Most people regain the weight they lost within a year or two. Here’s how to permanently tame the scales.
A study conducted by the Boston Children’s Hospital reveals that eating fewer carbohydrates increases the number of calories burned, and would be a good way to stabilize weight, especially in obese patients.
Most people regain the weight they lost within a year or two, in part because the body adapts by slowing the metabolism and burning fewer calories. “Processed carbohydrates increase insulin levels, causing fat cells to store excess calories,” says endocrinologist David Ludwig, director of the research.
250 more kilocalories per day
His team first put 234 overweight adults (ages 18 to 65, with a body mass index of 25 or higher) on a weight loss diet for about 10 weeks. They were then randomly assigned to follow high-, moderate- or low-carb diets for another 20 weeks – with carbs making up 60, 40 or 20% of total calories.
During this phase, the goal was to compare how different groups burned calories. At the end of the experiment, total energy expenditure was significantly higher in the low carbohydrate diet than in the high carbohydrate diet. Consumers of the low-carb diet burned about 250 kilocalories more per day than those on the high-carb diet.
Less 20 kilos three years later
“If this difference persists, the effect would result in a weight loss of approximately 20 kilos after three years, with no change in total calorie intake”, deduce the researchers. Other studies indicate that low-carb diets also decrease hunger, which again could help with long-term weight loss.
According to Public Health France, 49% of French adults were overweight in 2015, i.e. one in two. Among them, 17% of adults (10 million people) suffer from obesity. The causes of overweight and obesity are multiple. The main ones are the profound change in lifestyle, diet and the significant reduction in physical activity.
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