Food Journal: Write It Down, Shed More Pounds

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Food Journals Help Dieters Lose Weight, Study Shows

By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD

July 13, 2012 -- If you want to lose weight, you need to eat less -- and if you want to eat less, it helps to write it down.

When researchers studied the eating behaviors of female dieters they found that two of the most important tools linked to successful weight loss were a pen and notebook.

Women who kept food journals and consistently wrote down the foods they ate lost more weight than women who didn't.

Skipping meals and eating out frequently, especially at lunch, led to less weight loss.

Researcher Anne McTiernan, MD, PhD, says based on the study results, the number one piece of advice someone should follow if they want to lose weight is, "Keep a food journal."

"It's about accountability, knowing what you're eating and how much, and how that all adds up compared with your calorie goal for losing weight," she tells WebMD.

The study appears in the latest issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

The study included 123 previously inactive, overweight, postmenopausal women in Seattle enrolled in a weight loss study.

Over the course of a year, the women followed a restricted-calorie diet with the goal of achieving a 10% reduction in weight in six months. Half the women were put on an exercise program and the other half were not.

All the participants were asked to record the foods they ate daily in seven-day diaries provided weekly by dietician counselors.

During the study, the women also completed a series of questionnaires designed to assess their individual eating-related behaviors and strategies to achieve weight loss.

At the end of the year, both the diet-alone and diet-and-exercise groups had lost an average of 10% of their starting weight.

Among the specific findings:

Women who consistently filled out the food journals lost about 6 pounds more than those who didn't.Those who skipped meals lost an average of 8 fewer pounds than those who didn't.Women who ate in restaurants at lunch at least once a week lost an average of 5 pounds less than those who ate out less.

"Eating out may be a barrier for making healthful dietary changes because it usually means less individual control over ingredients and cooking methods, as well as larger portion sizes," the researchers wrote.

The study is not the first to find that keeping a food journal helps people shed pounds.

A 2008 study found that dieters who kept food diaries at least six days a week lost twice as much weight as those who kept the journals one day a week or less.

Keeping a food diary helps increase awareness of mindless, distracted eating, says nutritionist and diabetes educator Megrette Fletcher, RD, who is also co-founder of The Center for Mindful Eating.

"We know that when people keep food journals they are more aware of what they eat and in what quantities," she tells WebMD. "Whether the goal is to lose weight, keep diabetes under control, or just to avoid eating when you are not hungry, food journals can help."

Most experts recommend writing down the foods you eat as soon as you eat them, rather than waiting until the end of the day.

Some other tips:

It may also help to write down what you were doing when you were eating and how eating made you feel.Record your level of hunger along with the foods you eat.Be honest: Keeping a journal will do you no good if you only do it when you are being virtuous. Record the food slips along with the food triumphs.SOURCES: Kong, A. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, July 13, 2012. Anne McTiernan, MD, PhD, professor of epidemiology, University of Washington; researcher, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle. Megrette Fletcher, Med, RD, executive director, The Center for Mindful Eating. News release, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Hollis, J.F. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, August 2008.

©2012 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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Quitting Smoking Does Mean Weight Gain for Many: Study

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TUESDAY, July 10 (HealthDay News) -- Most smokers who quit gain more weight than previously thought -- an average of about 8 to 11 pounds the first year, according to a new European study.

Most of this weight gain occurs within three months of kicking the habit, the researchers reported. But, they added, the benefits of quitting still outweigh any concerns over this slight rise on the scale.

In conducting the research, investigators from France and the United Kingdom examined 62 previous studies to evaluate weight fluctuations among smokers who quit successfully with and without the help of nicotine replacement therapy. The weight changes of the former smokers were assessed 12 months after they stopped smoking.

The study found that smokers who quit without the help of nicotine replacement therapy gained an average of about 2.5 pounds one month after quitting. At the two-month mark, they had gained about 5 pounds; at three months, they were up 6.5 pounds. By six months, they had gained about 9 pounds, and after 12 months, they were 10.5 pounds heavier.

The average weight gain was similar for those using nicotine replacement therapy, according to Henri-Jean Aubin, a professor of psychiatry and addiction medicine at Paul Brousse Hospital in Villejuif, France, and colleagues.

The researchers pointed out this weight gain is greater than the 6.5 pounds often quoted in handouts about smoking cessation. It's also more than the 5-pound weight gain limit many female smokers say they will tolerate in order to quit.

The findings reflect the average weight gain of the former smokers, but fluctuation in weight varied widely: 16 percent of the people who stopped smoking lost weight, while 13 percent had gained more than 22 pounds in the year after quitting.

The study, published in the July 10 online edition of the BMJ, concluded that previous research underestimated the amount of weight people will gain in the 12 months after they quit smoking.

"These data suggest that doctors might usefully give patients a range of expected weight gain," the study authors said in a journal news release.

-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: BMJ, news release, July 10, 2012

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Sugar Substitutes Can Lead to Weight Loss

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Non-Sugar Sweeteners May Help Control Weight and Blood Sugar -- if You Don't Compensate

By Kathleen Doheny
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

July 9, 2012 -- Substituting other sweeteners for sugars may help people lose weight and help people with diabetes control blood sugar, according to a new joint statement issued by the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association.

"When you use these non-nutritive sweeteners smartly, they will help you cut back on sugar and calories," says Christopher Gardner, PhD, who chaired the writing group for the joint statement.

The key word here is "smartly," says Gardner, associate professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.

The benefits of the sweeteners only hold if people don't undo them. That happens when they slake their sugar craving with other sugary drinks or foods later in the day -- an all-too-common tendency among people who use artificial sweeteners.

The new scientific statement is published in the journal Circulation.

Americans eat too much sugar, the American Heart Association warned in 2009.

The AHA recommends that most women eat no more than 100 calories of added sugars a day and men no more than 150 calories a day. That is about 6 teaspoons for most women, 9 for most men. "Added" sugars means sugar not naturally present in raw vegetables, fruits, and grains. Any sweetened beverage or food adds sugar to the diet.

But the average American's daily intake of added sugars is about 22 teaspoons or about 355 calories, according to 2004 AHA data.

This finding led the AHA to recommend reducing added sugars in the diet. And that raised the question of whether alternative sweeteners might help.

So the association asked a panel of experts to evaluate the role of the non-nutritive sweeteners in controlling weight and diabetes. The catch-all term "non-nutritive sweeteners" includes very low-calorie, no calorie, artificial, and intense sweeteners.

The experts evaluated scientific studies on six of these sweeteners, Gardner says.

"Five of the six are artificial, while stevia is plant-based," he says.

The other five are:

Acesulfame-KAspartameNeotameSaccharinSucralose

Products with these sweeteners have become much more plentiful. Between 1999 and 2004, according to Gardner, more than 6,000 new products with these sweeteners hit the market.

The experts looked only at whether the alternative sweeteners could help with weight control and blood sugar control. They did not consider whether these products themselves might carry health risks.

"We didn't address safety," Gardner says.

However, the five artificial sweeteners are all regulated by the FDA as food additives. Each had to be approved as safe before being marketed.

Those who market stevia in products do so under a provision of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. It allows food additives generally recognized as safe (GRAS) to be marketed without specific FDA approval.

After reviewing the evidence, the experts found data insufficient to say for sure that the sweeteners help for weight control and blood sugar control, but they conclude that there is some data that suggests the products appear to help.

The caveat about not overdoing sugary foods later in the day is key, says Kris Voight, RD, a certified diabetes educator and dietitian at Kaiser Permanente Ohio Region, Cleveland.

She reviewed the statement for WebMD.

How common is that?

"I think it depends on the person's motivation [for using the products]," Voight says. "If they are coming in and their diabetes is having an impact on their health, they are on board."

However, some think having a diet soda gives them permission to have a treat later, she says.

To quell sugar cravings, Voight suggests eating a bit more protein to help maintain a feeling of fullness.

Not surprisingly, the industry group Calorie Control Council likes the AHA and ADA's new stance.

In a statement, Haley Curtis Stevens, PhD, the council president, says: "The Calorie Control Council is pleased that the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association have confirmed that substituting non-nutritive sweeteners for sugars may help people reach and maintain a healthy body weight and that for people with diabetes, non-nutritive sweeteners can aid with glucose control."

She, too, cautions that the products are not magic bullets and must be used wisely.

SOURCES: Haley Curtis Stevens, PhD, president, Calorie Control Council, Atlanta. Christopher Gardner, PhD, associate professor of medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.; chair, writing group for the American Heart Association nutrition committee. Kris Voight, RD, certified diabetes educator, Kaiser Permanente, Ohio Region, Cleveland.

©2012 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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The experimental drug suppresses appetite bachbrim: study

Thursday, July 26, HealthDay News)-experimental drug tested in mice could one day help people lose weight and keep it long term, according to the researchers.

The drug, called JD5037, increases the sensitivity to the hormone leptin, an appetite suppressant is natural body, according to the research on July 26 in the journal cell metabolism.

"By sensitizing the body naturally occurring leptin, the new drug was not only to promote weight loss, but also helps to keep him," senior research editor, George Kunos of the National Institute of alcohol abuse, alcoholism, USA said in the news journal. "This finding bodes for the development of a new class of compounds for treatment of obesity and its metabolic disorder."

Leptin supplements alone are not effective at helping people lose excess weight, according to the publication. It is because of this that, meaning that systematic to leptin more body to respond to leptin.

In this study, researchers found that JD5037 to suppress appetite of obese mice has led to a decrease in weight, partly by resensitizing mice to leptin.

Scientists, however, research with animals often fails to provide similar results in humans.

"Obesity is a growing problem of public health, there is a strong need for new types of medications for the treatment of severe metabolic complications of obesity, including diabetes, fatty liver disease," said Kunos.

--Robert Preidt copyright © HealthDay 2012. All rights reserved. Source: cell metabolism, press release, July 26, 2012

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Diet Secret: Small Pieces of Food More Filling

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College Students, Rats Eat Less When Food Is in Small Pieces

By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

July 10, 2012 -- Call it the cut-up-food-diet: We feel full faster, and eat less later, when our food is served in small pieces.

It works in both college students and lab rats, according to a study by Devina Wadhera and colleagues at Arizona State University.

"Cutting up energy-dense foods into smaller pieces may be beneficial to dieters who wish to make their meal more satiating while also maintaining portion control," Wadhera says in a news release.

The researchers first tried this on lab rats. The animals were trained to run through a maze. Then the animals were offered a reward for running quickly through the maze. For 20 rats, the reward was a single chunk of food. For another 20 rats, the reward was 30 small pieces of food weighing the same as the large piece offered to the other rats.

After 12 trips through the maze, the result was clear. Rats preferred -- and worked harder for -- the same amount of food served in smaller pieces.

Okay, it's easy to fool a rat. But what about college students?

Wadhera's team split 301 male and female students into two groups. One was offered a whole bagel covered with cream cheese. The other group was offered the same kind of bagel, cut into four pieces and covered with the same amount of cream cheese.

The group that got the whole bagel ate a little more of it than those who got the cut-up bagel. But the real difference came 20 minutes later, when all of the students were offered a free meal.

Those who'd eaten the cut-up bagel -- even though they'd eaten a little less -- ate less of the free meal.

"Perhaps cutting up foods into multiple, bite-sized pieces may perceptually look like more and therefore elicit greater satiation than a single-piece food portion," Wadhera and colleagues suggest.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, held this week in Zurich, Switzerland.

These findings were presented at a medical conference. They should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the "peer review" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.

SOURCES: Annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, Zurich, July 10-14, 2012. News release, Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior.

©2012 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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'Atkins'-Type Diets May Raise Risk of Heart Problems: Study

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By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 26 (HealthDay News) -- Women who regularly eat a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet may be raising their risk of heart disease and stroke by as much as 28 percent, a new study suggests.

Although the absolute increase in risk is small -- four or five extra cases per 10,000 women -- many young women try the Atkins diet or similar regimens and could be setting themselves up for cardiovascular problems later in life, the researchers noted.

"Low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets are frequently used for body-weight control," said lead researcher Dr. Pagona Lagiou, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Athens Medical School in Greece. "Although [the diets] may be nutritionally acceptable if the protein is mainly of plant origin, such as nuts, and the reduction of carbohydrates applies mainly to simple and refined [carbohydrates] like unhealthy sweeteners, drinks and snacks, the general public does not always recognize and act on this guidance."

The study, published online June 26 in the BMJ, does not answer questions about the possible short-term benefits of these diets in the control of body weight or insulin resistance, Lagiou said.

For the study, Lagiou's team collected data on the diets of more than 43,000 Swedish women who were between the ages of 30 and 49 at the start of the study.

Over an average of 15 years of follow-up, there were more than 1,200 cardiovascular events, including heart disease and stroke. There were more of these events among the women who followed a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet than among women who didn't, the researchers found.

Compared with women who veered furthest from the high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet, women who followed the diet most closely increased their risk by 28 percent, even after other risk factors, such as smoking, drinking, hypertension, exercise and fat intake, were taken into account, the researchers noted.

"Reduction of body weight should rely on increasing physical activity and reducing caloric intake," Lagiou said.

The long-term health effects of special diets that are followed for long periods of time have not been adequately studied to allow determination of their safety, she added.

Dr. Gregg Fonarow, chairman of cardiovascular medicine and science at the University of California, Los Angeles, said low-carb diets such as the Atkins regimen have been touted widely and have become increasingly popular.

"This study raises concerns about the long-term effects on cardiovascular health of low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets -- particularly if there is not careful consideration given to whether plant versus animal proteins are consumed," said Fonarow, who is also director of the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center.

Another expert, Samantha Heller, an exercise physiologist and clinical nutrition coordinator at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn., said "the results of this study are not surprising."

Popular high-protein diets inevitably include an abundance of cheese and red and processed meats, and a dearth of healthy carbohydrates such as whole grains, vegetables, legumes and fruits, she said.

"What this study did not address is that research is finding that diets high in red meat and/or processed meats may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes; colorectal cancer; coronary heart disease; breast cancer; esophageal, liver and lung cancers; and chronic obstructive lung disease," Heller said. "[They also] increase levels of bad cholesterol."

More research is needed to pinpoint how and for whom these risks are elevated, she added.

"In the meantime, cut back on your intake of meat and other animal-protein sources. Start experimenting with beans, edamame, tofu, nuts and nut butters (such as peanut, almond and cashew butter), low- or nonfat yogurt, cottage cheese and milk," Heller advised. "Pick up the carb intake with 100 percent whole-grain breads, brown rice, quinoa and hefty doses of vegetables, legumes and fruits."

Although the study found an association between high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets and increased risk of cardiovascular problems, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Pagona Lagiou, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor, epidemiology, University of Athens Medical School, Greece; Samantha Heller, M.S., R.D., exercise physiologist, clinical nutrition coordinator, Center for Cancer Care, Griffin Hospital, Derby, Conn.; Gregg Fonarow, M.D., Eliot Corday Chair, Cardiovascular Medicine and Science, University of California-Los Angeles, and director, Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center, Los Angleles; June 26, 2012, BMJ, online

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