1 March 2009

Move It & Lose It with Prof Trim

Why weekends can be the worst enemy of weight loss
For many people (men in particular), the week’s eating, exercise and lifestyle pattern is quite different to that on the weekend. Attitudes and behaviour tend to be a little more relaxed towards the end of the week with socialising and less constraint on over-indulgence. So does this matter in the grand scheme of things for weight loss?

[EATING]

According to a group of researchers from Washington University School of Medicine, it does. In a study published in Obesity they compared weight loss on a calorie restricted diet with that on a one year long exercise program with 48 healthy adults over one year. When they found less than expected weight losses in both groups, they couldn’t understand why, as weight measured during the week seemed to be going in the right direction.

On closer examination, the researchers found that while weight decreased from Monday to Friday, it actually stayed stable on Saturday and Sunday to compensate for this in the calorie restricted (CR) group, and increased in the exercise group. It was shown that this was because the CR group increased their food intake on weekends, while the exercise group did less exercise on Sundays than any other day.

It should be a warning to those taking on a different persona from Friday to Sunday.

[GARRY EGGER]
Dr Garry Egger aka Prof Trim

For more information on weight loss for men, check out Professor Trim.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am a dietitian and to help clients with the "anything goes" policy on the weekend, I suggest they weigh themselves Friday and Monday morning to check the damage!

Anonymous said...

I too am a dietitian and I believe this attitude can perpetuate the "diet" mentality and yo-yo struggle that so many experience.

I feel teaching people to LIVE a healthy lifestyle 24/7, 7 days a week; which means making conscious food choices that make them FEEL GOOD all the time- and does sometimes include making conscious decisions to indulge- is a healthy, balanced approach...

Just my thoughts...

Kiwi girl said...

I'm about to start the 12 week action plan after reading the low GI diet. I am very enthusiastic but have one question I'm hoping I might get some help with. I have read some of the posts about home made bread. I am finding it hard to understand why you can buy a low GI bread from the supermarket or bakery but there are no low GI bread recipes. Surely if the shops can make them I can too??
Any help would be appreciated please.

Kiwi girl said...

Sorry, I posted in the wrong place and don't know how to remove this...

GI Group said...

Hi Kiwi Girl. We have sent this to the authors of the Low GI Diet and will post a reply asap. The problem is refined flour ...We have thrown the challenge out there for the home cook over the years, but so far no one has come up with a recipe that would be likely to be low GI.Stay tuned.

GI Group said...

Hi Kiwi Girl, There's a breakfast fruit loaf on page 24 of The Low GI Diet Cookbook, but we imagine you are looking for bread you can use for toast or sandwiches etc. Sorry, no one has a recipe that we are 100 per cent confident is low GI. The good news is that Prof Jennie Brand-Miller is going to make this project (a low GI homemade bread) an assignment for one of her student's next semester. So keep watching this space and meanwhile good luck with the 12-week plan.

Kiwi girl said...

Thank you so much. Hopefully there will be a recipe soon. I really appreciate that someone is going to research this. I will keep checking to see if a recipe is posted.

GI Group said...

Dear Kiwi Girl, Do keep reading GI News each issue, but I don't think we will see the bread recipe until much later in the year.