New research has revealed the secret to achieving significant weight loss by changing the way you eat, but not the quantities.
The study was conducted by the Stanford Prevention Research Centre through $8 million in funding. Results showed significant weight loss over the course of a year for its 600 participants by removing sugar, refined grains and highly processed foods from their diets and having participants concentrate on eating lots of vegetables and whole foods.
The research which was published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association and found that one year of focusing on food quality, not calories, resulted in substantial weight loss. The two control groups, one low-fat and one low-carb lost a combined 3300kg over the year, averaging 5.5kg per participant. The low-carb group on average lost slightly more than the low-fat group, but both achieved amazing results.
The research has also revealed that the success of this study did not appear to be influenced by genetics or insulin-response to carbohydrates and that neither counting calories or limiting portion sizes was a factor in the results. Participants were encouraged to meet federal guidelines for physical activity but did not generally increase the levels of exercise throughout the study period.
The message to come out of the research was that diet quality, not quantity, helps people lose and manage weight. Not only did both groups lose weight, they saw improvements in other health markers such as waist sizes, blood-sugar and blood-pressure levels and of course body fat.
The low-carb group ate nutritious foods such as vegetables, nut butters, nuts, seeds, hard cheeses, salmon, avocados, olive oil and grass-fed/pasture-raised animal foods.
The low-fat group ate foods such as fresh fruit, lean meats, low-fat dairy products, brown rice, barley, legumes and steel-cut oats.
What do you think? Could you adjust your eating habits?
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