Weight Loss: Understanding Six Key Nutrients for Scientific Energy Control and Fat Reduction Without Harm

The Six Major Nutrients

The six major nutrients are: carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water. Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are the energy sources for human activities.

(I) Carbohydrates
The human body stores three types of carbohydrates: muscle glycogen, liver glycogen, and blood glycogen. The total storage is approximately 300-400 grams, with athletes reaching up to 500 grams. Carbohydrates in the body function to build cells, protect the liver, maintain a constant body temperature, and provide energy (the body's primary source of heat).

Medical experts believe that the daily carbohydrate requirement should not exceed 70% of the total calories from food. Depending on individual circumstances, a daily intake of 250-750 kg of staple foods is sufficient. The Chinese population primarily has a mixed diet rich in carbohydrates. Under normal circumstances, there is not only no carbohydrate deficiency but also a carbohydrate surplus. If one enjoys snacking (such as candy and pastries) and drinking sugary beverages outside of regular meals, it will lead to a carbohydrate surplus. The harm of a carbohydrate surplus is significant. Some of the world's most renowned nutritionists believe that "a more important and insidious danger than environmental pollution exists in the world today: sugar, on which people depend for survival." Therefore, the World Health Organization has put forward the slogan: "For your health, please give up sugar."

(II) Fat Fat in the human body has four main functions: maintaining normal body temperature, protecting internal organs and joints, moisturizing the skin, and providing energy.

The human body needs approximately 15-30% of the total energy provided by food daily. Based on body weight, 0.6-1.0 grams per kilogram of body weight is sufficient to meet physiological needs. A person with a standard weight of 60 kilograms needs approximately 36-60 grams of fat daily. The ideal ratio of saturated fatty acids to unsaturated fatty acids for the human body is between 1:1.25 and 1:1.5. Meat, eggs and their products, and vegetable oils contain a relatively high amount of fat. Vegetable oils are the richest source of the fatty acids needed by the human body.

(III) Protein Protein is the material basis of life and the raw material for building human tissues and cells. It is not only the "building material" of the human body, but also a hormone that regulates human metabolism.

The most basic component of protein is amino acids. There are nine essential amino acids for the human body (Table 3-2). Insufficient or imbalanced amino acid intake from food can lead to physiological dysfunction and stunted growth. For example, a lack of lysine will affect height and weight growth; a lack of tryptophan will lead to stunted growth; a lack of methionine, lysine, and tryptophan will also affect the form of serum proteins; and a lack of threonine, phenylalanine, and threonine will prevent the body from maintaining nitrogen balance.

How should the amount of protein required by the human body be calculated? It can be calculated as 0.8–1.2 grams per kilogram of standard body weight per day for adults. Those suffering from malnutrition may increase their intake to approximately 1.5 grams. Infants, pregnant women, breastfeeding women, the elderly, adolescents in puberty, workers in special occupations (such as outdoor workers, workers in low-temperature environments, and those engaged in heavy physical labor), athletes, and those who frequently consume compressed foods should appropriately increase their protein and fat intake, but not excessively, otherwise they are prone to obesity.

Meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, dairy products, beans, nuts, and their products are all high-quality, high-protein foods.

(IV) Vitamins Although vitamins are not direct sources of energy for the human body, nor do they participate in the formation of human tissues, they are essential organic compounds for human growth, development, metabolic processes, and the maintenance of normal life. Vitamins cannot be synthesized in the human body or are synthesized in insufficient quantities and must be obtained from food. A deficiency in various vitamins can lead to metabolic disorders, physiological dysfunction, weakened immunity, and other health problems, including night blindness, pellagra, beriberi, anemia, rickets, inflammation, infertility, irritability, vomiting, constipation, low blood pressure, muscle pain, and joint swelling.

(V) Minerals Minerals, also known as inorganic salts, are not energy sources for the human body. However, they are unique among the six major nutrients, as they cannot be synthesized in the body nor eliminated during metabolism; they are excreted. It is known that there are as many as 40 types of minerals in the human body.

There are two types of minerals in the human body: one type consists of nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur, and chlorine, which make up 99% of the body; the other type consists of trace elements, which are present in very small amounts and are called microelements, including iron, zinc, copper, chromium, cobalt, fluorine, iodine, manganese, nickel, silicon, selenium, molybdenum, tin, vanadium, and gold, totaling 29 elements. These elements play a vital role in regulating nutrient metabolism, the rate of fluid exchange, maintaining internal homeostasis, and forming bones and teeth. They also play crucial roles in blood clotting, the formation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and creatine phosphate (CP), thyroxine, blood cell production, and tissue regeneration.

The eight food groups mentioned above, including grains, all contain varying levels of minerals, with unprocessed grains and wheat flour being particularly rich in them.

(VI) Water. Water is the second most essential substance for all life after air; it is the "source of life." A healthy adult can survive for 40-50 days without food or water. A 1% water loss will cause thirst; a 5% water loss will cause discomfort, with alternating periods of drowsiness and nervous tension; a 7% water loss will reduce saliva production and cause difficulty swallowing; a water loss greater than 10% will decrease activity levels and even cause muscle spasms; a water loss greater than 15% will cause skin wrinkling and loss of swallowing ability; and a water loss greater than 20%, coupled with prolonged fasting, will lead to death. Leading medical experts, using a 175cm tall, 70kg fasting individual as an example, calculated that when a fasting person loses 63-84% (9kg) of stored fat and more than 33% (7kg) of protein, they will die from excessive water loss.