the times Saturday April 30 2022
Body + Soul 5
DEAN DROBOT/GETTY IMAGES; JACOB LUND/SHUTTERSTOCKsend it into
remission, but
it’s a start. “It
is enough to
improve insulin
control,” Mellor
says. “And things will improve with the
more weight you lose.”
Your risk of heart disease
will be reduced
Being metabolically healthy means that
you have the correct levels of blood
sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure and
waist circumference to protect against
heart disease, diabetes and stroke. If you
are overweight, your metabolic health
usually declines, but losing even a small
amount can set you back on track.
Using data from 7,670 US adults,
researchers at the University of Texas
Health Science Center found that obese
adults who lost 20 per cent of their
weight were 53 per cent less likely to
have metabolic syndrome, the umbrella
term for a range of risk factors for
cardiovascular disease and type 2
diabetes — but the study also showed
that losing half a stone reduced their
risk by 22 per cent.
“If you’re overweight or obese, even
losing just a little is better than none,”
says Greg Knell, assistant professor in
the school of public health at Houston,
who co-authored the paper.
Your blood pressure will
be lowered
Extra weight raises the workload of the
heart and increases blood pressure. By
losing weight you can lower both systolic
and diastolic blood pressure and
significantly reduce high blood pressure.
Normal high blood pressure is
considered to be between 90/60mmHg
and 120/80mmHg and raised blood
pressure 140/90mmHg or higher.
According to the British Heart
Foundation, losing weight is all most
people need to do to keep blood pressure
down. “You can lower blood pressure by
about 3-6mmHG if you lose about half a
stone,” Mellor says. “It’s highly effective.”You will lower your risk of
some types of cancer
Too much extra weight raises your risk
of some types of cancer, partly by
affecting levels of hormones that can
help cancers to develop. For example,
fatty tissue is known to produce excess
amounts of oestrogen, high levels of
which have been linked with raised
risks of breast, endometrial, ovarian and
other cancers.
“Raised levels of insulin in overweight
people are also associated with an
increased risk of certain cancers,” Taylor
says. “These include colon, kidney,
prostate and endometrial cancers.”
In one investigation conducted by the
Harvard TH Chan School of Public
Health and the American Cancer
Society, researchers analysed data taken
from ten studies on 180,885 women who
were 50 or older, tracking them over a
ten-year period. During that time there
were 6,930 cases of breast cancer.
Women who lost between 4.5kg and
9kg (10-20lb) of excess weight had a
16 per cent lower risk of breast cancer
and those who lost 9kg or more reduced
their risk by 26 per cent.
But women who lost between 2kg and
4.5kg (4.4lb and 10lb) also cut their risk
of breast cancer by 13 per cent. “Keeping
a healthy weight is important for
reducing the risk of many types of
cancers,” Mellor says.7 ways to drop pounds
and keep them off
Create an eating window
Studies have shown that restricting your
eating to within 8-10 hours a day and
fasting for the other 16-14 hours is
among the best ways to shed half a
stone. A review published last year by
Krista Varady, professor of kinesiology
and nutrition at the College of Applied
Health Sciences at the University of
Illinois, Chicago, found that so-called
time-restricted eating — confining food
intake to a specified number of hours a
day — led to people losing an average
of 3 per cent of their body weight (half a
stone in some cases), regardless of what
time of day they chose for the eating
window. “You’re fooling your body into
eating a little bit less and that’s why
people are losing weight,” Varady said.Eat dark berries every day
Consuming dark-coloured berries
provides a dose of fibre, vitamin C and
flavonoids, naturally occurring plant
compounds such as anthocyanins, which
boost health but also help you to shed
weight, according to research by Aedin
Cassidy, professor of biological sciences
at Queen’s University Belfast. In one of
her studies involving 124,086 people
followed for up to 24 years, published
in the British Medical Journal, Cassidy
found that middle-aged people who ate
regular portions of berries, cherries or
apples put on no weight over two
decades and got slimmer. Keep mixed
frozen berries in the freezer — and make
sure blackcurrants and blueberries are
included. Recent studies suggest the high
levels of anthocyanins in blackcurrants
help the body to prioritise fat as fuel.
Researchers at the University of
Chichester said berry consumption was
particularly effective at blasting
thigh fat in women.Lift weights or use
exercise bands
three times a
we ek
People who do
some form of
resistance
training for
muscle-
strengthening
are about 20-30
per cent less
likely to become
very overweight over
time than people who
avoid it, found a study in
the journal Plos One. And last
year researchers at the University of
New South Wales revealed we can lose
up to half a stone in five months through
strength training alone. According to Dr
Mandy Hagstrom, an exercise scientist
at UNSW, you would need to do 45-60
minutes of resistance training three
times a week to see fat loss. “Our
findings show that even when strength
training is done on its own, it still causes
a favourable loss of body fat without
having to consciously diet or go
running,” Hagstrom says.Eat a dollop or two of plain
yoghurt every day
Being protein-rich, yoghurt makes you
feel more full than a high-carb breakfast,
meaning it can help to ward off hunger
pangs for a couple of hours afterwards,
and eating it regularly could aid weightloss. Some researchers have suggested
consuming calcium-rich foods such as
yoghurt makes it harder for the body to
absorb fat from food. And a review of 22
studies for a paper in the International
Journal of Obesity found that yoghurt-
eaters typically have smaller waists and
lower body fat than those who don’t
consume it very often or at all. “It needs
to be plain milk yoghurt, with nothing
else added to it, for the benefits,” says the
nutrition therapist Ian Marber.Eat more fermented foods
Foods such as kimchi, kefir, sauerkraut
and kombucha help to improve the
health of the microbiome, the trillions of
bacteria, viruses and fungi that inhabit
our gut, and in turn can also help to
control weight. Indeed, researchers at
the University of Washington established
that the presence of good gut microbes
influenced how many pounds dieters
were able to lose. Those who
consistently shed at least a couple of
pounds each month had greater
microbial diversity from a varied diet.
“Our microbiome helps to regulate
the metabolism and influences
whether we are lean or overweight,”
says Dr Megan Rossi, a research fellow
in the department of nutritional
sciences at King’s College London. “And
fermented foods are very beneficial for
gut health. “If you need to snack, have nuts
Between meals, opt for a few plain,
unroasted Brazil nuts, cashews,
hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine
nuts, pistachios or walnuts. Research has
found that dieters who snacked on 40g
of these tree nuts, rather than a plain
pretzel snack, lost about half a
stone in 12 weeks. After 24
weeks the nut-snackers
were maintaining
the weight loss,
whereas the
pretzel eaters
were putting
pounds back on,
despite them
containing the
same number
of calories.
“Tree nuts are a
great source of
protein, healthy
fats and fibre, which
is what makes them
so satiating,” explained
Zhaoping Li, professor of
medicine at UCLA and lead author
of the paper.Get one extra hour’s sleep a night
A recent study from the University of
Chicago showed that getting just one
extra hour of sleep a night helped people
to lose half a stone. Dr Esra Tasali of the
University of Chicago found that when
young, overweight adults who usually
slept fewer than 6.5 hours a night
increased this by an average of 1.2 hours
a night they consumed 270 fewer
calories a day, largely because they were
sleeping when they usually snacked late
at night. Tasali says the reduction in
energy intake roughly translated to
26lbs of weight loss over three years —
or about half a stone a year — if the
effects were maintained long-term.
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