How to lose weight for good
Dieting for a year is the way to prevent returning to your previous weight, scientists have found. Those who persevere with diets for 12 months see the pounds stay off, an experiment showed, because it changes the bodys chemical make-up.
Scientific tests have previously found that dieting triggers a backlash from the body, leaving hunger-causing hormones to surge. However, it appears that these so-called defense mechanisms can be overcome by dieting for a year, The Times reported.
Researchers in Denmark discovered that obese people who had shed an eighth of their weight on an intensive diet - and kept it off for at least a year - saw dramatic changes in the chemicals. It suggests it is possible to defeat the bodys natural resistance to losing weight.
Signe Sorensen Torekov, associate professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Copenhagen, said: Its very difficult to fight the hunger. Its like a drug youre fighting against. This would have been an excellent mechanism 50 years ago, but the problem now is that we have so much food available that we can eat all the time.
We were able to show that you shouldnt give up. If youre able to keep your weight down for a year, then it shifts and it becomes easier.
It came as a separate study found that overweight people react very differently to real food and inedible images of snacks displayed on a computer screen. In tests, both overweight and lean volunteers made similar decisions when given food choices in the form of images. But it was another story when they were offered an all-you-can-eat buffet of real food including sandwiches, desserts, and drinks.
While lean and overweight participants were equally attracted to foods rated as tasty, the latter were more likely to go for the unhealthy, fattening items.
Lead researcher Dr Nenad Medic, from Cambridge University, said: Theres a clear difference between hypothetical food choices that overweight people make and the food they actually eat. Even though they know that some foods are less healthy than others and say they wouldnt necessarily choose them, when they are faced with the foods, its a different matter.
This is an important insight for health campaigners as it suggests that just trying to educate people about the healthiness of food choices is not enough. The presence of unhealthy food options is likely to override peoples decisions.
In this respect, food choice does not appear to be a rational decision - it can become divorced from what the person knows and values.
