Jia Ling’s weight loss journey: how YOLO actress-director shed more than 50kg through a 2-week diet cycle and intermittent fasting
All eyes were on China’s comedy sweetheart Jia Ling over the 2024 Lunar New Year holiday – for what she has lost.
The 41-year-old star, writer and director of hit film YOLO (“You Only Live Once” or Re La Gun Tang in Chinese) shed over 50kg (110 pounds) during filming to reflect her character’s weight loss.
In the film, a reclusive woman driven by a passion for boxing undergoes a dramatic transformation in appearance and self-esteem.
Jia’s newly slim figure has been fodder for recent online debates about body image, and internet users were determined to find out just how she pulled off this staggering drop in weight.
The Hi, Mom star has since revealed a two-week diet that she repeated over the period to help her shed pounds. According to Chinese media outlet Now News, Jia also ate whole wheat bread at the height of her weight-loss regimen and would occasionally snack on nuts.
All that was part of the actress’ broader attempt to lose and control her weight, which also included intermittent fasting.
In a recent interview, Jia told talk show host Chen Luyu that her current daily diet consisted of Chinese cabbage, purple cabbage, bell peppers, chicken breast and brown rice, adding that it has less oil and less salt than before: “20 grams of oil and 5 grams of salt a day.”
She eats within a controlled eight hours, then fasts for the other 16 hours of the day, following the “16:8” intermittent fasting eating principle.
Here is the two-week diet she repeated:
Day 1
Breakfast: two steamed cobs of corn
Lunch: one piece of chicken breast, one cucumber
Dinner: lettuce with black rice congee
Day 2
Breakfast: one cob of corn, one egg, one cucumber
Lunch: one bowl of brown rice with chicken and spinach, one egg
Dinner: one egg with lettuce
Day 3
Breakfast: oatmeal with one egg
Lunch: beef
Dinner: broccoli with white jade mushroom
Day 4
Breakfast: one bowl of red bean and barley rice noodles
Lunch: 10 boiled shrimps
Dinner: one apple, one bowl of brown rice
Day 5
Breakfast: two eggs, sugar free soy milk
Lunch: chicken breast, broccoli
Dinner: multigrain rice, 180g of pangasius (a freshwater catfish), 200g of cold chives
Day 6
Breakfast: sweet potatoes, soy milk
Lunch: beef, lettuce
Dinner: one cucumber, several large tomatoes, two eggs
Day 7
Breakfast: oatmeal, one boiled egg
Lunch: eight shrimps, black fungus
Dinner: carrots, oatmeal soaked in milk
Day 8
Breakfast: one whole wheat bun, one hard-boiled egg, milk, one cherry tomato
Lunch: brown rice, chicken breast, broccoli
Dinner: sweet potatoes, tofu, spinach
Day 9
Breakfast: purple sweet potato, soy milk
Lunch: stir-fried broccoli with mushrooms, chicken wings
Dinner: pumpkin and millet congee
Day 10
Breakfast: corn, egg pancake, yogurt
Lunch: steamed bun, steamed sea bass, spinach
Dinner: winter melon, wakame (a type of seaweed)
The 11th to the 14th days of her meal plan offer more flexibility, and followers can mix and match meals from the recipes of the previous 10 days.
According to Jia, followers of her diet can healthily lose an average of four to five kilograms per month, provided they are regularly exercising.
In an interview with Chinese state news agency Xinhua, the actress admits she gained around 18-24kg from her starting weight of 102-108kg before filming, putting her up to around 126kg, to make her transformation appear more stark.
“Gaining weight was quite a painful experience,” she says. “Even though you can eat and drink things indiscriminately, it takes a toll on your mental health because your blood sugar becomes unstable.” As a result, she often experienced mood swings.
Jia emphasises that her film transcends the topics of dieting or weight loss. Rather, it celebrates determination and perseverance.
“My character’s grand reveal doesn’t portray her as a thin person; she is muscular,” she explains, stressing that her change in appearance was only part of a more profound developmental arc.
