The New Rules Of Weight Loss

Magazines. Reality shows. Books. Ten-DVD sets. YouTube. Trainers with megaphones. Blogs (er, um... *cough*). Everywhere you look, someone is selling you some sort of weight-loss miracle.

If you are a regular reader of this, or my other blog, you know that I. Don't. Sell. Shit. Well, that's not true—I sell our fantastic personal training and Belly Bootcamp fitness classes. I do not sell gadgets. I do not sell supplements. I do not sell promises.

So, with all of the oft-conflicting weight loss advice and, let's face it, snake oil out there, how do you know what actually works?

According to a study published this week in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, there are just a few behaviours that will actually take off the pounds. The Study? "Self-Monitoring and Eating-Related Behaviors Are Associated with 12-Month Weight Loss in Postmenopausal Overweight-to-Obese Women."

Sidebar: I didn't go to medical school, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume there is no course entitled "Concision 101."

Doctors studied 123 postmenopausal women—all overweight or obese—over twelve months of attempted weight loss. The average weight loss, over the twelve months, was 10.7% of original body weight.

So, what did the most successful weight losers do that the others didn't?

Three things:

1. They completed regular food journals. Women who kept more food journals lost about 4% more weight.
2. They ate at home (or packed a lunch). Women who ate out, at least once per week, had 2.5% lower weight loss.
3. They ate at regular intervals. This had the biggest impact. Women who skipped meals had 4.3% lower weight loss.

What is the lesson here?

Two things, I think:

1. There are weight loss solutions that are accessible, simple, and cost nothing (take that, Herbal Magic!).
2. The trick to successful weight loss seems to lie much in modifying one's behaviour and changing negative habits. That doesn't happen over ten days on a "cleanse," or by skipping breakfast, because you pretty much bathed with Ben AND Jerry last night. Like, it got a little awkward there for a moment, didn't it?

So, to review: breakfast, lunch, and dinner; pack your lunch; keep a food journal!

Simple!

Does this study ring true to you? How did you lose the weight and keep it off? Do you keep a food journal?

Here are some great tricks to teach yourself how to eat according to hunger again.

And here is how (and why) to food journal!

Plus, you want to lose weight, but not get skinnyfat, right?