Made in Macao | Fall in love to lose weight

Jenny Lao-Phillips

Nowadays, we hear the phrases “I have to lose weight” or “I am trying to lose weight” almost every day from people around us. From 200 pound six-feet-tall big guys, to 100 pound five-feet-tall small girls, everyone either believes they are overweight or is given a misconception of what is considered fit. Equally, there are those who consider weight loss or keeping fit a daily necessity.

Anyway, being someone who is also constantly trying to lose weight – emphasis on ‘trying’ – I am not criticizing any fellow weight loss fighters. In fact, I found it quite fascinating learning about the development of ways and diets adopted amongst people in Macau to lose weight. I might say that from ‘diet’ choices we can see the globalization of our little city. Why do I say that?

A long time ago, the most common diet I heard of was eating less meat, which is more popular amongst the Chinese community. I do not know how we got the idea that eating meat makes us fat, but I used to believe that too when I was an overweight teenager. At the time, my young friends and I would try to keep fit by not eating meat. Instead, we bought yogurt and biscuits for lunch, and ate plain white rice for dinner. Of course, we know better now that it is the rice and biscuits, the high carbohydrate food, that made us fat.

When I was in college, globalization kicked in, and dieters started what we termed ‘shake shake’ meals. They were some kind of protein drink brought in from Hong Kong, which originated from the US. But the result did not seem too good. I saw people losing weight quickly, but gaining the weight back quickly as well. So, the ‘shake shake’ diet did not last long.

Then, some years ago, people started talking about a high protein diet, such as the Duken diet, in which only proteinaceous food was eaten. So, meat got back onto the plates of Chinese dieters, thanks to western diet plans. And now the trend seems to be towards the Keto diet, which I am attempting. While I thought it was something new, I was surprised to hear quite a few people around me already knew of this. Guess I am not a trendy fitness queen after all.

But what struck me was that while everyone is talking about different kinds of diets, one important element has been missing in these conversations – exercise. In my over thirty years of weight loss experience, the only success I had was the year I became obsessed with running, swimming and working out. Although I know the theory, finding time to exercise seems like a luxury nowadays for most busy people.

Luckily, I discovered a neurobiological way to lose weight.  In a conversation with the renowned neurobiologist, author of the book Splendors and Miseries of the Brain, Professor Semir Zeki, I discovered a secret with no diet or exercise needed. That is, to fall obsessively in love.

According to Prof. Zeki’s book, there is one thing common to anyone falling in love, and that is the reduction of serotonin in our brains, which is linked to appetite, and is in line with a Chinese saying “In love, one can survive merely on water”. I jokingly commented in response to Prof. Zeki’s findings that it means one can lose weight when falling in love. He confirmed that it is a possibility, as falling in love can curb our appetite. So, aside from diet and exercise, we just need to keep getting attracted to people, and obsessively fall in love from time to time.