Jan. 4, 2016 -- So you’re finally ready to lose weight. Now the question is: How?

终于打算开始减肥了吗？怎样减肥呢？

The standard advice -- to eat less and move more -- isn’t so helpful when it comes to the “how.” You probably know you need to cut calories, but how many? Are you better off getting those calories from low-fat or low-carb foods? And what’s going on with your metabolism, your personal energy-burning furnace? Is it programmed to keep you overweight? Is there any way to fan the flames so you can dream of one day eating a piece of pie without gaining a pound?

标准建议——少吃，多动——似乎不能真正解决“怎样”的问题。“当然要减少能量摄入，但是，减少多少呢？选择低脂还是低糖食物？新陈代谢会如何变化或者说你的能耗会如何改变？是不是已自启了增重模式？有没有一种方法让能耗之焰高涨，实现我们梦想已久的吃一块派却不长一点点儿肉？

Even science is still stumped on many of the basic questions of weight loss.

“Amazingly, in this era of obesity, there are still many things that we really don’t know,” says Robin Callister, PhD, professor of human physiology at the University of Newcastle inAustralia.

科学依然裹足不前于“减重”的一些基础问题，澳大利亚纽卡素大学人类生理学教授Robin Callister博士认为，“不可思议，在如今这个肥胖的世纪，竟然还有太多的问题我们至今没有搞清楚。”

Do You Have to Cut 3,500 Calories to Lose a Pound?

少摄入3500卡路里，减重一磅？

Let’s say a dieter knows they need to eat 2,500 calories a day to maintain their current weight. But they want to slim down. So they decide to shave 500 calories off their daily intake. According to the Wishnofsky Rule, after about a week of doing that, they should lose a pound.“For the first week or two, the 3,500 calorie-per-pound rule kind of works, roughly, but after the first couple of weeks it doesn’t work,” Martin says.Here’s why: In 3 or 4 weeks, you need less food to maintain that new, svelter shape.

节食者知道他们每天需要摄入2500千卡来维持体重。一旦想减肥，他们必须减少500千卡摄入。根据Wishnofsky规律，大约坚持一周，他们能减重一磅。“第一甚至第二周，少3500千卡能够减重一磅，但两周过后，这个规律似乎就失灵了。”马丁说，于是，在第三或者第四周，你得减少更多的食物，才能继续瘦下去。

The good news is that researchers have been working hard to update Wishnofsky’s formula. There are new calculators, like the Body Weight Planner available from the NIH and the Weight Loss Predictor from Pennington. Give them a few key details, like your sex, age, weight, height, activity level, and the date you want to hit your goal, and they’ll give you a more realistic daily calorie goal to get you there.

好消息是，研究人员一直致力于更新wishnofsky公式。新的计算方法已经涌现，如美国国立卫生研究院的“体重计划”和Pennington的“减重预测”。给他们一些关键细节，比如性别，年龄，体重，身高，活动水平，你想达到的目标，他们会给你一个更贴切的能量摄入目标。

Are All Calories Equal?

能量面前，人人平等？

If a glass of wine weakens your will to resist that plate of cheese and crackers, it’s not doing your waistline any favors.

But if booze doesn’t affect your eating, then one or two drinks is probably OK, he says.

As for calories from fat, carbohydrates, and protein, this is where one size, or one eating plan, really doesn’t fit all.

如果一杯红酒能够消弱你抵抗一碟奶酪或者饼干的意志，那么，红酒对你的腰围无益。

但如果豪饮不会影响你的进食，那么，一杯两杯倒也无妨。他说。

至于这个热卡是源自脂肪、碳水化物或者蛋白质，同一种饮食量，或者同一个饮食计划，却并非人人适用。

Born This Way?

天生如此？

To a large extent, yes, you were.Genes are “at least 40% of the answer,” Fujioka says, and they may explain as much as 80% of our weight.

He says that’s especially likely to be true if a person is very overweight or obese and has struggled with being heavy their whole life.

很大程度上，基因决定了“至少40%”的答案， Fujioka说“我们体重的80%由基因问题解释。”特别是对那些超重或者肥胖，并且倾其一生与肥胖作斗争的人而言。

“The potential to gain weight and become obese is in everybody. But for some people, the potential is clearly genetically much, much higher,” he says.

So far, more than 30 genes have been flagged as being linked to body mass index. The one most strongly tied to obesity is called the FTO gene.

“每个人都有超重或者肥胖的潜能，只不过，有些人，他们的潜能非常非常高，取决于基因。”他说。

目前为止，30多个基因已经被标记为与体重相关。与肥胖最密切相关的一个叫FTO基因。

Researchers recently reported that people who get a faulty copy of that gene are more likely to store calories as fat instead of burn them for energy. The discovery, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, should pave the way for better weight loss treatments.

Though FTO is the most powerful single gene found to date, it doesn’t explain all obesity. Fujioka says obesity is probably the sum of many genes working together.

研究表明获得那个错误基因的人们更容易储存能量而不是把能量燃烧掉。这个发现，发表于新英格兰医学杂志，为减重治疗铺平了道路。

尽管FTO是迄今为止发现的最强大的单一基因，它并不能解释所有的肥胖。Fujioka认为肥胖很可能是多个基因协同工作的结果。

Men vs. Women

男人vs.女人

But do men really lose a bigger percent of their overall weight when they diet than women do?

Surprisingly, few studies have looked at that question. Callister says we still don’t know the answer.

同样的节食，男人比女人减重更多吗？

令人讶异，已经吸引相关研究。Callister说答案还未揭晓。

One interesting study, though, compared the weight loss between men and women who had gastric bypass weight-loss surgery. The study found that after 24 months, there was no significant difference in the percent of weight lost by men or women after bariatric surgery. On average, men had lost about 66% of their excess weight, while women had lost about 73% of their extra pounds.

And here’s more heartening news: While women may take a little longer to shed the same weight as men, Callister says they seem to do a better job keeping it off, perhaps because they lost it more gradually in the first place.

有一个有趣的课题，对比了接受胃旁路减肥手术的男性和女性减重结果。研究发现，24个月后，接受胃减肥术后的男性和女性，在减重百分比上无明显差异。男性平均减重66%，女性平均减重73%。还有更鼓舞人心的：Callister 说女性比男性减重的进程要更长久一些，她们减肥的持续性也更好，可能因为一开始她们的减重就更循序渐进。

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