Category: Weight Loss

The diet can lead to 5.5 more pounds of weight loss.

Vegetarian diets produce the most weight loss, research finds.

Diets that do not contain meat are linked to significantly more weight loss.

Vegetarian dieters typically lose around 4.4 pounds more than those following diets that include meat.

A vegan diet is even more effective for losing weight, with an average weight loss of 5.5 pounds more than those eating meat.

Vegetarian diets are particularly effective for weight loss because of the high intake of fruits, whole grains and vegetables.

Vegetables and whole grains typically have a high glycaemic index, meaning they do not cause a spike in blood sugar levels.

Fruits are rich in fibre and contain many antioxidants and minerals that naturally protect the body.

Fibre helps to slow down the rate at which food leaves the stomach, which stops people from feeling hungry.

Eating more fibre is repeatedly linked to weight loss by research.

The conclusions come from a review of 12 separate studies including 1,151 participants in total.

The studies all compared people who were dieting on vegetarian diets with those dieting while still eating meat.

There are two types of vegetarian diets, the authors write:

“The two major types of vegetarian diets are the lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet, in which meats are avoided but consumption of milk and eggs is allowed, and the vegan diet, in which all products originating from animals are avoided.”

The results showed that vegetarian diets were superior for weight loss.

The study’s author explain the results:

“Vegetarian diets appeared to have significant benefits on weight reduction compared to non-vegetarian diets.

Further long-term trials are needed to investigate the effects of vegetarian diets on body weight control.”

Another study has found that vegetarian diets can double weight loss.

The study was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine (Huang et al., 2019).

A weight loss drink that is very easy to incorporate in the daily routine.

Drinking a low-sodium vegetable juice can quadruple weight loss, research shows.

People in the study who drank one or two glasses of vegetable juice each day lost four times as much weight while dieting.

A vegetable juice could be a simple way for people to boost their intake of essential nutrients and increase weight loss.

Vegetables help with dieting because they are low in energy-density.

This means they tend to make people feel fuller and they contain more nutrients, but without containing as many calories.

Dr John Foreyt, study co-author, said:

“Making vegetable consumption easy is critical because it has so many benefits, from disease prevention to weight management.

We have a lot more work to do in finding ways for people to improve their health, but providing them with something simple like vegetable juice is a step in the right direction.”

Included in the study were 81 overweight people with metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions including high blood sugar, blood pressure, excess body fat and abnormal cholesterol levels.

One group in the study followed the DASH diet and drank one or two servings of vegetable juice daily for 12 weeks.

The results showed that those drinking vegetable juice lost four pounds in comparison to only one pound among people who only did the DASH diet.

People drinking vegetable juice daily also had higher levels of vitamin C and potassium.

Professor Carl Keen, study co-author, said:

“This study suggests that it’s not enough to just educate people on the importance of vegetables, you need to show them ways to easily incorporate them into their daily routine.

What we found was that something as simple as drinking your vegetables can be an effective tool in achieving behavior change.”

The study was published in the Nutrition Journal (Shenoy et al., 2010).

How mental imagery can help you lose weight 8 times faster without dieting or exercise.

Mental imagery can boost weight loss significantly, research finds.

Functional Imagery Training (FIT) enabled people to lose 8 times as much weight as those using an alternate talk therapy.

The technique is designed to help people imagine how good it will feel to lose weight.

The imagery training also helped people lose almost two inches from their waistlines.

Surprisingly, people in the study did no extra exercise, nor did they go on a diet.

The mental imagery was designed simply to increase motivation.

It involves people focusing on how they will look and feel after they lose weight.

Dr Linda Solbrig, who led the study, explained the basics:

“We started with taking people through an exercise about a lemon.

We asked them to imagine seeing it, touching it, juicing it, drinking the juice and juice accidentally squirting in their eye, to emphasise how emotional and tight to our physical sensations imagery is.

From there we are able to encourage them to fully imagine and embrace their own goals.

Not just ‘imagine how good it would be to lose weight’ but, for example, ‘what would losing weight enable you to do that you can’t do now? What would that look / sound / smell like?’, and encourage them to use all of their senses.”

There were 141 people in the study who were either given the FIT training or an alternate technique called Motivational Interviewing.

The results revealed that after six months people in the FIT group lost 9 pounds in contrast to just 1.5 pounds in the comparison group.

One year later, people in the FIT group had lost 13 pounds, compared with only 1.5 pounds in the Motivational Interviewing group.

Dr Solbrig explained:

“Most people agree that in order to lose weight, you need to eat less and exercise more, but in many cases, people simply aren’t motivated enough to heed this advice—however much they might agree with it.

So FIT comes in with the key aim of encouraging someone to come up with their own imagery of what change might look and feel like to them, how it might be achieved and kept up, even when challenges arise.”

The study was published in the International Journal of Obesity (Solbrig et al., 2018).

Up to 40 percent of the population have a vitamin D deficiency.

Taking vitamin D supplements is linked to losing four times as much weight, research finds.

People who took a vitamin D supplement also doubled the number of inches by which they reduced their waistlines.

As many as 40 percent of the population have a vitamin D deficiency.

A deficiency in this vitamin has been linked to increased inflammation the body.

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.

Being deficient in vitamin D is repeatedly linked to being overweight and obese.

The conclusions come from a study of 400 obese and overweight people, all of whom had a vitamin D deficiency.

All were put on a low-calorie diet, but they were split into three groups, with each given different amounts of vitamin D supplementation.

One had none, another had 3,000 IU per day and the remainder had 800 IU per day.

After six months, the results showed that those taking the highest amount of 3,000 per day had lost 12 pounds.

Those taking 800 IU per day had lost 8 pounds and those taking none lost just 2.6 pounds.

The study’s authors explain the results:

“The present data indicate that in obese and overweight people with vitamin D deficiency, vitamin D supplementation aids weight loss and enhances the beneficial effects of a reduced-calorie diet.”

The results also revealed that vitamin D helped people lose more from their waistlines.

The group taking 3,000 IU per day lost two inches in comparison to just 1 inch in the control group.

The researchers conclude:

“All people affected by obesity should have their levels of vitamin D tested to see if they are deficient, and if so, begin taking supplements.”

The study was presented at the European Congress on Obesity, 2015 (Vigna et al., 2015).

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).

A natural supplement for weight loss that is found in many healthy foods.

Taking certain supplements has been shown by research to increase weight loss.

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

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

The natural fibre works by reducing appetite.

It has a creamy consistency and is sometimes used in the food industry as a substitute for fat.

Inulin is low in calories, high in fibre and it can improve the health of the digestion.

Researchers repeatedly find that an increase in fibre intake can help with weight loss.

A recent study on mice fed them either a high-fat diet on its own or a high-fat diet with a fibre supplement.

After four weeks on this regime, the results showed that inulin — the fibre supplement — reduced obesity resulting from weight gain.

The size of fat cells was also reduced by supplementation with inulin.

Dr. Andrew Gewirtz, study co-author, said:

“We found that manipulating dietary fiber content, particularly by adding fermentable fiber, guards against metabolic syndrome.

This study revealed the specific mechanism used to restore gut health and suppress obesity and metabolic syndrome is the induction of IL-22 expression.

These results contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms that underlie diet-induced obesity and offer insight into how fermentable fibers might promote better health.”

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of problems including excess belly fat, high blood pressure and low levels of ‘good’ cholesterol.

Inulin also reduced bad cholesterol levels and helped to keep blood sugar more stable.

The balance of the microbes in the gut was restored by taking inulin.

The study was published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe (Zou et al., 2018).

As NAFLD treatments are limited, scientists looked into whether diet and exercise can improve patients’ lives.

Five days a week of alternate-day fasting along with exercise for three months is a good treatment for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a study reveals.

Nutrition researchers compared the effects of fasting or exercise alone with alternate day fasting and exercise.

Patients with NAFLD who were also obese saw significant improvements in their health after following a 3-month alternate-day fasting diet with moderate-intensity aerobic exercise.

Their diet plan consisted of 500 calories a day and eating with no restrictions next day along with five hours aerobic exercise every week.

Participants experienced reductions in weight and waist circumference, improvements in insulin sensitivity, reduced fat in the liver, and decreased alanine transaminase (an enzyme in the liver and a marker of liver damage) levels.

Warning signs of NAFLD

Accumulation of fat in the liver can cause non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition seen in overweight or obese people.

NAFLD is not caused by alcohol, but if untreated could lead to cirrhosis resembling the liver damage from too much drinking.

NAFLD patients are more likely to develop insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, also many obese adults have this condition.

The condition if not treated can lead to more serious issues such as inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and liver failure.

The warning signs appear when it progresses to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) or fibrosis in which the liver has become inflamed.

A person with NASH may feel:

• extremely tired,
• fatigued,
• a pain in the top-right of the belly over the lower-right side of the ribs,
• and losing weight for no reason.

Diet and exercise

As NAFLD treatments are limited, scientists looked into whether diet and exercise can improve patients’ lives.

Professor Krista Varady, the study’s co-author, said:

“When we compared the results of our study groups, we saw clearly that the most improved patients were in the group that followed the alternate-day fasting diet and exercised five days a week.

The people who only dieted or only exercised did not see the same improvements, which reinforces the importance of these two relatively inexpensive lifestyle modifications on overall health and on combating chronic diseases like fatty liver disease.”

The authors highlighted:

“Our findings also indicate that the combination intervention was effective for reducing body weight, fat mass, waist circumference, ALT, fasting insulin, insulin resistance, and increasing insulin sensitivity, among patients with obesity and NAFLD, versus controls.”

Avoiding drug side-effects

Besides improvements of metabolic indicators, alternate day fasting and exercise appeared to be safe thus the authors think it is a good option for those who want to overcome NAFLD without taking drugs that have side-effects.

Professor Varady said:

“Alternate-day fasting and exercise interventions can be difficult for people to stick to and in prior studies we have seen significant dropout.

It was very interesting to see that in this trial we had very high adherence to the interventions.”

Foods and beverages containing alcohol or sugar can aggravate the condition, so the advice is to limit intake.

Related

• Drinking any type of coffee — no matter if it is caffeinated or decaf, instant or ground coffee — has been linked to lowering the odds of liver disease and related liver problems.
• The Mediterranean diet has been shown to protect subjects from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism (Ezpeleta et al., 2022).

A weight loss fruit that makes you feel full, improves your gut health, and reduces absorption of fats.

Having an avocado every day as part of your diet increases healthy gut bacteria and reduce the absorption of fat.

The fruit is rich in fibre and monounsaturated fat, a healthy fat that lowers “bad” LDL cholesterol in the blood.

A study has found that people who eat avocados have higher levels of the gut microbes responsible for breaking down fibres and producing a number of metabolites (short-chain fatty acids) that improve gut health.

Ms Sharon Thompson, the study’s first author, said:

“We know eating avocados helps you feel full and reduces blood cholesterol concentration, but we did not know how it influences the gut microbes, and the metabolites the microbes produce.

Microbial metabolites are compounds the microbes produce that influence health.

Avocado consumption reduced bile acids and increased short chain fatty acids.

These changes correlate with beneficial health outcomes.”

Bile acids are produced by the liver, stored in the gallbladder, and released into the intestine for breaking down fats from foods we eat.

Western diets are higher in fats causing more production of bile acids which can alert the gut microbiota population and cause intestinal inflammation.

The study recruited 163 overweight or obese participants and divided them into two groups, both receiving a normal diet.

The only difference was that one ate fresh avocados (175 g for men or 140 g for women) as part of a meal every day for 12 weeks and the other group had a similar diet but no avocados.

Dr Hannah Holscher, study co-author, said:

“Our goal was to test the hypothesis that the fats and the fiber in avocados positively affect the gut microbiota.

We also wanted to explore the relationships between gut microbes and health outcomes.

Despite avocados being high in fat, the avocado group absorbed less fat compared to the other group.

Dr Holscher said:

“Greater fat excretion means the research participants were absorbing less energy from the foods that they were eating.

This was likely because of reductions in bile acids, which are molecules our digestion system secretes that allow us to absorb fat.

We found that the amount of bile acids in stool was lower and the amount of fat in the stool was higher in the avocado group.”

Types of fats found in foods affect the gut microbiome differently, for example, avocados contain monounsaturated fats which are considered heart-healthy.

On top of that, avocados are high in soluble fibre: an average avocado contains 12 g of fibres which is a big portion of the daily recommended fibre intake (28 to 34 g).

Dr Holscher said:

“Less than 5% of Americans eat enough fiber.

Most people consume around 12 to 16 grams of fiber per day.

Thus, incorporating avocados in your diet can help get you closer to meeting the fiber recommendation.

Eating fiber isn’t just good for us; it’s important for the microbiome, too.

We can’t break down dietary fibers, but certain gut microbes can.

When we consume dietary fiber, it’s a win-win for gut microbes and for us.”

People shouldn’t worry that avocados are high in calories as it is more important that it is a nutrient-dense food that contains micronutrients like fibre and potassium that we don’t get enough of.

Related

• Avocados contain a fat molecule that could help prevent diabetes and maintain a healthy weight.

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

Reduce your belly fat 10 percent with a half cup of this food.

Lowering sugar consumption by about one can of soda and adding one half-cup of fibre-rich foods daily reduces abdominal fat and type 2 diabetes risk.

A study has found that decreasing about 47 grams of sugar intake per day — equivalent to a can of soda — lowers insulin secretion, on average, by 33 percent.

Increasing fibre intake by 5 grams a day — the amount in a half cup of beans — results in a 10 percent reduction of belly fat.

Visceral fat is a type of body fat stored within the abdominal area and internal organs.

This type of fat causes abdominal obesity and is also associated with several health problems, like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

Dr Emily Ventura and colleagues conducted a 16-week study on overweight Latino adolescents who were between 12 to 19 years old.

They tested if increasing fiber consumption and decreasing sugar intake have an effect on type 2 diabetes risk factors.

The study’s authors wrote:

“A reduction in visceral fat indicates a reduction in risk for type 2 diabetes, considering that to a greater degree than total body fat, visceral fat [fat surrounding the internal organs] has been shown to be negatively associated with insulin sensitivity.”

Those who increased fiber intake had a significant reduction in body mass index (-2 percent vs. 2 percent) and visceral adipose tissue (-10 percent vs. no change) compared with those who decreased fiber intake.”

Being overweight or obese are serious issues affecting adults and children around the world.

The World Health Organization reports that in 2016 over 1.9 billion adults were overweight and more than 650 million adults were obese.

The authors of this study wrote:

“Our results suggest that intensive interventions may not be necessary to achieve modifications in sugar and fiber intake.

Accordingly, nutritional guidance given in the primary care or community setting may be sufficient to promote the suggested dietary changes in some individuals.

In addition, policies that promote reduced intake of added sugar and increased intake of fiber could be effective public health strategies for the prevention of type 2 diabetes in this high-risk population.”

The study was published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (Ventura et al., 2009).

A glass of this drink a day can double weight loss.

Drinking a glass of fat-free milk each day can double weight loss, research finds.

People sometimes steer clear of dairy because they believe it is fattening — actually, the reverse may be true.

Milk contains both vitamin D and calcium, which have both been linked to weight loss.

About 50 percent of people are deficient in vitamin D and around 50 percent of obese people have a calcium deficiency.

Low calcium levels may prompt the brain to increase food intake to get more of this mineral.

One study tested the effects of drinking milk after weight-lifting.

Twenty women carried out resistance training, then drank either a sugary sports drink or a pint of fat-free milk.

Professor Stu Phillips, study co-author, said:

“Resistance training is not a typical choice of exercise for women.

But the health benefits of resistance training are enormous: It boosts strength, bone, muscular and metabolic health in a way that other types of exercise cannot.”

The results of the study showed that milk increased muscle mass and reduced fat.

A previous study has shown the same positive effect of milk on men’s muscles and body fat.

Professor Phillips said:

“We expected the gains in muscle mass to be greater, but the size of the fat loss surprised us.

We’re still not sure what causes this but we’re investigating that now.

It could be the combination of calcium, high-quality protein, and vitamin D may be the key, and, conveniently, all of these nutrients are in milk.”

Although they put on muscle, the women did not gain weight, Professor Phillips said:

“The women who drank milk gained barely any weight because what they gained in lean muscle they balanced out with a loss in fat.

Our data show that simple things like regular weightlifting exercise and milk consumption work to substantially improve women’s body composition and health.”

The study was published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise (Josse et al., 2010).