On top of exercise, a weight loss journey typically involves some changes to what you eat. This often means cutting down on how much you eat, as well as cutting out specific types of food that can make it harder to achieve your goals. But in some cases, weight loss can also involve incorporating more of something into your meals. Now, a new study has shown that you could lose nearly 13 percent of your body weight by eating more fiber and protein as part of your daily diet.
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The latest research was outlined in a paper published in Obesity Science and Practice. The 22 participants were dieters who took part in the Individualized Diet Improvement Program (iDip), which uses data visualization tools and dietary education to help people devise a better, safer, and more well-rounded weight loss plan.
“Flexibility and personalization are key in creating programs that optimize dieters’ success at losing weight and keeping it off,” Manabu T. Nakamura, PhD, a professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the study’s lead researcher, said in a press release. “Sustainable dietary change, which varies from person to person, must be achieved to maintain a healthy weight. The iDip approach allows participants to experiment with various dietary iterations, and the knowledge and skills they develop while losing weight serve as the foundation for sustainable maintenance.”
The study group—which was composed of nine men and 13 women, mostly between the ages of 30 and 64—had their weight monitored over the course of 25 months using WiFi-enabled scales. There were also several weight-related comorbidities among the participants, including 54 percent having been diagnosed with high cholesterol, 50 percent with skeletal issues, and 36 percent with hypertension and/or sleep apnea. The iDip program then helped each revamp their diets to increase protein consumption to 80 grams daily and fiber to 20 grams daily.
The changes appear to have had an effect even before the study finished. At the one-year mark, data showed that 41 percent of the group had lost 12.9 percent of their body weight due to their diet decisions.
“The research strongly suggests that increasing protein and fiber intake while simultaneously reducing calories is required to optimize the safety and efficacy of weight loss diets,” Mindy H. Lee, a registered dietitian-nutritionist for iDip and the study’s first author, said of the findings.
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The results also found that the only group of participants who lost less weight than average were those who had been diagnosed with depression. Those who did have depression lost 2.4 percent of their starting weight, while those who didn’t have a depression diagnosis lost 8.39 percent. There were no other decreases among other diagnoses, nor were there observed differences between either sex or older and younger participants.
The study also found that minimal muscle mass was lost during the trial. Data showed that for participants who lost more than 5 percent of their body weight, 78 percent was fat, per the press release. These findings also helped highlight another health issue experienced by those using other methods to shed pounds.
“Recently, the popularity of injectable weight loss medications has been increasing,” Nakamura said. “However, using these medications when food intake is strongly limited will cause serious side effects of muscle and bone loss unless protein intake is increased during weight loss.”
Another notable point in the data set involved when the most weight loss occurred, with the most significant drops recorded in the third and twelfth months.
“The strong correlation suggests that participants who were able to develop sustainable dietary changes within the first three months kept losing weight in the subsequent months, whereas those who had difficulty implementing sustainable dietary patterns early on rarely succeeded in changing their diet in the later months,” Nakamura said in the press release.
She explained that this correlation could also be due to participants becoming motivated by early results and, therefore, sticking to their program more closely.
