Category: Weight Loss

The technique could help overweight people lose weight and keep it off.

Not eating much between meal times can help to increase exercise motivation, new research finds.

Only eating at mealtimes, along with intermittent fasting, both increase the levels of a hormone called ghrelin in the body.

Ghrelin, which increases appetite, boosts the motivation to exercise.

The extra exercise will help overweight people lose weight and keep it off.

It may be possible to use drugs that mimic the effect of ghrelin to increase exercise motivation, the researchers write.

Dr Yuji Tajiri, study co-author, said:

“Our findings suggest that hunger, which promotes ghrelin production, may also be involved in increasing motivation for voluntary exercise, when feeding is limited.

Therefore, maintaining a healthy eating routine, with regular mealtimes or fasting, could also encourage motivation for exercise in overweight people.”

The results come from a study of mice, which compared those given free access to food with those only fed twice a day.

The results showed that both groups ate the same amount of food.

However, the mice that only ate twice a day did more exercise.

Dr Tajiri said:

“These findings and previous reports are based on animal studies; so much more work is needed to confirm that this ghrelin response is also present in people.

If it can be established in clinical practice, it not only opens up new cost-effective diet and exercise strategies but may also indicate a new therapeutic application for ghrelin-mimicking drugs.”

The study was published in the Journal of Endocrinology (Mifune et al., 2019).

People in the study lost 4 lbs without making any conscious effort.

People can lose weight without trying when their partners are trying to lose weight, a recent study finds.

Non-dieting spouses lost 4 lbs despite making no effort to diet, if their partner was on a diet and losing weight.

The psychologists running the study call it ‘the ripple effect’.

One half of a couple automatically influences the other.

Professor Amy Gorin, the study’s first author, said:

“When one person changes their behavior, the people around them change.

Whether the patient works with their healthcare provider, joins a community-based, lifestyle approach like Weight Watchers, or tries to lose weight on their own, their new healthy behaviors can benefit others in their lives.”

The study included 130 couples, one of whom was dieting.

People trying to diet were either given pamphlets and attempted to lose the weight themselves or they were in a structured program, like Weight Watchers.

Six months later, the spouses of those dieting had lost an average of 4 lbs, if their spouse lost weight.

In other words, couples tended to lose weight together.

Similarly, if one member of a couple struggled to lose weight, so did the other.

Almost one-third of people in the study lost 3 percent of their body weight in six months, despite making no conscious effort.

Professor Gorin said:

“How we change our eating and exercise habits can affect others in both positive and negative ways.

On the positive side, spouses might emulate their partner’s behaviors and join them in counting calories, weighing themselves more often, and eating lower-fat foods.”

The ripple effect may also include other members of the household, but this has not yet been tested by research.

The study was published in the journal Obesity (Gorin et al., 2018).

Research reveals if low-fat diets are better for weight loss.

Cutting fat from the diet does not help with weight loss.

In fact, both high- and low-fat diets are equally effective, a review of the research finds.

People do not lose any more weight when they cut out fats from their diet.

The only important factor is whether or not they are able to persist with the diet.

However, there is some evidence that reducing carbohydrates from the diet helps to increase weight loss.

Dr Deirdre Tobias, the study’s first author, said:

“Despite the pervasive dogma that one needs to cut fat from their diet in order to lose weight, the existing scientific evidence does not support low-fat diets over other dietary interventions for long-term weight loss.

In fact, we did not find evidence that is particularly supportive of any specific proportion of calories from fat for meaningful long-term weight loss.

We need to look beyond the ratios of calories from fat, carbs, and protein to a discussion of healthy eating patterns, whole foods, and portion sizes.

Finding new ways to improve diet adherence for the long-term and preventing weight gain in the first place are important strategies for maintaining a healthy weight.”

The researchers reviewed 53 studies including 68,128 people overall.

The studies compared the effects of low- and high-fat diets.

The results showed that average weight loss was the same for both types of diets: about six pounds in a year.

Professor Frank Hu, study co-author, said:

“Current evidence indicates that clinically meaningful weight loss can be achieved with a variety of dietary approaches.

The key is to improve long-term compliance and cardiometabolic health.

Therefore, weight loss diets should be tailored to cultural and food preferences and health conditions of the individual and should also consider long-term health consequences of the diets.”

The study was published in the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology (Tobias et al., 2019).

Higher intake of this product can take weight off your body and slash belly fat.

Drinking two or three cups of coffee every day can reduce both total body fat and belly fat in women and older people, a study has found.

Coffee owes its anti-obesity effect to many active compounds such as caffeine, polyphenols, diterpenes, and chlorogenic acids.

Previous studies have found that body temperature will typically increase for at least 3 hours after drinking caffeinated coffee, making the body burn more calories.

The active ingredients, such as caffeine, cause a stimulation in the metabolic rate and so enhances fat burning.

One study suggests that the difference in reactions to caffeine in men and women could be related to steroid hormone circulation.

Sex steroid hormones are important in regulating the amount of fat (adipose tissues) and how these tissues are spread within the body.

This appears to be the case as the new study suggests that daily coffee drinking decreases central obesity or abdominal obesity in women and the elderly.

This greater effect of fat loss in women compared to men is probably related to the regulation of sex steroids.

Age affect the levels of hormones, since women between 20- and 44-years-old who drank coffee two or three times each day had the lowest levels of abdominal obesity (a high concentration of fat in the abdominal area).

They had 3.4 percent less abdominal fat than those who didn’t drink.

Women who were between 45- to 69-years-old had to increase the level of coffee to at least four cups a day to get similar results in losing belly fat.

Overall, women of all ages who consumed two or or three cups of coffee a day had a reduction of body fat of 2.8 percent.

Drinking coffee also had an positive outcome on men but the weight loss effect wasn’t as strong as it was for women.

Men who were between 20- to 40-years-old who consumed coffee two or three times daily had 1.8 percent less trunk fat and a reduction of total body fat of 1.3 percent.

Dr Lee Smith, the study’s Senior author, said:

“Our research suggests that there may be bioactive compounds in coffee other than caffeine that regulate weight and which could potentially be used as anti-obesity compounds.

It could be that coffee, or its effective ingredients, could be integrated into a healthy diet strategy to reduce the burden of chronic conditions related to the obesity epidemic.

It is important to interpret the findings of this study in light of its limitations — the study was at a specific point in time so trends cannot be established.

However, we don’t believe that someone’s weight is likely to influence their coffee consumption.”

The study was published in The Journal of Nutrition (Cao et al., 2020).

This food makes people eat less because they feel fuller.

A handful of nuts each day can reduce weight gain and can increase weight loss, a study finds.

A half ounce of nuts, instead of snacks that are unhealthy, like French Fries or potato chips, can help to reduce off weight gain.

US adults put on 1lb of weight each year, on average, so stopping this slow increase is central to fighting obesity.

Dr Xiaoran Liu, the study’s first author, said:

“People often see nuts as food items high in fat and calories, so they hesitate to consider them as healthy snacks, but they are in fact associated with less weight gain and wellness.”

The study included 51,529 people who were tracked over 20 years or more.

People put on an average of 0.71lbs each year, the results showed.

However, eating more nuts lead to less weight gain and also a lower risk of becoming obese.

A half-serving of nuts each day reduced the risk of becoming obese by 23 percent.

Dr Liu says that prevention is better than cure:

“Once people reach adulthood, they start to gradually gain about one pound a year of weight, which seems small.

But if you consider gaining one pound over 20 years, it accumulates to a lot of weight gain.

Adding one ounce of nuts to your diet in place of less healthy foods — such as red or processed meat, French fries or sugary snacks — may help prevent that slow, gradual weight gain after you enter adulthood and reduce the risk of obesity-related cardiovascular diseases.”

Nuts make people feel fuller because of their high fibre content.

Nut fibres also bind to fats in the gut, which means more calories are excreted.

The study’s authors write:

“In addition to the impact on human health, using environmentally friendly plant-based protein, such as nuts and seeds to replace animal sources of protein may contribute to the promotion of a global sustainable food system.”

The study was published in the journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health (Liu et al., 2019).

Weight loss: the breakfast that burns 100% more calories.

Eating a large breakfast can lead to burning twice as many calories, new research finds.

People in the study who ate a large breakfast burned it off more than twice as fast as those who ate a large dinner.

The reason is that the metabolism runs faster earlier in the day, helping calories to be used quicker.

In the evening, though, calories are not burned as quickly so they tend to be stored as fat.

Having a small breakfast also leads to people having a larger appetite, specifically for sweet foods.

Dr Juliane Richter, study co-author, said:

“Our results show that a meal eaten for breakfast, regardless of the amount of calories it contains, creates twice as high diet-induced thermogenesis as the same meal consumed for dinner.

This finding is significant for all people as it underlines the value of eating enough at breakfast.”

The study included 16 men who ate a low-calorie breakfast and high-calorie dinner one day and then the other way around the next day.

The results showed that study participants burned off the calories in a large breakfast 2.5 times faster than a large dinner.

Blood sugar and insulin spikes after eating were also diminished post-breakfast compared with dinner.

Dr Richter concluded:

“We recommend that patients with obesity as well as healthy people eat a large breakfast rather than a large dinner to reduce body weight and prevent metabolic diseases.”

A range of studies have begun to show the benefits for weight loss of eating more at breakfast.

One study has shown that eating a high-calorie breakfast can double weight loss.

Even having a desert at breakfast, such as a cookie or piece of chocolate cake, was linked to lower levels of insulin later on and healthier triglyceride levels in that study.

The study was published in the journal Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (Oltmanns et al., 2020).

One-in-five women report using weight loss supplements in the previous year.

There are three herbal supplements that lead to weight loss without making other changes to diet and exercise, according to a global review of 19 years of research.

These are green tea, white kidney bean extract and ephedra.

Only white kidney bean extract, though, has an effect on its own, researchers found.

To have an effect, green tea and ephedra were given to people trying to lose weight in combined preparations.

Dr Nick Fuller, study co-author, said:

“The problem with supplements is that unlike pharmaceutical drugs, clinical evidence is not required before they are made available to the public in supermarkets or chemists.”

The research reviewed 54 randomised controlled trials including over 4,000 people.

Each compared various herbal medicines with a placebo control group.

People in the studies made no other changes to diet and exercise, other than taking the supplement.

While the results showed that green tea, white kidney bean extract and ephedra had an effect, the amount of weight loss, on average, is relatively low.

People in the studies lost less than five pounds compared to those taking a placebo.

Dr Fuller said:

“This finding suggests there is insufficient evidence to recommend any of these herbal medicines for the treatment of weight loss.

Furthermore, many studies had poor research methods or reporting and even though most supplements appear safe for short-term consumption, they are expensive and are not going to provide a weight loss that is clinically meaningful.”

Around 16 percent of people report that they have used a weight loss supplement in the last year: 12 percent of men and 19 percent of women.

Common herbal supplements for weight loss include African mango and garcinia cambogia.

However, despite being safe, many of them have little or no effect, as this study underlines.

Those that do have an effect are only linked to small amounts of weight loss.

Dr Fuller said:

“The growth in the industry and popularity of these products highlights the importance of conducting more robust studies on the effectiveness and safety of these supplements for weight loss.”

The study was published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism (Maunder et al., 2020).

The food lowers cravings for high-sugar and high-fat foods and suppresses appetite during the day.

Eating two eggs for breakfast can increase weight loss by 65 percent, a study finds.

When combined with a reduced-calorie diet, eggs help people lose weight when compared to another breakfast with a similar number of calories.

People in the study who ate eggs for breakfast reduced their BMI by 61 percent more than a comparison group.

They also reported having more energy.

Having a breakfast high in protein lowers cravings for high-sugar and high-fat foods and suppresses appetite during the day, other studies have shown.

Eating more calories in the morning and less in the evening can double weight loss, studies have found.

Dr Nikhil V. Dhurandhar, study co-author, said:

“People have a hard time adhering to diets and our research shows that choosing eggs for breakfast can dramatically improve the success of a weight loss plan.

Apparently, the increased satiety and energy due to eggs helps people better comply with a reduced-calorie diet.”

For the study, 152 overweight or obese people were split into a number of groups, with some going on an egg breakfast diet and others on a bagel breakfast diet.

Despite everyone in the study eating the same amount of calories, those eating eggs for breakfast lost 65 percent more weight than those eating bagels for breakfast.

Eggs did not increase cholesterol levels or change triglycerides, suggesting they are healthy.

Jackie Newgent, a nutritionist, said:

“Eggs are a good source of all-natural, high-quality protein, so they can help keep you satisfied longer, making it easier to resist tempting snacks.

Nearly half of an egg’s protein, and many of the other nutrients, are found in the yolk, so make sure to eat the whole egg for maximum benefits.”

The study was published in the International Journal of Obesity (Vander Wal et al., 2008).

Eating late is dangerous as it imbalances fat burning and metabolic hormones, leading to weight gain and heart disease.

Having a large meal for breakfast that is rich in protein and carbs is linked to weight loss, research finds.

Indeed, studies suggest that it may quadruple weight loss in the long-term.

Now a study has shown that eating more calories later has many metabolic consequences, such as preventing fat loss, increasing triglycerides and low-density lipoproteins (LDL) cholesterol, which are biomarkers of cardiovascular disease risk.

Eating later also negatively effects the hormone ghrelin, which is responsible for feelings of hunger and the satiety hormone leptin, which is responsible for feeling full or satiated after eating.

Moreover, it elevates the hormone insulin and so blood glucose levels, which can lead to weight gain and diabetes.

Dr Namni Goel, the study’s lead author, said:

“Eating later can promote a negative profile of weight, energy, and hormone markers — such as higher glucose and insulin, which are implicated in diabetes, and cholesterol and triglycerides, which are linked with cardiovascular problems and other health conditions.

We know from our sleep loss studies that when you’re sleep deprived, it negatively affects weight and metabolism in part due to late-night eating, but now these early findings, which control for sleep, give a more comprehensive picture of the benefits of eating earlier in the day.”

The study compared the effect of delayed eating on human health with eating earlier.

For the study, participants of healthy weight first ate earlier for 8 weeks then later for a further 8 weeks.

Eating earlier consisted of three meals plus two snacks between 8 am and 7 pm.

The later eating condition consisted of three meals plus two snacks starting from noon and finishing at 11 pm.

During this time they were allowed to sleep between 11 pm to 9 am.

The research team found that compared to eating earlier, the delayed eating led to weight gain.

There were other negative indicators including high insulin, glucose, triglyceride and cholesterol levels, which suggested a poor metabolism.

Eating early helped participants to feel full for longer and so stopped overeating during the evenings.

Kelly Allison, study co-author, said:

“While lifestyle change is never easy, these findings suggest that eating earlier in the day may be worth the effort to help prevent these detrimental chronic health effects.

We have an extensive knowledge of how overeating affects health and body weight, but now we have a better understanding of how our body processes foods at different times of day over a long period of time.”

Another study by Dr Goel and colleagues suggested that eating less at night reduces the mental problems caused by lack of sleep.

The study was presented at SLEEP 2017, the 31st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.

The type of food that interacts with genes causing an increase in body weight.

Frequently eating fried foods doubles the risk of increases in body mass index (BMI) for those who are prone to gaining weight easily.

If you are are genetically susceptible to putting on weight then it might be wise to avoid fried foods.

Fried foods can interact with certain genes increasing the risk of being overweight and obese, the study suggests.

The research team tested the interactions between genes linked to obesity and eating fried food in more than 37,000 American Adults.

They found that eating fried foods more than 4 times a week doubles the effect of BMI gain in people who are genetically at higher risk of obesity.

There are more than 50 obesity-associated genes and at the time of the study they looked at 32 known genetic variants linked to increases in BMI and obesity.

A BMI of 30 kg/m2 or more is considered obese.

They compared the BMI between participants who ate fried foods more than 4 times a week with those who ate it less than once a week.

The difference in BMI among participants who were at the lowest genetic risk was around 0.5 kg/m2.

But the rate was twice as big for participants who were at the highest genetic risk, as the difference in BMI increased to 1.0 kg/m2.

Put simply, the negative effects of a bad diet can be magnified by a person’s genetic makeup.

Dr Lu Qi, the study’s first author, said:

“Our findings emphasize the importance of reducing fried food consumption in the prevention of obesity, particularly in individuals genetically predisposed to adiposity.”

Studies have shown that obesity mostly results from interactions between genes and environmental factors.

Obesity has dramatically increased globally in the past 30 years, mainly caused by changes in lifestyle and diet.

The obesity rate as well as eating fast food are much higher in the United States than the other countries.

Frying is a common way of cooking at home and at fast food restaurants, both of which are popular in the US.

The study was published in the British Medical Journal (Qi et al., 2014).