Study Spills the Secret to Weight Loss--Surprised?
By: Stepfanie Romine,
SparkPeople Blogger
2/26/2009 4:00 PM
: 130 comments
As it turns out, you can eat whatever you want and still lose weight. You just have to pay attention to the amount you eat. (Sound familiar?)
A major study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine reinforces the SparkPeople philosophy. For two years, 811 overweight people were 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, just as that has helped millions of SparkPeople members.
By the end of those two years, study participants lost an average of nine pounds and two inches off their waists.
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 we (and you, as SparkPeople members) 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.
This month, SparkPeople surveyed 5,499 members and found similar results. We compared members who have met their weight loss goals (or have lost 100 pounds or more) with members who said they've hit a plateau.
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.
Action Sparked: If you've ever doubted that using SparkPeople's personalized Nutrition Tracker would help you lose weight, think again! At SparkPeople, we've always encouraged daily food tracking (and fitness tracking) for people who want to lose weight, and this new study supports what we've been encouraging for years.
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. SparkPeople can help you do exactly that. We allow you to set the rules; we just provide the tools to help support you.
This study isn't news to the millions of people who have lost weight by practicing moderation and tracking portions on SparkPeople.com. Each month, more than two million people utilize SparkPeople's free tools, Community, and resources to get healthier. And every day, our members track more than one million foods on their free Nutrition Trackers, making SparkPeople.com's food tracker the most popular in the world! It works away from home, too: SparkPeople's Nutrition Trackers is available on web-enabled cell phones.
Do you know someone who would be interested in SparkPeople's free food diary and tools? Then Spread the Spark! Email this article by clicking the "Share" button below or post it on your Facebook page.
Need more proof?
Read these Success Stories, written by members who used portion control and the Nutrition Tracker to lose weight and keep it off!
I Thought I'd Always Be Fat
I Never Expected to Inspire Others
After Losing Half Her Weight, Lessie Shares Her Story
What do you think about these findings? Will you share them with others?
A major study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine reinforces the SparkPeople philosophy. For two years, 811 overweight people were 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, just as that has helped millions of SparkPeople members.
By the end of those two years, study participants lost an average of nine pounds and two inches off their waists.
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 we (and you, as SparkPeople members) 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.
This month, SparkPeople surveyed 5,499 members and found similar results. We compared members who have met their weight loss goals (or have lost 100 pounds or more) with members who said they've hit a plateau.
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.
Action Sparked: If you've ever doubted that using SparkPeople's personalized Nutrition Tracker would help you lose weight, think again! At SparkPeople, we've always encouraged daily food tracking (and fitness tracking) for people who want to lose weight, and this new study supports what we've been encouraging for years.
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. SparkPeople can help you do exactly that. We allow you to set the rules; we just provide the tools to help support you.
This study isn't news to the millions of people who have lost weight by practicing moderation and tracking portions on SparkPeople.com. Each month, more than two million people utilize SparkPeople's free tools, Community, and resources to get healthier. And every day, our members track more than one million foods on their free Nutrition Trackers, making SparkPeople.com's food tracker the most popular in the world! It works away from home, too: SparkPeople's Nutrition Trackers is available on web-enabled cell phones.
Do you know someone who would be interested in SparkPeople's free food diary and tools? Then Spread the Spark! Email this article by clicking the "Share" button below or post it on your Facebook page.
Need more proof?
Read these Success Stories, written by members who used portion control and the Nutrition Tracker to lose weight and keep it off!
I Thought I'd Always Be Fat
I Never Expected to Inspire Others
After Losing Half Her Weight, Lessie Shares Her Story
What do you think about these findings? Will you share them with others?
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Comments
I'm not into any restrictive diet except watching how much goes in and how much goes out calorie wise. Obviously, eating a 100 calorie cupcake is not the same as eating 100 kcal of veg or fruit, but one only needs common sense to realise that.
Keeping track is good in the first half of your lifestyle change journey but later yyou have to be able to judge right for yourself. You can't spend your life logging what you eat. You have to be able to make healthy and good choices without the help of pen/paper or the net. And that's the most difficult thing to do. - 5/30/2012 6:47:58 AM
I appreciate the exercise trackers as motivators but its what goes in the mouth for me that really needs continual examination. - 4/5/2012 2:33:11 AM
Uh... that is NOT a healthy strategy when "Weight x 7" = eating less than 1000 calories per day. That's generally called "starvation mode", and is cause for all sorts of trouble. SparkPeople's calculated personal daily calorie estimates for weight loss are a MUCH better idea. - 5/18/2010 3:18:26 AM
Specialized diets if healthy and exercise also contribute to health and weight management but for the vast majority of people (there are medical exceptions) it really is calories in/calories out.
That said, IMO, and in my experience, the calorie levels advocated by many diet sites, TV programs (such as BL), books, etc., is too low for optimum health and weight management over time.
But anyhow lol it really is about calories in/calories out for basic weight loss. - 11/8/2009 4:08:47 AM
I do think tracking is very important. I have been talking about Spark People to everyone who asks me what I'm doing to lose weight. - 10/12/2009 1:24:29 PM
I also learned that when I am stuck at a conference, or some other function where my food choices are not so great that I will not feel great, but I will survive. If I have to eat a sandwich for lunch I will feel hungry all afternoon, because the simple sugar's in the bread will trigger my hypoglycemia. Knowing that I am not hungry because I need more calories, but because my blood sugar is all our of whack helps me talk my self down and wait until dinner, when I can load up on protein and veggies to feel better.
The funny thing is that stopping the weekly and daily food tracking has actually gotten me out of the stuck place where I had been bouncing around the same 5 pounds for a while now. In a way it removed the pressure to eat what was on my tracker. Now I start with a smaller portion and then come back for a little more if I'm still hungry. It has also made me realize that I can have a new relationship with food, one that isn't about emotional eating or about restrictive eating. I am learning to "eat like a thin person." I am learning to eat to feed my body, rather than to satisfy my eating plan, and to exercise because it's a healthy habit that is a part of my life rather than because it "earns" me more calories to eat. There's no way I could have done this before I learned all the things that tracking taught me, and maybe I will come crawling back to tracking to loose weight again. But, right now I am doing well, learning how to "eat like a thin person." - 9/26/2009 11:17:31 AM
No one that I know who has problems with weight really wants to hear this but as this cited study (there are many others) notes, it is the AMOUNT of food eaten (e.g., calories in) that is the relevant factor in weight and TRACKING it is the way to know HOW MUCH WE ARE EATING.
The calories out part can be impacted by things like lifestyle activity, intentional exercise, medications, metabolism, etc., but basically it is just basic physics.
Weight loss is not rocket science. - 9/1/2009 7:42:59 AM
But I'm still working on loosing the weight myself. Does anyone recomend what to do if you think you can't loose weight no matter what you do? no matter what I do I can't seem to take off more than a pound a month. I'm a little discouraged.
For the entire month of March I worked out four times a week and ate no more then 1200 calories. I only lost one pound. - 4/6/2009 12:42:33 PM
So yes, track your intake, and if you are eating too many calories then eat less, but also put some thought and care into the types of foods you eat. - 3/18/2009 4:18:43 AM
Once my body has had a chance to clean up the mess I made with high sugars, bad fats and alcohol, usually takes 12 weeks, then and only then can I dabble in all foods... but its a dabble and not a day in and day out. - 3/2/2009 11:33:09 PM
I have found that planning what i will eat for the day using my traker has deffinately helped me - 3/1/2009 7:39:20 PM
I know portion size alone won't work, of course we need food and activity logs, yes we need to exercise more-that is something else that has changed we have more modern conveniences these days that have also increased our weight. Also what I noticed has helped me is 'turning' my logs in to someone. I get embarrassed if I ate very poorly or way to much spaghetti for supper or no veggies, or that bag of m&m's.
That is the problem, I feel like to many people just have this goal of 50 lbs. but they don't break it down by month, people need to set mini goals as well. - 3/1/2009 3:22:16 PM
moderation, not deprivation. So, no I'm not surprized by the findings.
- 3/1/2009 1:43:36 PM
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