10 Things You Need to Know About Losing Weight

I watched an excellent programme on BBC1 last night called 10 Things You Need to Know About Losing Weight, in which medical journalist Michael Mosley investigated the latest scientific breakthroughs in slimming.  He uncovered 10 of the simplest ways to shed unwanted pounds.

This show was well researched and had lots of studies to support claims that were made.  Two points which I found most interesting were

• The Slimming Secrets of Soup A study carried out for the programme found that people who had a solid meal followed by a glass of water became hungry before others who had the same meal but it had been blended into a soup along with the water.  This is because the blended meal stays in the stomach for longer and in turn the stomach tell the brain that you are still full.  This is great to know because there is such a variety of soups on the market and soup is also relatively easy, cheap and quick to make at home.  Click on this link for some tasty ideas http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/collections/healthy_soup_recipes

• The Brains response after skipping meals Many people skip meals and believe that it will help them to consume less calories throughout the day.  The BBC did an experiment for the show 10 Things You Need to Know About Losing Weight and found that skipping meals actually does the opposite and causes us to eat more.  When we skip meals our bodies release a hormone called ghrelin which sends a message to the brain that our stomachs are empty, and also promotes fat storage.  Ghrelin tells our brains that we are starving and triggers us to want high calorie foods in order to compensate for the missed meal.  Once we eat the high calorie food because we are so hungry, our bodies then hold onto all of the fat and store it.  This links into my previous "Healthy Eating" post where I mentioned that you should not allow yourself to get hungry.  It leads to bad food choices and has a negative effect in the long run.

The 10 things that you need to know about losing weight are:

1. Don't skip meals.
2. Use a smaller plate
3. Count calories
4. Don't blame your metabolism
5. Protein staves off hunger pangs
6. Soups keep you feeling fuller for longer.
7. The wider the choice of foods the more you eat.
8. Low fat dairy helps you excrete more fat.
9. Exercise continues burning fat, even while you sleep.
10. Keep moving and lose weight.

If you missed this programme you will be able to view it on BBC iPlayer www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ksh7c/10_Things_You_Need_to_Know_About_Losing_Weight/
It is well worth watching.