Category: Weight Loss

As NAFLD treatments are limited, scientists looked into whether diet and exercise can improve patients’ lives.

Five days a week of alternate-day fasting along with exercise for three months is a good treatment for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a study reveals.

Nutrition researchers compared the effects of fasting or exercise alone with alternate day fasting and exercise.

Patients with NAFLD who were also obese saw significant improvements in their health after following a 3-month alternate-day fasting diet with moderate-intensity aerobic exercise.

Their diet plan consisted of 500 calories a day and eating with no restrictions next day along with five hours aerobic exercise every week.

Participants experienced reductions in weight and waist circumference, improvements in insulin sensitivity, reduced fat in the liver, and decreased alanine transaminase (an enzyme in the liver and a marker of liver damage) levels.

Warning signs of NAFLD

Accumulation of fat in the liver can cause non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition seen in overweight or obese people.

NAFLD is not caused by alcohol, but if untreated could lead to cirrhosis resembling the liver damage from too much drinking.

NAFLD patients are more likely to develop insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, also many obese adults have this condition.

The condition if not treated can lead to more serious issues such as inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and liver failure.

The warning signs appear when it progresses to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) or fibrosis in which the liver has become inflamed.

A person with NASH may feel:

• extremely tired,
• fatigued,
• a pain in the top-right of the belly over the lower-right side of the ribs,
• and losing weight for no reason.

Diet and exercise

As NAFLD treatments are limited, scientists looked into whether diet and exercise can improve patients’ lives.

Professor Krista Varady, the study’s co-author, said:

“When we compared the results of our study groups, we saw clearly that the most improved patients were in the group that followed the alternate-day fasting diet and exercised five days a week.

The people who only dieted or only exercised did not see the same improvements, which reinforces the importance of these two relatively inexpensive lifestyle modifications on overall health and on combating chronic diseases like fatty liver disease.”

The authors highlighted:

“Our findings also indicate that the combination intervention was effective for reducing body weight, fat mass, waist circumference, ALT, fasting insulin, insulin resistance, and increasing insulin sensitivity, among patients with obesity and NAFLD, versus controls.”

Avoiding drug side-effects

Besides improvements of metabolic indicators, alternate day fasting and exercise appeared to be safe thus the authors think it is a good option for those who want to overcome NAFLD without taking drugs that have side-effects.

Professor Varady said:

“Alternate-day fasting and exercise interventions can be difficult for people to stick to and in prior studies we have seen significant dropout.

It was very interesting to see that in this trial we had very high adherence to the interventions.”

Foods and beverages containing alcohol or sugar can aggravate the condition, so the advice is to limit intake.

Related

• Drinking any type of coffee — no matter if it is caffeinated or decaf, instant or ground coffee — has been linked to lowering the odds of liver disease and related liver problems.
• The Mediterranean diet has been shown to protect subjects from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism (Ezpeleta et al., 2022).

A weight loss fruit that makes you feel full, improves your gut health, and reduces absorption of fats.

Having an avocado every day as part of your diet increases healthy gut bacteria and reduce the absorption of fat.

The fruit is rich in fibre and monounsaturated fat, a healthy fat that lowers “bad” LDL cholesterol in the blood.

A study has found that people who eat avocados have higher levels of the gut microbes responsible for breaking down fibres and producing a number of metabolites (short-chain fatty acids) that improve gut health.

Ms Sharon Thompson, the study’s first author, said:

“We know eating avocados helps you feel full and reduces blood cholesterol concentration, but we did not know how it influences the gut microbes, and the metabolites the microbes produce.

Microbial metabolites are compounds the microbes produce that influence health.

Avocado consumption reduced bile acids and increased short chain fatty acids.

These changes correlate with beneficial health outcomes.”

Bile acids are produced by the liver, stored in the gallbladder, and released into the intestine for breaking down fats from foods we eat.

Western diets are higher in fats causing more production of bile acids which can alert the gut microbiota population and cause intestinal inflammation.

The study recruited 163 overweight or obese participants and divided them into two groups, both receiving a normal diet.

The only difference was that one ate fresh avocados (175 g for men or 140 g for women) as part of a meal every day for 12 weeks and the other group had a similar diet but no avocados.

Dr Hannah Holscher, study co-author, said:

“Our goal was to test the hypothesis that the fats and the fiber in avocados positively affect the gut microbiota.

We also wanted to explore the relationships between gut microbes and health outcomes.

Despite avocados being high in fat, the avocado group absorbed less fat compared to the other group.

Dr Holscher said:

“Greater fat excretion means the research participants were absorbing less energy from the foods that they were eating.

This was likely because of reductions in bile acids, which are molecules our digestion system secretes that allow us to absorb fat.

We found that the amount of bile acids in stool was lower and the amount of fat in the stool was higher in the avocado group.”

Types of fats found in foods affect the gut microbiome differently, for example, avocados contain monounsaturated fats which are considered heart-healthy.

On top of that, avocados are high in soluble fibre: an average avocado contains 12 g of fibres which is a big portion of the daily recommended fibre intake (28 to 34 g).

Dr Holscher said:

“Less than 5% of Americans eat enough fiber.

Most people consume around 12 to 16 grams of fiber per day.

Thus, incorporating avocados in your diet can help get you closer to meeting the fiber recommendation.

Eating fiber isn’t just good for us; it’s important for the microbiome, too.

We can’t break down dietary fibers, but certain gut microbes can.

When we consume dietary fiber, it’s a win-win for gut microbes and for us.”

People shouldn’t worry that avocados are high in calories as it is more important that it is a nutrient-dense food that contains micronutrients like fibre and potassium that we don’t get enough of.

Related

• Avocados contain a fat molecule that could help prevent diabetes and maintain a healthy weight.

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

Reduce your belly fat 10 percent with a half cup of this food.

Lowering sugar consumption by about one can of soda and adding one half-cup of fibre-rich foods daily reduces abdominal fat and type 2 diabetes risk.

A study has found that decreasing about 47 grams of sugar intake per day — equivalent to a can of soda — lowers insulin secretion, on average, by 33 percent.

Increasing fibre intake by 5 grams a day — the amount in a half cup of beans — results in a 10 percent reduction of belly fat.

Visceral fat is a type of body fat stored within the abdominal area and internal organs.

This type of fat causes abdominal obesity and is also associated with several health problems, like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

Dr Emily Ventura and colleagues conducted a 16-week study on overweight Latino adolescents who were between 12 to 19 years old.

They tested if increasing fiber consumption and decreasing sugar intake have an effect on type 2 diabetes risk factors.

The study’s authors wrote:

“A reduction in visceral fat indicates a reduction in risk for type 2 diabetes, considering that to a greater degree than total body fat, visceral fat [fat surrounding the internal organs] has been shown to be negatively associated with insulin sensitivity.”

Those who increased fiber intake had a significant reduction in body mass index (-2 percent vs. 2 percent) and visceral adipose tissue (-10 percent vs. no change) compared with those who decreased fiber intake.”

Being overweight or obese are serious issues affecting adults and children around the world.

The World Health Organization reports that in 2016 over 1.9 billion adults were overweight and more than 650 million adults were obese.

The authors of this study wrote:

“Our results suggest that intensive interventions may not be necessary to achieve modifications in sugar and fiber intake.

Accordingly, nutritional guidance given in the primary care or community setting may be sufficient to promote the suggested dietary changes in some individuals.

In addition, policies that promote reduced intake of added sugar and increased intake of fiber could be effective public health strategies for the prevention of type 2 diabetes in this high-risk population.”

The study was published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (Ventura et al., 2009).

A glass of this drink a day can double weight loss.

Drinking a glass of fat-free milk each day can double weight loss, research finds.

People sometimes steer clear of dairy because they believe it is fattening — actually, the reverse may be true.

Milk contains both vitamin D and calcium, which have both been linked to weight loss.

About 50 percent of people are deficient in vitamin D and around 50 percent of obese people have a calcium deficiency.

Low calcium levels may prompt the brain to increase food intake to get more of this mineral.

One study tested the effects of drinking milk after weight-lifting.

Twenty women carried out resistance training, then drank either a sugary sports drink or a pint of fat-free milk.

Professor Stu Phillips, study co-author, said:

“Resistance training is not a typical choice of exercise for women.

But the health benefits of resistance training are enormous: It boosts strength, bone, muscular and metabolic health in a way that other types of exercise cannot.”

The results of the study showed that milk increased muscle mass and reduced fat.

A previous study has shown the same positive effect of milk on men’s muscles and body fat.

Professor Phillips said:

“We expected the gains in muscle mass to be greater, but the size of the fat loss surprised us.

We’re still not sure what causes this but we’re investigating that now.

It could be the combination of calcium, high-quality protein, and vitamin D may be the key, and, conveniently, all of these nutrients are in milk.”

Although they put on muscle, the women did not gain weight, Professor Phillips said:

“The women who drank milk gained barely any weight because what they gained in lean muscle they balanced out with a loss in fat.

Our data show that simple things like regular weightlifting exercise and milk consumption work to substantially improve women’s body composition and health.”

The study was published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise (Josse et al., 2010).

Weight loss is not just about what you eat, but also about when you eat.

Avoiding consuming too many calories in the evening is the key to weight loss, research finds.

Snacking late at night, especially, stops the body from burning fat.

That is because the body is still using the accessible carbohydrates that have just been eaten.

However, people who eat less in the evening bring forward the point where the body starts burning fat.

At the same time, breakfast can help to sustain weight loss.

One recent study found that a high-protein breakfast can even double weight loss.

Professor Carl Johnson, study co-author:

“There are a lot of studies on both animals and humans that suggest it’s not only about how much you eat, but rather when you eat.

Our research looked to test the findings of existing fasting studies by asking real humans to participate in a multi-day test for two different meal time routines.

What we found is that the body’s circadian rhythms regulate nighttime fat burning.”

The body’s circadian rhythms are mental, physical and behavioural changes that follow a daily cycle.

The study included six people who came into the lab to be monitored closely in a whole-room respiratory chamber.

The chamber measures exactly how much energy people expend over a period and their metabolism.

The results showed that when people people ate a meal in the evening, the body stopped burning fat.

Dr Kevin Kelly, the study’s first author, explained the results:

“The late-evening snack session resulted in less lipids oxidized than in the breakfast session.

This confirms that the timing of meals during the daytime and nighttime cycle affects how ingested food is used versus stored, and that any food ingested prior to bedtime will delay the burning of fat during sleep.”

The study was published in the journal PLOS Biology (Kelly et al., 2020).

Psychology study finds way out of exercise-more-then-eat-more trap.

A strange thing happen when people start exercising to lose weight.

Despite burning more calories, they frequently fail to shed the pounds.

One reason people give is that they start eating more.

It makes sense: you burn more calories, so you eat more, so you end up where you started, right?

Which leads to the question: why bother exercising for weight-loss?

The answer is: because it’s fun.

And in this one small word ‘fun’ may be a way out of this vicious circle of exercising more, then eating more.

It’s this thought that inspired Carolina Werle and colleagues to set up an experiment to test the effects on snacking of  ‘doing exercise’ versus just ‘having fun’ (Werle et al., 2014).

To investigate, they asked 56 mostly overweight women to take a half-hour walk, after which they would be served lunch.

But there was a little trick to how this walk was framed:

• Half the women were told it was exercise and that they should monitor their exertion.
• Half were told they were just having fun and they should listen to music on their walk and enjoy themselves.

Afterwards, while relaxing and eating their lunch, and without knowing it, the women demonstrated what the difference was between ‘exercising’ and ‘having fun’.

Not only were women who’d been ‘having fun’ happier and less tired after their walk, but they also ate less pudding and drank less soda.

Overall, despite burning the same amount of calories while walking, women who’d been walking for pleasure ate less afterwards.

The reason for this difference seems to be in how framing exercise affects people’s search for rewards:

“Engaging in a physical activity seems to trigger the search for reward when individuals perceive it as exercise but not when they perceive it as fun.” (Werle et al., 2014).

So the best advice is: stop exercising and go out and have fun.

If you accidentally happen to do some exercise while enjoying yourself, so much the better!

.

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).