The New York Times has published two articles lately that that highlight the importance of preventing obesity before it takes hold. The first article: Contestants on “The Biggest Loser” ended up with slower metabolisms after losing weight than they had before losing weight. And, their metabolisms never rebounded. The result? participants regained 70{7920e18cf5186565893a18d1f69fa52bf2806dc683a7bfcea51d671d2f7d8125} of their lost weight. The second article: The problem is not willpower. It’s neuroscience. Your brain figures out your body set point, based on genes and life experience, and then works hard to keep you at that weight. Obese people who exercise, eat enough vegetables and don’t smoke are no more likely to die young than normal-weight people with the same habits. Source: kondratya /depositphotos.com 1) There may be no more important …
Why you should always serve unhealthy snacks in a small bowl
It is often stated that the accumulation of excess body weight is a simple matter of energy intake exceeding energy expenditure. While this notion is certainly correct, it does not account for the myriad of factors that drive one to consume more calories than necessary. Take for example the size of a bowl from which you eat your snacks. Could this simple factor play a role in the number of calories you may consume? Back in 2005, Wansink and Cheney performed a wonderfully simple study and found that when snacks are offered in a large bowl, people take 53{7920e18cf5186565893a18d1f69fa52bf2806dc683a7bfcea51d671d2f7d8125} more food (146 extra calories) and eat 56{7920e18cf5186565893a18d1f69fa52bf2806dc683a7bfcea51d671d2f7d8125} (142 calories) more than when offered the same amount of food but in a smaller bowl (roughly half the size of …
Drinking water prior to meals may help weight-loss
It has often been recommended in popular weight-loss programs that overweight and obese individuals hoping to shed unwanted pounds should drink more water. As is often the case, the evidence base behind this recommendation was rather scant. Fortunately, a study published in the journal Obesity suggests the recommendation may be quite sound. In the study, Dennis and colleagues randomized overweight/obese older men and women to either a hypocaloric diet alone or a hypocaloric diet plus increased water consumption for a duration of 12 weeks. The hypocaloric diet consisted of 1200 calories for the women and 1500 calories for the men. Those in the diet + increased water group were required to consume 500 ml of water (2 cups) 30 minutes prior to each of the 3 large daily meals (breakfast, lunch, …