The most popular New Year’s resolution Americans make is to lose weight.[1]
The cruel truth is this: The overwhelming majority will fail.
Studies show that the failure rate of all New Year’s resolutions is 80%. And a resolution to lose weight through dieting may have even less of a chance at success. A whopping 95% of all diets fail to help people get slimmer.[2] [3]
But we’re about to tell you something that could help you become one of the few who actually is successful. It’s something scientists have known for years…
There is one single best predictor of success among people trying to lose weight, according to metabolic researchers.
It’s not type of diet they do…
Or whether they cut carbs or fat…
Or what time of day they eat…
Or how much exercise they do.
It’s this…
People who lose weight keep track of what they eat.
Although it sounds unpleasant and time consuming to log everything you eat, a major study shows it’s far easier than you think.
The research was done at the University of Vermont and the University of South Carolina.[4]
Professor Jean Harvey was lead author. She noted that people generally hate diet self-monitoring. “They think it’s onerous and awful,” she said.
The study included 142 people who wanted to lose weight. The subjects were asked to use an online program to log everything they ate.
After six months, the most successful dieters in the study lost at least 10% of their body weight. So a 200-pound man would have lost at least 20 pounds, a great result by any measure.[5]
Professor Harvey said dieters “who self-monitored three or more times a day and were consistent day after day” were the most successful.[6]
And these successful dieters did not find it time consuming to track what they ate. It took them an average of 23 minutes at day at first. But by the end of the study, it took less than 15 minutes.
Another recent study, this one from Duke University, had similar results. It found that people who used a phone app to log their food consumption lost more weight than others—and kept it off longer.[7]
The bottom line?
Keeping a daily diet log is a powerful weight loss tool. And it’s less bother than you might believe.
Log in for Optimal Weight Loss
Excellent free diet-logging apps include FatSecret, MyFitnessPal, Lose It!, and Yazio.
There are also websites that provide the same service. Free ones include Cron-o-meter and SparkPeople.
If you want to go the low-tech route, simply write down what you eat in a notebook.
A food diary should include:
- How much you ate measured in ounces or number of items (five tortilla chips, for instance).
- The type of food.
- What time you ate.
Use whatever diet and exercise program you want, but know this…
The best way to control your weight is to know what goes into your body.
Editor’s Note: If you’re trying to slim down, don’t fall for the calorie cutting myth. Calories don’t drive weight gain. Something else does. And it’s easy to control. Discover more by reading The Weight-Loss-for-Life Protocol.
It’s in Independent Healing, the monthly newsletter that deciphers the latest science to bring you unbiased medical information that can transform your health. Find out more HERE.
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[1] https://www.dhs.gov/employee-resources/blog/2020/01/07/new-years-resolutions
[2] https://www.inc.com/marla-tabaka/why-set-yourself-up-for-failure-ditch-new-years-resolution-do-this-instead.html
[3] https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/information/anorexia/a-whopping-95-of-all-diets-fail-is-it-anorexia-in-the-making
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30801989
[5] https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-02/uov-itm021919.php
[6] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324562.php
[7] https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-02/du-tfl022819.php