 8 or 6 hours. It is said that the shorter the eating time, the faster the weight loss.
Time-limited dieting has recently received support from other research results: in 3 months, overweight and obese people can significantly reduce their weight and waist circumference without increasing exercise. And because the process is extremely painful, this weight loss method has gained high popularity. Many fitness bloggers and KOLs have tried this method and seen significant results.
When people do time-limited dieting, they don't reduce the amount of vegetables and fruits they eat, but they reduce the amount of snacks. Not only is it healthier, but some people's blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels also improve during time-limited dieting. Furthermore, research shows that male amateur regular strength training participants will not experience a decrease in muscle volume and strength when they adopt short-term time-limited dieting.
However, is this method worth sticking with for a long time?
First, although the results of most time-limited dieting studies are gratifying, at the same time, the weight loss effects that are clearly visible are mainly focused on overweight and obese people. A study found that in recent weight-stable normal-bodied participants, reducing the eating time does not reduce weight.
In addition to body shape, most participants' eating time was already long, and they didn't control their calorie intake. So, if you are in normal body shape and your daily eating time is not long, or you are already controlling your calorie intake, time-limited dieting may not have any weight loss effect.
The second weight loss method is quite ridiculous, but I still want to explore whether 'thinking' can help you lose weight.
On the international chess stage, it is reported that elite players were able to consume more than 6000 kcal in one day without leaving their seats.
But this is a very extreme case. When our bodies remain stationary and only maintain basic breathing, digestion, and body temperature, the energy supplied to the brain is as high as 20% - 25%. These energies are mainly in the form of glucose.
For women, this means that the brain consumes 350 kcal per day to help us.
The brain consumes most of its energy to supply the energy used by neurons communicating with each other. Besides, the brain never really rests, even when we sleep, the brain is constantly working, transmitting signals between cells to maintain breathing, digestion and body temperature.
Therefore, for the normal functioning of the brain, starch and sugar are essential nutrients that we must consume daily.
So, when we start a demanding task, can we rightfully eat more sugary snacks to replenish energy?
Of course.
But if you think that this thinking process can consume that sweet snack, unfortunately, you will be wrong.
The brain really consumes a huge amount of energy for multidimensional work. Compared to this, the energy we expend by trying to think is negligible. The brain consumes most of its energy to supply the energy used by neurons communicating with each other.
