The Secret To Fat Loss
It’s not a pill. It’s not a diet. It’s really quite simple…. Keeping a daily nutrition journal is the true secret to fat loss and muscle gain. A daily exercise and nutrition journal can double a person’s fat loss, according to a study from Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research. The findings, from one of the largest and longest running weight loss maintenance trials ever conducted, were published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. “The more food records people kept, the more weight they lost,” said lead author Jack Hollis Ph.D., a researcher at Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon. “Those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records. It seems that the simple act of writing down what you eat encourages people to consume fewer calories.”
After six months, the average weight loss among the nearly 1,700 participants was approximately 13 pounds. More than two-thirds of the participants (69 percent) lost at least nine pounds, enough to reduce their health risks and qualify for the second phase of the study, which lasted 30 months and tested strategies for maintaining the weight loss.
“More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. If we all lost just nine pounds, like the majority of people in this study did, our nation would see vast decreases in hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and stroke,” said study co-author Victor Stevens, Ph.D., a Kaiser Permanente researcher. For example, in an earlier study Stevens found that losing as little as five pounds can reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure by 20 percent. The Kaiser Permanente Care Management Institute’s Weight Management Initiative has recommended maintaining an exercise and nutrition journal as a strategy for losing weight since 2002. The Weight Management Initiative unites clinicians, researchers, insurers, and policymakers to identify practical, effective, non-surgical approaches for the prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity.
“Every day I hear patients say they can’t lose weight. This study shows that most people can lose weight if they have the right tools and support. And food journaling in conjunction with a weight management program or class is the ideal combination of tools and support,” says Keith Bachman, MD, a Weight Management Initiative member.
So there you have it, from the experts – the secret to fat loss is to write down what you’re eating!
And that’s exactly what we teach during our InBody Challenge.
The Rock Solid Fitness Inbody Challenge is a 4-week event where we form teams, and each team is assigned an Accountability Coach. We go through specially designed workouts, and monitor our diets through food journaling in a special journal that is included.
Points are scored for different measures of progress, and at the end, the team and individual with the most points wins the challenge (and a bunch of cool stuff) – but of course every participant wins also by stepping their workout game up and building that all-important early momentum.
The next InBody Challenge is starting soon! CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION
