Strict weight loss diet works better if you bend the rules occasionally

Many dieticians advise clients who are following a low-calorie diet to take it easy on pre-selected days and to eat whatever they want on those days. This makes it easier to stick to a weight-loss diet the reasoning goes. This calorie-shifting approach does indeed work well, nutritionists at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Iran discovered. This is not so much because it makes it easier to stick to a calorie shifting diet, but because the results achieved don’t disappear so fast when you start to eat normally again.

Study

The researchers did trials with two groups each of 37 women with a BMI of 25-37. The women were aged between 26 and 50.

One group followed a traditional – but strict – calorie restriction diet for 6 weeks. The women reduced their caloric intake to 55 percent of their resting metabolic rate. The resting metabolic rate is the amount of calories you burn while at rest.

The other group followed an even stricter calorie shifting diet, which consisted of 3 cycles of 2 weeks. The first part of the cycle took 11 days, during which the women ate only 45 percent of the amount of calories their body burned when resting. The second part of the cycle lasted 3 days, during which the women could eat as much as they wanted.

At the end of the 6 weeks the researchers put the women on another diet for 4 weeks in which they were given exactly enough calories to maintain their new body weight.

Results

The women in both groups lost the same amount of kilograms. But after they had completed their weight-loss diets, the bodyweight of the women in the calorie restriction diet group [CR] increased more than did the bodyweight of the women in the calorie shifting diet group [CS].

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The effect is even more dramatic if you look at the fat mass. After coming off a slimming diet the traditional calorie restriction diet group gained fat mass again fast, but the calorie shifting diet group did not.

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Explanation

The women who lost weight on the calorie restriction diet started to burn fewer calories while at rest, whereas the resting metabolic rate of the women in the calorie shifting diet group remained constant.

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Conclusion

“The effect of the calorie shifting diet on weight loss was more persistent than that of the calorie restriction diet, while both groups had a 1 month follow-up period with approximately the same calorie intake”, the researchers write in summary. “Further analysis suggested the involvement of reduced resting metabolic rate in weight regain of the calorie restriction diet subjects during the follow-up period, which remained in levels near baseline for the calorie shifting diet subjects.”

The researchers were very strict with their subjects. The amount of calorie restriction was high, and even higher in the calorie shifting diet. If you are following a far less strict weight loss diet it might be that the calorie shifting approach may not work. Why that is you can read here.

Calorie shifting diet versus calorie restriction diet: a comparative clinical trial study.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Finding new tolerable methods in weight loss has largely been an issue of interest for specialists. Present study compared a novel method of calorie shifting diet (CSD) with classic calorie restriction (CR) on weight loss in overweight and obese subjects.

METHODS:

Seventy-four subjects (body mass index ?25; 37) were randomized to 4 weeks control diet, 6 weeks CSD or CR diets, and 4 weeks follow-up period. CSD consisted of three phases each lasts for 2 weeks, 11 days calorie restriction which included four meals every day, and 4 h fasting between meals follow with 3 days self-selecting diet. CR subjects receive determined low calorie diet. Anthropometric and metabolic measures were assessed at different time points in the study.

RESULTS:

Four weeks after treatment, significant weight, and fat loss started (6.02 and 5.15 kg) and continued for 1 month of follow-up (5.24 and 4.3 kg), which was correlated to the restricted energy intake (P < 0.05). During three CSD phases, resting metabolic rate tended to remain unchanged. The decrease in plasma glucose, total cholesterol, and triacylglycerol were greater among subjects on the CSD diet (P < 0.05). Feeling of hunger decreased and satisfaction increased among those on the CSD diet after 4 weeks (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: PMID: 24829732 [PubMed] PMCID: PMC4018593 Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24829732

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