Category: Weight Loss

The effect of sleep quality on daily calorie intake and belly fat.

Poor sleep increases hunger and causes people to eat more the next day.

The extra calories will turn into belly fat and are stored as visceral fat around the abdominal organs.

According to a study, insufficient sleep increases abdominal obesity by nine percent and visceral fat by 11 percent.

Visceral fat is dangerous as it affects the health of abdominal organs and is linked to metabolic syndrome, a condition that leads to diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

Professor Virend Somers, the study’s co-author, said:

“Our findings show that shortened sleep, even in young, healthy and relatively lean subjects, is associated with an increase in calorie intake, a very small increase in weight, and a significant increase in fat accumulation inside the belly.”

Lack of sleep is increasing in the population and has become a behaviour choice or bad habit which is part of modern life.

More than one-third of American adults have poor sleep due to using smart devices and social networks late at night or due to shift-work.

As a result, people are tired and inactive and tend to consume more food throughout their working hours or at home.

Professor Somers said:

“Normally, fat is preferentially deposited subcutaneously or under the skin.

However, the inadequate sleep appears to redirect fat to the more dangerous visceral compartment.

Importantly, although during recovery sleep there was a decrease in calorie intake and weight, visceral fat continued to increase.

This suggests that inadequate sleep is a previously unrecognized trigger for visceral fat deposition, and that catch-up sleep, at least in the short term, does not reverse the visceral fat accumulation.

In the long term, these findings implicate inadequate sleep as a contributor to the epidemics of obesity, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.”

For this study, a group of adults with healthy weights spent 21 days in an inpatient setting.

They were divided into a normal sleep group who had 9 hours’ sleep and a restricted sleep group who had four hours’ sleep.

Both groups could eat as much as they liked of any food during the study period.

Their body fat, visceral fat, energy intake, energy expenditure, and appetite biomarkers were checked and measured.

The sleep restriction group consumed 17 percent more fat and 13 percent more protein, digesting an extra 300 calories a day.

Dr Naima Covassin, the study’s first author, said:

“The visceral fat accumulation was only detected by CT scan and would otherwise have been missed, especially since the increase in weight was quite modest — only about a pound.

Measures of weight alone would be falsely reassuring in terms of the health consequences of inadequate sleep.

Also concerning are the potential effects of repeated periods of inadequate sleep in terms of progressive and cumulative increases in visceral fat over several years.”

Professor Somers recommended that those people, such as shift-workers, who find it hard to get enough sleep do some behavioural interventions like eating healthy foods and exercise.

The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (Covassin et al., 2022).

Two-thirds of Americans struggle with their weight.

Changing to a plant-based vegetarian diet can double weight loss, recent research finds.

Not only is going veggie linked to weight loss, it also helps to improve the metabolism by reducing fat in the muscles.

In the study, people on a calorie-restricted diet who went vegetarian lost an average of 14 pounds, compared with only 7 pounds an anti-diabetic diet.

The study shows that not all calories are equal, since both groups consumed the same number of calories.

People on a vegetarian diet also reported feeling fuller and having more energy.

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

“What we found is that a plant-based vegetarian diet is a helpful tool for anyone who is serious about staying healthy and lean, especially as we age.

A diet built around plants is naturally rich in fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals, which leaves us feeling energized and refreshed instead of hungry and fatigued.

Part of the reason a vegetarian diet works so well for many people is because it’s easy to stick to.”

The study included 72 people with type 2 diabetes.

They were randomly assigned to a normal anti-diabetic diet or a vegetarian diet.

Both diets restricted food intake by 500 calories less than required each day.

The vegetarian diet consisted of grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits and nuts.

Participants were also allowed one portion of low-fat yoghurt each day.

After six months, people on the vegetarian diet lost an average of 14 pounds, compared to 7 pounds on the anti-diabetic diet.

Dr Kahleová explained the study’s results:

“Vegetarian diets proved to be the most effective diets for weight loss.

However, we also showed that a vegetarian diet is much more effective at reducing muscle fat, thus improving metabolism.

This finding is important for people who are trying to lose weight, including those suffering from metabolic syndrome and/or type 2 diabetes.

But it is also relevant to anyone who takes their weight management seriously and wants to stay lean and healthy.”

Other studies have shown that vegetarian diets can add up to 10 pounds of weight loss compared to traditional diets.

The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition (Kahleova et al., 2017).

A drink that supports weight loss with healthy nutrients that the body needs.

People who drink more milk lose twice as much weight, research finds.

As little as two-thirds of a glass of milk could increase weight loss by 10 pounds.

Over the six months of the study, milk drinkers lost almost twice as much weight as those drinking less or no milk.

Other dairy products that contain calcium and vitamin D should work just as well.

Research has linked higher levels of both calcium and vitamin D to greater weight loss.

Vitamin D helps the body to absorb calcium.

Unfortunately, around half the world’s population is deficient in vitamin D, while 50 percent of the obese are deficient in calcium.

The study’s write:

“Vitamin D increases calcium absorption into the bloodstream.

It is obtained by sun exposure, from food (mainly fish liver oils, fatty fish, and eggs), fortified foods (such as milk, yogurt, margarine, oil spreads, and breakfast cereal), and supplements.”

For the study, 322 were put on a low-carb, low-fat Mediterranean style diet and tracked for two years.

The results showed, though, that following the diet was not linked to weight loss.

Instead, those that drank more milk had more weight loss.

Those who drank little milk lost only 7 pounds, while those who drank more lost 12 pounds.

The authors explain:

“In summary, our findings suggest that both higher consumption of dairy calcium and increased serum vitamin D are independently associated with successful weight loss.

The causal relation between these factors needs further clarification.”

Calcium deficiency has been linked to larger waistlines, more body fat and higher levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol.

People in the study who lost most weight consumed an average of 580mg of calcium per day.

This is the amount contained in around two glasses of milk.

The study’s authors write:

“The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans include a recommendation for 3 cups (720 mL) of milk per day, an amount that was shown to be beneficial for weight loss in our study.”

The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Shahar et al., 2010).

Taking the two supplements lead to people in the study losing more belly fat and more fat overall.

Calcium supplementation combined with vitamin D can help weight loss, research finds.

Taking the two supplements led to people in the study losing more belly fat and more fat overall.

One study has even shown that people drinking more milk, which contains vitamin D and calcium, can double weight loss.

Up to half the world’s population may be deficient in vitamin D.

A deficiency in vitamin D could help to increase people’s appetite, research suggests.

Foods that are rich in vitamin D include oily fish and eggs, but most people get their vitamin D from the action of sunlight on the skin.

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

Foods high in calcium include dairy products, seeds, nuts and dark, leafy greens like spinach and kale.

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

For the study, 53 overweight or obese people were put on a calorie-restricted diet.

However, half were also given a 600 mg calcium supplement and a 125 IU vitamin D3 supplement.

The results showed that people taking calcium and vitamin D together lost 6 pounds of fat, while those in the comparison group only lost 4 pounds of fat.

The study’s authors write:

“Calcium plus vitamin D3 supplementation for 12 weeks augmented body fat and visceral fat loss in very-low calcium consumers during energy restriction.”

Although the exact mechanism for how calcium and vitamin D aid weight loss is not known, the authors speculate:

“The greater decrease in fat mass observed in the calcium+D group of the current study could result from several factors attributing to calcium metabolism.

First, a calcium-rich diet is shown to increase fat oxidation, promote fat cell apoptosis, and reduce lipid absorption due to the formation of insoluble calcium-fatty acid soaps in the intestine, which are eventually excreted in the feces.

Second, high dietary calcium intake is associated with suppression of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25-(OH)2D) levels which in turn act to decrease calcium influx into the cell.”

The study was published in the Nutrition Journal (Zhu et al., 2019).

A molecule found in this fruit prevents weight gain, reduces obesity and diabetes risk substantially.

Nobiletin — a citrus flavonoid found in tangerines and oranges — can increase weight loss, reduce obesity, and stop the development type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

A study examined the effect of the citrus flavonoid nobiletin in mice on a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet.

They found that administration of nobiletin made these mice lose weight.

They were leaner, responded better to insulin production, had lower blood sugar and blood fats than the others.

Past studies on mice have demonstrated that citrus flavonoids such as nobiletin and naringenin have the ability to decrease cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and type 2 diabetes.

Professor Murray Huff, study co-author, said:

“We went on to show that we can also intervene with nobiletin.

We’ve shown that in mice that already have all the negative symptoms of obesity, we can use nobelitin to reverse those symptoms, and even start to regress plaque build-up in the arteries, known as atherosclerosis.

The research team are still not sure how nobiletin can produce such positive health effects.

They thought it may be that the nobiletin molecule assists the AMP Kinase (AMPK) pathway in the body.

AMPK deals with fat in the body and decides whether to burn fat for energy or stop producing fats.

But nobiletin was still effective when the team injected nobiletin to genetically modified mice which had no AMPK in their body.

Professor Huff said:

“This result told us that nobiletin is not acting on AMP Kinase, and is bypassing this major regulator of how fat is used in the body.

What it still leaves us with is the question — how is nobiletin doing this?”

Despite this, clinically the results are still important because drugs for treating diabetes like metformin have to use the AMPK pathway and nobiletin doesn’t interfere with these medications.

Professor Huff concluded:

“Obesity and its resulting metabolic syndromes are a huge burden to our health care system, and we have very few interventions that have been shown to work effectively.

We need to continue this emphasis on the discovery of new therapeutics.”

The study was published in the Journal of Lipid Research (Morrow et al., 2020).

Exercising at this time can double the amount of fat burned.

Exercising before breakfast can double the amount of fat burned, research finds.

Levels of insulin in the body are much lower before breakfast, so the body uses more fat from the body to help generate fuel for exercise.

Doubling fat burning can also dramatically improve overall health.

The muscles of people exercising before breakfast had higher levels of key proteins that transport glucose.

Dr Javier Gonzalez, study co-author, said:

“Our results suggest that changing the timing of when you eat in relation to when you exercise can bring about profound and positive changes to your overall health.

We found that the men in the study who exercised before breakfast burned double the amount of fat than the group who exercised after.

Importantly, whilst this didn’t have any effect on weight loss, it did dramatically improve their overall health.

The group who exercised before breakfast increased their ability to respond to insulin, which is all the more remarkable given that both exercise groups lost a similar amount of weight and both gained a similar amount of fitness.

The only difference was the timing of the food intake.”

The study included 30 overweight and obese men who were put into two groups.

One group exercised before breakfast and the other one afterwards.

The increased fat burning is down to the lower insulin levels before breakfast.

Although exercising before breakfast did not lead to more weight loss, the study was only six weeks long.

However, exercising before breakfast was linked to other health benefits, including a stronger ability to respond to insulin.

This is linked to lower risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Dr Gareth Wallis, study co-author, said:

“This work suggests that performing exercise in the overnight-fasted state can increase the health benefits of exercise for individuals, without changing the intensity, duration or perception of their effort.

We now need to explore the longer-term effects of this type of exercise and whether women benefit in the same way as men.”

The study was published in the journal The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (Edinburgh et al., 2019).

Belly fat is linked to developing heart disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Exercise is the best way to reduce belly fat, research concludes.

Scientists compared the effects of exercise against medicines for reducing visceral (belly) fat.

The results showed that people lost more visceral fat per pound of total body weight lost.

Visceral fat is the fat that lies deep in the body and is linked to developing heart disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Dr Ian J. Neeland, the study’s first author, said:

“Visceral fat can affect local organs or the entire body system.

Systemically it can affect your heart and liver, as well as abdominal organs.

When studies use weight or body mass index as a metric, we don’t know if the interventions are reducing fat everywhere in the body, or just near the surface.”

The study was a review of 17 separate randomised controlled trials.

Together they followed 3,602 people for up to a six-month period.

The results showed that both exercise and medicines reduced visceral fat, but exercise worked better.

Dr Neeland said:

“The location and type of fat is important.

If you just measure weight or BMI, you can underestimate the benefit to your health of losing weight.

Exercise can actually melt visceral fat.”

Fat used to be seen as inactive by doctors, but now it is thought of as active in disease processes.

Around 40 percent of Americans are obese.

Dr Neeland said:

“Some people who are obese get heart disease, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome—and others don’t.

Our study suggests that a combination of approaches can help lower visceral fat and potentially prevent these diseases.”

The study was published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Rao et al., 2019).

Scientists compared many different types of diets to see which was most effective.

Many of the most popular diets are just as effective as each other, a large review of research concludes.

Whether it is low-carb, low-fat, Mediterranean or intermittent fasting, dieters lose about the same amount of weight, on average.

However, the Mediterranean and DASH diets also provide the highest protection against heart disease, the scientists found.

Some diets work much better for particular people.

It is partly down to which diet you can stick to, along with genetics and health status.

So, the key is to try different diets until hitting on one that suits.

Dr George A. Bray, the study’s first author, said:

“Individual weight loss approaches worked well for some people and not for others.

Currently, we have limited genetic and other information to predict which intervention will work for a given individual.

This demonstrates just how complex the problem of severe obesity is.”

The conclusions come from a massive, comprehensive review of the research on many different ways of losing weight.

Including over 400 studies on all types of weight loss interventions, only surgery proved a markedly more effective option than the rest.

Different diets and behavioural interventions were modestly successful, on average.

Modest success, however, is not what people want, said Dr Bray:

“There often is a mismatch between the patient’s cosmetic goals and what can realistically be achieved with diet and exercise.

While a modest 5 percent to 10 percent weight loss can yield significant health benefits, that may not provide the cosmetic changes patients seek.”

There was little evidence that dietary supplements — which are not evaluated by the FDA — can aid weight loss.

Dr Bray said:

“Effectively treating obesity is crucial if we are going to be able to address the devastating impact diabetes and cardiovascular disease have on public health.

We are seeing promising research into diabetes medications linked to weight loss, the use of peptides to enhance weight loss, and improved techniques for modulating the way food moves through the digestive system and is absorbed into the body.

As our scientific understanding of obesity continues to improve, we hope this will lead to the discovery of new treatment approaches.”

The study was published in the journal Endocrine Reviews (Bray et al., 2018).

Both techniques lead to people losing 5 percent of their body weight.

Two of the most popular ways of losing weight are similarly effective, research shows.

Both intermittent fasting and a standard calorie-restricted diet work equally well.

The diets led to reductions of 5 percent of body weight in the current study, as well as improvements to general health.

The researchers say that choosing between them is a matter of personal taste.

Intermittent fasting involves using regular breaks in dieting, sometimes for a couple of days, in other diets for as much as a week.

A normal diet, in contrast, simply involves dieting continuously.

For the study, 150 overweight and obese people were split into two groups and put on either the intermittent fasting diet or a continuous calorie-restricted diet.

For the intermittent diet, people restricted their calories on just two days of the week to only 25 percent of what they would normally eat.

The other group restricted their calories to 80 percent of what they would normally eat every day.

So, both groups were eating roughly the same amount of calories in total.

Dr Ruth Schübel, the study’s first author, said:

“There are in fact only a few smaller studies on intermittent fasting so far, but they have come up with strikingly positive effects for metabolic health.

This made us curious and we intended to find out whether these effects can also be proven in a larger patient group and over a prolonged period.”

The results showed that both groups lost 5 percent of their body weight across almost a year.

Dr Schübel explained:

“In participants of both group, body weight and, along with it, visceral fat, or unhealthy belly fat, were lost and extra fat in the liver reduced.”

Intermittent fasting may suit some people better, said Dr Tilman Kühn, study co-author:

“In addition, for some people it seems to be easier to be very disciplined on two days instead of counting calories and limiting food every day.

But in order to keep the new body weight, people must also permanently switch to a balanced diet following DGE [The German Nutrition Society] recommendations.”

The study was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Schübel et al., 2018).