Weight, What?

Estephanie BP
Nov 3 · 13 min read

Evaluation of intake, weight management strategies and pieces of advice from a physiotherapist.

There is no proper way to make an introduction, over the fact that I’m going to talk about something that has been an ongoing trend in my life.

For me, I became way aware of my body that at one point I saw myself in the mirror and said: “I need to get thinner.” Not knowing what I know now, it was tough to keep up with the societal means of being slim and being able to eat what you want.

Reduction of this, more of activity likewise of the people on the telly, and even drinking this to be slimmer. I was a witness of people purging for weight loss, drinking slimming teas only to stay in the lavatories repetitively just for an event, more so not even eating for a day.

It was unpleasant to know, and see… but it felt normal at that time for them. They see results, then after that, they go back to their usual intake since it was some sort of a requirement that has been done. A deadline, and therefore they would cope with it by saying that it wasn’t the best time they had.


Photo by Prince Photos from Pexels

Back story: My parents told me early on in my life that I was a huge child who weighed above-average upon birth and even premature. Resulting in being advised strictly, not to gain too much weight to not suffocate my developing heart. Therefore, they fed me with a sustainable diet that served me when I grew up as a bragging right firsthand. Kids would always wonder that my food choices were alike of an adult, and it was liberating at one point.

It would be eating a small amount of junk and only by being out of the house would be able to do so. Not only that, being in a family who cooks a lot and does that for a living will most likely spur a quite diverse taste bud.

Food wasn’t a luxury to have as my father would always advise, but an essential for feeling good and being satisfied.

Relatively, it’s the craving of food that I never get to eat regularly that makes me crave them more. Well, I get food fatigue and most people do normally yet in my defense, my threshold is a little bit shorter. Learning from that, there would come a time that the food I once liked so much will eventually be something I would hate in a few days. Only by a hiatus, there would be such craving that resurfaces and I get to eat them again.

Therefore, if you’re my friend, there’s no way of stopping me to buy that expensive food if my eyes glitter to the sight of it and my mouth waters.

Early on, I mentioned my sustainable diet and home-cooked meals obsession.

But instant noodles were a guilty pleasure almost every afternoon whenever there is nothing to do after homework. And it went on from middle school up until before college. Where my friends would ask if I can contribute a small amount of money, to have a party over the sodium bomb and some sugary beverage.

It made tons of memories of us discussing life, watching movies and even just eating altogether without even bothering the proportion of how people eat. Do you eat a lot? You get the last bit. If you don’t, then lucky you don’t have to battle over the former. If you ask me now, it won’t be a choice for me to eat in a lazy afternoon, unless I’m really sad or there is no other choice for me to eat anything else.


Photo by Rodolfo Clix from Pexels

Food is one of the essentials to survive as a human being. We always have this urge called hunger to replenish our need to devour something sustainable and satisfying in our system. From the early times, where our ancestors hunt for food, eventually relying on farming to settle down in a community, to becoming a society capable of providing every need of an individual.

We have everything as far as I’m concerned nowadays. From the appetizer to dessert(s) (where we tend to overpower ourselves with by our sweet tooths). For as long as it tastes good, we eat it.

No one stops you to walk in a donut store and buy a dozen, or fast-food chains where you order their super meals which have everything that you want in that store in one full set. Isn’t that easy to acquire over such a human instinct, or craving if I stand corrected?

But the question lies, are you satisfied with what you eat? Does it benefit you or does it harm you?

I was in a seminar a few weeks back, which I wasn’t aware of what to expect since being invited to listen was already a privilege. It was entitled “Business of Wellness” or something goes like that, won’t even mention the other title since it will turn this as a sponsorship article. I’m not being even paid to do this piece, but here we are stating my recollecting insights from that said seminar.

Firsthand, he introduced of how his success with the business of wellness had grown throughout the years. Yada, yada not much going into detail yet what caught my attention was the aspects of the program they were implementing to every client they have that might relate to our healthcare professionals.

In aspects of food intake, what was advised to their clients was to eat a lot of vegetables, meat (yes, that is what he said) and fewer carbohydrate rich-foods and sweets. For your measure of how much you can only eat with the latter of less, make a fist and only eat that amount for a day.

The speaker even mentioned only a few fruits to eat like the banana, kiwi, orange, and avocado and the rest are just supplementary sweets, or excessive.

My feeble mind already forgot the other details, but they were a handful of tips on picking what to eat. Moreover, he discussed how there might be misconceptions of this to the ketogenic diet (composed mainly of protein and fat content diet) where there is not much limitation. Even in medical doctor seminars, they are willing to tackle what might be the benefit of it in accord which he didn’t elaborate as much.

Firstly, is being on a low-carb diet effective?

According to Churuangsuk, Kherouf, Combet, & Lean (2018), the following systematic review entitled “Low‐carbohydrate diets for overweight and obesity: a systematic review of the systematic reviews” had mentioned that there are only a few studies, at least two, recommend cutting down carbohydrates since it has only shown a small amount of reduction in weight and need of further studies with larger populations or higher hierarchy of research method. In relation to that, in the United States Diets For Health: Goals and Guidelines (Locke, Schneiderhan, & Zick, 2018), consumption of saturated fat, results in the likelihood of type II diabetes, increased levels of bad cholesterol (LDL), but no correlation with the development of congestive arterial disease, therefore intake shall be moderated.

Other studies even support this diet if it were given to patients with type II diabetes already (Valenzuela Mencía et al., 2017), and even compared with a low-fat diet scheme in a 2015 study by the same population (Tay et al., 2015). Followed by a different population, without diabetes from 18–50-year-olds have seen no absolute difference in weight reduction by implementing the low-fat vs. low-carb diets. (Gardner et al., 2018).

There are so many dietary plans to cover, and even, I’m interested in even tackle the ketogenic diet, that’s simply the opposite of being in the vegetarian diet.

Barely though.

Because there are people who would modify the plotted diet by an individual who has proven it so effective, that versions of it will come up when you start searching for it. It’s even overwhelming that medical professionals even talk about this in seminars and even practice this themselves.

Everyone’s excited to see the results in a quick snap. But really, we’re always up for a fad.

That would always pique our interest and once it loses its the essence of drive, or not everyone is doing it anymore, we leave it behind, then move on to the next.

I mean, for real, intermittent fasting?

From the study “Intermittent Fasting: The Choice for a Healthier Lifestyle” (Ganesan, Habboush, & Sultan, 2018), there were four articles which they reviewed, where intermittent fasting may bring positive results in a short and long term dietary plan, yet it varies with the tendencies of higher satiety drive and unmonitored overconsumption since it would be the only time they would be eating. Whatever the schedule is. Moreover, the applicability of the said regime without any eating disorder, or any ailment that involves a strict intake of food for survival.

In correlation to that, due to fasting for a longer period than the usual hours before heavy meals, the likelihood of unhealthy cravings questions the credibility of the said diet (Stockman, Thomas, Burke, & Apovian, 2018). The total clinical significance was not seen as expected, therefore furthermore research has to be obtained.


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The said seminar pointed out that their exercise regime can also help every individual whether suffering from metabolic syndrome or not. That combining it with the diet they have been stating will help you to reach what everyone’s goal is: be healthy and sexy.

It was pretty much bragged during the presentation, the results per se. By the speaker being the ultimate example (a.k.a marketing strategy he also addressed promptly), it’s convincing that most of the people I was with did the program onto themselves. The results? More on that later.

This is where we enter the picture because diets aren’t my topic to tackle. Yet, honesty, I love eating, food in general and my narrative has explained my past.

Truly, we would tell you to exercise. Especially when you’re aiming for a change. More specifically, resistance exercises, that was supported on what was tackled to the seminar than endurance training we all love, since it is easier and longer (Clark, 2015). Secondly and in contrast, the importance of oneself and your wellbeing improves through a weekly endurance training. (Mandolesi et al., 2018). Moreover from blindsight was a study from Villareal et al. (2017) stated that both aerobic and resistance training is effective in weight loss and improving oxygen consumption of a dieting obese elderly individual, yet leaning more into resistance training when tackling about lean mass.

We’re exactly in the pinnacle of our own true wellness when we do exercise, not only it helps us lose weight, be healthy, it’s also good for you mentally.

Any physical activity that can be counted to the daily tasks that sometimes we abuse it too much. A 5 to 10-minute walk to your office from the station or climbing up and down the stairs can be such a big help, but if you are walking towards the convenience store to buy yourself a 75 PHP or up chicken meal… might as well take that back. On the bright side of it, it helps you lower down your risk of coronary heart disease in young women (Chomistek, Henschel, Eliassen, Mukamal, & Rimm, 2016), where at least even so it doesn’t contribute to weight loss, the importance of being physically active.


With regards to my-now colleagues, professors, and even non-teaching personnel whom I was with, the curiosity kills the cat. Their enthusiasm towards knowing further how these works were right up to the pedestal. Questions were raised about the limitations and scope on how to sustain it.

Basically, what strategy should they be doing to achieve such a miracle, over the fads going around about being accepted in terms of body figure? What people didn’t realize in introspect are the following:

Being slim doesn’t signify health.

Some people are slim, yet they might be suffering from a deficiency unknown to them until it strikes back. Or those who were born with a body type that fits with the narrative of being one. I, myself, wasn’t born slim, therefore there was a battle between social acceptance and self-awareness of what body type was given to me. From suffering from binge eating d/o to fasting way too much caused only physical ailments and emotional downfalls I could’ve avoided if I did eat right, and was able to accept myself.

It is literally a tough journey for me and every day I still struggle over people’s opinions about my appearance.

But, necessarily, what’s important is how you feel about yourself. With that, your confidence shall emerge in working over what is to accept that’s vital to your worth. Nothing is a requirement unless you have a familial history of predisposing factors of health problems, therefore assurance to one’s figure comes from your acceptance alone.

Fit a diet that fits your lifestyle.

I know a lot of people who were going through tons of stress with their line of work that health has been a crucial sacrifice to one self-being. One thing I have learned in watching documentaries about diets and staying healthy, is the fact that we should be able to sustain ourselves to replenish our energies. Not, highly satisfying the craving and what only tastes good in our taste buds. Only by then we will know discipline.

It has been mentioned that the problem with diets is the fact that it should be maintained because weight cycling, termed as the continuous cycle of gaining and losing weight abruptly for a long time, is harmful to our body’s hormonal system where it disrupts the normal process of digestion and energy conversion.

Hence, fit what’s right to your night shift, and a 9-hour work + commute for you to survive.

Everything has to be in moderation, not restriction.

I’m not dietitian, not even permitted to give you a bit of health advice about it. Yet concerning the previous advice, your intake shall be placed in moderation. Somewhat like an equation, where if you have self-awareness of your figure and can carry on with the discipline, it can be integrated that it doesn’t have to be a work for you. It’s not like if you drank a 700 ml milk tea, you will work out this amount.

Surprising isn’t? People think that redemption to one small habit can make up for it. Yet, sadly, it doesn’t work that way.

You have done it, now proceed to go through your habit once again. Once in a while, your body deserves to give in and take it back once you’ve been satisfied with it. Never let it overpower the habit you’ve already curated for a healthier you, and piece of advice: your work out… or diet won’t save you from anything if not done in a harmonious cycle. Period.

And lastly, not everyone has to have the same regime as you.

You can be doing the ketogenic diet especially it was proven to be effective to patients with seizures. Moreover, in terms of low-carb diets will be most effective for patients with type II diabetes and vegetarian or vegan diet would be effective for patients who are prone to deficiencies solely speaking.

There are advocates of each diet to either have a political statement which also is another ground for me to tackle later on. But, really, as an individual who is surprisingly have tried some of these (to name: vegetarian and low carb), it doesn’t satisfy my own body’s requirement throughout the day.

There is a much need regarding a sustainable and satisfying, again I repeat, balanced diet for every individual. Reasoning comes along with the previous advice.

We can go to our dieticians about it, and also ask yourself: what… lacks in my meal? Maybe a fruit will be good or meat will be nice. A mouthful amount of rice would suffice.

And the same goes for exercise. It’s probably the best to know what exactly fits in your goal. If you want to lose weight solely, go for an endurance training program, most people go for this but the results can vary with the frequency and intensity wise.

Not that I’m really opposing, where he explained that people can also resort to strength training/resistance training gain mass. Oh, yeah, it’s what you call lifting weights.

There are a lot of these online applications where you can do 7-minute a day resistance exercises for you to slim down. But, remember, having to do so whatever that is can be strenuous without any prior training of the basics. More so, it is a slope of progression, where the principle states the more load you gain, the lesser the repetition should be. You’re just not losing weight, you’re gaining strength. Resistance training specialist, fitness trainers, and skilled physical therapists can help you with that.

Whatever your goal is, specific modifications must be strictly followed to prevent complications and injuries that could come with it.


Photo by Min An from Pexels

Back to my colleagues, the results were: most of them failed and even yours truly. Because even if the regime sounds promising, it doesn’t suit my best interest in wealth and gaining more awareness of how my body works. Maybe I’m the Mediterranean type, or even a vegetarian once again? Who knows?

On a brighter side, and most of all, numbers don’t determine your status of weight. It’s the only thing I agree with with the seminar which has been an issue for most of the people around me. Unless you’re being under observation with a medical concern, again, that’s all up to them. I forgot, our concern. You can be slim looking but have the same weight scale that you once had when you weren’t, or bigger yet you are eating the right amount of food that you need for the day.

It’s the matter of you, whether you stick into your regime that is best suited for you and makes you healthier. That’s what is more important, all in all.

And don’t starve yourself. For the love of God.


Thank you Pexels for the free domain photos used in this article and big shoutout to the speaker of the said seminar. If it wasn’t for him, this won’t be possible.

Estephanie BP, a.k.a, E for Ecstatic is a registered physical therapist in the Philippines and a self-proclaimed writer. Support her work, and may you be blessed always.

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