Ten Things You Need to Know About Losing Weight BBC1 Wednesday 27th May 2009

Losing weight is a problem
Losing weight is a problem

Ten Things You Need to Know About Losing  Weight was an interesting review of scientific approaches to help you lose weight.

One thing that caught my eye in the preview in the Radio Time swas an alternative to the Body Mass Index (BMI).  According to Mosley your waist should be less than half your height.  Metrics don’t come much simpler than that.  You don’t even need a tape measure – you could work it out with a piece of string.   He was 85Kg and 5’11” when he started the programme and had to lose 5kg.  As it happens I am exactly the same dimensions that he was so I was very interested.  I followed the programme on Twitter- here are my tweets

Dangerous fat you can’t see – as if we werent worried enough already
Inner visceral fat is around your vital organs and you can only see it with a scanner
Visceral fat releases chemicals that can cause heart disease, cancer and type II diabetes
The good news is that it is easy to get rid of by dieting
The bad news is you have to diet or exercise to get rid of it
I am beginning to regret having a sandwich just before the programme started
If you skip breakfast you are hungry and you want high calorie food
And it is unconscious – you aren’t even aware of it
The practical tip is that you shouldn’t skip meals
Here is a really obvious tip – use smaller plates
Cinema audiences given larger tubs of popcorn ate more
Studies have found you can eat 21% less food with smaller plates
They are counting calories now
Small changes to your diet can have big impacts on the number of calories you eat
They are talking to an attractively plump actress now who can’t lose weight despite dieting and exercise
They are measuring her metabolic rate now
Her metabolic rate is normal
She is keeping a food diary – she really is game isn’t she!
And they can monitor her intake with some clever testing
There is a big discrepancy between what she thought she ate and what she did eat
It seems that we all tend to forget what we eat during the day
It seems that protein suppresses hunger
They are giving some workers different breakfasts. All the same number of calories, but different types of food
The protein rich breakfast kept the worker hunger free for longer
Now they have two teams being given the same meal, but one made into a soup
The ones on the soup didn’t get hungry so quickly
So there you have it -soup is a good way to keep full
Two bowls of sweets – multicoloured ones in one, monochrome in the other
The multicoloured ones were eaten much quicker
Investigating dairy products now
Calcium in the diet binds with fat in your stomach making it impossible for the body to absorb it
Exercise doesn’t burn much fat at the time – but it seems there is an afterburn
During exercise you burn carbohydrates, and then you lose fat when your body replaces it
The exercise works for about 24 hours afterwards
Dieting doesn’t work for the very obvious reason that it makes you feel hungry.  The key is managing your appetite.  Protein seems to be a good appetite suppressant, so eggs for breakfast is recommended.  I hadn’t realised that the body’s fat burning mechanism remains elevated for a while after exercise.  A morning walk can have benefits all day by the sound of it.  I was also unaware of the link between being overweight and snoring.  The cut off is a neck size of 16″.   I find this one a bit surprising as I have always snored even when I definitely was not overweight.

All in all it sounds very intrigueing so I will be tuning in, and will tweet my thoughts on #bbcweightloss – you can follow me on http://twitter.com/beautyscientist

The programme is promising lots of practical tips which is what I always like.

Thanks to Erin McConnell for the image of the hungry woman.  I have posted quite a loss on weight loss – here are my earlier thoughts:

Dieting the Beauty Scientist Way

Can Caffeine help you slim?

Another bit of the jigsaw on dieting

Does eating sugar give you wrinkles?

Huge Lips Skinny Hips

Can appetite suppressants help you lose weight?

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