Simple Tips for Losing Weight Naturally

Researchers at the University of Utah supplied unwary restaurant diners at a local Italian restaurant with either a small or a large fork, and then weighed the abandoned plate after each diner finished eating to see how much food was left uneaten. Diners who were given smaller forks ate more of their meal, on average, than those who had been given big forks.

Why would you eat more when using a smaller fork? The researchers explained that people go to restaurants intending to eat a lot (to get their money’s worth?). Shoveling large amounts of food into your mouth with a big fork helps you feel that you are reaching that goal sooner. As good scientists will often do, they then repeated the experiment, in a lab. The results this time around were different: those with the bigger forks ate more. Apparently, people don’t go to laboratories with the same intentions.

So what’s the take-home message? Don’t take any one scientific study too seriously, and don’t rely on a big fork to help you eat less, at least not at home.

To learn more about the study, read the TIME magazine article on eating less with a big fork.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: Avoid restaurants. Make your own meals. Pay no attention to your fork.

Researchers at the University of Missouri used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of overweight adolescent girls who habitually skipped breakfast. Each girl underwent a brain scan after skipping breakfast for several days, after eating a “normal” breakfast for several days, and again after eating a “high protein” breakfast for several days. The brain scans were conducted three hours after breakfast time in each case. The normal breakfast consisted of cereal and milk. The high protein breakfast consisted of Belgium waffles, syrup, and yogurt. Neural activity in parts of the brain associated with appetite was lower following the normal breakfast, and lower still following the high-protein breakfast.

To learn more about the study, read the article on breakfast, protein, and cravings at the University of Missouri’s news site.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: Add eggs, yogurt, meat, beans, or other protein source to your breakfast so that it will keep you satisfied longer. If you don’t have time for breakfast in the morning, try preparing it the night before. It doesn’t have to be complicated: a boiled egg or yogurt with fruit might be a substantial improvement over what you are currently doing.

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Researchers at Harvard University conducted a study in which they monitored the weight and habits of 120,877 adults over a 20-year period. The study revealed that potato-based foods caused more weight gain than any other food category, with potato chips the main offender. Consumption of other vegetables was associated with weight loss.

To learn more about the study, read the New England Journal of Medicine paper on diet, lifestyle, and long-term weight gain.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: Think outside the potato. Try snacking on colored vegetables, and include more of those in meals as well.

Researchers at Imperial College London used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of 20 subjects while they looked at pictures of high-calorie (cake, chocolate, and pizza) and low-calorie (salad, vegetables, and fish) foods. The brain scans were done twice: 90 minutes after the subjects had eaten breakfast, and again at the same time on a day that the subjects had skipped breakfast.

Brain scans conducted on subjects who had skipped breakfast showed significantly greater activation of the brain’s “reward” centers while the subjects viewed the high-calorie foods. Brain scans conducted after subjects had eaten breakfast showed no significant difference in reward center activation between high-calorie and low-calorie foods.

To learn more about the study, read the Endocrine Society‘s article on fasting and cravings.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: To reduce your food temptations, take time in the morning to eat a good breakfast, then plan a healthy lunch and dinner while you are still feeling satisfied.

Researchers at Kaiser Permanente measured correlations of weight loss with stress, sleep, and other lifestyle factors in 500 study participants. Participants were asked to lose at least 10 pounds over a period of six months, and were instructed in nutrition and exercise as part of a weekly class. They were also asked to record their stress levels and report how much they slept. Participants who reported low stress levels and slept between 6 and 8 hours per night were most successful at losing weight.

To learn more about the study, read the article on sleep, stress, and weight loss at Science Daily.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: Take the time to think about your daily schedule. Are you trying to do too much. Does your work, television viewing, or play keep you up late? Do you need help reducing your stress levels. Decide on one or two things that you can do to reduce your stress or improve your sleep, and start doing them today.

Researchers at the University of Colorado (Denver) conducted a study to investigate the long-term effects of liposuction on body fat. They tracked 14 liposuction patients for a year after their surgeries. They found that the fat returned, although to a different part of the body; it had been removed from the thighs and returned to the belly area. They reported their results in an article called “Fat Redistribution Following Suction Lipectomy: Defense of Body Fat and Patterns of Restoration” in the scientific journal Obesity.

Although the results of the study may seem surprising at first, they are expected from basic weight loss principles. Body fat accumulates when more calories are eaten than are burned through basic metabolism and physical and mental activity. This is a biological expression of the principle of physics known as the law of conservation of mass and energy. You can’t destroy energy (also known as calories). It’s got to go somewhere. If you eat it, you then have to either burn it (through metabolism or exercise) or store it (as fat). There’s no way to get around this law. Good genes, bad genes, and even hormone imbalances must obey this law, and scientific studies have shown that genes and hormones affect body weight mostly by affecting behavior. Some affect your appetite, while others make you either more or less inclined toward physical activity. Some affect basic rates of metabolism, but those effects are usually too small to be serious obstacles to weight loss.

But that’s a topic for a different post. Back to the liposuction. Surgical removal of fat would not normally affect your eating habits, inclination to exercise, or metabolism. If these are out of balance, you will continue to gain weight, and soon be back to where you were before the surgery.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: Don’t waste time looking for shortcuts. Focus instead on getting on the right side of basic weight loss principles. That’s what natural weight loss is about, and that’s why, if you lose weight naturally, you will be more likely to keep the weight off. Natural, lasting weight loss requires changing habits, not paying for a procedure.

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In a study of eating and sleeping habits of 51 adults, researchers at Northwestern University found that those who habitually went to bed late and slept late into the morning ate about 250 calories more per day than did those on a more normal sleep schedule.

The extra calories were largely due to consumption of twice as much fast food and half as many fruits and vegetables as were eaten by the normal sleepers. Late sleepers also drank more sugary drinks. The extra calories tended to be eaten after normal sleepers were already in bed.

To learn more about the study, read the article on sleeping late and weight gain at Northwestern University’s news site.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: Get to bed at a reasonable time. If you do plan on staying up late, have some fruits and vegetables handy to snack on.

According to a study on the effects of red pepper on thermogenesis and appetite by scientists at Purdue University, 1 gram of red pepper eaten with a meal can not only suppress appetite but also cause the body to heat up (thermogenesis), burning calories in the process. Is this the new miracle food for natural weight loss?

Not quite.

First, the suppressing effect on appetite was significant in participants who were non-users (did not usually eat red pepper), but not in habitual users. This suggests that if you decide to use red pepper as an appetite suppressant, it may only work until you become accustomed to eating red pepper. The effect of red pepper on both appetite suppression and thermogenesis is apparently mediated by the burn in your mouth, so taking it in capsule form would not be expected to have as much effect.

Second, the effective dose in this study was 1 gram. This was about three times greater than the amount of red pepper participants who were non-users “preferred” on their food.

Bottom line. Adding red pepper to your food might help suppress your appetite and burn calories, unless, of course, you happen to like red pepper, in which case it probably won’t help you much.

You can read more about the study at Science Daily.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: Add some red pepper to your food. It can’t hurt, and might help you lose weight naturally; but don’t cancel your gym membership just yet.

Is sugar toxic? In a recent New York Times article entitled “Is Sugar Toxic,” author Gary Taubes suggests that sugar is not only the primary ingredient behind the obesity epidemic, but also that it independently contributes to risks of high blood pressure, heart disease, and many cancers. Fructose, he says, is the big problem because of how it is handled by the liver relative to other sugars. Many people get their fructose primarily from the high fructose corn syrup in sweetened beverages and other junk food, but it also occurs naturally in most fruits. The article has ignited plenty of controversy, and Gary Taubes has responded to many readers’ comments about his article on a New York Times blog post. In an LA Times post,  Dr. Gerard Mullin, a nutrition expert at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, provides some independent analysis of Taubes’ article. 

According to Dr. Mullin and most nutritionists, the fructose in fruit is not usually a problem. Fiber in the fruit slows the digestion of the sugar, reducing its potential for harm in the liver and blood stream. Sugar added to drinks, on the other hand, can be consumed quickly and in large quantities. This sudden burst of sugar can not only lead to fatty liver, but can also quickly exceed your daily calorie requirements, making weight loss goals extremely difficult to achieve. Most other sweets don’t produce quite the burst of calories that sugary drinks do, but they can be eaten and digested quite quickly, and are often eaten in large quantities (compared to fruit and other natural foods), so they also tend to provide more than their share of calories. 

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: If you drink anything with added sugar, consider replacing it with something a little more natural. Perhaps water? It is completely natural and no calories. But you like the sweetness? Try fruit. Changing an eating happen can be difficult, especially for the first few days, so here’s another tip. Make a goal to give up sugary drinks for two weeks, and then see how you feel. It could be the start of something good.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University conducted an experiment involving three groups of undergraduate students. Each group was told to imagine doing a task. The tasks to be imagined were as follows:

• Group 1 – Insert 30 quarters into a laundry machine, and then eat 3 M&Ms.
• Group 2 – Insert 3 quarters into a laundry machine, and then eat 30 M&Ms.
• Group 3 – Insert 33 quarters into a laundry machine.

After completing their assigned visualizations, the participants were allowed to eat as much as they wanted from a bowl of real M&Ms. Those who had imagined eating 30 M&Ms ate an average of only 3 real M&Ms from the bowl, while participants from the other two groups ate an average of 5.

The researchers then conducted a follow-up experiment in which participants were asked to imagine either eating 3 or 30 M&Ms or transferring the same number of M&Ms from one bowl to another. The participants were then allowed to eat as many real M&Ms as they liked. Consistent with the first experiment, participants who had imagined eating 30 M&Ms subsequently ate fewer real M&Ms than those who had imagined eating only 3. Participants who imagined transferring 30 M&Ms from one bowl to another, however, subsequently ate more real M&Ms than those who had imagined moving only 3. While the M&M cravings of the first group were dampened, the cravings of the second group were intensified.

The study was published in the December 10 issue of Science. Time has an insightful review discussing this study in a broader context of food and drug addictions.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: To calm a food craving naturally, imagine eating large amounts of the craved food. Continue your visualization for several minutes, or until you feel the craving subside.