10 Evidence Based Diet Tactics

In a one hour BBC Scotland documentary back in 2009, they took Michael Mosely through 10 science based strategies for effective dieting.  (Watch Here). Turns out it was not very effective with Michael Mosely and he went onto a Eat Fast Live program in 2012; which he said is more enduring. As I was writing this book these issues are discussed in more detail, but this hour long documentary might be a very good introduction to the ideas. They don’t discuss why diets fail, but the 10 tactics are a good basis of what tactics can work. 

1. Eat breakfast. Don’t skip meals. The reason is explained in more detail in the documentary and in Chapter 23 in my book. One of the hunger hormones, ghrelin, is produced in the stomach. If you are hungry it turns on the hyperthalmus, and your mind starts to really react to calorie dense food.   So you eat more.
2. Reduce the plate size. Move from a 30cm (12″) to a 25cm (10″). You will eat 22% less food.
3. Swap calories. Basically, people do not know what they eat. The average male can eat 2400, the female 2,000 calories per day. Then make choices to have the lower calorie option. E.g. Black coffee. 20 calories. Latte. 80 calories. Have 3 per day. That is 220 less calories. Eat a pizza with 1/2 the calories with simple choices.
4. You do not have sluggish metabolism. You actually cheat.  You snack.  When researchers  looked at overweight people who said they had slow metabolism, it turned out they thought they ate about 1100 calories. When they wrote it down, they discovered they were eating 2000 calories, and when researchers reordered what they ate it was 3000 calories.   It is possible to eat to eat a few snacks or supersize your healthy food portions and take your daily intake to an obesity inducing weight.
5. Eat protein. Protein dampens down appetite. Even swapping out 15% less carbs for 15% more protein will make a difference. It is due to this PPY hormonal process.
6. Eat soup and bulk. Same calories, one whole food and 1 glass of water, or a soup with the food and water mixed up – hunger was delayed for  2 hours more.
7. Choice. Do not go to buffets. If there is a choice, you will eat 30% more.
8. Have more dairy. Turns out you excrete more fat in your poo. Over a year it adds up – over 2kg. So yoghurt, butter, milk, cheese to the rescue
9. Exercise creates an “afterburn” effect. 90 minutes on a treadmill will burn 161 calories or 19gm of fat. Not much for that exercise. But then over the next 24hours the body burns fat of up to a further 50gm. So do not eat more, and let your sleep make your exercise pay off. If you compensate by a treat (fruit juice, smoothy) you waste that possible afterburn effect.
10. Keep moving. Decrease your time on your bum. Walk the stairs, walk to the next bus stop, stand up when you can. Do not sit for longer then 20 minutes.  That will burn 12kg over a year (providing you don’t compensate.

So these 10 tactics are science based. They are based around the biochemistry and endocrinology, and tend to ignore the mental and the social factors. Which is why they fail.