Dieters who write down everything they eat each day lose twice as much weight as those who don’t, according to one of the largest weight-loss studies ever conducted.
Scientists at four clinical research centers recruited 1,685 overweight or obese adults who weighed an average 212 pounds.
The participants were offered 20 weekly group sessions led by nutritionists and behavior counselors and encouraged to try to lose
at least 9 pounds in six months. They were told to consume about 500 fewer calories a day, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, do
about 180 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week, and keep daily food and exercise records.
Dieters who kept their food diary six or more days a week lost an average of about 18 pounds in six months, compared with about 9 pounds for those who didn’t keep food diaries.
I encourage you to keep a log of exactly what you are eating on a daily basis for the first couple of weeks after starting a fat loss
program. It truly is eye opening for many people! However, it can become distracting after a while, especially when you are
on-the-go. Once you have a consistent menu mapped out, it is not as critical to continue to log everything. But if you find that it
makes you more accountable, then by all means, keep writing it down!
For a fat loss diet that includes an easy-to-use diary to track your food intake, check out my plan The Burrito Diet!
A recent study by the Endocrine Society found that men and women with higher vitamin D levels experienced a greater amount of weight loss when dieting compared to those with lower levels. Study participants were put on a reduced-calorie diet for eleven weeks. The researchers found a linear relationship between baseline vitamin D levels and weight loss.
“Plasma vitamin D predicts subsequent weight loss, suggesting a potential role for vitamin D in promotion of weight loss, perhaps through effects on adipose metabolism,” the study’s authors conclude in their abstract about their findings.
Vitamin D can be obtained from sun exposure, foods (fatty fish such as salmon) and supplements.
Olive oil has been king-of-the-oils for a while, but coconut oil may be a better choice for fat burning. Coconut oil is made up of more than 50 percent of medium-chain triacylglycerol (MCT), a fatty acid that increases fat oxidation, thus enhancing weight loss, according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers had test subjects use 4 to 5 teaspoons of MCT oil or olive oil each day for 16 weeks. The MCT group lost four more pounds than the olive oil group.
Here is a list of just a few of the craziest things I’ve done before stepping on a scale as I tried desperately to lose weight…until I figured out that scale weight is not as important as body fat and measurements. Tell me some of the things that you’ve done in an all-out attempt to keep the needle moving and keep yourself motivated!
- Cut my fingernails and toenails
- Blew my nose and/or use a neti pot
- Cleaned the wax out of my ears
- Got a haircut
- Shaved off all or parts of my body hair
- Took an enema (yes, unfortunately!)
- Drank magnesium citrate – an entire 10oz bottle
- Blew all of the air out of my lungs
- Spit saliva in the sink for a half-hour
- Sat fully clothed in a sauna until I got dizzy
- Drank a colon cleanser – double or triple the recommended dosage!
