I read SUCH an interesting article about weight loss in women recently.
The research tested several different “techniques” for weight loss in women, including: eating fewer desserts, dining out less, limiting sugar-sweetened beverages, eating fewer fried foods, and eating more fish.
They basically wanted to see which was the most effective at causing weight loss over 6 months.
You know what they found?
Each of the factors lead to weight loss over 6 months — independent of all the others.
So, that means that choosing to do only one of those things (eating fewer desserts, dining out less, limiting SSBs, etc etc) would lead to weight loss over 6 months — even if you don’t do all of them.
I find it frustrating to see women struggle with weight loss and restrict themselves so harshly. Plus, very restrictive weight loss patterns almost never work, and usually lead to long-term weight gain. (Talk about a bummer…) So, choosing a technique in which you pick 1-3 angles to approach weight loss seems like a much more promising approach (and spares your sanity a bit!).
When coming at weight loss, rather than say “I am never eating a single dessert and am living off vegetable smoothies until I’m a size 4!” (which is almost guaranteed to NOT work and definitely guaranteed to TOTALLY suck), pick a few small changes to make in your lifestyle and see results over a few months. Those results are not only backed by research to happen, but are also proven to be more likely to stay in the long term.
Side note: this study also found that in the longer term of 48 months down the line, eating more fruits and vegetables was the most effective angle at leading to weight loss in women.
So, rather than dive into the deep end of a miserable, restrictive diet, start with one angle. Then, once you’ve got that down, maybe add a second or third. That way, you’ll have more freedom, more happiness, and you’ll actually lose more weight for a longer period of time!
xo
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