3 Habits Proven To Aid In Weight Loss
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Would you like to lose weight? Have you been through diets and exercise plans that did not work before and want to spare yourself some of the turmoil? These 3 habits have all been proven through studies to be effective and published in legitimate academic journals. Get the recommendations here!
Health.com suggests…
Cutting back on calories is the cornerstone of any successful weight-loss plan, but as dieters can attest, that’s easier said than done. So it’s encouraging to learn that three simple strategies can provide a boost: Eat regular meals, write down everything you eat, and avoid restaurants and takeout at lunchtime.
These three habits were each linked to greater weight loss in a new study of 123 overweight and obese middle-aged women, all of whom managed to shed at least a few pounds over a one-year period.
Women who reliably ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner lost an average of 11% of their body weight, compared to just 7% among women who skipped meals. (That’s equivalent to a 5-foot, 6-inch woman who weighs 180 pounds losing 20 pounds instead of 13.)
Methodically keeping a food journal was associated with losing roughly 4% more body weight. And women who never ate restaurant lunches lost 3% more body weight than those who did so at least once a week—probably due to super-size restaurant portions and less-than-healthy dishes, the researchers say.
“Knowing what you eat and controlling the portion sizes is key to any weight-loss diet,” says Anne McTiernan, M.D., the senior author of the study and a diet and exercise specialist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in Seattle.
Other behaviors in the study that appeared to boost weight loss included consuming fewer calories from fat and carbohydrates and weighing and measuring food portions.
None of these findings was especially surprising. Doctors and dietitians have long touted the benefits of regular meals, food journals, and home cooking, but the new study is among the first to look at a wide range of weight-loss strategies and quantify which ones are most effective, McTiernan says.
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