jaxgtr

Now I don't intend for this to become flame bait, so try an keep it on topic or it will be closed.

https://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/360/9/859

A New England Journal of Medicine article published today discussed a major study that took place for two years on 811 overweight people placed on four diets--low carb, high carb, low protein and high protein--and all lost weight. What they ate didn't matter. Portion control and tracking calories helped them.

By the end of those two years, study participants lost an average of nine pounds and two inches off their waists. Not a huge thing, but this is an avg of all the participants.

According to the study:
"At 6 months, participants assigned to each diet had lost an average of 6 kg (13.2 pounds), which represented 7% of their initial weight; they began to regain weight after 12 months."

The study was conducted in Baton Rouge, La., at Pennington Biomedical Research Center and in Boston at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and it ended in December 2007. Most participants ate between 1,400 and 2,000 calories a day, depending on the diet they followed and their activity level. Each diet was designed to create a deficit of 750 calories per day. The diets were high in fiber and low in calories and saturated fat. Participants also were required to exercise 90 minutes a week.

This major study supports what most of us already knew: "Diets" that restrict certain foods don't work! The key to losing weight and keeping it off is moderation, coupled with portion control and tracking calories. The secret to success, they said, was tracking food.

Those who had reached their goal weight or those who had lost lots of weight were much more likely to track their food. Of those who met their goals, 46% track their food every day, another 17.9% track most days, and about 5% track several times per week. Our members who have lost 100 pounds or more tracked even more frequently. About 55.5% tracked food daily, 22.6% tracked most days, and about 5% tracked food several times per week. In contrast, of those who reported "being stuck" and not meeting their goals, only 17% tracked their food daily, 25% tracked most days, and 12% kept track several times a week.

No food combining, no low-carbing, no giving up your favorite foods, no special foods or food restrictions--just eat what you want and still lose weight. Eh, not sure if I buy into this last one, but many of us have loss weight by practicing moderation and tracking portions.

So keep it up people, I know I have lost 30 lbs since Oct 15 by tracking my food daily, so it works for me.

deraltekluge

Sure...eat what you want, just not the amount that you want. If you consume more calories than you burn, you gain weight. If you burn more calories than you consume, you lose weight.

jaxgtr

true, but if all you eat is a 6 pack of chicken nugget instead of 10, fried food and sugary cereal, how healthy is that?

jferna

not very healthy at all, but you still might lose weight...

Mazama

Portion control and consuming fewer calories than you burn is key, but you have to also consider nutrition. Could I live off a 2,000 calorie diet of corn chips and beer?

When I was tracking my calories I would get upset that I had to count those apples, bananas, berries, oranges and vegetables. I wanted more calories to go towards junk food.

jaxgtr

Haha, don't we all.

bautieri

So where is the flame bait in this?

I got my popcorn and flame ******ant suit ready for nothing...Ah well, plenty of popcorn if anyone would like to share.

flip18436572

You can lose weight by keeping the calories low, but it is better to keep the calories scattered throughout all of the food groups. I wish I could make myself be a vegetarian, but I really like spicy italian sausage and other meats done that way (spicy). I am liking a lot of veggies, but really not enough.

baron von trail 

I am not a paid expert, but I have well over 45 years of experience in the field. The problem is that we have too much easy access to high-calorie, fatty foods while living basically sedentary lifestyles. The only real solution is to change the lifestyle and eat less high-calorie, fatty foods.

Jack Lalanne may be a good role model for us on this. His motto is, "If man made, I don't eat it." The man exercises 3 hours each day. He is also 94 years old and still going strong.

evblazer

I can't have that popcorn just think of what that butter will do to me!!! You you.. saboteur!

hm... a medium is 910 calories.. 71 grams of fat (41 grams saturated)

Got any natural popcorn?

Longfemur

That study just confirms what has already been known for years by most people who aren't out to market you something. Maybe it will help to kill that useless prepared diet foods industry, Marie Osmond notwithstanding. It's still all about calories in versus calories out. It doesn't matter what the calories come in as far as weight loss goes, but of course, it does matter what foods you eat for other health reasons. So you can't just keep eating chips and soft drinks.

evblazer

I bet you'd melt away to nothing in no time _if_ you could keep the calories low enough on that diet plus it would be really cheap

bautieri

Sorry, no natural popcorn. It was airpopped and seasoned with Old Bay instead of butter so have a handful or two!

rsyb

Something that always seems get lost in all this is that these changes in your eating habits to initially lose weight have to be made permanently in your lifestyle.

Once you get to a proper/desirable weight you can't go back to eating crap again and keep weight off!

baron von trail 

Happens to us all. The key is not to give up.

I think the best way to not give up is to have a hobby (sport) like cycling. That way, when the weight begins coming back, we notice it right away and are motivated to shed it. I know that for myself, the added poundage is a hinderance to performance and causes a problem with riding comfort.

Sub-Clydes appear to sit much more comfortably on their bikes, whereas we sort of resemble ducks on a junebug.

Hill-Pumper

...are you saying we look something like this?



Sorry, I just wanted to play with my photo editing program.

</intolerance>

I've always thought portion control is the biggest issue. Take the French, they eat pretty fat food, but they eat smaller portions of it and tend to be a little more active.

When we go out to dinner here in the U.S. you get enough food for 2-4 people and because you don't want to "waste" your money, you eat it all.

My wife and I have done a few things to take that out of the equation.
1) We stopped going out to eat as often. Max 1 time a week.
2) When we do go out to eat my wife and I either share it or ask the server to put half of it in a to go box before they even bring out our food.

I REALLY wish it would become national law to have the nutritional information listed next to each menu item. I think everyone would be in for a huge shock.

Fantasminha

Yeah--hubby and I always share a dish when we go out. If one is not enough for us (it almost always is) then we will also get an appetizer or dessert. It's a great way to have a meal from start to finish without feeling like you just ate a bag of concrete.

jaxgtr

Yep, agree on the portion size. All those years of my Mom telling me to clean my plate and don't waste food. Oy!

w00die

That is the thing. Too many people associate being over weight with being unhealthy and then also think that just because someone is thin they are healthy. I know tons of skinny people who are very unhealthy and I know many people that are overweight according to the accepted "norms" but are very healthy and eat much better than the skinny folks.

I always do better when I do not abstain from food I want, but make an effort to watch the amounts I eat. Additionally I do well when i make sure I eat several times a day. When i skip meals I end up consuming too many calories and often late at night.

A conscience effort goes a lot farther than rigid rules of denying oneself food, in my opinion.

jaxgtr

One of the ladies I work with is like a size 0, but has all sorts of cholesterol, heart, blood pressure and some other stuff. She is a work out fanatic, but has all these other ailments. Before I started my exercise routine, I went to see the doc and had a physical. I weighed 375, but everything else was perfect. I was shocked. I thought for sure I was going to be taking something. He told me, lose weight, eat better. When I told her what he said, she just looked at me like I had just stolen her last $1 and said that is not fair.

I chuckled and said, I just have better DNA I guess. Since then, I have lost 90 lbs and my health has improved 10 fold. My rest HR is 42, where it was 89 when I started. Outward appearances are quite deceiving.

w00die

That is the truth. Imagine how much better the world would be if people would understand that and quit letting their eyes and preconceived notions rule them.

Neil_B

Thanks for the offer of popcorn, but I'm fat enough, thanks.

The flame potential for this thread is the subject of weight loss itself. That seems to start a lot of arguments around here.

cod.peace

All right then, what's a good calorie tracking website? I've used FitDay in the past but am not too thrilled with it.

jaxgtr

I use SparkPeople and really like it. Much better database and so much easier to use than fitday. It's free as well.

www.sparkpeople.com