Category: Weight Loss

Self-control can be boosted by talking to yourself the right way.

Talking to oneself in the third person helps to boost healthy eating and may aid weight loss.

For example, instead of saying “What do I want for lunch?”, you say “What does Jo want for lunch?”

People in the study who used this simple self-distancing technique made fewer unhealthy food choices.

The technique works because it boosts self-control.

Thinking in the third-person helps people ignore the most tempting aspects of unhealthy foods.

The conclusions come from a study of 244 people, some of whom were dieting.

They were then asked to chose between healthy and unhealthy foods.

Sometimes people asked themselves “What do I want?” and other times they asked themselves “[Name], what do you want?”

The results showed that dieters and nondieters who thought about themselves in the third-person chose fewer unhealthy foods.

Ms Celina Furman, the study’s first author, said:

“Reflecting on one’s decisions using one’s own name might enhance one’s ability to follow through with their goals, which can often be undermined by strong situational lures (such as tempting foods).”

Even relatively minor changes to eating can have a larger impact on people’s lives, said Dr Ashley Gearhardt, study co-author:

“We do know that even reducing caloric intake by a couple hundred calories a day can be important for preventing unhealthy weight gain and promoting weight loss.

We need to do additional studies in the future about the impact of distanced self-talk on actual caloric intake, but even small improvements can lead to big public health gains over time.”

Other effective mental techniques to boost weight loss include being reminded how difficult it is to lose weight, thinking differently and using distractions.

The study was published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science (Furman et al., 2020).

The study showed that people who did this lost twice as much weight.

One of the easiest ways to boost weight loss is also the simplest, research finds.

People who keep food diaries lose twice as much weight when on a diet, a recent study finds.

Making a note of what is consumed, even in the most informal way, helps to boost weight loss.

Indeed, studies have shown that the more careful notes people make, the more weight they end up losing.

Dr Jack Hollis, the author of a study on food diaries and weight loss, explained:

“The more food records people kept, the more weight they lost.

Those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records.

It seems that the simple act of writing down what you eat encourages people to consume fewer calories.”

The key is consistency: not just in keeping to a diet, but also in recording food intake.

The process of keeping a diary does not have to be difficult.

It could be as simple as sending a text message or email message to keep a record.

Keeping a food diary works because it makes people more aware of what they are eating.

Awareness is one of the keys to breaking ingrained habits.

People tend to do the same things each day, like eating, without really noticing.

Bad eating habits can, little by little, lead to weight gain.

Notes raise self-awareness and help increase weight loss.

In the study were 1,685 people who followed the DASH diet for six months.

The DASH diet is designed to be heart healthy and includes many fruits and vegetables.

Thirty minutes of exercise per day was also included in the protocol.

At the end of the study, people had lost an average of 13 pounds.

The results showed, though, that people keeping a food diary lost twice as much weight.

The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (Hollis et al., 2008).

Three simple and delicious drinks that have all been linked by research to weight loss.

Low-fat milk, water and yerba mate tea have all been linked to weight loss.

Yerba mate tea is a herbal tea which is an excellent source of flavonoids, amino acids, vitamin C, B1 and B2 and minerals providing several health benefits.

This traditional south-eastern Latin American tea is sold as a stimulant due to its caffeine.

Research has found that it can boost weight loss.

In addition, replacing just one sugary soda with water can lead to weight loss and improve health.

Indeed, one study has linked drinking a pint of water before every meal to losing five times as much weight.

Changing to water also decreases fasting glucose levels, which is better for weight loss and general health.

Drinking water is one of the most popular weight loss techniques used by people.

On top of mate tea and water, a couple of glasses of fat-free milk each day could double weight loss, research finds.

A study of 322 overweight people revealed that those drinking two glasses of low-fat milk each day doubled their weight loss compared to those who drank around half-a-glass.

Dr Greg Miller, an expert in food science and human nutrition, said:

“The good news for the public is that you can follow these recommendation for 3 servings of dairy foods each day and get the nutrition benefits without concern of extra weight gain.

If you’re cutting calories to lose weight, it’s important to get your 3 servings of dairy foods each day for good health and to enhance your weight loss efforts.”

Drinks like mate, water and milk are all an improvement on sugary drinks, said Dr Kiyah J. Duffey, author of study on the subject:

“We found that among U.S. adults who consume one serving of sugar-sweetened beverages per day, replacing that drink with water lowered the percent of calories coming from drinks from 17 to 11 percent.

Even those who consumed more sugary drinks per day could still benefit from water replacement, dropping the amount of calories coming from beverages to less than 25 percent of their daily caloric intake.”

The study was published in the journals American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Nutrients & Journal of Functional Foods (Duffey & Poti, 2016; Rajpathak et al., 2006; Zapata, et al., 2019).

Study points to a radical new approach to dieting: choosing a diet you can actually enjoy!

As every dieter knows, planning a diet and actually following through are two completely different things.

A psychological study reveals exactly why this is.

The reason is that most people think their conscious thoughts and intentions will change their behaviour, when in fact they don’t.

What really drives a lot of actual, real-world dieting behaviour is the emotions.

Dr Marc Kiviniemi, a public health researcher at the University at Buffalo, explained:

“The crux of the disconnect is the divide between thoughts and feelings.

Planning is important, but feelings matter, and focusing on feelings and understanding their role can be a great benefit.

If you’re sitting back conceiving a plan you may think rationally about the benefits of eating healthier foods, but when you’re in the moment, making a decision, engaging in a behavior, it’s the feelings associated with that behavior that may lead you to make different decisions from those you planned to make.”

Weird diets which make you eat foods you don’t like or hardly any food at all are doomed to failure.

Dr Kiviniemi continued:

“First of all, the deprivation experience is miserable.

If you didn’t associate negative feelings with it to start, you will after a few days.

The other thing that’s important is the distinction between things that require effort and things that are automatic.

Planning is an effort that demands mental energy, but feelings happen automatically.

Deprivation or anything that demands a high degree of self-control is a cognitive process.

If you put yourself in a position to use that energy every time you make a food choice that energy is only going to last so long.”

Enjoy what you eat!

Any potential diet should be centred around a radical approach: enjoying what you eat.

Dr Kiviniemi said:

“In the dietary domain, eating more fruits and vegetables is fabulous advice.

But if you have negative feelings about those food choices, they might not represent elements of a good plan.

It’s not just about eating healthy foods.

It’s about eating the healthy foods you like the most.

Think seriously about how you’re going to implement the plans you make to change your behavior, and that includes not only the feeling component, but how you plan to overcome a negative reaction that might surface during a diet.”

The research was published in the Journal of Health Psychology (Kiviniemi & Brown-Kramer, 2015).

Just one simple habit is enough to initiate weight loss.

The simple act of getting on the scales is enough to start losing weight.

Self-weighing helps to encourage people to be aware of their own weight and makes them think about what they are eating.

Awareness is more likely to motivate change.

That is why in one previous study people doubled their weight loss by noting down their exercise and dietary habits.

People in the current study lost weight by just weighing themselves.

They made no other conscious changes to their diet or lifestyle — although clearly they must have made some adjustments.

For the study, 111 people were tracked over the festive season.

The results showed that people who did not weigh themselves gained weight.

However, many of those who weighed themselves lost both weight and belly fat, or at least did not put on any weight.

Dr Jamie Cooper, study co-author, said that people naturally adjust their lifestyle when they see their weight:

“Maybe they exercise a little bit more the next day (after seeing a weight increase) or they watch what they are eating more carefully.

The subjects self-select how they are going to modify their behavior, which can be effective because we know that interventions are not one-size-fits-all.”

The simple trick used in the study was to show people a graph of their weight over time.

Dr Michelle vanDellen, study co-author, said:

“People are really sensitive to discrepancies or differences between their current selves and their standard or goal.

When they see that discrepancy, it tends to lead to behavioral change.

Daily self-weighing ends up doing that for people in a really clear way.”

Obesity often results from putting on small amounts of weight over the years.

Dr Cooper:

“Vacations and holidays are probably the two times of year people are most susceptible to weight gain in a very short period of time.

The holidays can actually have a big impact on someone’s long-term health.”

The study was published in the journal Obesity (Kaviani et al., 2019).

This technique helps overcome one of the biggest barriers to weight loss.

People who learn to be less concerned about their weight can triple their weight loss.

The reason is that people with a better body image automatically eat more healthily.

Unfortunately, overweight people often have body image problems.

Worrying about what other people think or how they appear can be a large barrier to weight loss.

Instead, learning to love ones’ body and worrying less about its size has a positive effect.

The study involved 239 overweight women who followed a standard exercise and diet program for a year.

However, half of them were given sessions focused on body image.

They were told how the emotions can influence eating.

For example, negative moods can trigger bouts of eating to feel better, rather than eating to satiate hunger.

This is known as emotional eating.

The women were also encouraged to love their bodies.

The results of the study showed that those who improved their body image had triple the weight loss of the control group.

They lost an average of 7 percent of their body weight.

Dr Pedro Teixeira, study co-author, said:

“Body image problems are very common amongst overweight and obese people, often leading to comfort eating and more rigid eating patterns, and are obstacles to losing weight.

Our results showed a strong correlation between improvements in body image, especially in reducing anxiety about other people’s opinions, and positive changes in eating behavior.

From this we believe that learning to relate to your body in healthier ways is an important aspect of maintaining weight loss and should be addressed in every weight control program.”

The study was published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (Carraça et al., 2011).

People with this trait find it easier to lose weight.

Being pessimistic and self-aware is linked to greater weight loss, research finds.

People who prefer to look at the facts and to consider alternatives do better when they try to lose weight.

In contrast, those who approach weight loss with childish optimism are doomed to fail.

The conclusion comes from a study of 101 obese people who were given combined counselling, nutrition and exercise therapy.

The results showed that people who were optimistic at the start of the six month trial found it harder to lose weight.

However, people who successfully lost weight did become more optimistic as time went on, even if they started out pessimistic.

A second key to weight loss is self-awareness.

It is important to be aware of what triggers eating and to be gathering information about what changes are working and what are not.

The authors write:

“It is important to enhance patients’ self-effectiveness and self-control in order to reduce psychological stress and to maintain the weight loss.

The weight loss should be attributed not simply to the intervention of the clinical psychologists but to the total effect of the intervention of a holistic medical care team.”

The study was published in the journal BioPsychoSocial Medicine (Saito et al., 2009).

Researchers have found that around 50 percent of the obese are deficient in a mineral contained in this drink.

A couple of glasses of fat-free milk each day can double weight loss, research finds.

A study of 322 overweight people revealed that those drinking two glasses of low-fat milk each day doubled their weight loss compared to those who drank around half-a-glass.

The reason could be down to the calcium and vitamin D contained in milk.

Researchers have found that around 50 percent of obese people are deficient in calcium.

In addition, among the general population, around half are deficient in vitamin D.

Higher calcium levels appear to reduce the desire for food.

A deficiency in calcium, though, can drive the appetite as a way of obtaining more of the essential mineral.

Vitamin D helps the body to absorb calcium.

Researchers find that consuming dairy products can help to lower blood pressure and cholesterol.

It is also linked to reduced body fat and increased muscle growth.

Although people sometimes avoid dairy when trying to lose weight, there is evidence that normal intake is not fattening.

A study of 19,614 men followed them for 12 years, tracking what they ate and any change in weight.

The results revealed that those consuming three servings of dairy each day did not gain weight.

Dr Greg Miller, an expert in food science and human nutrition, said:

“The good news for the public is that you can follow the MyPyramid recommendation for 3 servings of dairy foods each day and get the nutrition benefits without concern of extra weight gain.

If you’re cutting calories to lose weight, it’s important to get your 3 servings of dairy foods each day for good health and to enhance your weight loss efforts.”

The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Rajpathak et al., 2006).