Why Eating Right Beats Eating Less, Says Weight-Loss Expert
He noted that the key to weight loss lies not in eating less but in eating the right way and in the right proportions. This approach not only helps you lose weight successfully but also prevents weight regain later.
Why Is It So Easy to Regain Weight After Dieting?
When people begin their weight loss journey, the first thing that comes to mind is 'eating less.' While this approach may show initial results, Cai said that the risk of regaining lost weight is extremely high. There are three primary reasons for this pattern:
Decreased Basal Metabolic Rate
When the body senses insufficient caloric intake, it activates a self-protective mechanism, lowering its basal metabolic rate to conserve energy. This metabolic slowdown reduces calorie burning, causing fatigue and lack of energy. This self-protection also increases cravings for high-calorie foods, making it easy to overeat and regain weight.
Muscle Loss
Dieting not only reduces fat but could also lead to a loss of muscle mass. Because it requires a fair amount of energy to maintain muscles, the body will try to reduce energy consumption by breaking down muscle tissue to make up for the caloric deficit. As muscle loss occurs, metabolism slows further, increasing the risk of weight regain.
Psychological Factors
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Epoch Times
2 days ago
- Epoch Times
Why Eating Right Beats Eating Less, Says Weight-Loss Expert
Many people try dieting to lose weight, but ultimately fail to maintain results. Obesity specialist Cai Mingjie warned on The Epoch Times' 'Health 1+1' program that traditional dieting is often difficult to sustain, and most people regain weight within one or two years. He noted that the key to weight loss lies not in eating less but in eating the right way and in the right proportions. This approach not only helps you lose weight successfully but also prevents weight regain later. Why Is It So Easy to Regain Weight After Dieting? When people begin their weight loss journey, the first thing that comes to mind is 'eating less.' While this approach may show initial results, Cai said that the risk of regaining lost weight is extremely high. There are three primary reasons for this pattern: Decreased Basal Metabolic Rate When the body senses insufficient caloric intake, it activates a self-protective mechanism, lowering its basal metabolic rate to conserve energy. This metabolic slowdown reduces calorie burning, causing fatigue and lack of energy. This self-protection also increases cravings for high-calorie foods, making it easy to overeat and regain weight. Muscle Loss Dieting not only reduces fat but could also lead to a loss of muscle mass. Because it requires a fair amount of energy to maintain muscles, the body will try to reduce energy consumption by breaking down muscle tissue to make up for the caloric deficit. As muscle loss occurs, metabolism slows further, increasing the risk of weight regain. Psychological Factors
Epoch Times
12-08-2025
- Epoch Times
Chinese Authorities Mandating Blood Tests, Releasing Lab Mosquitoes to Fight Chikungunya Outbreak
As the chikungunya outbreak continues to spread in China, the prevention and control measures imposed by the Chinese communist regime have been causing increasing concerns among medical professionals and the Chinese public. Guangdong Province reported 1,387 new chikungunya cases in the past week (Aug. 3 to Aug. 9), according to a notice by the provincial Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There have been no deaths from the virus reported so far, according to the Chinese agency. According to state media, as of July 29, the cumulative number of chikungunya cases in Foshan, Guangdong—where the first cases of the outbreak were reported on July 8—had exceeded 6,000. Because of the Chinese communist regime's record of censoring data it considers to be politically sensitive—as was seen with its cover-up of COVID-19 infections and related deaths in late 2019—the true number of known chikungunya fever infections could be higher. Chikungunya fever is a viral disease mainly transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. Its symptoms are similar to those of dengue fever. Patients usually experience fever, severe joint pain, muscle pain, headache, fatigue, and rash. There is no specific antiviral treatment for chikungunya. Deaths from the disease are rare but do occur, especially among vulnerable populations such as those with underlying health conditions. Globally, as of July 2025, chikungunya fever has resulted in 90 deaths across 16 impacted countries and territories. The outbreak in China started in the hardest-hit city, Foshan. Confirmed cases have since been detected in more than 10 cities in Guangdong Province, according to the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The Macau Health Bureau reported a case of chikungunya fever on July 18. Hong Kong health authorities reported a case on Aug. 2. Both cases were identified as children who exhibited symptoms after returning from a trip to Foshan, according to the local health authorities. The chikungunya virus has also spread to northern China. The Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued a prevention reminder on July 22, warning of occasional cases allegedly imported to Beijing from abroad. However, Beijing officials have not released any data. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Level 2 travel alert on Aug. 1 for China as the chikungunya virus outbreak continues its spread. Chinese doctors and residents told The Epoch Times that the chikungunya virus has spread to more places in China. A Chinese doctor whose work is related to disease prevention spoke to The Epoch Times on Aug. 10 on the condition of anonymity, out of safety concerns. The doctor said that chikungunya has spread to the megacity of Chongqing in southwest China, as well as Wuhan city in central China. A resident said in a video post on social media that chikungunya fever has spread to Hunan Province, adjacent to Guangdong, and that registration is required when purchasing any medications that treat fever. Foshan Municipal Market Supervision Bureau has introduced sales control of 47 medications for treating fever, rash, joint pain, and other symptoms caused by chikungunya in all retail pharmacies in the city, requiring registration for any sales, according to a notice it issued on Aug. 4. The Chinese regime has also imposed mandatory measures that have sparked fears of a return to the regime's draconian COVID-19 restrictions, such as mandatory self-paid quarantine and PCR testing. Local residents and medical professionals have especially expressed concerns about mandatory PCR testing of blood samples for the chikungunya virus, which the regime has been pushing in its public messaging. Mandatory Blood Draws Local residents in various locations around Guangdong Province posted on social media that mandatory blood tests are being implemented for PCR testing for chikungunya, which is different from the saliva tests for COVID-19. A patient said in a video post that after hospital staff drew three flasks of blood from him, he tested positive for chikungunya. He questioned why the hospital had to take three tubes for testing. The Chinese doctor, whose work is related to disease prevention, said that the chikungunya virus requires blood for PCR testing, as it is a blood-borne disease. 'Blood draws are also used for tertiary monitoring, and vaccine development requires the isolation of toxins from the blood, so a relatively large amount of blood needs to be drawn,' he said. A Guangzhou city resident posted on social media on Aug. 9 that Jiangnan Middle Street community office staff came to his home and demanded that the residents allow their blood to be drawn. He refused, and a group of staff repeatedly came back to demand it. Another resident in Guangdong revealed in a video post on Aug. 10 that his community office staff came at 10 p.m. to draw their blood for chikungunya PCR testing. Mainland Chinese media outlets reported that in the early morning hours of Aug. 4, community office officials in Guangdong's Zhanjiang City forcibly drew blood from two minors in the absence of their parents, sparking public outrage. 'Chinese government officials taking advantage of parents' absences to draw blood from children is a serious violation of medical ethics,' Sean Lin, assistant professor in the Biomedical Science Department at Feitian College and former U.S. Army microbiologist, told NTD, the sister media outlet of The Epoch Times, on Aug. 10. Based on the reports of such harsh actions, Lin suspects that the Chinese regime 'is concealing information about whether other pathogens are also present in this outbreak along with Chikungunya, as mosquitoes in Guangdong carry more than one infectious disease.' Lin said that the Chinese Communist Party's public health department should publish a research report as soon as possible, especially during the peak of the outbreak. 'It's easy to catch a lot of mosquitoes for research to see if there were other viruses circulating at the same time, which can spare ordinary people the pain of forced quarantine and blood tests,' he said. Mosquito Lab Breeding Program Sparks Concerns Chinese state media reported in early August that China's largest mosquito breeding facility in Huangpu District of Guangzhou city, Wolbaki, was running at full capacity and releasing 5 million specially treated male mosquitoes per week, in the hopes of them mating with the wild female mosquito population to produce unviable eggs in a population control technique known as Wolbachia transinfection—where the reproductive compatibility of male mosquitoes is altered by an infection with the common naturally occurring Wolbachia bacterium. Wolbaki's founder was the former director of the Joint Center of Vector Control for Tropical Diseases, another mosquito breeding facility, at Guangzhou's Sun Yat-sen University, in partnership with Michigan State University, where Xi is a professor of microbiology, genetics, and immunology. 'When the [infected] male mosquitoes carrying the Wolbachia bacterium mate with wild female mosquitoes that do not carry the bacteria, the eggs produced cannot develop normally due to cytoplasmic incompatibility and cannot hatch into mosquito larvae,' Gong Juntao, the head researcher at Guangdong's Wolbaki company that produces the mosquitoes, told Chinese media. However, the method has loopholes, as if infected lab females are not separated and instead released into the wild, they can continue to successfully breed and spread disease. The company claims to have developed an automated technology to efficiently separate male from female lab-bred mosquito pupae, with an error rate of less than 0.5 percent. But Lin said that given the huge number of mosquitoes released, an error rate of 0.5 percent 'means there are still about 25,000 female mosquitoes that can transmit diseases being released every week.' In May, Chinese media reported that China's biggest mosquito breeding facility in Huangpu District of Guangzhou, which it referred to as only the China mosquito research center, was running a pilot study to produce 30 million Wolbachia-infected male mosquitoes—sustained on sheep's blood—to release every month as part of the authorities' disease-prevention efforts targeting the mosquito-borne dengue, Zika, and chikungunya viruses. Two months later, China saw its biggest chikungunya outbreak on record. China's efforts to curb the reproduction of wild mosquitoes through mass-produced lab males infected with Wolbachia 'has failed two rounds,' the Chinese doctor told The Epoch Times. He predicted that in southern and north-central China, the number of mosquitoes carrying the chikungunya virus will rapidly increase before winter.
Epoch Times
12-08-2025
- Epoch Times
Chikungunya Fever Spreading Rapidly in South China; CCP Downplays Outbreak
Chikungunya fever has spread rapidly in many places in Guangdong Province and spilled over to other parts of China. Local residents told The Epoch Times that the Chinese communist regime is forcing residents into quarantine and asking them to pay for it, which many people cannot afford. As of July 24, the total number of officially confirmed cases of Chikungunya fever reported in Foshan City, Guangdong Province, and elsewhere in China reached more than 4,014, according to Chinese state media. The first case was reported on July 8. In the city, 53 hospitals have been designated to treat the disease, with more than 3,600 isolation beds set up and preparations made for expansion to a quarantine facility, according to state media. Because of the Chinese communist regime's record of censoring data it considers politically sensitive, as was seen with its underreporting of COVID-19 infections and related deaths in late 2019, the true number of known Chikungunya fever infections could be higher. Chikungunya fever is a viral disease mainly transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. Its symptoms are similar to dengue fever. Patients usually experience fever, severe joint pain, muscle pain, headache, fatigue, and rash. It has the potential to be fatal. There is no specific antiviral treatment for Chikungunya. Deaths from the disease are rare but do occur, especially among vulnerable populations such as infants and the elderly. The outbreak has also spread from the hardest-hit Shunde District of Foshan City to the provincial capital of Guangzhou City, as well as Yangjiang City in western Guangdong Province, more than 124 miles away. A case of Chikungunya fever occurred in Yuexiu District of Guangzhou, according to Chinese media reports. The Yangjiang City Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported on July 25 that three cases of Chikungunya fever have been diagnosed in the area. The Macau Health Bureau, which is independent from the Chinese communist regime's health authorities, also reported a case of Chikungunya fever on July 18. The patient is a Macau resident who visited relatives in Shunde District of Foshan City from July 8 to July 17. The Chikungunya virus has also spread to northern China. The Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued a prevention reminder on July 22, warning of occasional cases allegedly imported to Beijing from abroad. However, Beijing officials have not released any data. The Chikungunya virus is mainly spread by the white mosquito (Aedes albopictus), also known as the Asian tiger mosquito, Sean Lin, assistant professor in the Biomedical Science Department at Feitian College and former U.S. army microbiologist, told NTD, a sister outlet of The Epoch Times. 'This type of mosquito is currently more common in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces in China and Southeast Asia,' he said, noting that in the past few years, 'this type of mosquito has moved northward in China, so other provinces should also be careful.' Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has raised concerns of another Chikungunya virus epidemic. The WHO said it was noticing the exact same early warning signs as were seen with a major outbreak two decades ago and wanted to prevent it from happening again. 'We are calling for urgent action to prevent history from repeating itself. There is no particular treatment for chikungunya, so people need to avoid mosquito bites,' Dr. Diana Rojas Alvarez, a medical officer at the WHO, told reporters on July 22. 'WHO is currently supporting member states by deploying and strengthening laboratory diagnosis, risk communication and community engagement, training clinical workers, and strengthening surveillance and mosquito control.' To prevent the spread and infection of Chikungunya virus, according to the WHO, local mosquito control is the key, along with emptying and cleaning containers that contain water on a weekly basis and disposing of waste. Mandatory Paid Quarantine Similar to how the Chinese regime handled the COVID-19 pandemic, Chikungunya patients in China are being placed in forced quarantine, which they are being asked to pay for out of their own pocket, according to Chinese residents and doctors. The Chinese regime's health authorities are currently saying that home quarantine is not 'recommended' and instead, 'quarantine at hospital is recommended' for Chikungunya patients. A doctor at Beijiao Hospital, also known as Shunde District Third People's Hospital, said that 'home isolation is not allowed at the moment,' and it depends on testing results. 'Only those with negative testing results can be discharged from the hospital. Currently, no one can conduct the test themselves, and everyone has to go to the hospital for testing.' The doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that the quarantine hospital uses screen doors, windows, and mosquito nets and that patients are treated with traditional Chinese medicine. A laboratory employee who does virus testing in mainland China told The Epoch Times that Chikungunya fever is not included in the Class A testing category. According to mainland China's infectious disease regulations, only Class A infectious diseases require mandatory quarantine. However, the Chinese regime is now using Class A disease standards to handle Chikungunya, and accordingly now require isolation. A local villager in Foshan, who didn't give his name because of safety concerns, told The Epoch Times on July 24 that his movements were controlled as soon as he entered the hospital for testing for Chikungunya. Describing what happened when he was under observation at the hospital and wanted to leave the observation room temporarily, he said: 'I was stopped when I got close to the door of the observation room. Later, my blood test result came out negative. Then, I was allowed to leave. Those who tested positive were taken to register for hospitalization by staff.' Local residents said in social media posts that the mandatory hospital quarantine for Chikungunya is aimed at making money off the people. One patient in Guangdong showed his hospital bill for quarantine in a video posted on social media, while saying: 'It costs nearly 500 yuan [about $70] a day to be quarantined at the hospital. I can't afford it.'
