Skip to main content

Natural way of losing weight

By Will Dunham
Tue Jul 8, 3:25 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Keeping a food diary -- a detailed account of what you eat and drink and the calories it packs -- is a powerful tool in helping people lose weight, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

The study involving 1,685 middle-aged men and women over six months found those who kept such a diary just about every day lost about twice as much weight as those who did not.

The findings buttressed earlier research that endorsed the value of food diaries in helping people lose weight. Companies including Weight Watchers International Inc use food diaries in their weight-loss programs.

"For those who are working on weight loss, just writing down everything you eat is a pretty powerful technique," Victor Stevens of Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research in Portland said in a telephone interview.

"It helps the participants see where the extra calories are coming from, and then develop more specific plans to deal with those situations," said Stevens, who helped lead the study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The technique also helps hold dieters accountable for what they are eating, Stevens said.

The study involved people from four U.S. cities: Portland, Oregon; Baltimore, Maryland; Durham, North Carolina; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Their average weight loss was about 13 pounds (6 kg). But those keeping food diaries six or seven days a week lost about 18 pounds (8 kg) compared to 9 pounds (4 kg) for those not regularly keeping a food diary.

The average age of people in the study was 55.

They were asked to eat less fat, more vegetables, fruit and whole grains, exercise 180 minutes a week mostly by walking, attend group meetings, and keep a detailed food diary.

Blacks made up 44 percent of the people in the study. The researchers noted that blacks Americans have a higher risk than whites for conditions linked to obesity including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

"Keeping a food diary doesn't have to be a formal thing. Just the act of scribbling down what you eat on a Post-It note, sending yourself e-mails tallying each meal or sending yourself a text message will suffice," Dr. Keith Bachman, another Kaiser Permanente expert, said in a statement.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

13 Qualities Every Leader Should Have

www.menshealth.com Leadership is one tough-to-figure art. That's why the Constitution devotes only a few hundred words to describing the president's job, and fewer still—not one—to the kind of person the chief exec ought to be. But take heart. We've figured out what makes a fellow worth following. Our leader-of-the-free-world specs come without reference to public policy. Great presidents can believe in big government or in small, and they can be born on Park Avenue or among the amber waves. We're fed up with the sneers, with the divisive polemics about who's a slacker because he didn't serve and who's a hero because he did. Mostly, we're impatient with insinuations that liberals don't believe in family and conservatives don't believe in civil rights. Our studies show that millions of people in Massachusetts have values and millions more in Texas have brains. Here are some qualities of mind and heart that will serve our republic well from either
Post a Comment
Read more

You've Been Making Chicken Breasts All Wrong - Here's the Right Way to Do It For Weight Loss

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are a staple for healthy eaters everywhere - they're lean and they're an excellent source of protein, but all too often they're also bone-dry and flavourless. This could lead anyone astray from healthy eating! Fortunately, Disneyland Resort Executive Chef Chris Faulkner has a solution for dried up, unappetising chicken. As a star chef and Ironman triathlete, he knows how to fuel a body in a way that also tastes delicious (read: gourmet sports nutrition!). As Chef Chris told us during our Lunch 'N Learn cooking class at Disneyland, "Cook the breast with the skin on, then take it off to keep the chicken juicier. You'll save calories by removing the skin, but you'll have more flavour and better texture." Don't forget to brine your chicken, too. His recipe: lemon juice, orange juice, salt, peppercorns, thyme, garlic, bay leaf, and sliced lemons, limes, and oranges. Simmer for 20 minutes, then add ice to cool
Post a Comment
Read more

Vitamins A and E: Why are these antioxidants good for you?

Gerontologist Denham Harman, also known as the ‘father of the free radical theory of ageing’, was the first to discover the concept of free radicals in 1954. Free radicals are now suggested as one of the major contributors to ageing. Free radicals are reactive molecules and are involved in disease development. Sources of free radicals include stress, pollution as well as smoking and high alcohol consumption. The need for antioxidants in our daily life is thus crucial due to increased exposure to such free radicals. What are antioxidants? Antioxidants are thought to be able to slow down ageing and thus improve skin health through preventing reactive oxygen species from causing damage to our biological system. This is done by detoxifying these reactive oxygen species and thus be able to repair the resulting damage on proteins, fats, and DNA. Antioxidants are also capable of repairing damaged molecules like your DNA, can promote the destruction of cancer cells, and thus stop canc
Post a Comment
Read more