Category: Weight Loss

The best pieces of advice from people who have successfully maintained their weight loss.

People who have lost weight and managed to keep it off report that there are four main strategies that help them achieve their goal.

First, people kept themselves motivated to lose weight by thinking about the improvement in their appearance and second the medical benefits they were gaining.

Third, weight-loss maintainers persevered despite setbacks and, fourth, they continued to track food intake and weight.

Professor Suzanne Phelan, the study’s first author, said:

“One of the most impressive findings was how weight-loss maintainers described perseverance in the face of setbacks.

Weight-loss maintainers saw setbacks as part of their successful journey.

Setbacks were not described as failures.

They were seen as a temporary interruption in their path.

Many weight-loss maintainers described getting back on track at the next meal or the next day and measuring overall success based on long-term goals.”

Stay motivated

The conclusions come from a study of over 6,000 members of Weight Watchers who had lost over 50 pounds, on average, and kept it off for over 3 years.

For the study, participants were asked about their motivations and strategies related to weight loss.

Four of the biggest themes were:

• Appearance concerns: people felt motivated by their sense of shame and disgust after looking at themselves in the mirror, along with embarrassment when trying to buy clothes.
• Medical health: weight loss maintainers were motivated by the fear of diabetes, heart conditions and other medical problems related to obesity.
• Perseverance: weight-loss maintainers described their journeys as being like, “a long marathon with individual victories and setbacks,” requiring “great perseverance.”
• Tracking: weight-loss maintainers said continuing to track weight and food intake was central to success.

Fear of going back

One of the most important ways that people motivated themselves was by looking back.

Here is a quote from one anonymous weight-loss maintainer:

“What motivates me is the thought of gaining all that weight back and the negative impact it would have on me.

I don’t know if I would have the energy to start over.

It is better for me to stay within a couple pounds of goal weight and take it off when necessary.”

And another said:

“Fear of going back to the way I was and throwing all these years down the tubes.

It took me too many years to reach goal and it was a hard road.”

Again, appearance was a big motivator, said many, such as this person:

“How I feel physically and how I look physically.

I love being able to do whatever activities I choose to and my boundless energy.

I feel physically beautiful again and I love buying clothes!

Looking at my before pictures keeps me humble, recalling my “non-scale-victories” keeps me motivated daily.”

The biggest rewards

The biggest rewards people described from weight loss were major improvements in:

• confidence,
• pain,
• mobility,
• body image,
• and mental and physical health.

Some negative points were unexpected criticism, clothing costs and sagging skin.

The study was published in the journal Obesity (Phelan et al., 2022).

How to burn belly fat without eating less or trying to lose weight.

Swapping fatty foods for lower fat alternatives can reduce weight and belly fat, research finds.

Weight loss of around 3.5 pounds was achieved by people in many studies without going on a diet.

People lost weight without eating less or specifically trying to lose weight.

Those who reduced their fat intake also enjoyed lower blood pressure and lower levels of bad cholesterol.

The more fat people cut out of their diet, the greater their weight loss, researchers found.

Dr Lee Hooper, the study’s first author, said:

“The weight reduction that we found when people ate less fat was remarkably consistent – we saw it in almost every trial.

Those who cut down more on fat, lost more weight.

The effect isn’t dramatic, like going on a diet.

The research specifically looked at people who were cutting down on fat, but didn’t aim to lose weight – so they were continuing to consume a normal amount of food.

What surprised us was that they did lose weight, their BMI decreased and their waists became slimmer.”

The conclusions come from a review of 33 separate randomised controlled trials including 73,589 people around the world.

The studies compared people who cut down on their fat intake with those who carried on eating as normal.

The results showed that those who cut down on fat intake lost an average of 3.5 pounds and also reduced their waist circumference by 0.5 cm.

Dr Hooper continued:

“We didn’t consider different types of fat in this study, but cutting down on saturated fat reduces our risk of heart disease and strokes, so the healthiest way to cut down on fat is to cut down on saturated fats.

This means having low fat milk and yogurt, cutting down on butter and cheese, and cutting the fat off meat.

Most importantly have fruit instead of fatty snacks like biscuits, cake and crisps.

And remember, this isn’t a diet, so don’t take it to extremes, but work out a way of eating that you can stick to permanently.

Keeping healthy is not just about fat and weight – but cutting down on fat, especially saturated fat, is a great start.

Being physically active, not smoking, drinking alcohol in moderation, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, and drinking plenty of fluid also help to keep us healthy.

We just need to get in the habit of doing these things,”

The study was published in the British Medical Journal (Hooper et al., 2012).

This can actually melt belly fat.

The best way to shed belly fat is exercise, according to the research.

People lose more visceral (belly) fat while exercising than they do taking weight loss medication.

Exercise can actually melt belly fat.

One reason is that exercise stimulates the release of a signalling molecule called interleukin-6.

It is released from the skeletal muscle and plays an important role in breaking down fats in healthy people.

High levels of belly fat are linked to cancer, dementia, cardio-metabolic disease and early death.

Dr Anne-Sophie Wedell-Neergaard, the study’s first author, said:

“The take home for the general audience is ‘do exercise’.

We all know that exercise promotes better health, and now we also know that regular exercise training reduces abdominal fat mass and thereby potentially also the risk of developing cardio-metabolic diseases.”

The study involved 53 people who did several 45-minute sessions per week on an exercise bike.

The results showed that fat was reduced by 8 percent, or 225 grams in 12 weeks.

However, some people were given a drug that blocks the action of interleukin-6.

Instead of losing weight, this group gained 278 grams of fat, despite exercising.

The study helps show that it is interleukin-6 that is causally involved in weight loss.

Dr Wedell-Neergaard said:

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that interleukin-6 has a physiological role in regulating visceral fat mass in humans.”

Diet, of course, is also helpful in shedding belly fat.

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.

Dr Wedell-Neergaard said:

“It is important to stress that when you start exercising, you may increase body weight due to increased muscle mass.

So, in addition to measuring your overall body weight, it would be useful, and maybe more important, to measure waist circumference to keep track of the loss of visceral fat mass and to stay motivated.”

The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism (Wedell-Neergaard et al., 2018).

50 percent of people are deficient in this vitamin.

Having sufficient levels of vitamin D in the body can double weight loss and shed belly fat, research finds.

Around half the world’s population is deficient in vitamin D.

One study has shown a doubling of weight loss from drinking milk, which contains high levels of calcium and vitamin D, both of which are linked to weight loss.

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.

For the current study, 218 obese and overweight women were split into two groups.

All of them had a vitamin D deficiency.

Both groups were put on a weight loss programme, but only half were given 2,000 IU of vitamin D each day.

At the end of the 12 months of the study, the women with sufficient levels of vitamin D in their body had lost 19 pounds.

However, those with low levels of vitamin D had only lost 12 pounds.

Dr Anne McTiernan, study co-author, said:

“This suggests women trying to lose weight might want to have their D levels checked by their provider and replenish their vitamin D levels either through supplements or sun and then have their D levels rechecked after a few months to make sure they’ve risen to a healthy level.”

Those taking vitamin D also reduced the levels of inflammation in their bodies.

Dr Catherine Duggan, study co-author, said:

“An overweight person’s body is in a state of chronic inflammation and all of these inflammation proteins that the body produces can cause things like elevated risk for cancer and diabetes.

Vitamin D helped with that. It could make the condition of being overweight less stressful on the body.”

The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Mason et al., 2014).

The diet helps people control their blood sugar more effectively.

Going on a vegan diet accelerates weight loss and reduces harmful belly fat, research suggests.

People following a plant-based, vegan diet for 16 weeks lost an average of over 12 pounds, including almost 9 pounds of fat mass and belly fat.

More fibre is the most critical element of the diet, researchers think.

Plant-based diets contain plenty of fibre which helps to boost healthy bacteria in the gut.

The study included 147 overweight people who were randomised to a vegan diet or no change for 16 weeks.

The results revealed that a vegan diet reduced weight significantly.

A vegan diet also helped people control their blood sugar more effectively.

The study’s authors write:

“A 16-week low-fat vegan dietary intervention induced changes in gut microbiota that were related to changes in weight, body composition and insulin sensitivity in overweight adults.”

The diet also increased the health of the gut.

People with a greater abundance of critical healthy bacteria in the gut lost more weight.

Bacteria that a vegan diet boosts include Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Bacteroides fragilis.

The authors conclude:

“A plant-based diet has been shown to be effective in weight management, and in diabetes prevention and treatment.

We have demonstrated that a plant-based diet elicited changes in gut microbiome that were associated with weight loss, reduction in fat mass and visceral fat volume, and increase in insulin sensitivity.”

Fibre is the key to weight loss and a healthy gut, the authors write:

“The main shift in the gut microbiome composition was due to an increased relative content of short-chain fatty acid producing bacteria that feed on fibre.

Therefore, high dietary fibre content seems to be essential for the changes observed in our study.”

The study was presented at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Barcelona, Spain (Kahleova et al., 2019).

Around half the world’s population is deficient in this vitamin.

Supplementation with vitamin D could help promote weight loss, a study suggests.

Taking the supplement is linked to weight loss, lower body fat and better cholesterol readings.

Around half the world’s population is deficient in vitamin D.

One reason for the beneficial effect of vitamin D may be its link to the neurotransmitter serotonin.

Serotonin can affect everything from sleep to mood.

High levels of vitamin D may also suppress the storage of fat.

In contrast, having low levels of vitamin D in the body is linked to the storing of fat.

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.

For the study, 232 obese young people were followed over one year.

Half of them were given a vitamin D supplement.

They took a high level for six weeks and then continued on a lower maintenance dose for the rest of the year.

The typical level of vitamin D supplementation for an adult is around 10 micrograms per day.

The results showed that those given vitamin D supplementation had less body fat, lower cholesterol and a lower body mass index after one year.

Professor Evangelia Charmandari, study author, said:

“These findings suggest that simple vitamin D supplementation may reduce the risk of overweight and obese children developing serious heart and metabolic complications in later life.”

Professor Charmandari recommends considering a vitamin D test:

“Although these initial findings indicate that vitamin D could be used in the treatment of obesity, there remains a lack of evidence on the safety and long-term effects of supplementation, particularly if there is no vitamin D deficiency.

However, if your child is overweight or obese I recommend that you consult your primary care physician for advice, and consider having their vitamin D levels tested.”

The study was presented at the 57th Annual European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology.

Stop food cravings and cut chocolate consumption in half by doing this.

A 15-minute walk is enough to stop food cravings brought on by stressful situations.

The research should help the 97 percent of women and 68 percent of men who suffer from food cravings.

The study chimes with previous research finding that a 15-minutes walk can stop food cravings for chocolate by half.

Professor Adrian Taylor, who led that research said:

“We know that snacking on high calorie foods, like chocolate, at work can become a mindless habit and can lead to weight gain over time.

We often feel that these snacks give us an energy boost, or help us deal with the stress of our jobs, including boredom.

People often find it difficult to cut down on their daily treats but this study shows that by taking a short walk, they are able to regulate their intake by half.”

Stop food cravings

The study involved 47 overweight people with an average age of 28.

All regularly ate chocolate or high calories snacks.

In the three days before the study, the participants were asked not to snack on any of their usual comfort foods.

The idea being that by the time of the study, they would be really craving a snack.

In the lab, half the participants spent 15 minutes on a treadmill, while the other half had sat quietly.

They then were given a difficult psychological test that made them stressed.

This was to cue up their food cravings.

They were then given sugary snacks to unwrap, but only ‘handle’.

The results showed that those who’d been on the treadmill had much lower food cravings than those who sat quietly.

Exercisers also showed lower physiological arousal to handling the sugary snacks.

The authors conclude:

“Short bouts of physical activity may reduce the craving for sugary snacks in overweight people.

When snacking has become habitual and poorly regulated by overweight people, the promotion of short bouts of physical activity could be valuable for reducing the urge to consume at times when the person may be particularly vulnerable, such as during stress and when snack foods are available.”

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• Weight Loss: The 16 Best Psychological Techniques (P)

The research was published in the journal PLoS ONE (Ledochowski et al., 2015)

Could water fasting increase weight loss and how many days consuming nothing but water is safe?

Water fasting is a type of diet plan undertaken by people who want to lose more weight quickly.

A water fast can last for five days or more and during this period a person will eat nothing but drink water and natural zero calorie beverages.

Scientists have reviewed the evidence for water fasting and Buchinger fasting, a medically supervised diet therapy consisting of taking very little food for several days to almost three weeks.

The research reveals that fasting for five to 20 days increases ketones production due to the body breaking down fat for energy, and promotes weight loss up to ten percent of body weight.

However, four months after the fast ends, the metabolic benefits such as reduced blood pressure, reduced LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides, improved insulin sensitivity and blood sugar levels seem to fade.

The adverse effects were metabolic acidosis (too much acid in the body), insomnia, hunger, and headaches.

Otherwise, a water fast or a similar diet therapy where a person consumes very few calories daily did not cause any severe injury.

Professor Krista Varady, the study’s lead author, said:

“My overall conclusion is that I guess you could try it, but it just seems like a lot of work, and all those metabolic benefits disappear.”

Five days maximum

However, Professor Varady advised that without medical supervision, people should not use these type of fasts for more than five days.

The review analysed eight studies on prolonged water fasting or Buchinger fasting where fasters under medical supervision consume a tiny amount of vegetable soup, juice, tea, and water.

The findings show that the weight loss effect after a short period of time was visible.

In five days participants lost four to six percent of their weight, those on seven to 10 days fasting lost between two to 10 percent, and those on 15 to 20 days fasting slimmed down by seven to 10 percent.

After the fasting period was over, participants maintained their weight loss if they followed a restrictive calorie intake, otherwise in three months they gained the weight back.

About one-third of the weight loss was fat mass and two-thirds was lean mass suggesting that extreme fasts cause people to lose more muscle than body fat.

Professor Varady said:

“Your body needs a constant intake of protein.

If it doesn’t have that, then it draws from muscles.”

Professor Varady added she prefers those who want to lose weight to consider intermittent fasting instead of water fasting,

“Because there’s a lot more data to show it can help with weight management.”

Related

• Portion control is a better strategy for weight management than intermittent fasting.
• Continuous dieting and intermittent fasting lead to the same amount of weight loss.
• Mediterranean, low-carb, low-fat, or intermittent fasting, dieters lose the same amount of weight.
• The 16:8 diet is an effective way to lose weight.
• A 14-day break from dieting helps increase weight loss by 50 percent.
• Alternate day fasting and the 5:2 diet are more effective than time-restricted eating.

The study was published in the journal Nutrition Reviews (Ezpeleta et al., 2023).

Overweight people who took this antioxidant supplement managed to slim down without diet or exercise.

Lipoic acid, also known as alpha lipoic acid (ALA), is a strong antioxidant which helps people to lose weight.

In a clinical trial, when this dietary supplement was given to overweight or obese people, it made them lose body fat and body weight.

Patients who took 600 milligrams per day of the R form of lipoic acid (R-LA) managed to slim down in 24 weeks without changing their diet or physical activity.

Dr Balz Frei, study co-author, said:

“The data clearly showed a loss in body weight and body fat in people taking lipoic acid supplements.

Particularly in women and in the heaviest participants.”

Lipoic acid is a medium-chain fatty acid that is naturally found in plant and animal products like broccoli, spinach, and organ meats.

Our body makes small amounts of lipoic acid, which is essential for regulating the metabolism and generating energy.

Supplementation of lipoic acid seems to offer some additional benefits irrespective of its role in energy production.

Lipoic acid supplements sold over-the-counter assert benefits including blood sugar and cholesterol level reduction, and powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

It is also used as an additional treatment for diabetes, age-related cognitive decline, and heart disease.

Dr Alexander Michels, study co-author, said:

“Scientists have been researching the potential health benefits of lipoic acid supplements for decades, including how it might enhance healthy aging and mitigate cardiovascular disease.

In both rodent models and small-scale human clinical trials, researchers at the LPI have demonstrated the beneficial effects of lipoic acid on oxidative stress, lipid metabolism and circadian rhythm.”

According to Professor Tory Hagen, the study’s lead author, this research looked into two issues that have often been ignored in past clinical trials.

Professor Hagen explained:

“Many existing clinical studies using lipoic acid have focused on volunteers with pre-existing conditions like diabetes, making it difficult to determine if lipoic acid supplements simply act as a disease treatment or have other beneficial health effects.

Another issue is the formulation of the supplement.

Many previous studies have used the S form of lipoic acid, which is a product of industrial synthesis and not found in nature.

We only used the R form of lipoic acid — the form found in the body naturally.”

The research team saw that those patients who lost weight had reduced blood triglyceride levels, the main component of body fat.

Professor Hagen said:

“By the end of the study, some markers of inflammation declined.

The findings also suggest that lipoic acid supplementation provides a mild reduction in oxidative stress.

It is not a perfect panacea, but our results show that lipoic acid supplements can be beneficial.”

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