Fiber up to lose weight
I t is a shame that people have starve to lose weight. If you stop eating or if you cut down from eating three meals a day to one, you will certainly lose weight. However, you should consider if this is an eating pattern you can sustain and if you are getting the nutrients you should to remain healthy.
Experts are quick to point out that weight management relies as much as 80 percent on nutrition. What then is the easiest thing to do? Choose foods that are high in fiber if you’re overweight and want to start losing weight. High-fiber foods fill you up fast with less calories. When you are full, it is easier to resist any craving. They also take longer to chew. Remember the old time rule? Eat slow so that you will not consume more than what you need to eat because it takes 20 minutes for the stomach to tell your brain that you are full. Here are more fiber facts to convince you. Dr. Barbara Rolls, author of The Volumetrics Eating Plan, noted a study that said people tend to eat the same weight of food each day. When you combine water and high fiber, such as vegetables, in a broth-based soup, then you can eat the same weight of food and feel satisfied on fewer calories. In a 2009 study featured by the journal Appetite, the fullness factor of apples, applesauce, and apple juice with added fiber before lunch was compared. The study concluded that those who ate an apple before lunch ate 15-percent fewer calories than those who ate the applesauce or drank apple juice, suggesting that the fiber in the whole apple was more filling compared to the juice with added fiber. Biting and chewing a whole piece of fruit also stimulates the senses and takes longer to eat. Chewing also produces saliva and stomach juices that help fill the stomach.
The US National Weight Control Registry found that most of their big losers who kept excess weight off for years eat cereals for breakfast regularly. And cereal is one of their morning rituals.
Joanne Slavin, PhD, RD, a professor at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul and member of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, declared that eating high-fiber cereals for breakfast is ideal for weight loss. “Studies that look at what people eat show those who eat more carbs, more fiber, and cereal in general weigh less than those who eat less fiber, carbs, and cereal.”
The recommended daily dietary fiber intake is at least 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men. Dr. Susan Roberts, a Tufts University researcher and nutrition professor, has shown that people with sufficient dietary fiber intake are less hungry when losing weight and lose more weight than people who eat less fiber.
“No one fiber is perfect, so eating a wide variety of fibers is the perfect solution to gain all the health benefits of fiber,” Slavin told WebMD. “Not only will you trim your waistline with a high-fiber diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts, but also reduce the risk for heart disease, diabetes, obesity, diverticulitis, and constipation.” If you are just starting to eat more fiber, add up slowly and increase your water intake. This will help prevent the gas and bloating experienced by others who switch to a fibrous diet.
“Eat whole fruits instead of fruit juice. Snack on veggies. Make vegetables a main course. Add a filling vegetable salad instead of a starchy salad as a side dish to meals. Enjoy a bowl of vegetable-based broth soup before meals. Start the day with a high-fiber cereal topped with fruit and low-fat dairy. Eat more beans. Make all your grains whole and limit them to a few servings each day. Add nuts and seeds to your weight loss plan, but keep the portions small because they are high in fiber and calories,” Slavin recommended.
A recent US study showed that a simple high-fiber diet can provide health benefits while being easier to stick with than a diet calling for multiple changes in eating habits.
“For people who find it difficult to follow complex dietary recommendations, a simple-to-follow diet with just one message — increase your fiber intake —may be the way to go,” said study author Dr. Yunsheng Ma, an associate professor in the division of preventive and behavioral medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester.
The US National Institutes of Health funded a study involving 240 adults who were at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. They were asked to change their diets for one year. Half were asked to increase their fiber intake daily. They can eat whatever they want as long as they include 30 grams of fiber from foods, not supplements, which meant eating more fruits, vegetables and whole grain foods.
“High-fiber foods are rich in vitamins and other essential nutrients, so they provide many benefits” over fiber supplements, Ma said.
The other half of the group was asked to follow the American Health Association ( AHA) diet guidelines and its 13 components. These include eating more fruits and vegetables, reducing sugar and salt consumption, choosing lean proteins, cutting back on alcohol consumption, and carefully balancing the intake of protein, fats, and carbohydrates. The average weight loss after a year was about 6 pounds for the AHA dieters and 4.6 pounds for the high-fiber followers, but all participants experienced lower blood pressure and reduced blood sugar levels. “(Indeed) one small step can have a big impact on your battle with the bathroom scale. If you want to focus on one thing you can do in 2015 to help you lose weight, it might be increasing your fiber from whole grains, fruits, and vegetables,” said Joan Salge Blake, a clinical associate professor at Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. “In the high-fiber group, we only asked them to increase fiber,” he said. “However, we found that increasing dietary fiber was accomplished by a host of other healthy dietary changes, likely because high-fiber foods displaced unhealthy foods — such as fatty and sugary foods — in the diet.”
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‘Studies that look at what people eat show those who eat more carbs, more fiber, and cereal in general weigh less than those who eat less fiber, carbs, and cereal.’