Category: Weight Loss

People with this trait find it easier to lose weight.

Being pessimistic and self-aware is linked to greater weight loss, research finds.

People who prefer to look at the facts and to consider alternatives do better when they try to lose weight.

In contrast, those who approach weight loss with childish optimism are doomed to fail.

The conclusion comes from a study of 101 obese people who were given combined counselling, nutrition and exercise therapy.

The results showed that people who were optimistic at the start of the six month trial found it harder to lose weight.

However, people who successfully lost weight did become more optimistic as time went on, even if they started out pessimistic.

A second key to weight loss is self-awareness.

It is important to be aware of what triggers eating and to be gathering information about what changes are working and what are not.

The authors write:

“It is important to enhance patients’ self-effectiveness and self-control in order to reduce psychological stress and to maintain the weight loss.

The weight loss should be attributed not simply to the intervention of the clinical psychologists but to the total effect of the intervention of a holistic medical care team.”

The study was published in the journal BioPsychoSocial Medicine (Saito et al., 2009).

Researchers have found that around 50 percent of the obese are deficient in a mineral contained in this drink.

A couple of glasses of fat-free milk each day can double weight loss, research finds.

A study of 322 overweight people revealed that those drinking two glasses of low-fat milk each day doubled their weight loss compared to those who drank around half-a-glass.

The reason could be down to the calcium and vitamin D contained in milk.

Researchers have found that around 50 percent of obese people are deficient in calcium.

In addition, among the general population, around half are deficient in vitamin D.

Higher calcium levels appear to reduce the desire for food.

A deficiency in calcium, though, can drive the appetite as a way of obtaining more of the essential mineral.

Vitamin D helps the body to absorb calcium.

Researchers find that consuming dairy products can help to lower blood pressure and cholesterol.

It is also linked to reduced body fat and increased muscle growth.

Although people sometimes avoid dairy when trying to lose weight, there is evidence that normal intake is not fattening.

A study of 19,614 men followed them for 12 years, tracking what they ate and any change in weight.

The results revealed that those consuming three servings of dairy each day did not gain weight.

Dr Greg Miller, an expert in food science and human nutrition, said:

“The good news for the public is that you can follow the MyPyramid recommendation for 3 servings of dairy foods each day and get the nutrition benefits without concern of extra weight gain.

If you’re cutting calories to lose weight, it’s important to get your 3 servings of dairy foods each day for good health and to enhance your weight loss efforts.”

The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Rajpathak et al., 2006).

There was no exercise or major diet change involved in this simple weight loss method.

Eating slowly helps people lose twice as much weight, a study has found.

Simply chewing each mouthful of food for 30 seconds led to study participants losing 5 pounds in weight over a six-month period.

In contrast, a control group who ate at their normal speed put on around 8 pounds.

There was no exercise or major diet change involved.

The slow eating approach works because it allows more time for the feeling of fullness to travel from stomach to brain.

Professor Schmid-Schoenbein, study co-author, said:

“You can adopt this slow eating approach for yourself and keep it up for the rest of your life.

You can teach this approach to your children and they can teach it to their children in turn.”

The study included 54 children aged 6- to 17-years-old.

They were told to chew each mouthful for 30 seconds and given a small hourglass to help them time it.

Professor Pedro Cabrales, study co-author, said:

“The hourglass made it more like a game.

We also noticed that the children kept each other accountable.

If some forgot the hourglasses, the others would remind them.”

The only other instructions given in the study were to drink a glass of water before a meal and avoid snacks between meals.

The results showed that children who ate slowly lost between 3% and 5% of their body weight in one year.

In comparison, a control group of similar children put on between 7% and 8% over the year.

Slow eating is effective because it gives more time for the ‘satiety reflex’ to reach the brain.

The message that the stomach is full takes around 15 minutes to arrive, but many people eat a whole meal quicker than this.

Dr. Ruy Perez-Tamayo, study co-author, said:

“Our method focuses on preventing weight gain.

It is simple, inexpensive and easy to follow.”

The study was published in the journal Pediatric Obesity (Salazar Vázquez et al., 2015).

People in the study lost weight without losing any bone mass.

A high-protein diet helps people burn belly fat and lose weight, research finds.

People who eat more lean meats combined with low-fat dairy lose more weight than those on a standard diet.

High-protein diets — around 30 percent of calories from protein — can also help to lower blood sugar and lipid levels.

The women in the study were able to lose weight without losing any bone mass, researchers found.

Dr Ellen Evans, study co-author, said:

“This is an important finding because many people, especially women in mid-life, are concerned with both obesity and osteoporosis.

Furthermore, treating obesity often increases risk for osteoporosis.

Many people lose bone mass when they lose weight.”

The study included 130 overweight people.

The researchers put half on a high-protein and dairy diet and the other half on a regular weight loss diet, based on the food pyramid.

Dr Evans said:

“Essentially we substituted lean meats and low-fat milk, cheese, yogurt, etc., for some of the high-carbohydrate foods in the food-pyramid diet.

Participants also ate five servings of vegetables and two to three servings of fruit each day.”

The results showed that both groups lost the same amount of weight.

However, a previous study by Professor Donald Layman found that high-protein diets help reduce belly fat.

Those on the high protein diet maintained better bone health.

Dr Matthew Thorpe, the study’s’ first author, said:

“In the higher-protein group, bone density remained fairly stable, but bone health declined over time in the group that followed the conventional higher-carbohydrate diet.

A statistically significant treatment effect favored the higher-protein diet group.

The combination and/or interaction of dietary protein, calcium from dairy, and the additional vitamin D that fortifies dairy products appears to protect bone health during weight loss.”

The study was published in the Journal of Nutrition (Thorpe et al., 2008).

People taking these supplements and vitamins were able in some cases to lose weight without making other lifestyle changes.

Taking inulin, vitamin D supplementation and drinking low fat milk have each been repeatedly linked to weight loss.

Inulin, a natural fibre available as a supplement, could quadruple weight loss, one study has found.

Inulin is a fibre found naturally in many foods, including leeks, wheat, onions, bananas and asparagus.

Also, taking a vitamin D supplement is repeatedly linked to weight loss by studies.

People taking vitamin D lose weight without dieting or making other lifestyle changes.

Adding in dieting and exercise can help to boost weight loss even more.

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.

Professor Gary Frost, co-author of a study on the inulin and weight loss, said:

“These results are encouraging in that they show this potential food supplement, when combined with exercise, can help people burn through their fat stores faster, decreases appetite and could in the long term help to achieve a healthy weight.”

In addition, inulin is found naturally in many foods, including wheat, leeks, bananas and asparagus.

The fibre helps the body burn fat faster and reduces cravings for high-calorie foods.

Authors of a study on the link between weight loss and low-fat milk 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.”

Authors of the study on vitamin explained:

“The findings of this double-blind clinical trial study in obese and overweight women aged 20–40 years showed that supplementation of the vit D with dozes 50,000 IU/w for 6 weeks reduced significantly the mean BMI [body mass index], weight and on the other hand, it increased significantly the level of vit D in comparison with the control group.”

The study was published in the journals Cell Host & Microbe, Metabolism and Journal of Preventative Medicine (Faghih et al., 2019; Malkova et al., 2020; Zou et al., 2018).

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).

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).

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).