Category: Weight Loss

Unlike the Western diet, this diet naturally puts you off overeating.

No matter how much you like to eat, a Mediterranean-style diet can protect you from overeating.

According to a study, a Mediterranean diet stops the feeling of hunger and over-consumption, unlike the Western diet that causes prediabetes, obesity, and liver disease.

However, a Mediterranean diet can have similar amounts of carbohydrates, fat, and protein to other types of diets because what we eat is important.

Generally, vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, seeds, nuts, olive oil, fish, and seafood are plentiful in the Mediterranean diet.

Researchers have found that animals on a Mediterranean diet didn’t eat all the available food and so didn’t put on weight.

Professor Carol Shively, the study’s first author, said:

“By comparison, the animals on a Western diet ate far more than they needed and gained weight.”

The study compared the impact of consuming a Mediterranean diet with a Western diet on monkeys.

The Western diet was mainly from animal sources, whereas the Mediterranean diet was from plant products but with the same amount of carbohydrates, fat, and protein.

Professor Shively said:

“What we found was that the group on the Mediterranean diet actually ate fewer calories, had lower body weight and had less body fat than those on the Western diet.”

The results show that in contrast to a Western diet, a Mediterranean diet averted binge eating, prediabetes, and obesity.

Moreover, the Mediterranean diet was shown to protect the subjects from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

The build up of excessive fat in the liver causes this condition which leads to cirrhosis and liver cancer.

NAFLD is a consequence of obesity and sadly it is predicted that one-third of the United States population will have the disease by 2030.

NAFLD is becoming a more frequent reason for liver transplants in young American adults.

Professor Shively said:

“Diet composition is a critically important contributor to the U.S. public health, and unfortunately those at the greatest risk for obesity and related costly chronic diseases also have the poorest quality diets.

The Western diet was developed and promoted by companies who want us to eat their food, so they make it hyper-palatable, meaning it hits all our buttons so we overconsume.

Eating a Mediterranean diet should allow people to enjoy their food and not overeat, which is such a problem in this country.

We hope our findings will encourage people to eat healthier foods that are also enjoyable, and improve human health.”

The study was published in the journal Obesity (Shively et al., 2020).

People automatically consumed 500 calories less per day of these foods without even trying.

A diet high in whole foods is linked to weight loss, research finds.

Typical whole foods include fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, grains, legumes and seeds.

People automatically ate 500 calories less per day when eating whole foods, the study showed.

Replacing processed foods with unprocessed or whole foods lowers calorie intake.

Processed foods tend to make people eat more even though these foods have exactly the same number of calories, carbs, fats, protein, and fibre as natural or unprocessed foods.

The new study found that people who eat ultra-processed foods ate more calories and put on weight than when they ate a minimally or unprocessed products.

Unprocessed or whole foods are a type of food found in its natural state without any alterations.

They include fruits and vegetables, eggs, grains, legumes, seeds, milk, fish and seafood.

Minimally processed foods are those that might be dried, cut or cooked but nothing is removed from them or added.

Ultra-processed or highly processed are the type of foods that some ingredients are added to them by food and drink manufacturers.

These include additives like high-fructose corn syrup, emulsifiers, flavouring agents, artificial colours, preservatives and hydrogenated oils.

For instance, an unprocessed breakfast would be oatmeal with walnuts, bananas and skimmed milk, while a highly processed breakfast might be made up of a bagel with cream cheese and bacon.

The study recruited a group of healthy adults who received ultra-processed or unprocessed meals for 2 weeks on each diet.

Participants, when they were on the unprocessed diet, ate about 500 calories less per day compared to when they were on the ultra-processed diet.

When they were on the unprocessed diet they lost almost  (2 pounds).

But they gained weight and ate faster when they were on the ultra-processed diet.

Dr Kevin D. Hall, the study’s first author, said:

“Though we examined a small group, results from this tightly controlled experiment showed a clear and consistent difference between the two diets.

This is the first study to demonstrate causality — that ultra-processed foods cause people to eat too many calories and gain weight.”

Extra calories will add up over a period of time, leading to extra weight and then to obesity and other serious health conditions.

Dr Hall said:

“We need to figure out what specific aspect of the ultra-processed foods affected people’s eating behavior and led them to gain weight.

Research like this is an important part of understanding the role of nutrition in health and may also help people identify foods that are both nutritious and accessible — helping people stay healthy for the long term.”

The study was published in Cell Metabolism (Hall et al., 2019).

It increases levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which reduces the desire for high-fat foods.

Commencing an exercise routine helps to improve people’s eating habits automatically, research finds.

People in the study who started exercising improved their diet without consciously trying.

Researchers found that people who used to be sedentary started eating more vegetables, lean meats and fruits after beginning to exercise.

Being more active also led to people avoiding fried foods and sugar.

People made the change spontaneously, without being instructed to by researchers.

The reason could be that exercise increases levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

Dopamine reduces the desire for high-fat foods.

Professor Molly Bray, study co-author, said:

“The process of becoming physically active can influence dietary behavior.

One of the reasons that we need to promote exercise is for the healthy habits it can create in other areas.

That combination is very powerful.”

The study included 2,680 people whose eating and exercise habits were followed.

People who did less than 30 minutes exercise per week began aerobic workouts on three days a week across 15 months.

Each session was half-an-hour long and included a variety of workouts, including using stationary bikes, treadmills and elliptical machines.

The researchers found that people who began working out automatically started eating more healthily.

After beginning to exercise, they also reduced their snacking.

Reducing snacking has also been linked to increased exercise motivation.

So, this suggests the operation of a virtuous circle.

Professor Bray said:

“Many people in the study didn’t know they had this active, healthy person inside them.

Some of them thought their size was inevitable.

For many of these young people, they are choosing what to eat and when to exercise for the first time in their lives.”

Regular jogging is the best exercise for weight loss, some research concludes.

Other exercises that are good for combating a genetic predisposition towards obesity are:

• walking and power walking,
• formal dancing, such as the waltz, tango, foxtrot and quickstep.
• mountain climbing,
• and practising yoga for a long period.

The study was published in the International Journal of Obesity (Joo et al., 2019).

People using this technique lost 5 percent of their body weight.

People who focus on personal reasons for losing weight can boost their motivation and increase their success, a study finds.

Personal reasons include the pleasure from success, a deep-seated desire or enjoying something for its own sake.

These are known as ‘intrinsic motivations’ to psychologists and they are linked to greater weight loss success.

In contrast, focusing on things like guilt and pressure from others is less effective for weight loss — as well as any other long-term goal.

For the study, 66 people were tracked over 12 weeks as they tried to lose weight.

Psychologists measured the different types of motivations people had for losing weight as they went along.

The results revealed that people who went on to sustain a 5 percent weight loss were those who focused on personal reasons for losing weight.

Successful dieters monitored their own progress more carefully, the study found.

People who were less successful saw a drop in both types of motivation.

The study’s authors write:

“It appears that the time period between 4 and 8 weeks may be an important window for weight control programs to consider using techniques designed to enhance autonomous motivation, including giving more intense support or different types of interventions, such as activities to enhance autonomous motivation or contact from a weight-loss counselor in the form of e-mails, phone calls, or face-to-face meetings.

It is possible that motivation measured a few weeks after the study has begun more accurately captures motivation than baseline motivation for weight loss since participants have become familiar with the behavior changes that will be necessary for weight loss and can better gauge their motivation for making those changes.

These findings suggest that building motivation may be an effective means of promoting adherence and weight loss.”

The study was published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior (Webber et al., 2010).

The exercise can be done in as little as a 20-minutes and can triple weight loss.

Exercising using high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is one of the best exercises for weight loss, research concludes.

HIIT can be done in as little as a 20-minute workout and is linked to a tripling in weight loss by some studies.

A HIIT exercise session of just 20 minutes can produce the same amount of weight loss as exercising continuously for an hour.

There are different ways of doing HIIT, but some people use bicycles, running, jogging or a variety of other exercises.

The important thing is to do short bursts at a high intensity — this involves going all-out for 30 seconds or so and then easing off, before another bout of high intensity exercise.

Despite burning fewer calories, HIIT can increase weight loss to a greater extent.

Dr Eric Plaisance, study co-author, said:

“The number one reason that people tell us they do not exercise is due to a lack of time.

High-intensity interval training takes about a third of the time as a continuous exercise training.

If you are going to start a diet where you are restricting calories, these results could help prevent muscle mass and maintain energy expenditure.”

The current study was carried out on mice, but others on humans have found it can triple weight loss.

HIIT can help preserve muscle mass and improve how the body deals with glucose, Dr Plaisance said:

“One of the major problems when you restrict calories on a diet is that you lose muscle mass, and as a result, your metabolism slows down to accommodate the restriction of food.

Eighty percent of people who lose weight by dieting gain all of it back in a four- to five-year period.”

The study was published in the American Journal of Physiology – Endocrinology And Metabolism (Davis et al., 2017).

A dietary pattern that is linked to weight loss.

When it comes to losing weight, we generally focus on a diet plan that takes both calorie intake and burning calories into account.

But when you eat can be equally as important in order to lose weight.

Eating earlier

Professor Frank Scheer, the study’s co-author, said:

“This is the first large-scale prospective study to demonstrate that the timing of meals predicts weight-loss effectiveness.

Our results indicate that late eaters displayed a slower weight-loss rate and lost significantly less weight than early eaters, suggesting that the timing of large meals could be an important factor in a weight loss program.”

In order to examine the effect of food timing on weight loss plans, the research team tracked 420 overweight adults in Spain.

Participants were assigned to two groups; one early-eater and the other late-eater.

Both groups had to follow a weight loss diet for 20 weeks.

People in the Mediterranean tend to eat their largest meal at midday so the focus was on lunch timing with the meal contributing 40 percent of daily calories.

The early-eater group had their lunch any time before 3 pm while late-eaters had their meal after 3 pm.

The team found that early-eaters showed a faster metabolic rate (burning calories) and so they lost more weight than late-eaters.

Also late-eaters had low insulin sensitivity, a blood sugar disorder which can lead to type 2 diabetes.

In this study, timing for smaller meals didn’t show as strong an effect on weight loss as the timing for the main meal.

One explanation is that late eaters either skipped their breakfast or ate less in the morning compared to early eaters.

There were no differences in energy expenditure, daily calorie intake, sleeping hours, and appetite hormones in both groups, meaning that the meal timing had an independent effect on losing weight.

Professor Marta Garaulet, the study’s first author, said:

“This study emphasizes that the timing of food intake itself may play a significant role in weight regulation.

Novel therapeutic strategies should incorporate not only the caloric intake and macronutrient distribution, as it is classically done, but also the timing of food.”

The study was published in the International Journal of Obesity (Garaulet et al., 2013).

This weight loss tip uses reverse psychology.

When people are reminded how difficult it is to lose weight, it boosts their self-control, recent research finds.

The study found that people who are told that the temptations are too strong and their self-control too weak, actually developed more self-control.

By telling people how hard something is, they become more determined to overcome it.

Ironically, this form of reverse psychology works, the study suggests.

Professor Michael Lowe, the study’s first author, explained:

“We said, ‘It’s impressive and encouraging that you are taking this step to improve your weight and health, but we need to help you understand the daunting challenges you’re facing.’

The reason we did this was not to discourage them, but to give them a more realistic sense of how crucial it is for them to make lasting changes in their parts of the food environment that they could control.”

The study included 262 overweight and obese people.

Half were given cognitive therapy while the other half made changes to the food environment in their homes.

Both groups lost the same amount of weight, the results revealed.

However, some people were reminded how difficult weight loss is as an incidental part of the home food environment (HFE) group.

This group ended up losing more weight.

Professor Lowe explained:

“…by questioning the usefulness of building self-control skills, the HFE treatment may have bolstered the very capacity it was meant to downplay — stronger self-control with regard to food.”

Professor Lowe thinks that weight loss groups need to consider the type of support they provide:

“Rather than acting as cheerleaders giving facile encouragement, leaders of weight loss groups might serve their clients better by providing a more sobering description of the challenges participants face.”

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

The habit is linked to decreased physical activity and a worse diet, which are both serious barriers to weight loss.

Smartphones are a common barrier to weight loss, new research suggests.

High levels of smartphone use are linked to decreased physical activity and a worse diet, which are both serious barriers to weight loss.

People using their smartphones for 5 or more hours per day had a 43 percent higher risk of obesity, researchers found.

They were also more likely to have lifestyle habits that increase the risk of heart disease.

Like many technologies, smartphones are not inherently good or bad in themselves — the key is how they are used.

Ironically, researchers have long been testing the use of smartphones to help people lose weight.

Using smartphones to help motivate weight loss and keep track of eating and exercise habits may be helpful in fighting obesity, studies have suggested.

Dr Mirary Mantilla-Morrón, the study’s first author, believes many people do not take advantage of the positive side of the technology:

“It is important that the general population know and be aware that, although mobile technology is undoubtedly attractive for its multiple purposes, portability, comfort, access to countless services, information and entertainment sources, it should also be used to improve habits and healthy behaviors.

Spending too much time in front of the Smartphone facilitates sedentary behaviors, reduces the time of physical activity, which increases the risk of premature death, diabetes, heart disease, different types of cancer, osteoarticular discomfort and musculoskeletal symptoms.”

The study included 1,060 young adults with an age of around 19 or 20.

The results showed that those using smartphones were twice as likely to eat more fast food, sweets and sugary foods in general, on top of decreased physical activity.

Dr Mantilla-Morrón said:

“The results of this study allow us to highlight one of the main causes of physical obesity, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

We have also determined that the amount of time in which a person is exposed to the use of technologies — specifically prolonged cell phone use — is associated with the development of obesity.”

The study was presented at the American College of Cardiology Latin America Conference 2019 (Mantilla-Morrón et al., 2019).

A hidden factor that causes weight gain and obesity much faster than you think.

When it comes to weight control, people tell themselves to avoid indulging in high-calorie foods.

But avoiding eating when you are stressed is even more important because stress activates a pathway in the brain causing more weight gain.

Some people lose their appetite under stress but most people eat more and crave more high calorie foods containing fat and sugar.

A study suggests that eating high-calorie foods under stressful conditions results in putting on more weight than eating the same foods without stress.

They reveal that while the hypothalamus in the brain regulates food intake, the amygdala responds to emotion and anxiety.

When we are stressed a neuropeptide Y (NPY) molecule in the amygdala is produced causing more weight gain.

Dr Kenny Chi Kin Ip, the study’s first author, said:

“Our study showed that when stressed over an extended period and high calorie food was available, mice became obese more quickly than those that consumed the same high fat food in a stress-free environment.

We discovered that when we switched off the production of NPY in the amygdala weight gain was reduced.

Without NPY, the weight gain on a high-fat diet with stress was the same as weight gain in the stress-free environment.

This shows a clear link between stress, obesity and NPY.”

After having a meal our body produces insulin so cells can take the glucose from the blood and it signals the hypothalamus to stop eating.

But stress combined with high calorie foods increases insulin levels more than 10 times than when we eat the same food with no stress.

The more insulin in the amygdala, the less sensitive the nerve cells will become.

These nerve cells are responsible for producing NPY and this situation they will increase their NPY production.

The consequences are that the body asks for more food and also stores the fat and sugar instead of using them for fuel.

Professor Herbert Herzog, the study’s leader, said:

“Our findings revealed a vicious cycle, where chronic, high insulin levels driven by stress and a high-calorie diet promoted more and more eating.

This really reinforced the idea that while it’s bad to eat junk food, eating high-calorie foods under stress is a double whammy that drives obesity.”

The study was published in Cell Metabolism (Ip et al., 2019).

Surprisingly, weight loss was achieved without making other changes to diet or lifestyle.

Small changes to meal times could lead to a doubling in weight loss, research finds.

Consuming more of the day’s calories earlier can help to reduce belly fat and double weight loss, scientists have found.

Higher quality sleep — which is linked to eating earlier — may be one of the reasons that weight loss is improved.

The study included 31 obese and overweight people who were following a weight loss diet.

Their sleep and movements were tracked using wearable activity monitors.

The results of the study showed that those who had more of their calories earlier in the day ended up lowering their body mass index more and they had lower body fat.

Those that ate earlier also went to sleep earlier.

Late night snacking is known to be one of the great enemies of weight loss and good quality sleep.

Dr Adnin Zaman, the study’s first author, said:

“We used a novel set of methods for simultaneous measurement of daily sleep, physical activity, and meal timing patterns that could be used to identify persons at risk for increased weight gain.

Given that wearable activity monitors and smartphones are now ubiquitous in our modern society, it may soon be possible to consider the timing of behaviors across 24 hours in how we approach the prevention and treatment of obesity.”

Eating earlier in the day is not the only approach involving shifting meals that works.

Another approach is to move meals more towards the middle of the day — in other words eat breakfast later and supper earlier.

Participants in one study who ate breakfast 90 minutes later and supper 90 minutes earlier doubled their weight loss.

Surprisingly, this was without making other changes to diet or lifestyle.

The study was presented at ENDO 2019, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in New Orleans, La.