When a person adheres to a diet, one of the biggest difficulties is to overcome the desires for foods that are not part of them, such as sweets and snacks. However, recent research has shown that eating these foods, in a controlled amount and soon after the main meals, can help control these desires and, consequently, in the weight loss process.
THE searchcarried out by researchers at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, in the United States, showed that participants who incorporated the desired foods into a balanced diet lost more weight for 12 months, and their wishes remained minimal during the subsequent 12 months of weight maintenance.
To do the work, the researchers recruited obese patients between 18 and 75 years old who had comorbidities such as hypertension and diabetes and could benefit from weight loss.
“Wishes are a big problem for many people. If they have a lot of desires, it is very difficult to lose weight. Even when they can control wishes and lose weight, if desires come back, they recover the weight,” says Manabu T. Nakamura, professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois, in a statement.
Although many people who diet reported in previous research that their desires diminished by losing weight, for researchers it was still unclear if these changes persisted after weight loss. Therefore, they decided to investigate this issue and understand if the reduction of desires correlated with greater weight loss.
In the study, the researchers used a strategy known as food reeducation, in which it teaches participants the benefits of main nutrients in a food and helps them make better decisions about their food choices, so that the change in food is actually effective.
Participants used a data visualization tool that records the protein, fiber and calories of food so that they could improve nutrition and at the same time minimize the calories consumed.
“If you eat and pinch randomly, it’s very difficult to control,” said Nakamura. “Some food programs exclude certain foods. Our plan used a ‘inclusion strategy’, in which people incorporated small portions of desired foods in a well -balanced meal.”
Every six months, participants fulfilled a questionnaire about their desires for specific foods. These included fat-rich foods such as hot dogs and fried chicken, fast food fats such as hamburgers and chips, candy such as cakes and cookies, and carbohydrates such as cookies and pancakes.
The researchers also evaluated the frequency and intensity of participants’ desires in another research, based on a scale ranging from 1 (never) to 6 (always).
A total of 30 people started the weight loss program, and the 24 who remained in the program at the end of the first year lost an average of 7.9% of the initial weight. Of these, 20 people completed the one -year maintenance program, but, as some recovered part of what they had lost, the average weight loss was 6.7%, according to the researchers.
Participants who lost more than 5% weight at the end of the study showed consistent reductions in the frequency and intensity of their desires, while those who lost less did not present. The team also found that the desire of individuals for food in general and specific types of food, such as sweets and carbohydrates, decreased during the year of weight loss and stabilized during maintenance.
“This basically unmasks the theory of hungry fat cell, an old hypothesis that fat cells get powerless and unleashed wishes, making those who are on a diet eat and finally recover what they have lost. But this is not the case. As you keep in a healthy weight, your desires will remain low,” says Nakamura.
This content was originally published in know how sweets can help in weight loss, according to a study on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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