5. The Microbiome
We each share our physical body with billions of bacteria, viruses and fungi and yeasts. They help us in a myriad of ways, in- cluding maintaining our weight. New research is examining how our individual gut micro- biomes may shed light on whether - and to what extent - we are able to lose weight while following particular dietary guidelines.
Researchers saw that participants who
had a higher ratio of the bacteria Prevotel- la-to-Bacteroides, lost more weight when following a New Nordic Diet, compared with people who followed an Average Danish Diet. The New Nordic Diet is fruit, vegetables, fiber, and whole grains. The average Danish diet includes more meat and processed foods.
People with a low ratio of Prevotella- to-Bacteroides bacteria did not lose more weight when following the New Nordic Diet. The researchers noted that about half of the population has a higher amount of Prevotella-to-Bacteroides. The interesting thing about these dietary recommendations is that the balance of bacteria can change rapidly in response to the food you eat.
In the US, researchers Dr. Jeffrey I. Gordon and colleagues published a study in the journal, Science Translational Medi- cine. They transplanted human intestinal microbes into germ-free mice and then switched their diet from a low-fat, plant- based one to a more Westernized diet - high in fat and sugars. They found that within one day, obesity-linked microbes were thriving in the gut and the mice eventually became obese. The researchers
also discovered that the guts of the mice on the high-fat, high-sugar diet had more obesity-related gut microbes and genes devoted to extracting calories from food. The genes were "switched on" when the researchers started feeding the mice the Westernized diet. Regardless of the mice's genetic makeup, the high-fat, high-sugar diet increased the abundance of Firmicutes bacteria and reduced the abundance of Bacteroidetes bacteria.
This study is the first to determine that specific gut microbes are heritable and that the variation of these microbes is not solely influenced by diet, environment, lifestyle and health.
6. Soothing Sleep
Your mother likely told you not to eat before bed. It turns out she was right. Numerous studies have provided evidence that too little sleep — less than five hours — messes with your hormones, slows down your metabolism and reprograms your body to eat more. Our circadian rhythm affects our metabolism and vice versa. This doesn't appear as simple as un- derweight people sleep better or are more active than overweight people.
Research from the Leeds Institute of
Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine and the School of Food Science and Nutri- tion, involved 1,615 people ages 19 to 65 in Great Britain. Very simply, people in the study who were sleeping an average of six hours each night had waist measurements about 1.2 inches more than those getting nine hours of sleep a night. Those with less sleep also weighed more. The relationship
between more sleep and smaller waists and a lower body mass index (BMI) appeared to be almost linear.
When you're sleep-deprived, your
body makes more ghrelin and less melato- nin which signals your brain that it's time to eat no matter what time it is and no mat- ter what you're staring at in the refrigerator. Andrew McHill, Ph.D., researcher with the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at BWH, says “These findings suggest that the timing of when you consume calories, relative to your own biological timing may be more important for health than the actual time of sleep."
Melatonin metabolism is complex and simply taking melatonin supplements doesn't always solve the problem. Clini- cally, responses to differences in timing and dose are individual. In a nutshell, get a good night's sleep, don't eat before bed, go to bed early and sleep long.
7. Slow and Steady
According to a new study the key to losing weight and keeping it off is consis- tently losing a small amount each week. Researchers from Drexel University have confirmed that the best way to trim down is to steadily - not drastically - cut down your calories. The researchers studied 183 obese and overweight people aged 18-65, 80% of whom were women, on weight loss programs for a year. The participants who lost a consistent amount of weight week- in and week-out for the first six weeks had lost more weight a year later than the yo-yo dieters, despite the fact that they’d seen more dramatic results in the early
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