Anyone in China trying to lose weight?

riskiestlavonn

Hi,

I happen to be living in China right now which I find sets me up for completly different challenges. I have gained somewhere around 20 pounds during my year and a half here (oil in everything), and I am somewhat reticent to go running outside (thick smog over the city).

Any Ideas?

LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo

I'm not in China nor I'm Chinese but I live in Philippines, an hour away from China via airplane. Here the food is quite similar & I admit I find the Asian diet not diabetic friendly since white rice is considered a staple food. I suggest cooking your own food, that's what I do here.

onionjuggler

Hi! I just joined, and I'm also in China. I had lost 50 lbs a year ago, got to China and it feels like I immediately gained 10 lbs. The oil here is just out of control. The best we can do is cook for ourselves as much as possible and work on portion control. It's not easy...

I stay inside to work out. Since there are no gyms where I live, I do exercise videos. I enjoy dance aerobics, and recently started doing a taebo bootcamp dvd which kicks my butt.

riskiestlavonn

I would LOVE to workout indoors. But the people that live below me in my apartment building head upstairs several times a month because they think we are too loud. Last time The woman told me that I wouldn't be so loud if I wore slippers in the house :-). The strange thing is that the last time I came to China I lost around 50 pounds in 9 months.

onionjuggler

If you're in Beijing, there are gyms you can join... This summer I was there and was bicycling all the time, though I get wanting to avoid the horrible smog.

sophiaalvarezuf

i agree. i've gained quite a bit of weight since i came here. it's difficult considering the food, going out all the time and drinking, and the fact that you're super reluctant to go out running because of the insane smog. i've been cooking at home more in an attempt to bypass the oil in all the food, but i also have a hard time feeling full without carbs. so i've been substituting my regular carbs (white rice, pasta) with complex carbs. so, brown rice or whole wheat pasta. i also do massive portion control when it comes to even the complex carbs. i use a measuring cup and measure out 1 cup of a carb and that's all i allow myself for the day. i've also come to accept that i have to spend more money in order to maintain my health, even here. i'm wary about the pesticides the Chinese use, so for veggies like tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and any type of greens, i make sure to buy organic at places like BHG, Jenny Lou's, or The Metro. Other veggies which I can peel, I buy regular. I've stocked up my pantry with legumes, uncanned (which i can soak ahead of time) and canned (black beans, kidney beans, etc.) and with complex carb staples. I've also invested in large amounts of seasoning and i always try to make sure my fridge is full of veggies and boxed soup which i can heat up and add veggies to, in order to make it more savory. i also always have a balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing and a bottle of parm cheese which i use in spare amounts. parm cheese tends to curb your hunger and it's flavorful so as long as you apply in moderation, it's great. and, i bought an oven. i also always have olive oil. it's a BIG convection type of oven, but it only costs about 500 kuai and it's good to invest in, if you're going to plan on dieting. i also only ever buy my chicken at Schindlers or BHG or Jenny Lou's. i know in China, a lot of us are pretty much on the go and don't get to spend a lot of time at home. so what i do to avoid making excuses for myself is taking 2 hours for a day or 2 out of my week to prepare a big meal which i can portion out ahead of time and which helps stop me from buying take out at work.

For indoor workouts I suggest trying this website:

http://www.bodyrock.tv

They have great workouts which you can modify based on your fitness level. If you're in Beijing, you can also go to places like Decathalon in Jinsong which sell workout goods. I'm going to go there to buy some free weights. I also have with me a weighted jump rope, a yoga matt, and an interval timer. I also have had to get over my fear of the scale and went ahead and bought a very good one at IKEA. I'm going to weigh myself twice a week.

I hope some of this helps you. It's really helped me out. I would also welcome any suggestions going my way.

riskiestlavonn

Thank you so much for all the suggestions. I do happen to be in Beijing and I in fact shop at the Jenny Lou's in Guomao all the time. I have an oven as well. The website that you have suggested is WONDERFUL. Also, I get home most days at 9pm so it sounds like an interesting idea to make big meals ahead and portion them out.

Do you find that you are spending a lot on food now that you buy from Jenny Lou's/ BHG all the time?

If so can you at least venture a guess at how much you spend a week or month (in RMB)?

i_love_vinegar

I know this is random, but I was wondering how you two beautiful ladies are living in China ^^

I am applying to Hong Kong for next year for study abroad, but don't know if I will get in >_< well, hopefully i will...but I REALLY want to move to China (or maybe Taiwan). If I don't find a serious Chinese boyfriend or husband, not sure what to do so need a backup plan ^^; Thanks in advance!!!

As for the oil in the food, maybe cooking your own food would help? ^^ That way you can control what goes in it~

Good luck!

daffodilsoup

I actually began my weight loss journey during the six months I was teaching English in China! I wasn't able to cook my own food, so I bought lots of instant oatmeal and went to a store to get American protein powder (I was in Beijing so I was able to pick it up, but if you wanted to order it, they'd ship from Beijing.) The store was Elite Nutrition Center in Soho - I highly recommend it! They really went above and beyond to help me reach fitness goals, etc.

As for gyms, I joined Hosa Fitness in Xidan - it was a little pricey, but it had great hours and was a really clean facility.

When we would go out, I just did my best to log and make good choices. I would get broccoli or vegetable stir-fries, tofu dishes, and eat those along with my oatmeal (which turned out to be a huge standby, would have been easier if I could have a kitchen and make rice & beans, etc.) I also made sure to drink lots of water and unsweetened teas. Sometimes I would be invited out for traditional dinners, and I enjoyed myself! I made the necessary changes in my food intake for the rest of the day.

I lost about 13 pounds in 2.5-ish months there, so it's definitely possible! Feel free to PM me if you need any help or tips!

sophiaalvarezuf

jesus, i know i spend a lot. if i was completely honest, max at 300 kuai per week. but this is when i decide to do something special for myself like...buy chicken. lol. meat is a luxury for me here. i need to work on getting more protein into my diet, but you know how dicey buying meat can get in china. when i decided to cook more at home, the first shopping extravaganza at BHG was the worst. i actually went to metro to buy most of my bulk spices because they sell them realllyyyyyyyy big. there's a metro in taiyanggong bei jie, the chinese name is maidulong.

i work close to BHG so i'm able to go there most nights after work to pick up veggies i need. i eat a LOT of soup, especially since deciding to really focus on eating well, and blenders here are ludicrously expensive so i buy premade soup at BHG for around 35 kuai and add whatever veggies i want in the soup to make me feel fuller. also, to compensate for the fact that i go to the grocery store most days, i've really cut back on eating out. i'll do it with friends once every 2 weeks or invite them over for movies and takeout but i was very open about the fact that i needed to cut back on eating out. because i wanted to avoid the whole explanation on why i needed to diet because while they mean well, hearing that you don't need to diet is sometimes the last thing you need, i just say i'm trying to save more money. it's true, and no one questions it. if i have the time, i try to pop over to open air chinese veggie markets because things are the cheapest there.

to handle going out if that's something you do often, because all my friends like to go out here, the safest drink to get is vodka and soda water with a lime if you're a drinker. you can switch the vodka with any clear liquor. don't do the darks, too much sugar and soda water has zero calories. the lime takes away the edge. so this the most figure friendly drink you can get because god knows china doesn't carry mich ultra. i order a double and nurse that thing all night long. i may end up ordering a second if i want to feel like i'm not the only sober person around but i don't care if anyone notices that i nurse my drinks anymore. and i'll do the same with beer if i feel like saving cash. at all times, i try to avoid eating when i go out. seriously this is something i still need to work on. i look at my diary and find a very ugly pattern of bad food choices when i drink.

with regards to the website i gave you, i suggest you look at the workout archives and try to do the zuzana workouts. i think her workouts are better than the new chick they have. they're a lot more fun, are more versatile, still work the living beegeezus out of you, and they make much more intuitive sense in terms of remembering the workouts. it's easier to access the workouts if you have a vpn and if you ever decide to really pick up those workouts, an interval timer, a weighted jump rope, and a couple of free weights are seriously worth the investment. last year when i did this, i lost 5 kilos in a little over a month.

riskiestlavonn

I know this is random, but I was wondering how you two beautiful ladies are living in China ^^

I am applying to Hong Kong for next year for study abroad, but don't know if I will get in >_< well, hopefully i will...but I REALLY want to move to China (or maybe Taiwan). If I don't find a serious Chinese boyfriend or husband, not sure what to do so need a backup plan ^^; Thanks in advance!!!

As for the oil in the food, maybe cooking your own food would help? ^^ That way you can control what goes in it~

Good luck!

How exciting that you are applying to study abroad in Hong Kong. I you don't get into the study abroad program I would just save up money and wait until you graduate. LOTS of people I know come over and start out by teaching English (You can make a lot of money teaching English). Depending on what you want to accomplish you can start interning somewhere for experience while you are teaching. Or you could just begin teaching and then start looking for a job. Finding a non-teaching job here is much simpler if you know the language already.

Not sure what else you wanted to know about. If nothing else you can apply for a scholarship before you graduate and then come over to China and study Chinese for a year while you intern/ look for a job (that's what I did). It turned out pretty good for me.

Hope that helps.

riskiestlavonn

Haha, I have a few more questions for you now.

On the website you sent me a LOT of the workouts require additional equipment. I was wondering where you bought this (were you in Beijing at the time)?

Also, this morning I decided to look for a cheap blender. This woman made me a drink with hot water and half a cup of blended soy beans that was REALLY GOOD and low in calories. If you go to Taobao.com you can find this



for 148 kuai. This is not crazy expensive but not really cheap (note that the rest of them seemed to fall between 4 and 7 thousand kuai for some reason).

The advice you gave me about the alcohol is actually really helpful. I like many foreigners here end up going to bars a lot and I actually forgot about the calories in all the alcohol and mixers. I am going to try changing to straight gin/ vodka or with lime (really good idea).

Thanks for the advice!

sophiaalvarezuf

thanks so much for the blender link!!! really.

for the workouts, i would go to decathalon to buy the free weights. the jump ropes tend to be a little pricier if you get some with weights but maybe you could online shop for that too? i brought the jump rope with me from home. i was a little over-enthusiastic. you can buy the yoga mats at decathalon too, but the interval timer you need to order from the states. it's a very reasonable price. with delivery charge i think it was 45 dollars total? the actual interval timer itself is 20 dollars, but you know delivery is insane. it got to me within 2 and a half weeks and it's REALLY worth the investment. the sandbag i'm still hunting for, but i adjusted the workouts with the sandbags using free weights. as for the dips, i got creative and used a chair. it's modified and obviously having a dips bar would be a ton better, but i just go as hard as i can and hope for good results. for the pull ups, i used a mop handle and put it across 2 chairs with a yoga matt underneath. for the pushups that require you to be on an incline, i either stacked pillows or used a small stool. all you really need to buy is the interval timer and free weights. i would also suggest the mat because it makes life a lot easier. everything else, get creative. as long as you're giving it your all and making sure you keep good form, you'll feel the burn.

SurfinBird1981

Hi all,

I moved from the UK to Taiwan just over 3 weeks ago, I lived in Beijing for a year 2007-2008 and gained a fair bit of weight, I lost it all when I got back to the UK.

In Taiwan I have noticed that everything has a lot of oil in it, I am going to cook meals at home mainly. My fiance is working here, I am not, I have started going to the gym and in May our apartment will open the swimming pool so hopefully I will be able to drop a few pounds during my stay (till Dec 2012).

If anyone has any advice on example meal plans for weight loss, that would be appreciated.

Good luck everyone!

lovesiwo

hey, any chance we can revive this? this is my third year in China (living in Chengdu) but the first time I'm trying to get serious about being fit here. I'm keen to lose 15 lbs so I'm trying to be more proactive in cooking at home but my biggest issue, as someone else stated above, is trying to keep my carbs down. this problem is made more difficult due to the fact that my fiance is currently on a weight GAIN diet so is shoveling down the carbs, peanut butter, etc. tough! how do you guys handle the China carb problem?

since I don't have an oven I've been doing a lot of veg steaming in my rice cooker, or just really lightly sauteeing meat/veggies in olive oil, bit of seasoning etc.

anyone have any other good recipe ideas for the oven-less expat?

beer has also been an issue. I like the idea above of just sticking to a double vodka + lemon, haha.

it's great there's a bit of a support network on here for us China expats. gets pretty tough when all your friends are going for lamian, shaokao and tsingtaos. doubly tough when you're living in Sichuan, aka oil central!

claireberries

Not is China but am in S E Asia. Put on so much weight in the first 6 months! So much oil! Found a gym to join now and cooking more at home.

Steaming veg in the rice cooker sounds interesting. I bought a small oven, one the size of a microwave and have been doing wok stuff.

curds

LOL Claireberries,

My oven is the size of a toaster! I guess no matter where in Asia you are, a decent sized oven is hard to come by!

I still have no real clue how to use my rice cooker so its just collecting dust mostly.

Love siwo, do you have a rice cooker? You'd be surprised what an expat can make in one of those! I will try to find the link for rice cooker recipes quick.

On second thought its easier for you to just google rice cooker recipes a ton will pop up. I can't figure out all the settings on my cooker which is why I don't bother with it.

mijo32002

Wow, I didn't know so many people in China had MFP! Well, does anyone have any recipies for rice cookers? I've done a couple of dishes, but I feel like I'm just scratching the surface......

kabbit42

I'm in Beijing as well and working to get rid of all the chubs I've accumulated here. I thought I'd go home and be all skinny, oh how wrong I was.

First off I invested in a toaster oven. I can roast vegetables and chicken in it well enough and it is so nice to not rely on the frying pan.

I do not eat enough protein here so I invest (¥400ish) in protein powder and make protein pancakes to make up for when my grocery store doesn't have pieces of chicken that I will eat.

I'm too insecure to go to my school's gym right now so I do lots of exercising in my bedroom and I bought all my weights for really cheap (¥25 for a pair) at various markets. I sort of want to start running in the morning but the air quality keeps putting me off of it.

I don't know how good your Chinese is, or if you have a friend that could help you out but I use and LOVE www.tootoo.cn . It is a place where you can order all sorts of Organic veggies and fruit and have them delivered to your door. You can pay them COD and the quality is really quite good, I've never had an issue with anything I've ordered. Who knows if they are really organic, but it is convenient to buy lots at once and I can imagine that they haven't been too manhandled in a store.

It kind of sucks because my social life has been in a bit of a decline. I am putting much larger emphasis on food quality which means no hole in the wall restaurants and mystery baozi. But yeah, I definitely spend more on food now. Brown/black rice, chicken breast, protein powder, lots and lots of roasted/steam vegetables.

riskiestlavonn

Wow, had no idea that someone had revived my thread (how nice). It's great to see that people besides me are having problems with gaining weight from Chinese food (I find that men usually lose weight while they are here).

First off, with all the rice and noodles here in China it is kind of difficult to avoid carbs, but for the most part I usually do (don't look at my diary today!). On most days I just avoid eating rice all together, but on days when this isn't possible I try to stay between 1/4th and 1/2 a cup. If I'm home I just eat brown rice instead (brown rice is cheaper then white rice is... but it does take much longer to cook).

I've also invested in a good oven (the best one I could afford/ find). It was only RMB 400 and it does everything that I need it to do.

I have also found that I have a problem with eating Baozi/ jiaozi in the morning (carbs again). I've pretty much gotten over this by buying a blender (RMB 208 at Wumei)) and drinking smooties in the morning (don't look at my diary today!).

And finally, In the beginning I was really afraid to run in Beijing. I kind of still am, BUT I just make sure to go in the morning and check the pollution index before each run. If the index is above 200 I just don't go run and exercise inside my house.

terrellc1

Thanks for all of the tips! My son and I are moving to TEDA (outside of Tianjin) at the end of July. :drinker:

Maybe we should create a China group!