Category: Weight Loss

What is the effect of consuming low-calorie or calorie-free products?

Artificial sweeteners can make you feel more hungry, despite their calorie-free or low-calorie content, research finds.

They have an appetite-stimulating effect on the brain, causing people to eat more and actually increasing the risk of putting on weight.

Artificial sweeteners are food additives and chemical substances that replace sugar to keep foods and drinks sweet but reduce their energy content.

Sugar substitutes such as sucralose, acesulfame potassium (acesulfame K), aspartame, neotame, and saccharin are used in many foods and drinks for losing weight and combating obesity and diabetes.

A study looked at the artificial sweeteners’ effects in changing taste perceptions and brain regulation of appetite.

They found a mechanism in the brain that tells the brain how sweet the food is and how many calories it has.

Dr Greg Neely, the study’s lead researcher, said:

“We found that inside the brain’s reward centres, sweet sensation is integrated with energy content.

When sweetness versus energy is out of balance for a period of time, the brain recalibrates and increases total calories consumed.”

In this the study, fruit flies were given a diet laced with artificial sweetener for 5 days.

The study found that these animals were consuming 30 percent more calories compared to the time that they were exposed to naturally sweetened food.

Dr Neely said:

“When we investigated why animals were eating more even though they had enough calories, we found that chronic consumption of this artificial sweetener actually increases the sweet intensity of real nutritive sugar, and this then increases the animal’s overall motivation to eat more food.”

The study identified a complex neuronal network sending the information to the brain that it hasn’t eaten enough and needs calories after consuming artificially sweetened food.

Dr Neely explained:

“Using this response to artificially sweetened diets, we were able to functionally map a new neuronal network that balances food’s palatability with energy content.

The pathway we discovered is part of a conserved starvation response that actually makes nutritious food taste better when you are starving.”

Professor Herbert Herzog, who has replicated the fruit flies study in mammals using sucralose-sweetened diet, confirmed similar findings.

Professor Herzog said:

“These findings further reinforce the idea that ‘sugar-free’ varieties of processed food and drink may not be as inert as we anticipated.

Artificial sweeteners can actually change how animals perceive the sweetness of their food, with a discrepancy between sweetness and energy levels prompting an increase in caloric consumption.”

Billions of people consume artificial sweeteners in their diet hoping to lose weight, but these chemicals can significantly increase food consumption.

Previous studies have reported that artificial sweeteners increases hyperactivity and reduce sleep quality in humans.

The study was published in Cell Metabolism (Wang et al., 2016).

Food craving can be a major barrier for those trying to lose weight.

Playing a simple game on a phone can help to reduce food cravings, research suggests.

Three minutes playing a video game reduced cravings for food, alcohol and cigarettes, a study has found.

Food craving can be a major barrier for those trying to lose weight.

Cravings are often focused on unhealthy foods high in sugar, fat and salt, which can make weight loss very difficult.

The game used in the study was ‘Tetris’, an old-fashioned game involving rotating differently shaped blocks.

The game just provides a visual distraction, so other games would probably work as well.

Visual distractors probably work because the mind’s capacity is limited: it is hard to concentrate on two things at any one time.

One of the study’s authors, Professors Jackie Andrade, explained:

“Episodes of craving normally only last a few minutes, during which time an individual is visualising what they want and the reward it will bring.

Often those feelings result in the person giving in and consuming the very thing they are trying to resist.

But by playing Tetris, just in short bursts, you are preventing your brain creating those enticing images and without them the craving fades.”

The study included 119 people whose cravings were measured before and after playing the video game.

The results showed that cravings were reduced by 24 percent in comparison to a control group.

Professor Andrade said:

“Feeling in control is an important part of staying motivated, and playing Tetris can potentially help the individual to stay in control when cravings strike.

It is something a person can quickly access, for the most part whether they are at work or at home, and replaces the feeling of stress caused by the craving itself.

Ultimately, we are constantly looking for ways to stimulate cravings for healthy activities – such as exercise – but this a neutral activity that we have shown can have a positive impact.”

The study was published in the journal Appetite (Skorka-Brown et al., 2014).

Being aware of this barrier may help improve weight loss strategies.

People who are obese find food more satisfying than people who are not, new research finds.

Obese people also continue to find food more satisfying, even after eating more of it.

In other words, obese people have to eat more of a tasty food to get bored of it.

Higher satisfaction from eating may be one of the biggest barriers to weight loss.

Being aware of this bias may help improve weight loss strategies.

Dr Linnea A. Polgreen, study co-author, said:

“Obesity is a major public-health problem.

Thirty percent of the US population is obese, and obesity-related health problems (diabetes, hypertension, etc.) are increasing.

Causes of obesity are varied, but food consumption decisions play an important role, especially decisions about what foods to eat and how much to consume.

Taste perceptions may lead to overeating.

If people with obesity have different taste perceptions than non obese people, it could lead to better understanding of obesity and possibly designing new approaches to prevent obesity.”

The study included 290 people, some of whom were overweight and obese.

They were given as many pieces of chocolate to eat as they liked and asked about their satisfaction while eating.

In general, people find that the more they eat of a food, the less satisfaction they get from it — even chocolate.

However, Dr Aaron C. Miller, the study’s first author, explained, the pattern was different for obese people:

“In our study population, people with obesity reported a higher level of satisfaction for each additional piece of chocolate compared to non-obese people.

Thus, their taste preferences appear markedly different.

Our findings further indicate that obese participants needed to consume a greater quantity of chocolate than nonobese participants to experience a similar decline in taste perceptions.

Specifically, obese women needed to eat 12.5 pieces of chocolate to fall to the same level of taste perception as nonobese women who ate only 10 pieces, which corresponds to a difference of 67.5 calories.

This may, in part, explain why obese people consume more than non-obese people.”

The study was published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (Miller et al., 2019).

How to overcome one of the biggest barriers to weight loss.

Managing the emotions behind eating is one of the biggest barriers to weight loss, research finds.

Addressing emotional eating can double the chances of weight loss success, one study has found.

One technique is to imagine the thoughts that might trigger emotional eating as travelling away on a ‘conveyor belt’.

Mental images like this can help people step back from their emotions and control their eating.

Unfortunately, many weight loss programmes do not even address psychological factors like this.

The tendency is to focus on diet and exercise, without considering the impact of the mind.

People frequently have an emotional connection with food — it is this that can drive overeating.

For example, when feeling bad it is common for emotional eaters to cheer themselves up with food.

Foods like cookies might be linked to comforting memories of childhood or feelings of safety, which encourages their consumption.

Being able to spot this link and predict the regret emotional eating will bring on later can help curb the problem.

Dr Edie Goldbacher, at Temple’s Universities, Center for Obesity Research, said:

“Emotional eating may be one reason why people don’t do as well in behavioral weight loss groups, because these groups don’t address emotional eating or any of its contributing factors.”

Janet Williams, who successfully lost 17 pounds and has kept it off, took part in a Temple University study that targeted emotional eating.

She says:

“The program doesn’t just help you identify when you eat.

It helps you recognize triggers that make you eat, to help you break that cycle of reaching for food every time you feel bored, or frustrated, or sad.

I still use the skills I learned in the study.

I’ve learned to say, ‘I will not allow this emotional episode to control my eating habits.'”

One study has found that learning to control emotional eating could almost double the odds of successful weight loss.

The study was published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine (Braden et al., 2016).

The intense desire to eat certain foods can make weight loss very difficult.

Green spaces, like gardens, parks or allotments, can help people overcome food cravings, new research finds.

People who experience natural spaces have reduced cravings for unhealthy foods.

Previous studies have also shown that exercising in nature reduces cravings of all different types.

The intense desire to eat certain foods can make weight loss very difficult.

Food cravings may account for up to 10 percent of eating behaviour, which is more than genetics can explain.

Ms Leanne Martin, the study’s first author, said:

“It has been known for some time that being outdoors in nature is linked to a person’s wellbeing.

But for there to be a similar association with cravings from simply being able to see green spaces adds a new dimension to previous research.

This is the first study to explore this idea, and it could have a range of implications for both public health and environmental protection programmes in the future.”

The conclusions come from a survey of 149 people who were asked about cravings they experienced, their feelings and exposure to nature.

The results showed that people regularly exposed to natural scenes experienced fewer food cravings and of a lower intensity.

Gardens, allotments, parks and green views in general were all associated with lower levels of cravings.

Dr Sabine Pahl, study co-author, said:

“Craving contributes to a variety of health-damaging behaviours such as smoking, excessive drinking and unhealthy eating.

In turn, these can contribute to some of the greatest global health challenges of our time, including cancer, obesity and diabetes.

Showing that lower craving is linked to more exposure to green spaces is a promising first step.

Future research should investigate if and how green spaces can be used to help people withstand problematic cravings, enabling them to better manage cessation attempts in the future.”

The study was published in the journal Health & Place (Martin et al., 2019).

This routine helps people maintain their weight loss.

People who exercise at the same time each day sustain their weight loss more successfully, new research concludes.

People who exercise consistency end up doing more exercise, researchers found, which helps with weight loss.

The most common time for people to exercise is in the morning.

However, those who exercised in the evening successfully maintained their weight loss, if they stuck to this time.

So, it is not the time of day that matters most, but sticking to a consistent pattern.

The study followed 375 adults who had successfully maintained their weight loss.

The results show the importance of habits in weight loss.

Positive habits that are repeated day after day can help keep people healthy.

This is because habits tend to be performed automatically, sometimes with little conscious effort.

Dale Bond, study co-author, said:

“Our findings warrant future experimental research to determine whether promoting consistency in the time of day that planned and structured physical activity is performed can help individuals achieve and sustain higher levels of physical activity.”

Leah Schumacher, the study’s first author, said:

“It will also be important to determine whether there is a specific time of day that is more advantageous for individuals who have initial low physical activity levels to develop a physical activity habit.”

Another new study has suggested that working out in the morning burns the most calories.

Morning exercise increases the ability of muscles to burn fat and sugar, a separate study of mice has shown.

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

A handful of this food reduces the risk of obesity.

Eating a handful of nuts each day is linked to a lower risk of obesity, new research finds.

They are best used to replace an unhealthy snack, such as crisps, red meat, fries, or another processed food.

Brazil nuts, peanuts and other varieties of nut are all linked to cardiovascular benefits along with reducing the risk of weight gain.

Brazil nuts in particular have been shown to help stabilise blood glucose levels and increase feelings of fullness.

Almonds and walnuts are also healthy types of nuts to substitute for less healthy food choices.

The conclusions come from two studies: the first followed approximately 125,000 people across four years.

The results clearly showed that a one-ounce portion of nuts was linked to a lower risk of weight gain.

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.”

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.”

A second study of Brazil nut consumption included 20 people who ate either Brazil nuts or pretzels as a snack, in addition to their normal diet.

Dr Mee Young Hong, who led the study, explained the results:

“While both Brazil nuts and pretzels increased a sense of fullness after they were eaten, eating Brazil nuts stabilized postprandial (after eating) blood glucose and insulin levels, which may be beneficial in preventing diabetes and weight gain.”

The two studies were presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2018 in Chicago.

Three tips to understand this common barrier to weight loss.

The biggest barrier to weight loss is actually psychological, a survey has found.

Ninety percent of people do not guess this, citing diet and exercise instead.

However, eating has an emotional component and psychological well-being is important to achieve and maintain weight loss.

Understanding the cause of overeating is the key to weight loss.

People frequently have an emotional connection with food — it is this that really drives overeating.

The survey of over one thousand Americans asked them about the biggest barriers to weight loss.

The results showed that:

• 26 percent thought the biggest barrier to weight loss was poor nutrition.
• 31 percent mentioned a lack of exercise.
• 17 percent thought it was too costly to be healthy.
• 12 percent mentioned a lack of time.

Just 10 percent thought that mental health was important to weight loss.

Dr Diane Robinson, a neuropsychologist at Orlando Health, said:

“Most people focus almost entirely on the physical aspects of weight loss, like diet and exercise.

But there is an emotional component to food that the vast majority of people simply overlook and it can quickly sabotage their efforts.”

People often use food to comfort themselves, which is what leads to overeating, said Dr Robinson:

“If we’re aware of it or not, we are conditioned to use food not only for nourishment, but for comfort.

That’s not a bad thing, necessarily, as long as we acknowledge it and deal with it appropriately.”

Dr Robinson gives three tips for understand emotional eating:

1. Keep a daily diary of mood and food. Look for patterns, such as eating particular foods in response to certain moods.
2. Identify which foods make you feel good. Is it about evoking a memory or are you eating from stress?
3. Before eating, think: do I need this because I’m hungry or is it something else (like stress). If it’s stress, food isn’t the way to deal with it.

The survey was commissioned by Orlando Health.

People who did this consistently lost the most weight, research finds.

Keeping a food diary is linked to the most weight loss by new research.

Just fifteen minutes per day making a note of each meal or snack boosts people’s awareness of what they are eating.

People in the study who did this each day lost an average of 10 percent of their body weight.

Those who monitor their food intake consistently and quickly lose the most weight.

In fact, other studies have shown that food diaries can double weight loss.

Although people imagine keeping a food diary will be tiring, it is not that bad.

Professor Jean Harvey study co-author, said:

“People hate it; they think it’s onerous and awful, but the question we had was: How much time does dietary self-monitoring really take?

The answer is, not very much.”

For the study, 142 people followed an online weight management program.

They visited a website to record how much they had eaten and what exercise they had done.

It was clear from the results that people who logged their intake more often lost the most weight.

Professor Harvey said:

“Those who self-monitored three or more time per day, and were consistent day after day, were the most successful.

It seems to be the act of self-monitoring itself that makes the difference — not the time spent or the details included.”

A food diary does not have to be formal — it could be something as simple as sending yourself an email or text message.

Having the right expectations helps people stick to their task, said Professor Harvey:

“We know people do better when they have the right expectations.

We’ve been able to tell them that they should exercise 200 minutes per week.

But when we asked them to write down all their foods, we could never say how long it would take.

Now we can.

It’s highly effective, and it’s not as hard as people think.”

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

This common mineral could increase weight loss by up to six times.

Taking a calcium supplement can increase weight loss by up to six times, a study has found.

Calcium deficient women who took a supplement lost 13 pounds, in comparison to 2 pounds in a control group.

Around half of people who are obese have a calcium deficiency.

Calcium is lost every day through through sweat, hair, nails and skin.

The body cannot produce calcium, so relies on it from food intake.

Calcium deficiency is thought to encourage the brain to increase food intake to obtain more of the mineral.

Studies have also shown that people who are calcium deficient have more body fat, larger waistlines and higher levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol (LDL).

The study involved 63 obese or overweight women who took part in a 15-week weight loss program.

Before starting the program, their calcium intake was 50 percent down.

Instead of the recommended 1000 mg per day, they were consuming less than 600 mg.

Half were given 1200 mg per day of calcium and the other half a placebo.

After following the diet, the results showed that those taking the supplement lost 13 pounds, compared to only 2 pounds in the placebo group.

Professor Angelo Tremblay, who led the study, said:

“Our hypothesis is that the brain can detect the lack of calcium and seeks to compensate by spurring food intake, which obviously works against the goals of any weight loss program.

Sufficient calcium intake seems to stifle the desire to eat more.”

Another study has shown that decreasing intake of dairy products, which contain a lot of calcium, is linked to putting on weight.

Getting enough calcium is also linked to lower risk for cardiovascular disease.

The study was published in the British Journal of Nutrition (Major et al., 2008).