Say out loud that you want to lose weight and you will be overwhelmed almost immediately by a sea of self-proclaimed experts who provide anecdotal advice (although experts say that short-term restrictive diets of any kind simply do not work in the long term).
"You should try intermittent fasting," a colleague says during dinner, after ordering two cheeseburgers at the same time. "I only eat one meal a day and I have never felt so good."
"My cousin has lost 80 pounds doing Keto," your waiter comes in, flopping a basket full of buttery rolls on your table. "She chopped the bread out and it practically fell off."
"Have you ever heard of souping?" A notorious cheese thief wonders, dressed in completely black, slowly on a string of skylight above your table. "Lost five pounds in broth. Feel like a million dollars."
And of course there are always the "Fad Diets don't work! It's all about fewer calories !!!" people.
But while reducing calories appears to be the most proven method for many to drop pounds (at least in the short term), a new, first-of-its-kind study by the National Institutes of Health has found that calories can be there matter less than the type of food you consume. Researchers discovered that ultra-processed food - bacon, frozen foods, junk food, packaged bread and even yogurt with added fruits or sugar - resulted in more weight gain among participants than diets with minimally processed foods such as: eggs, nuts, whole vegetables and fruits and fresh meat, even when all other dietary factors, including calories, were the same.
So is our dependence on the frozen section of Trader Joe the reason we don't feel cute in a bathing suit? Could be. The highly controlled study was unique in that they had 20 subjects, 10 men and 10 women, who lived in a designated facility for four weeks. This allowed them to ensure that all conditions were the same for all participants, including preventing participants from reporting cheats. They then fed half of the test subjects with ultra-processed food and the other half with a minimally processed diet. After two weeks they changed groups. This means that all participants have tried both diets for two full weeks. And all subjects were offered meals with exactly the same calories, sugar, fat, fiber, carbohydrates, and proteins, although the participants could stop eating as soon as they felt saturated.
The study found that subjects received an average of two pounds in the two weeks they ate the more processed food. While eating food in a more natural state, they actually lost two pounds. So why did that happen? Well, one of the reasons, researchers say, is that those who ate the ultra-processed food ate more of their meals.
"We noticed that people eat on average more than 500 calories a day on the ultra-processed diet," the author Kevin Hall of the study told NBC News. "They became heavier and gained body fat."
When asked to assess both types of meals, the test subjects did not judge the more processed meal as a better taste than the healthier alternative, but they still ate more if they did. People also ate faster per minute when eating the ultra-processed food, researchers reported. They theorized that this was possible because it was usually softer and easier to chew than the purer ingredients. Finally, subjects had more hormone, PYY, in their systems when eating the less processed diet. This hormone can give you a full feeling. They also had less hormone that makes you hungry, ghrelin.
This was a small study and it remains to be seen whether these results can be simulated or are a fluke. Yet they suggest that changing from more processed and packaged foods to more complete foods can be a long-term dietary change that can help with sustained weight loss. Of course, eating fresher, less processed food that you make yourself sounds like it's better for you. Now science seems to support that.
"This is the first research that shows that the nutrients on the nutrition facts are not the whole story," Hall told NBC News. "There is something else about those ultra-processed foods."
"You should try intermittent fasting," a colleague says during dinner, after ordering two cheeseburgers at the same time. "I only eat one meal a day and I have never felt so good."
"My cousin has lost 80 pounds doing Keto," your waiter comes in, flopping a basket full of buttery rolls on your table. "She chopped the bread out and it practically fell off."
"Have you ever heard of souping?" A notorious cheese thief wonders, dressed in completely black, slowly on a string of skylight above your table. "Lost five pounds in broth. Feel like a million dollars."
And of course there are always the "Fad Diets don't work! It's all about fewer calories !!!" people.
But while reducing calories appears to be the most proven method for many to drop pounds (at least in the short term), a new, first-of-its-kind study by the National Institutes of Health has found that calories can be there matter less than the type of food you consume. Researchers discovered that ultra-processed food - bacon, frozen foods, junk food, packaged bread and even yogurt with added fruits or sugar - resulted in more weight gain among participants than diets with minimally processed foods such as: eggs, nuts, whole vegetables and fruits and fresh meat, even when all other dietary factors, including calories, were the same.
So is our dependence on the frozen section of Trader Joe the reason we don't feel cute in a bathing suit? Could be. The highly controlled study was unique in that they had 20 subjects, 10 men and 10 women, who lived in a designated facility for four weeks. This allowed them to ensure that all conditions were the same for all participants, including preventing participants from reporting cheats. They then fed half of the test subjects with ultra-processed food and the other half with a minimally processed diet. After two weeks they changed groups. This means that all participants have tried both diets for two full weeks. And all subjects were offered meals with exactly the same calories, sugar, fat, fiber, carbohydrates, and proteins, although the participants could stop eating as soon as they felt saturated.
The study found that subjects received an average of two pounds in the two weeks they ate the more processed food. While eating food in a more natural state, they actually lost two pounds. So why did that happen? Well, one of the reasons, researchers say, is that those who ate the ultra-processed food ate more of their meals.
"We noticed that people eat on average more than 500 calories a day on the ultra-processed diet," the author Kevin Hall of the study told NBC News. "They became heavier and gained body fat."
When asked to assess both types of meals, the test subjects did not judge the more processed meal as a better taste than the healthier alternative, but they still ate more if they did. People also ate faster per minute when eating the ultra-processed food, researchers reported. They theorized that this was possible because it was usually softer and easier to chew than the purer ingredients. Finally, subjects had more hormone, PYY, in their systems when eating the less processed diet. This hormone can give you a full feeling. They also had less hormone that makes you hungry, ghrelin.
This was a small study and it remains to be seen whether these results can be simulated or are a fluke. Yet they suggest that changing from more processed and packaged foods to more complete foods can be a long-term dietary change that can help with sustained weight loss. Of course, eating fresher, less processed food that you make yourself sounds like it's better for you. Now science seems to support that.
"This is the first research that shows that the nutrients on the nutrition facts are not the whole story," Hall told NBC News. "There is something else about those ultra-processed foods."
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