We can all agree that losing excess weight is good for us…although we often disagree on which diet plan is the right one, the best way to lose those unwanted pounds. It seems that counting calories to lose weight is the best way.
Many times people take drastic measures to get results when all you really need to do is make small, lasting changes to what you eat and how active you are. According to intriguing new weight loss research, the diet plan may not matter at all… being able to stick to the one you choose is the key to losing weight.
A new study finds that where your calories come from doesn’t seem to matter in the same way as just reducing the amount you eat each day.
The researchers are convinced that any plan that does this will pay off…in the end, it’s really about consuming fewer calories more than anything else.
The best way to lose weight is to stick to the plan… those subjects who followed the diet more closely lost more weight compared to those who didn’t. The research team randomly assigned a few hundred people who were overweight or obese to one of four different diets, each of which cut 750 calories per day from their daily intake.
The plans used were:
1) average protein, low fat and high carb
2) high in protein, low in fat and high in carbohydrates
3) average protein, high fat and low carb
4) high in protein, high in fat and low in carbohydrates.
At six months and two years, the research team checked the subjects’ weight, fat, and lean mass. After 6 months, the subjects had lost more than 4.1 kg of fat and almost 2.3 kg of lean muscle mass, but had regained some of this at 2 years.
Subjects were able to maintain over 3.6kg after two years, and along with this came a loss of 1.4kg of abdominal fat, which was a drop of over 7% from where they started.
The problem was that many of the subjects who started the study did not finish, and the diet plans of those who finished the research were not exactly what they were assigned. All groups ended up with around 20% of their calorie intake coming from protein, despite researchers’ plans to the contrary. This showed the team that whether you like to lose using a low-fat or low-carb plan didn’t really matter.
The difficulty the subjects had in sticking with the study is certainly an issue, and highlights how truly difficult it is to make the changes necessary to lose weight. It’s not an easy thing to do…it takes determination and a healthy dose of willpower, but it can be done if you focus on eating fewer calories than your body uses each day.
Remember, a pound of fat has almost 3,500 calories. To lose this in one week, you must eat 500 fewer calories over the next seven days, or you must burn the same number of calories with exercise. You may decide to reduce your calorie intake by 250 and increase your activity level to get the other 250; any combination is fine. Most weight loss experts will suggest losing around 2 pounds per week, either by counting calories for weight loss or another method, as more than this is an indication that you are losing water weight and lean muscle mass rather than fat. of fat.
