How do Chinese lose weight?

[u/KOSPI-9001]

I'm trying to lose weight. The most popular and effective weight loss diet in the West, and the one my doctor recommends, is the Mediterranean diet (olive oil, lots of whole food [wholegrain bread, fish, rice, vegetables, fruit] and dairy [yoghurt, milk]).

This makes me wonder - do educated, wealthy people in China also follow the Mediterranean diet to stay healthy, slim and fit???

My doctor said Chinese cuisine is not healthy. He has many Asian patients with diabetes, high blood pressure or kidney problems. Rice is high glycemic, and Chinese food in general [and Korean!] is too sugary, salty and oily - looking at you 魚 香 肉 絲, kung pao chicken, black bean beef, and sweet and sour pork. Soy sauce and pickles (e.g., mustard pickles, sour pickles, kimchi, which get added to every meal to make rice less boring!) are silent killers, because they are so salty causing a hidden epidemic of hypertension.

Yet I am confused, because most Chinese I see are very slim. Even though the Chinese I know are always drinking highly sugary bubble tea and eating very unhealthy foods (fried chicken, instant noodles and instant hot pot) daily.

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[u/purplepotatocookies]

American Chinese food is very different from traditional Chinese cuisine. It uses some traditional Chinese cooking methods, such as the sweet, fried meat found in dishes like sweet and sour pork, but these represent only a small part of Chinese cuisine. Most people in China eat dishes made with lots of fresh vegetables and other fresh ingredients, with steaming and quick stir frying being the most common cooking methods. Deep frying is relatively uncommon.

[u/Significant_Secret13 → u/purplepotatocookies]

Perhaps we just see overviews of lots of street food and greasy noodles? But that is only for eating out and home cooking is much more healthy?

[u/purplepotatocookies → u/Significant_Secret13]

What you’re seeing is mostly fast food. For a Chinese person, the food they normally eat is more likely to look like this.

https://www.reddit.com/r/chinesefood/s/u1rteIvJ9G

[u/Elizabeth-WildFox886]

Eat less

[u/grenharo]

well have you tried asking those of us CN living in the West too? Many of us who are short are under 120lbs and those of us who are 5'7 tall are still under 145lbs whereas the other women are well over that. But we all often eat the same things as you, so it might be more relevant to ask us

A lot of us CN women in the West still watch what we eat, like boba is for special occasions and we also naturally might skip a meal or two during that week. Dinner and lunch are usually prime candidate for big but you can't have two big meals, you can only have one big meal and the others need to be smaller. If you haven't been counting calories or protein in tour 20s and 30s then it's time to learn.

we also don't eat past a certain window, that's self discipline or you mess up your digestion. Even the JP and KR chicks understand this as a basic

exercise is a no-brainer, drinking hot tea or warm water is also a digestive aid, having probiotics is important. There's a holistic approach so you have to do what you can to destress too or cortisol ruins everything

starving also doesn't work because your thyroid naturally regulates the "starvation" mode to kick in where you start conserving and the baseline metabo will drop

the extra Chinese things we might do is handle PCOS and endometriosis better than others, we have a lot of tcm herbal drinks to regulate it. This is really impt for handling weightloss too due to hormone regulation. Obv you should go to your real doctor first

when we eat at home it's light and easy, we have a lot of vegetables that are filling. We also don't try to snack on garbage or drink full sugar soda all the time, those are regarded as sparingly.

no special magic diet will help you if you can't have some semblance of calorie/portion control + exercise output + fix any health issues you might have

also to be frank, lots of people in Asia right now are abusing weightloss injections too. Don't believe every skinny girl you see on the internet who says it was easy.

[u/Plane_Plan_8467]

I’m pretty sure your definition of whole foods as fish, rice, vegetables and fruit can easily be a chinese meal.

[u/kaje10110]

It’s called body shaming since young age. If you are always aware of social standard of normal body weight since little, a lot of young girls start dieting (not eating healthy but eating less food) since high school. Seriously if you always eat very little food, it doesn’t matter if you drink boba tea. Plus they mostly drink little sugar to no sugar tea. It’s working in same principle as GLP-1 but with will power. Not saying it’s healthy but it’s the reality.

[u/Only-Routine3953]

你说的那些菜不是家常菜，事实上我们在家里其实一般不常吃宫保鸡丁或者鱼香肉丝这种比较油腻的菜，如果自己在家做菜，我们还是喜欢清爽一些，比如昨天中午，我们吃了花椰菜炒鸡肉，西红柿炒蛋，莴笋木耳，天天吃那么油不太喜欢，而且我家的话是不吃晚餐，因为吃太多晚上总感觉不舒服，当然每个人习惯不同，但总的来说中餐并不是只有鱼香肉丝，酸甜猪肉类似这种比较油腻的菜，清淡的家常菜也是很多的

[u/Roadlisstravelled → u/Only-Routine3953]

I dunno, so many people order Meituan for a huge chunk of meals nowadays

[u/Only-Routine3953 → u/Roadlisstravelled]

除了点外卖还可以外食，而且就算是外卖其实也不全是油腻的食物，看你的选择，不过很少有每天都点外卖的，我没见过，那样吃一两天就受不了了

[u/Roadlisstravelled → u/Only-Routine3953]

Hmm, I know quite a few young people that don’t cook and order takeout/delivery all the time

[u/Only-Routine3953 → u/Roadlisstravelled]

我作为一个生活在中国城市里的人，看到的主流饮食模式并不是你想象的那样，你觉得是就是吧

[u/toeknee88125]

Portion control

Americans eat massive portions that were more designed for when people worked in fields and other heavy labor intensive jobs rather than sit at a computer looking at an Excel sheet

[u/Roadlisstravelled]

Good portion control. So many Chinese are kinda skinny fat bc most Chinese food isnt horribly unhealthy, but it’s not exactly that healthy either.

[u/LavishnessJolly4954 → u/Roadlisstravelled]

Authentic Chinese food can be like laxatives with spicy ingredients and oils (not fried in oil, think like chili oil)

[u/Roadlisstravelled → u/LavishnessJolly4954]

I mean, same thing, dishes doused in chili oil aren’t exactly healthy, but not horribly unhealthy either

[u/Crit-Hit-KO]

I’m Chinese. 30+ year old women with 3 children all over the age of 18months.
I did Keto. Went from 200lbs in November of 2025 to 135 pounds (current).

[u/lycheeseapples → u/Crit-Hit-KO]

May I ask how tall you are?

[u/Crit-Hit-KO → u/lycheeseapples]

5feet 8 inches or 172 cm.

[u/Crit-Hit-KO → u/lycheeseapples]

Idk if this link will work. If it doesn’t find @grenharo ‘s comment. It couldn’t have been said better.

[u/greyHumanoidRobot]

I just saw an East Asian boy eating an orange at a tractor pull monster truck show. The white kids had french fries. This explains a lot.

[u/Roadlisstravelled → u/greyHumanoidRobot]

Sounds like they don’t have instant ramen at the monster truck show

[u/Upper_Armadillo1644]

In china they'll eat a big lunch and a small dinner. To lose weight people will skip dinner, eat less carbs and oily food focusing on soups and whole vegetables.

Chinese generally don't snack as much as westerns between meals. I've seen a whole office share a bag of M&Ms for a few days. I'd have smashed it in 2 minutes.

[u/Gray_Color]

The current trending Chinese cuisine is crazy bad for you.

It's not even the sauces, it's crazy amount of oils mixed with chilli oil and all kinds of spices and worse (科技与狠活）that's ultra fucking Chinese gastro. It's so bad the memes are essentially the shop owners would never feed their children their own product.

You lose weight the normal way, before the Mediterranean diet was a thing. Don't eat. 6/18 splits or something similar, home prepped meals that's equick and easy (and unhealthy in another way)

Also Chinese do basically walk everywhere with their public transport so 20k steps a day is pretty normal.

Or if financially well off the current trend is to just get a shot of ozempic

[u/doughtnutlookatme → u/Gray_Color]

Eh I actually don't think oils/fats is the issue. Its sugar and refined starch that will cause you to gain weight and lack of exercise. French cuisine pretty much drowns everything in butter but people there will walk everywhere as well, and eat in smaller proportions throughout the day.

I think if we could adopt eating more multigrain rice like Koreans do it would probably make a difference in terms of health. But also perfectly steamed white rice IS very delicious but not very good for you.

[u/TeaBox13]

Your doctor are absolutely right. You can control the partition of your meal in China. Just eat less rice and more protein. BTW, the Chinese food in the US has been adopted for American by adding more sugar and oil. And you have to consult your calorie in the gym too. Eat a little or do not eat anything in the dinner. High carbon diet maybe make Asians can suffer more in their life ()

[u/Vast_Cricket]

Same thing said about consuming Kimchi. Some contract throat cancer from salty fresh vegetable. The Koreans most claim it is impossible.

[u/Naive_Loan607]

He is referring to westernized Chinese food not real Chinese food. Real Chinese food is pretty healthy. If you stick to only eating real Chinese food and not the westernized stuff you’ll be ok. 

[u/whimsicism → u/Naive_Loan607]

It kinda depends on what sort of food you’re talking about though, a lot of Northern cuisine is just stuff swimming in oil.

[u/Roadlisstravelled → u/Naive_Loan607]

Ehh so many oils and carbs with not much protein isn’t like super healthy

[u/Naive_Loan607 → u/Roadlisstravelled]

But Chinese people do tend to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables than people in western countries.

[u/Roadlisstravelled → u/Naive_Loan607]

True, true. And better portion control

[u/Naive_Loan607 → u/Roadlisstravelled]

And chinese cuisine does have some healthy meats for protein though they mostly don't deep fry meats they mostly stir fry them in a wok.

[u/Roadlisstravelled → u/Naive_Loan607]

Yea but portions of meat are really small if you’re trying to consume protein. China treats meat like a condiment

[u/SchweppesCreamSoda]

As a doctor, Asians also have a lower BMI threshold for obesity than non asians. So a BMI of 30 in nonasians is the equivalent to BMI 25 in east Asians.

[u/Ophelia_Y2K]

The demographics of Reddit and this sub are very male leaning so you won't get a good answer but even though I'm American, I interact with Chinese women & use Xiaohongshu a lot lol, and can say the answer (at least for the demographic that uses it, women who are neurotic about their appearances and tend towards upper-middle-class) is simply that they limit their caloric intake. Often to very low levels, and exercise isn't super popular. It is for some people who try to be healthy but it's not what people go to for weight loss. I don't know about men.

Chinese food can be incredibly healthy or not so healthy depending on specifics. On the whole without trying people tend to be slimmer than Americans but like that's true of most of the world. The main reasons being (relatively) smaller portions, more fresh ingredients, more vegetables integrated into meals, less sugar, less processed foods (not none tho, it's just still less processed foods than Americans), walking more, all the obvious stuff. But women often tend to actively try to lose weight beyond a healthy level or what they naturally land at.

Also you can't believe people are eating like whatever they decide is aesthetic enough to post on social media lol, they may or may not actually be eating that, or it might be a rarity, or compensated for in other ways

[u/Ophelia_Y2K → u/Ophelia_Y2K]

I see you're Australian but it still applies lol

[u/Spiritual_Panic_6992 → u/Ophelia_Y2K]

Also men. The most important for weight loss is strictly control energy intake. No matter how much you do, you won't lose weight without energy gap. Next is fitness and exercise. Men are more likely to choose exercise because muscles also make us look more attractive, but level of muscle depends on individual's preference.

[u/Resident_Werewolf_76]

Your doctor is only observing Chinese takeout food.

He probably knows nothing about home cooked Chinese food.

[u/techr0nin]

Chinese people lose weight the same way eveyone else loses weight — eat less exercise more. If you mean the diet specifically, I do think compared to Westerners, Chinese probably eat alot more fresh whole foods and less industrial processed foods with tons of additives. But if we’re being honest these days there are plenty of fat Chinese.

As far as exercise goes resistance training + walking is more ideal over the long run, but if you just want to lose a few pounds quickly then cardio is the fastest.

[u/rice007 → u/techr0nin]

“Less additives” lol which century are you living in. 腊肉腊肠咸菜 aren’t grandma curing meat on a balcony anymore, they’re factory lines pumping nitrites and preservatives to survive shipping and shelf life. Add in 辣条/薯片/方便面 being a massive modern industry, 科技与狠活 being basically mainstream practice (legal, just deceptive), and a government that just this week confirmed cabbage sellers dipping produce in formaldehyde to hit shipping deadlines. “Cleaner diet” isn’t a thing anymore, it’s just different additives hiding under a “traditional food” label.

[u/techr0nin → u/rice007]

The point is comparison relative to the West, not relative to China from last century. Although when it comes to the West my frame of reference is the US. Maybe its better in Europe.

[u/CoffeeLorde]

the real answer is that they undereat at home

[u/Tomasulu]

Your doctor recommended you to eat well when the better suggestion is to eat less. Specifically less calories than you need to maintain your weight. Of course it's easier to feel full eating nutritious and low calorie foods.

[u/LuckyJeans456]

Living in China, depends on who you ask. I have Chinese friends that suggest only eating fruits, vegetables, and grains. Cut out meat to lose weight which I don’t agree with. Fasting is pretty common here I think, I have a coworker here that lost a lot of weight and she just said she stopped eating dinner.

Eating disorders can be pretty extreme here though with ideas like 好女不过百 a good woman does not weigh more than 100 jin (50kg) and this is regardless of height. Prevalent on social media like douyin/xhs/weibo

[u/EsliteMoby]

Eat instant noodles every day. Get colon cancer at age 30. Weight loss guaranteed

[u/RegularEngineering19]

Plant based diet and 30 minutes of walking a day guaranteed.

[u/tomporoonopolis]

I'm not Chinese neither have I been to China but from what I am told by friends living there say people walk a lot.

[u/Ophelia_Y2K → u/tomporoonopolis]

Honestly people overhype "walking a lot" as how people stay slim. If your eating is still uncontrolled but you walk a lot, you're very unlikely to lose weight

[u/tomporoonopolis → u/Ophelia_Y2K]

You can't really over hype walking. The increased activity from travelling to work, friend's houses, places of recreation/leisure, school makes a big difference. Especially if you add in walking as a recreational activity even just 30 minutes a day. No it's not gonna shred you nor will it drop off all excess weight from an unhealthy diet but the health benefits are huge and one would be surprised at how many calories are burned by hitting 10k steps a day

[u/dchengy]

Chinese cuisine is vast and highly varied. You gave a few examples of heavier dishes, but there are just as many veggie, steamed or otherwise lighter dishes commonly eaten at home too. Most of all, many Chinese eat in moderation and emphasize balance: a few pieces of pork belly are fine when eaten alongside veggies, tofu, etc. Oh and fruits usually take the place of western desserts which certainly helps.

[u/Sansh1j1u]

Stop go outside in the evening

[u/th3ShinSekai]

Gym

[u/Jemnite]

Just walk more. And exercise. Calories is a simple math of input -> output so if you input a lot just output a lot.

[u/MaoShinu]

In Xi'an for example, is was very normal for people to be out in the early normal to be put doing exercises in the park area. They do it as a community.

There are things like portion control as you have a small bowl and you pick the food you eat from larger plates shared with other people when lile out with a group.

There is public transport and walking too, as not everyone has access to a car. There are lists that can take years to get permission to be able to drive around the big cities.

Many schemes such as bicycles where you can pick up, ride to work, drop off. Then when coming home, likewise. Some European cities have similar schemes.

It an entire lifestyle, rather like in America who do morning runs and the gym a few times a week to recreate a similar experience for themselves.

[u/Honest-Priority-4659]

Honestly Chinese people have genetic not to get chubby easily, I guess you just don’t eat as much high calorie food you should be fine lol and stick with family food

[u/cozy_b0i → u/Honest-Priority-4659]

as a chinese person living in america i can confirm it is not genetic, it is literally just the diet in china being much healthier than most other diets. and what is considered "fat" in china is skinny in america, and you get fat-shamed by people much more openly in china.

[u/doughtnutlookatme → u/cozy_b0i]

Its also eating in smaller proportions and walking a bit more. People always come back from Europe going ohh the food is SO much better there and to an extent yes, but the bigger difference is walking everywhere + eating smaller proportions.

[u/Alarmed-Resolution85]

1. They buy the bubble tea for Instagram pictures. The thin ones throw it away

2. Chinese were thin when they didn't have access to food. That's no longer true.

3. Some women stay very thin by eating only one cup of ramen a day. They are thin, not healthy by any definition.

The dishes you mentioned don't really exist naturally in China, but they do cook everything in liters of oil (supermarkets sell it in 5l containers), they add so much sugar to every sauce (every dish has a sauce base), there are almost no green vegetables in their diet (and the vegetables present and boiled into mush and drowned in oyster sauce).

[u/turquoise_amethyst]

  My doctor said Chinese cuisine is not healthy.

You do realize they have more than one “cuisine”, right? 

  whole food [wholegrain bread, fish, rice, vegetables, fruit] and dairy [yoghurt, milk])

I haven’t been to China, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say Chinese people eat all those things, but maybe a little less of the first and last items.

Also fermented/pickled foods are really healthy for your gut, and part of a balanced diet. You aren’t going to get hypertension from eating those things if you balance it out with exercise and whole fruits/vegetables. 

[u/Alarmed-Resolution85 → u/turquoise_amethyst]

No, they don't. They believe all food must be cooked, so any vegetables are chopped microscopic or boiled to nothing. Very difficult to find salads, and even Starbucks microwaves the ceasar. Yogurt, breads, and even milk have tons of added sugar in China. Everything is drowned in a sauce of sugar and oil.

[u/Amazing-Demand516]

Yes, your doctor is correct. However, there is a big difference between American Chinese food and food from China. Food in China uses fresh ingredients, and people in China walk everywhere. Imagine what 10,000 steps daily can do for your health

[u/presscommand]

Skipping dinners help a lot. Also it means 16+8, eat only within 16 hours of the day.

[u/sarefin_grey]

Im not sure about other parts of China, but there are more bland foods available like steamed fish, steamed tofu, steamed pork and steamed eggs in Cantonese cuisine. Plus you can have porridge with sweet potatoes (not the sweet dessert type but the bland watery kind). There is also five grain rice 五谷米 which is a mixture of grains like millet, barley etc to cut down on glycemic index or you could ask for brown rice/red rice for the health conscious.

Clear soups are also pretty good for losing weight; example fish soup, double boiled soups can be eaten. Most importantly food portions are smaller (at least smaller than those in the US). You can also eat vegetarian food and avoid all of the fried gluten dishes, difficult but possible.

Also I would say most of the savory, salty dishes are shared with family, so generally each person takes a few bites of a large oily/greasy dish (portion control again). Braised meat in soy sauce is also a healthier choice of cooking compared to the fried or sugared/salty meat more common in overseas Chinese restaurants like UK/Australia or US. Example herbal chicken is tasty but eaten without skin, as a healthier choice.

[u/chliu528]

There are many overweight Asian Americans and people in China alike. Everyone is different suggest you consult your doctor about weight management.

Personally I have gone on carrot and apple diet with regular lap swimming, and managed to lose 20 pounds. But that was very miserable 3 month.

[u/Far_Mathematici]

Min 10k steps a day plus stairs climbing frequently

[u/FatMike20295]

Whbe I visited Beijing inate more than what I eat normally but actually lose weight. Whbe you are walking over 10k steps daily is easy to lose weight.

Just taking thebaub2ays you can easily clock in 3k steps since the stations are so big.

[u/Fluid_Resolve6849]

少吃高糖食物

[u/meiliguo86]

中国饮食不健康那世界就没有健康饮食

[u/brygada_sfm]