Category: Weight Loss

How changing the timing of meals can boost weight loss.

Changing when meals are eaten can be enough to double weight loss, multiple studies have found.

The simplest weight loss option is to shift calorie consumption to earlier in the day.

Eating more calories for breakfast and less in the evening is linked to weight loss.

Unfortunately, the modern trend in society is to eat smaller breakfasts and larger evening meals, which is linked to weight gain.

A related weight loss approach is to delay breakfast and eat an earlier supper — compressing eating into the middle of the day.

One study told people they could eat what they liked between a breakfast delayed by 90 minutes and a supper eaten 90 minutes early.

The results showed they lost double the body fat, despite not being on any specific diet or changing their lifestyle in any other way.

Eating earlier also helps to improve sleep and blood sugar levels.

A recent review of studies concluded that people tend to eat more of their daily calories in the evening than ever before — a worldwide trend that is leading to weight gain.

Dr Gerda Pot, study co-author:

“There seems to be some truth in the saying ‘Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper’, however, this warrants further investigation.

Whilst we have a much better understanding today of what we should be eating, we are still left with the question as to which meal should provide us with the most energy.

Although the evidence suggests that eating more calories later in the evening is associated with obesity, we are still far from understanding whether our energy intake should be distributed equally across the day or whether breakfast should contribute the greatest proportion of energy, followed by lunch and dinner.”

The study was published in the Proceedings of the Nutrition Society (Almoosawi et al., 2016).

The mental state that makes it hard to control temptations.

Being tired, stressed or full of worries is one of the biggest barriers to weight loss, psychologists find.

While people are in states like these, it is much more difficult for them to ignore tempting rewards, such as high-calorie foods.

In this psychology study, people whose memories were overloaded had trouble controlling themselves.

Dr Poppy Watson, the study’s first author, explained:

“Constant worrying or stress is the equivalent to the high-memory load scenario of our experiment, impacting on people’s ability to use their executive control resources in a way that’s helping them manage unwanted cues in the environment.”

In other words, it gets harder to ignore tasty foods when your mind is busy.

Dr Watson said:

“This is especially relevant for circumstances where people are trying to ignore cues and improve their behaviour, e.g. consuming less alcohol or fast food.”

For the study, people were given a test of how well they could control their attention, while they were also being given other things to think about.

For example, in one study they had to memorise a sequence of numbers.

This simulates the situation where a person has a lot of worries on their mind.

The results showed that when people had to memorise the numbers as well, they found it much harder to avoid a tempting reward.

Dr Watson said:

“Study participants found it really difficult to stop themselves from looking at cues that represented the level of reward — the coloured circles — even though they were paid to try and ignore them.”

The key is to avoid situations that involve temptation when tired, said Dr Watson:

“If you are under a lot of cognitive pressure (stress, or tiredness) you should really try and avoid situations where you’ll be tempted by signals.

You need to be in the right frame of mind to be in a situation where you can stop yourself from getting distracted and going down a path where you don’t want to go.”

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science (Watson et al., 2019).

This vital weight loss technique is nothing to do with diet and exercise.

Learning to love your body, however it looks, can triple weight loss efforts.

Dieters in the study learned to be less concerned about their size and weight and other people’s opinions of them.

They were also encouraged to think that how their body looks is not as important as they think.

Happily, the researchers found, people with an improved body image, automatically eat more healthily.

The study shows that hating your own body is one of the biggest barriers to weight loss.

It is well-known that people who are overweight often have body image problems.

Overcoming these problems — especially worrying about what other people think — is hugely beneficial to weight loss.

For the study, 239 overweight women followed a standard program of diet and exercise for one year.

Half were given a special course designed to improve their body image.

This included sessions on the emotional aspects of losing weight.

This is because some overweight people tend towards emotional eating.

Emotional eating means that negative moods trigger bouts of eating to feel better, rather than eating to satiate hunger.

The women were also encouraged to love their bodies, whatever its size and shape.

The results showed that those who improved their body image lost an average of 7 percent — more than triple the weight loss of the control group.

Dr Pedro Teixeira, study co-author, said:

“Body image problems are very common amongst overweight and obese people, often leading to comfort eating and more rigid eating patterns, and are obstacles to losing weight.

Our results showed a strong correlation between improvements in body image, especially in reducing anxiety about other people’s opinions, and positive changes in eating behavior.

From this we believe that learning to relate to your body in healthier ways is an important aspect of maintaining weight loss and should be addressed in every weight control program.”

The study was published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (Carraça et al., 2011).

This type of vegetable oil targets abdominal fat, trimming the belly in only one month.

High-oleic acid canola oil can help cut down belly fat in four weeks, research finds.

Canola oil-based diets have also been shown to lower cholesterol levels and provide health benefits in obese people.

Canola oil is low in saturated fat but high in monounsaturated fatty acids and mainly used in cooking and salad dressing.

Excess belly fat, which is located in the abdominal area, is a risk factor for metabolic syndrome.

This medical condition is a combination of high blood pressure, obesity, and type 2 diabetes which puts a person at greater risk of coronary heart disease and stroke.

Almost one in three US adults, one in four adults in the UK, and one in five Canadian adults have metabolic syndrome.

But a study has found that canola oil can reduce abdominal obesity in people who are at higher risk for metabolic syndrome and cardiometabolic disease.

Professor Penny Kris-Etherton explained:

“Visceral, or abdominal, fat increases the risk for cardiovascular disease, and is also associated with increased risk for conditions such as metabolic syndrome and diabetes.

Monounsaturated fats in canola oil decrease this fat that has adverse health effects.”

Participants in this study had abdominal obesity and either had metabolic syndrome or were at risk for it.

Participants followed five diets to test different five oils, but only the canola oil diet led to abdominal fat loss.

Based on participants’ daily calorie needs, the quantity of treatment oil was calculated.

For instance, a person on a 3,000-calorie diet would have 60 grams of canola oil a day to make up 18 percent of this calorie intake.

They drank two smoothies every day and each smoothie contained 30 grams of canola oil (two tablespoons) with 100 grams of non-fat milk, 100 grams of orange sherbet, and 100 grams of frozen unsweetened strawberries.

The results showed a reduction of 1.6 percent in belly fat after four weeks consumption of high-oleic acid canola oil a day.

Professor Kris-Etherton said:

“As a general rule, you can’t target weight loss to specific body regions.

But monounsaturated fatty acids seem to specifically target abdominal fat.”

Canola oil is extracted from rapeseed and there is a concern about rapeseed oil.

Rapeseed contains erucic acid which is toxic to humans when consumed in large amounts.

However, if canola oil contains less than 2 percent erucic acid, it is generally recognized as safe.

The study was published in the journal Obesity (Liu et al., 2016).

How to feel more full without eating anything.

Looking at pictures of food on a phone is enough to satisfy hunger and could be used as a weight loss technique, research suggests.

People who saw the same image of a sweet food 30 times felt more full without actually eating anything.

It is because how we think about food has a large effect on appetite.

Dr Tjark Andersen, the study’s first author, said:

“In our experiments, we showed that when the participants saw the same food picture 30 times, they felt more satiated than before they had seen the picture.

The participants who were shown the picture many times also chose a smaller portion than those who had only seen the picture three times, when we subsequently asked about the size of portion they wanted.”

The reason people can feel satisfied without eating anything is because thinking about something, such as eating, is like doing it.

In contrast, how we think about food can also make us want more, despite already being satisfied.

Dr Andersen explained:

“Your appetite is more closely linked with your cognitive perception than most of us think.

How we think about our food is very important.

Studies have shown that if you make people aware of different colors of Jelly Beans, even if they have eaten all they can in red Jelly Beans, will still want the yellow ones.

Even if both colors taste completely the same.”

In that case it is thinking about the variety or novelty of the ‘yellow ones’ that makes people want more, not hunger.

How many images?

This is not the first study to show that looking at images of food reduces hunger and reduces the pleasure from eating.

However, what Dr Andersen and colleagues wanted to explore was how many and what types of images work best:

“We know from previous studies that images of different types of food don’t have the same effect on satiety.

That’s why you can really feel full after the main course but still have room for dessert.

Sweet things are a completely different type of food.”

Dr Andersen’s online experiments included over 1,000 people shown pictures of M&Ms and Skittles.

The results showed that seeing two or three images of a food makes people want them more.

However, seeing these sweet foods 30 times reduced their appetite.

Weight loss technique?

Looking at images of food as a weight loss technique, then, is only likely to be effective if, firstly, one looks at enough pictures.

A few images makes people want the foods more.

Secondly, looking at images will have to stop you beginning a meal.

Dr Andersen explained:

“You won’t save many calories unless you completely refrain from starting a meal.

But perhaps the method can be used for this as well.

It’d be interesting to investigate.”

Dr Andersen imagines an app that might help satiate hunger:

“Think if you developed an app based on a Google search. Let’s say you wanted pizza.

You open the app.

Choose pizza—and it shows a lot of photos of pizza while you imagine eating it. In this way, you could get a sense of satiety and maybe just stop wanting pizza.”

Related

• Playing a simple game on a phone can help to reduce food cravings.
• The best way to deal with food cravings is to accept them.
• …and here are 10 more techniques to stop food cravings.

The study was published in the journal Appetite (Andersen et al., 2023).

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).

Food cravings can be beaten with relatively simple tricks, according to recent research.

One of the biggest barriers to weight loss is food cravings.

The effect of food cravings on weight gain may be even greater than that of genetics.

However, food cravings can be beaten, according to recent research.

Techniques such as changes in diet, exercise and even medications can all help reduce food cravings.

One tip the study revealed was that it is better to remove a food that you crave from your diet completely.

Eating a food less frequently is proven to reduce cravings for it.

Other tips for overcoming food cravings include using your imagination, going for a walk, having a large breakfast, chewing gum and using distractions.

These and more are explained in this previous article: How To Stop Food Cravings.

Dr Candice Myers, the study’s first author, said:

“Craving influences what people eat and their body weight, but there are some components of our behavior and diet that we do have control over.

Being mindful of these desires gives us more control of them.”

The conclusions come from a review of 28 studies on food cravings.

These demonstrated that losing weight itself tends to reduce food cravings.

However, exercise tends to increase food cravings.

Dr John Apolzan, study co-author, said:

“The upside of craving is that it is a conditioned response that you can unlearn.

It’s not easy, but it can be done.”

One previous study has shown that green spaces, like gardens, parks or allotments, can help people overcome food cravings.

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.

Dr Myers said:

“Food craving is an important piece of the weight-loss puzzle.

It doesn’t explain weight gain 100 percent.

A number of other factors, including genetics and eating behavior, are also involved.”

The study was published in the journal Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Obesity (Myers et al., 2018).

The way of thinking is linked to a 34 percent lower obesity risk.

People who think mindfully have less belly fat, research finds.

Mindfulness is not only linked to a reduced amount of abdominal fat, but also a 34 percent lower chance of being obese.

Being mindful does not necessarily mean meditating, it can just mean everyday mindfulness.

Some people are naturally more mindful, but the trait can be trained (try these mindfulness exercises).

Many of the things people consume, they do so automatically, without attending to the consequences.

Attention to the present moment may also help overcome a common aversion to exercising.

The conclusions come from a study that included 394 people.

They were tested for mindfulness and scanned for body mass.

People with low levels of mindfulness tended to agree with statements like:

• I find it difficult to stay focused on what’s happening in the present.
• I could be experiencing some emotion and not be conscious of it until some time later.

The results showed a modest link between higher mindfulness and a lower risk of being obese.

Mindfulness probably helps reduce belly fat by increasing awareness of eating and drinking behaviours.

Eating is so routine that we easily zone out from the experience.

While the mind wanders, though, eating can continue automatically.

Studies have shown that people eat more when they are distracted, like when watching TV or talking with friends.

Unfortunately, when not focusing on our food, we tend to eat more and get less enjoyment from it.

The positive effects of mindfulness extend out to physical features like lower blood pressure and lower cortisol levels.

In addition to its physical benefits, mindfulness has been shown to have therapeutic benefits in depression, anxiety, substance abuse, chronic pain and eating disorders.

The study was published in the journal International Journal of Behavioral Medicine (Loucks et al., 2015).

Belly fat is the fat that surrounds the vital organs, deep in the belly.

Foods containing fibre, like fruit and vegetables, can help to reduce weight and belly fat, research finds.

Supplementation with psyllium, which is full of fibre and available as a supplement, can also reduce belly fat.

Adding as little as 10 grams of soluble fibre per day has been shown to reduce belly fat by 4 percent.

Exercise on top increases this figure to 7 percent.

Belly fat is the fat that surrounds the vital organs, deep in the belly.

Unfortunately, there is no miracle food that can reduce belly fat on its own.

However, eating a heart-healthy diet high in fibre can help to reduce abdominal fat.

Fibre helps to reduce belly fat by turning to a gel during digestion.

As a result people feel more full, among other benefits, stopping from eating more.

One type of food that contains high amounts of fibre is psyllium, a plant sometimes used as a food ingredient.

A study has tested the effects of psyllium supplementation on visceral or belly fat.

The research included 45 health adolescents who were given 6g per day of psyllium or a placebo.

The adolescents made no other changes to their diet or lifestyle.

After six weeks, the results showed that supplementation with psyllium had reduced belly fat and decreased levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol.

The study’s authors describe the results:

“Our data show that even in the context of a relatively short intervention, psyllium supplementation improves LDL cholesterol and android fat to gynoid fat ratio [in other words, it reduced belly fat].

Our study corroborates previous data showing that psyllium has lipid lowering properties in children and adolescents.

The 6% improvement in LDL cholesterol concentrations we observed is comparable to other studies that have shown improvements of 0–23% using psyllium doses ranging from 5–25 g/day.”

The study was published in the journal PLoS One (de Bock et al., 2012).

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).