Scientific Breakthrough in the Cruising Phase: Moderate Exercise Aids Sustained Weight Loss

When the body, under the control of its internal balance mechanisms, desperately tries to maintain equilibrium within a limited calorie intake, it may feel off track and lose balance.

At this point, my advice is exercise. This is especially effective for those who rarely exercise.

Even just taking a walk can be beneficial. Stretching exercises, yoga, and lymphatic massage all improve blood and lymphatic circulation and aid metabolism.

The secret at this stage is to moderately increase exercise while restricting calorie intake. This will lead to faster weight loss than when you first started dieting, so a little exercise will make the weight loss process more enjoyable.

I started with walking. I bought a trendy metallic red pedometer and attached it to my phone, aiming to walk 10,000 steps a day. The reason for choosing 10,000 steps was to align with the basic concept of a tracking-based weight loss method—quantification and ease of recording.

It's difficult to quantify daily exercise simply by doing workouts or muscle training. A pedometer is very convenient in this regard. Even during the day at work, casual walking is automatically recorded, so there's no need to deliberately set aside time for exercise. After meals, check the pedometer's record; if you haven't reached 10,000 steps, make up for the missed ones. Record your daily step count along with your diet journal to motivate yourself.

I also tried walking 20,000 steps a day for three days, and my weight and body fat percentage showed significant changes. I thought, "If only I could keep this up!" But 20,000 steps is a bit too much for me. Setting such a high standard means that if I can't stick to it, all my efforts will be wasted. I'll stick to walking 10,000 steps a day. However, if I could choose two days a week to walk 20,000 steps, I would definitely feel a noticeable effect.

Leaving aside people like me who dislike exercise, if you enjoy exercise, you can choose to go to a gym. The environment is good, the atmosphere is good, and you should be able to stick to it; plus, with professional coaches, you can feel more at ease.

Besides these, on others' advice, I also tried lymphatic massage, leg raises and abdominal contractions, stretching exercises, etc., but I just couldn't get interested. I did them on and off, on and off, unable to stick to them.

Even so, the effort wasn't wasted. Although I gave up, occasionally introducing new stimuli to disrupt the body's balance was also beneficial.

During this period, I also used a method called the "mineral soy milk diet."

The feeling of hunger isn't solely caused by insufficient calorie intake; insufficient vitamin or mineral intake can also cause it. Therefore, the hunger felt by modern people with excessive calorie intake is mostly "vitamin and mineral deficiency-type hunger."

No matter how much you eat, it's impossible to obtain all the nutrients your body needs, so you get hungry quickly.

The human body is naturally able to crave sweet things when lacking sugar, salty things when lacking salt, and sour things when lacking vitamin C. However, nowadays, our modern senses have become increasingly dulled, making it impossible for us to tell what nutrients we're lacking.

At this point, we can only rely on our intellect to figure out what to supplement.

That being said, I'm not a nutritionist, and I can't determine whether today's meal was deficient in vitamin E or iron. The only solution is to supplement with vitamins and minerals that are commonly lacking in modern diets.