Category: Weight Loss

How to double the chance of losing 5 pounds in weight.

Changing to water from other drinks that contain calories can help people lose 5 pounds, a study finds.

The simple change to diet doubles the chance of losing 5 percent of body weight.

As little as two glasses of water drunk before a meal can increase weight loss significantly, one previous study has also found.

The switch to water helps to lower fasting glucose levels and naturally leads to better hydration.

Dr Deborah Tate, the study’s first author, said:

“Substituting non-caloric beverages – whether it’s water, diet soft drinks or something else – can be a clear and simple change for people who want to lose or maintain weight.

If this were done on a large scale, it could significantly reduce the increasing public health problem of obesity.”

There were 318 obese or overweight people included in the study.

One group were asked to switch drinks containing calories to water or diet drinks.

The comparison group made a change of their own choosing to their diet.

The results revealed that six months later the group that stuck to calorie-free drinks had double the chance of losing 5 percent of their weight.

Dr Tate said:

“We learned that both water and diet sodas have some benefits, but they may be different.

People who really like the sweet flavor or carbonation or caffeine of sodas may be more likely to stick with the change if they are drinking diet sodas as opposed to water only, but drinking water was associated with some other important health improvements like reduced blood sugar.”

It is relatively easy to make the change to a zero calorie drink compared with other dietary interventions, said Dr Tate:

“Substituting specific foods or beverages that provide a substantial portion of daily calories may be a useful strategy for modest weight loss or weight gain prevention.

Beverages may be ideal targets, but keep in mind, the strategy will only work if the person doesn’t make up for the lost calories some other way.”

The study was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Tate et al., 2012).

The easy technique can help to double weight loss.

The more a person weighs themselves, the more weight they lose, research finds.

Similarly, keeping a note of what is eaten is consistently linked to weight loss by studies.

Taking a quick note of daily diet and exercise habits has been shown to double weight loss by one study.

The process of making notes does not have to be complicated — in fact, most people find it easy.

Simply sending a text message or email is enough.

Noting down details of diet and exercise probably works by making people more aware of their own habits.

Habits tend to work automatically and outside our conscious awareness.

Note-taking and weighing draw attention to those habits so they can be consciously addressed.

The current study involved 975 people who were tracked over twelve months.

People in the study were using internet-enabled scales.

The results showed that people who stepped on their scales more often lost an average of an extra 2 pounds.

Dr Matthew Sperrin, the study’s first author, said:

“In this study we wanted to know more about the ways that engagement with weighing scales indicates the users’ behaviour, something that is only possible with recent advances in technology.”

Dr Sperrin explained the results:

“…we were able to spot a strong correlation between self-weighing and weight-loss, particularly that the more a patient weighed themselves, the more weight they were shown to lose.

Is it the weight change that encourages people to more closely monitor their weight or is it the monitoring that encourages the weight change?

This is something we would be keen to investigate further now that we know that the information gathered by connected health devices can be re-purposed and meaningfully used for the purpose of research.”

The study was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (Sperrin et al., 2016).

Lose weight with no effort using the ripple effect.

People whose partners are trying to lose weight also lose weight themselves — without trying, research demonstrates.

The non-dieting member of a couple lost an average of 4 lbs of their body weight, even though they made no effort to diet or increase their exercise.

Dubbed ‘the ripple effect’, weight loss spreads out from the person who is dieting to close others.

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.”

For the study, one half of 130 couples either joined a diet programme or were put in a self-guided control group.

After six months, the untreated spouses of people in both groups had lost an average of over 4 lbs.

In other words, whether their spouse was following a specific diet programme or in the control group, their partner often lost weight.

In fact, around one-third of ‘untreated’ partners lost at least 3 percent of their body weight in six months.

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.”

It is not yet known if the weight loss ripple effect includes other members of a household and not just couples.

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

Study tests if diet or exercise is better for maintaining weight loss.

The best way to maintain weight loss in the long-term is through more exercise rather than less food, research finds.

People in the study maintained weight loss of 30 pounds or more for around ten years by being active.

They did more physical activity and expended more energy each day than those who were obese.

Successful weight loss maintainers did around 12,000 steps each day, compared with 6,500 by obese people.

In other words, successful weight loss maintainers ate more but burned it off through exercise.

Your activity levels matter a lot more than what you eat in the long term, the researchers concluded.

Dr Danielle Ostendorf, the study’s first author, said:

“This study addresses the difficult question of why so many people struggle to keep weight off over a long period.

By providing evidence that a group of successful weight-loss maintainers engages in high levels of physical activity to prevent weight regain — rather than chronically restricting their energy intake — is a step forward to clarifying the relationship between exercise and weight-loss maintenance.”

The study compared successful weight loss maintainers with one group of people with normal body weight and another group who were obese.

Successful weight loss maintainers did twice as many steps as people who were obese, the results showed.

Exercise clearly beat restricting calorie intake for maintaining weight loss.

The results are the same as those from an analysis of people who had been on the reality TV show “The Biggest Loser”.

Again, people who maintained their weight loss did so through increased activity.

Changes in diet had little effect on maintaining weight loss over the years after they finished the show.

Dr Victoria A. Catenacci, study co-author, said:

“Our findings suggest that this group of successful weight-loss maintainers are consuming a similar number of calories per day as individuals with overweight and obesity but appear to avoid weight regain by compensating for this with high levels of physical activity.”

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

People in the study lost 14 pounds, on average, while eating as many calories as they liked.

A diet high in healthy carbohydrates and low in fat can lead to weight loss, recent research finds.

People in the study lost 14 pounds, on average, following a vegan diet in which they could eat as many calories as they liked.

They only had to avoid consuming more than 20-30 mg of fat each day and, naturally, avoid all meat products.

Another study has shown that going on a plant-based vegetarian diet can double weight loss (Kahleova et al., 2017).

Vegetarian diets can add up to 10 pounds of weight loss compared to traditional diets, research has found.

Not only can a high-carb diet lead to weight loss, it also leads to improved insulin function.

The study may surprise some as carbohydrates are often seen as ‘the enemy’ by people who are trying to lose weight.

Dr Hana Kahleova, the study’s first author, said:

“Fad diets often lead people to fear carbohydrates.

But the research continues to show that healthy carbohydrates — from fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains — are the healthiest fuel for our bodies.”

The study included 75 people who were split into two groups.

Around half went on a vegan diet while the remainder continued with their current diet.

Those going vegan concentrated on whole, complex carbohydrates from vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains.

The results showed that people on the vegan diet lost an average of 14 pounds compared to no change in the control group.

The diet works partly because complex carbohydrates like those in healthy fruits and vegetables are high in fibre.

This gives a feeling of fullness without the added calories.

High fibre diet are often shown to be effective for weight loss.

They also reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer and heart disease.

The study was published in the journal Nutrients (Kahleova et al., 2020).

The foods make people feel 30 percent more full.

Pulses — which include peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas — help people lose weight without dieting, multiple studies find.

Adding a single daily serving of foods like these helps people lose weight without making changes to lifestyle or restricting diet.

A serving is three-quarters of a cup.

People in the studies lost weight without counting calories, keeping food diaries or exercising more.

However, adding these standard approaches can improve weight loss further.

Eating pulses is effective for weight loss because it improves feelings of fullness by 31 percent.

This is because the body takes longer to break pulses down (they have a low glycaemic index).

Other pulses include:

• Broad beans,
• runner beans,
• kidney beans,
• black-eyed peas,
• and butter beans.

Dr Russell de Souza, who led the Canadian study, said:

“Despite their known health benefits, only 13 per cent of Canadians eat pulses on any given day and most do not eat the full serving.

So there is room for most of us to incorporate dietary pulses in our diet and realize potential weight management benefits.”

The conclusions come from an analysis of 21 separate clinical trials.

The studies tested the effects of both adding pulses alone as well as restricting calories plus adding pulses.

Naturally, people lost more weight when they restricted their diet and ate more pulses, but pulses on their own were also effective.

On average, people lost around 0.5 pound in six weeks without dieting.

Dr de Souza said:

“Though the weight loss was small, our findings suggest that simply including pulses in your diet may help you lose weight, and we think more importantly, prevent you from gaining it back after you lose it.”

Pulses also help lower levels of bad cholesterol and the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Kim et al., 2016).

Certain foods help people sleep better and lose more weight.

A high-protein diet drives weight loss and the burning of belly fat, studies reveal.

Eating more lean meats and low-fat dairy leads to more weight loss than a standard calorie restricted diet, researchers have found.

Protein makes people feel more satisfied so they subsequently eat less.

Diets that have more protein are also linked to better sleep.

Sleeping better can also lead to more weight loss.

For the study, 130 overweight women were put on a calorie restricted diet.

Half, though, ate a restricted diet that was high in protein and dairy.

Dr Ellen Evans, study co-author, said:

“Essentially we substituted lean meats and low-fat milk, cheese, yogurt, etc., for some of the high-carbohydrate foods in the food-pyramid diet.

Participants also ate five servings of vegetables and two to three servings of fruit each day.”

The results showed that the women lost weight without losing bone mass.

Dr Evans said:

“This is an important finding because many people, especially women in mid-life, are concerned with both obesity and osteoporosis.

Furthermore, treating obesity often increases risk for osteoporosis.

Many people lose bone mass when they lose weight.”

People in the high protein group had better bone health despite their weight loss.

Dr Matthew Thorpe, the study’s’ first author, said:

“In the higher-protein group, bone density remained fairly stable, but bone health declined over time in the group that followed the conventional higher-carbohydrate diet.

A statistically significant treatment effect favored the higher-protein diet group.

The combination and/or interaction of dietary protein, calcium from dairy, and the additional vitamin D that fortifies dairy products appears to protect bone health during weight loss.”

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

The supplement is found naturally in many healthy foods.

Some dietary supplements have been shown to improve weight loss by scientific research.

Indeed, one study has shown that inulin can help to quadruple weight loss.

People in the study lost 2.3 percent of their body weight after taking the supplement, compared with just 0.6 percent in the control group.

Inulin is a fibre found naturally in many foods, including leeks, wheat, onions, bananas and asparagus.

The natural fibre — which is also available as a supplement — works by reducing appetite.

It has a creamy consistency and is sometimes used in the food industry as a substitute for fat.

Inulin is low in calories, high in fibre and it can improve the health of the digestion.

Researcher repeatedly finds that an increases in fibre intake can help with weight loss.

The study included 44 overweight people with prediabetes who were tracked for 18 weeks.

Half were given 30g per day of inulin, while the other group were given a placebo.

Both saw the same level of weight loss over the first nine weeks.

But after that, the group taking inulin achieved a weight loss of 2.3 percent of their body weight in comparison to only 0.6 percent in the control group.

The study’s authors write:

“…the consumption of inulin enhances a traditional calorie-restricted lifestyle program.

An added benefit of the inulin supplement was a greater reduction in intrahepatocellular and intramyocellular lipid in the soleus muscle even after accounting for weight lost.”

Inulin seems to work by reducing appetite, the study’s authors write:

“…subjects taking inulin ate significantly less (~270 kcal less, p = 0.027) at the follow-up ad libitum meal, with no consequent rebound in food intake at the 18 week visit despite a total 7 % weight loss in the inulin group, suggesting that inulin’s effect on weight management is mediated via appetite modulation.”

The study was published in the journal Nutrition & Metabolism (Guess et al., 2015).

Lose weight and burn belly fat without dieting.

Replacing some fatty foods with alternatives that are lower in fat reduces belly fat and weight, studies find.

People in many studies lost weight without reducing their food intake, only by making relatively small changes to what they eat.

One example is to swap to low fat yoghurt and milk and remove the fat from meat.

Another suggestion would be to change snacks that are high in fat, like cake and biscuits, to lower fat alternatives, such as fruit.

The more fat people cut from their diet, the greater their weight loss, studies show.

These change do not just cause weight loss, they also help reduce levels of bad cholesterol and lower blood pressure.

The conclusions come from 33 different randomised controlled trials, the gold standard of scientific experimentation.

Dr Lee Hooper, the study’s first author, explained:

“The weight reduction that we found when people ate less fat was remarkably consistent – we saw it in almost every trial.

Those who cut down more on fat, lost more weight.

The effect isn’t dramatic, like going on a diet.

The research specifically looked at people who were cutting down on fat, but didn’t aim to lose weight – so they were continuing to consume a normal amount of food.

What surprised us was that they did lose weight, their BMI decreased and their waists became slimmer.”

There were 73,589 people in total involved in the studies, which were carried out around the world.

The results showed that people lost an average of 3.5 pounds and reduced their waist circumference by 0.5cm after reducing fat from their diet.

Dr Hooper continued:

“And remember, this isn’t a diet, so don’t take it to extremes, but work out a way of eating that you can stick to permanently.

Keeping healthy is not just about fat and weight – but cutting down on fat, especially saturated fat, is a great start.

Being physically active, not smoking, drinking alcohol in moderation, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, and drinking plenty of fluid also help to keep us healthy.

We just need to get in the habit of doing these things.”

The study was published in the British Medical Journal (Hooper et al., 2012).