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Home » Long Term Weight Loss » 2 Science-Backed Strategies to Avoid Long-Term Weight Gain

With weight gain, slow and steady is the common pacewe often look back, wondering: How did I get to this weight? Long-term weight gain typically happens at a miniscule 1-2 pounds per year, which can snowball into something substantial as we age. Fad diets lure us with the promise of rapid weight loss, but researchers are looking at it from a different angle: Can changing what we eat stop long-term steady weight gain?

What the Science Says

Scientists from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy did a study using data collected from 120,784 healthy, non-obese, middle-age participants in three well-established cohorts: Nurses Health Study, Nurses Health Study II, Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Data was collected at every four-year period for 16 to 24 years.

Researchers were interested in how participants diet quality affected their trend in weight gain. Without altering anyones food intake, the researchers looked at what participants consumed, with a focus on protein and the glycemic load (GL)two measures of diet quality. Then, they examined how changes in participants weight corresponded to diet quality. Why?

High-protein foods (think meats, dairy, nuts, beans) are thought to help with weight loss because of their ability to promote satiety, spare lean muscle mass, and help offset the slow in metabolism. GL was used because it reveals both carbohydrate quality and quantity. The more popular glycemic index (GI) is used to assess how a food will increase your blood sugar, but this doesnt account for the amount of the food that you eat. GL accounts for both the foods GI and portion eaten. High GL foods (think refined carbs) are thought to make weight gain more likely because they make your blood sugar rise rapidlyleading to insulin release, which favors fat storage.

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Weighty Findings

Once the data was collected, the researchers could then summarize associations, also known as data trends, between certain types of food and weight gain or loss. Here are some of their weightier findings:

Keep in mind that the results of this study are associations meant to show relationships between diet quality and weight gain or loss. This does not confirm that particular diet types cause weight gain or loss. Nonetheless, these relationships are still important, given that were looking at a large group of participants over the course of decades.

Whats the Takeaway?

This study confirms that the quality of your diet matters for keeping your weight in check over a long period of time. A balanced diet rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables will help you maintain a low glycemic load. Choosing lean protein sources like chicken, fish, nut butter and low-fat cheese will reduce the amount of fatparticularly saturated fatin your diet. Both glycemic load and protein type are indicators of your diet quality, and will affect your weight.

Its apparent that a calorie is not a calorie in this case, so do calories still count when it comes to weight loss? The answer is a resounding Yes! Even though the study focused on diet quality, this is just one factor out of many that affect our weight. To be successful at maintaining a healthy weight, both the number of calories consumed and the quality of those calories matters.

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2 Science-Backed Strategies to Avoid Long-Term Weight Gain

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Home » Long Term Weight Loss » 2 Science-Backed Strategies to Avoid Long-Term Weight Gain