Stick to a Diet for at Least a Year to Lose Weight for a Long Time.
If you’ve ever been on a diet before, you know how difficult it is to lose weight permanently. New research shows that if you maintain your weight for at least 52 weeks, it will be easier for you to maintain that weight in the long term.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen put 20 obese people on an 8-week low-calorie diet. After this period, they put the participants on a 52-week weight maintenance course, which included meetings with a dietitian and tracking their diet. The researchers measured the participants’ levels of hormones associated with hunger, including ghrelin, which enhances hunger, and GLP-1 and YY peptide, which suppress or regulate hunger. They took these measurements before the diet, shortly after, and 52 weeks later.
After weight loss, participants’ levels of appetite-regulating hormones increased by 40% and increased further to 65% at week 52. On the other hand, hunger-inducing ghrelin levels increased 23% after weight loss. (Diet can make you feel hungrier!) But after you stuck to a maintenance plan for the remainder of the year, those hunger-related hormone levels dropped to pre-weight loss levels.
In other words, diet and long-term attention helped the participants to adapt and overcome the spike in hunger that diet usually triggers. They have crossed the tipping point for weight loss recovery.
This is a small study, but if you are looking to lose weight, it can be a great inspiration for you to stick to your diet plan for longer. You also don’t have to deprive yourself . Just eat more vegetables .
Successful Weight Loss Maintenance Includes Long-Term Increased Food Response GLP-1 and PYY 3-36 | International Journal of Obesity via The Independent