A few glasses each day can help to increase weight loss by 100 percent.
Drinking three cups of low-fat milk each day can double weight loss, research finds.
Obese and overweight women in the study dropped 10 pounds in 8 weeks when they drank a pint-and-a-half of low-fat milk every day, along with following a diet.
Milk contains both vitamin D and calcium, which have both been linked to weight loss by research.
Around 50 percent of obese people have a calcium deficiency and half of the general population are deficient in vitamin D.
Soy milk also aided weight loss, the research found, but it was not as effective at shedding pounds as the dairy.
The study’s authors write:
“Our results showed that consumption of low-fat milk enhanced the beneficial effect of an energy restricted diet on central and general obesity and therefore a diet rich in dairy calcium could be tried in obese persons.”
One hundred women were included in the study and put on a calorie-controlled diet.
In addition, some were given three servings of low-fat milk, others soy milk and another group just a calcium supplement.
The results showed that those:
- drinking milk lost 10 pounds,
- drinking soy milk lost 8 pounds,
- taking a calcium supplement lost 8.5 pounds,
- in the control group lost 6 pounds.
The study’s authors write:
“The results of this study demonstrated that a low energy
diet (500 kcal/day deficit) for 8 weeks can lead to a significant reduction in weight, BMI [body mass index], waist circumference, WHR [waist-hip ratio], body fat mass and percent body fat.A modest weight loss in obese individuals (5%-10% of initial body weight) is likely to improve their health in the short term by reducing the severity of comorbidities associated with obesity.
Our findings also indicate that a high milk diet can lead to
a higher reduction in weight, BMI, waist circumference, and
WHR.”
The study was published in the journal Cardiovascular Diseases (Faghih et al., 2019).
