1 . My weight gain began while I was in veterinary (兽医的) school at Purdue University ten years ago, and it continued to increase quickly once I got married and had three children, all while running my own photography business. Needless to say, my busy schedule and caring for others took away from caring for myself. I knew I needed to work out and eat better; I was just too scared to ask for help on where to begin.

My turning point took place on January 20, 2021. It was the day before my husband and I celebrated our ninth anniversary (周年纪念日) that I decided to better myself. I was 32 years old and over 260 pounds. I thought to myself, “My kids are so little, and the route I am on isn’t going to allow me to be here long enough to watch them grow in life.” It just destroyed my happiness.

I began running at STRIDE in January 2022. My first class there was just power walking. After the class was done, I thought to myself, “Man, I think I could push myself a little harder next time.” And I did.

With love and encouragement from all the members surrounding me and the guidance and support from the coaches, I have been running ever since and loving it. I have never been a runner. Now I feel like my day doesn’t start without running, and that makes me so proud to say. I have come so far since joining STRIDE, but not just physically. Running has helped my mind and soul in more ways than one, and I’m so grateful for that. Running has given me a purpose again — a purpose to be a better mom, a purpose to be a better wife, a purpose to do better with my career, and a purpose to just better myself, which I so enjoy again.

If you’re in the same situation I was in, don’t hesitate to take action. I’ve made it and you can, too.

Many of us are lacing up our sneakers and starting (or restarting) exercise regimens (练身计划) in hopes of shedding unwanted pounds. Unquestionably, aiming to be more active is good. But if the main reason is to lose weight, your New Year’s resolution could very well     1    .

For starters, exercise — at least the kind most of us do — is     2     ineffective for weight loss. Take walking, for example. A 150-pound person who walks briskly for 30 minutes will burn, on average, around 140 calories. That’s equal to one can of soda — not exactly a great return on your investment of time and effort. It’s much easier just to skip the soda.

Studies     3     show that doing moderate-intensity aerobic exercise such as walking for 30 minutes a day, five days a week — the amount recommended for good health — typically produces little or no weight loss by itself.

When moderate exercise is added to diet, the results are equally not     4    . Pooling data from six trials, researchers found that a combination of diet and exercise generated no greater weight loss than diet alone after six months.

In studies where exercise has produced     5     weight loss, participants burned at least 400 to 500 calories per session on five or more days a week. To achieve that, sessions need to go well beyond what most of us are willing or able to do. And even if we manage to exert that much effort, our bodies often     6     by boosting appetite and dialing down metabolism, effects that over time limit how many pounds we shed.

Perhaps the biggest problem with exercising to drop pounds is that it turns physical activity into     7    . How many times have you heard someone say (or said yourself) “I’ll need to do extra exercise” after eating too much during the holidays or at a celebratory dinner?

The point is that we’re more likely to     8     exercise positively and actually do it when we focus on our well-being rather than our weight. The incentive may be an improved mood or less stress. Others may find that exercise makes them feel physically and mentally stronger.

Of course, the benefits of physical activity     9     well beyond these. It’s been shown to reduce the risk of multiple diseases. It can also improve sleep and boost energy.

By all means, striving to exercise regularly in the new year is perhaps the most important thing you can do for your health. But to improve the odds of success, focus on how movement helps you feel better physically and emotionally — and forget about how it moves the     10     on the scale.

4 . Many think 2024 could be the year more people have the tools to follow through on New Year’s resolutions about weight loss. If they can afford them and manage to stick with them, people can turn to a new generation of remarkably effective weight-loss drugs, also called GLP-1s, which offer the potential for substantial weight loss.

Wegovy, which was approved in 2021, and Zepbound, which got the nod from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2023, are the most effective publicly available weight-loss drugs ever made. Wegovy has been shown to help people shed as much as 16% of their body weight, in combination with exercise and diet. Zepbound’s highest dose, along with lifestyle changes, has helped people lose as much as 27% of their body weight over 18 months.

Although long-term data isn’t available, these drugs appear to be the safest to date. A large number of people suffer from gastrointestinal distress (肠胃不适) on the medications, including vomiting, nausea and diarrhea; but more serious side effects, like those previous weight-loss drugs, have been rare. Wegovy also appears to reduce the risk of a repeating heart attack or stroke for people with pre-existing disease.

So far, both drugs have been hard for patients to access. Suppliers have had trouble making enough of the medicines to meet the skyrocketing demand. And insurance companies haven’t covered the cost of the drugs, which can run from about $1,000 to over $1,300 a month.

Paying for them should become easier in 2024, as supplies rise up and insurance companies could bow to market pressure and cover more of the cost.

Also in the new year, there are more GLP-1 drugs on the way and in more forms. Both Wegovy and Zepbound are delivered as weekly shots. Pill versions are under development as are other medications, some of which could help people lose even more weight.

There’s a major unknown factor with these drugs, which could become better understood in the coming years. Experts can’t say if people will be able to keep the weight off if they don’t make lifestyle changes and stop taking the drugs.

7 . If you’ve ever tried to lose weight and found that the pounds won’t come off easily or they come back soon, you are not alone. Here we won’t tell you how to lose weight or whether you even need to. We will tell you how the energy burn occurs in your body.

The energy burn occurs in three main ways: to keep you alive, which accounts for about 55% of the total energy you burn; to digest what you eat and turn it into energy, about 10% of the energy you burn; to move around, which makes up about 30% of your energy burn. In other words, purposeful exercise is a minor player in weight loss.

There’s another problem with weight loss. When you try to lose weight, your hormones (荷尔蒙) will change your appetite. While a lot of different hormones are involved in hunger, one of them is leptin, which tells your brain when to eat and when to stop eating. As you lose weight, your leptin levels drop. Once that happens, you want to eat more.

To lose weight, what you eat, is more important than how, much you exercise. For example, it's a lot easier to cut out 600 calories by skipping a piece of chocolate cake than to burn it by running for an hour or more. However, people tend to use exercise as an excuse to “reward” themselves. When that happens, they tend to take in more calories than they burn off at the gym.

But that shouldn’t be a reason not to exercise. Just don’t do it so you can “earn” a piece of chocolate cake. There are many documented benefits to exercise that have nothing to do with weight loss, including better mood, better sleep and better blood sugar levels.

Knowing how the energy burn occurs in your body might help you decide if the stress of weight loss is worth it. If you still decide to lose weight anyway, rethink your end goal. Instead of trying to look like a magazine cover model, it is better to focus on changes that make you feel healthier.

Doctors in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have followed the meal-time habits of more than 500 people for six years,     1    (find) weight change is most affected by the size and     2    (frequent) of meals rather than the interval (间隔) from first to last meal. It challenges the popular trend of intermittent fasting (禁食疗方)     3     a useful weight loss strategy.

Intermittent fasting, also referred to as time-restricted feeding, is a dietary strategy where all meals     4    (consume) during a short window of time each day. These windows can extend from 6 to 10 hours, resulting in a person essentially fasting for up to 18 hours each day.

The idea reveals     5     is no link between the lime of a person’s eating window each day and weight changes. “Based on other studies that have come out, including     6    (we), we are starting to think timing of meals most likely doesn’t produce     7     instant impact on weight loss,” said doctor Bennett. “What does matter, however, is the total number of medium and large meals a person eats over the day.” It suggests simply eating smaller meals, less frequently, is     8     ultimately leads to weight loss.

All of this doesn’t mean intermittent fasting strategies won’t help. But what does seem increasingly clear is that the weight loss benefits occasionally     9    (see) with these eating strategies may be primarily driven by a reduced caloric intake. It doesn’t mean you can simply eat all you want in a short window each day and still expect     10    (lose) weight.

9 . The Surprising Habits that Are Stopping You from Losing Weight

You’ve cut out snacks and started exercising, but why can’t you shift those stubborn pounds? Read on to discover the surprising reasons you struggle to stay slim and simple, science-backed solutions.

You’re eating too late.

Do you regularly eat dinner after 8:00 pm or snack through the evening? A study found that late-night eating made people hungrier the following day.     1    Avoid eating between 8:00 pm and 8:00 am.

You’re not at the gym frequently enough.

Working out actively but not seeing results? Consider how active you are outside the gym.    2     There are 168 hours in a week, so if you do one-hour workouts three times a week in the gym, you’re only exercising for 2% of the week. Instead, be active throughout your day has accumulative effect on fat loss.

You’re eating too fast.

The faster you eat, the more rapidly sugar enters your bloodstream. People who eat faster tend to have a higher weight and energy intake than slow-eaters. I’m always telling my children not to wolf food, but listen to their hunger signals.     3    .

You drop off with the TV on.

    4     Sleeping with the TV on isn’t restful. Stage 1 sleep is very light so it can be easily disturbed by TV sound. Long-term lack of sleep impacts your appetite, increases food intake and decreases energy consumption. Therefore, in the hour before bed, avoid screens and all bright light.

    5    

“Healthy” plant-based food like fake meats and non-dairy desserts may actually ruin your weight-loss efforts, warn nutrition scientists. Despite their healthful claims, they’re actually high in energy, sugar and saturated fats. The processing methods for such food often break down ingredients5 cell structures? More energy can be stored in the body. So, switch to food like beans, nuts and seeds.