Diet & Weight Loss Archive

If you're overweight, particularly around the middle, you may sleep better if you drop a few pounds. A recent study presented at an American Heart Association meeting found that losing weight, especially in your belly, improves the quality of sleep for overweight and obese people.

Weight-sleep connection

Researchers found that people who spent six months following either a combined diet and exercise program or a diet program alone lost an average of 15 pounds, with 15% of it in their bellies. Both groups also experienced improved sleep quality.

Do you have trouble sleeping? If you’re carrying extra pounds, especially around your belly, losing weight and some of that muffin top may help you get better ZZZs. So say researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who presented their findings at this year’s annual meeting of the American Heart Association. In a six-month trial that included 77 overweight volunteers, weight loss through diet plus exercise or diet alone improved sleep. A reduction in belly fat was the best predictor of improved sleep. Among people who are overweight, weight loss can reduce sleep apnea, a nighttime breathing problem that leads to frequent awakenings. Exercise has also been shown to improve sleep quality. Despite what thousands of websites want you to believe, there are no exercises or potions that “melt away” belly fat. Instead, the solution is old-fashioned exercise and a healthy diet.

Carrying extra pounds around your middle could tip the scales toward cardiac disease.

You know you've put on weight when the bathing suit that fit perfectly last summer is now too tight and a lot less flattering. Weight gain is hard on the ego, but it's even harder on your heart—especially when that weight is centered around your middle.

Postmenopausal women who eat fewer desserts and fried foods, drink fewer sugary beverages, eat more fish, and eat at restaurants less often are better able to lose weight and keep it off. Over the long term, eating more fruits and vegetables and less meats and cheeses is also important for weight loss.

Bariatric surgery may significantly reduce a person's odds of developing type 2 diabetes. This stomach procedure that restricts food intake may reduce the long-term incidence of type 2 diabetes in obese individuals.

Many medical studies confirm what we know or suspect. Every once in a while, though, one surprises us, turning “conventional wisdom” on its head. That just happened with the sudden shutdown of a long-running diabetes trial called Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes). Begun in 2001 and scheduled to last another two years, Look AHEAD was designed to see if an intensive diet and weight loss program could reduce the number of heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular problems in people with type 2 diabetes. An early peek at the data showed that the program had little apparent effect, and the investigators concluded it would be futile to continue. This does not mean that we should ignore diet and exercise in treating of type 2 diabetes. Instead, the details of the study results, which haven’t yet been published, are likely to reveal other explanations.

Want to lose weight? Eat three meals a day, have those meals at home, and write down everything you've eaten, reports a study published online in the July Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The study included 123 overweight or obese women, ages 50 to 75, enrolled in a year-long diet and exercise study. Researchers discovered that

• women who consistently kept a food diary lost about six pounds more than those who did not.

• women who often skipped meals lost nearly eight fewer pounds than those who ate three meals a day.

• women who ate out for lunch every week lost five fewer pounds than those who ate in.

This study suggests that eating out in restaurants (where it's harder to control portion sizes) and skipping meals (which may slow metabolism or cause you to eat more calories at your next meal) are counterproductive when you're trying to lose weight. On the other hand, keeping a food journal can help you shed pounds because it forces you to pay closer attention to the foods you're eating.

Before you try these medicines, know what they can do and if they are really for you.

When you have an ear infection or strep throat, you take antibiotics to treat the infection. Yet try to "cure" obesity with a pill, and you'll only end up disappointed. Diet pills can promote modest weight loss—provided you're a good candidate and you use them correctly—but they aren't for women who just need to lose a few pounds, and they won't magically melt away fat.

New research finds it effective, but is it safe?

What's the secret to staying young at heart? A new study published in the journal Aging Cell found that restricting your calorie intake may keep your heart acting like one that's 20 years younger. "Restriction of calories leads to weight loss over time. Weight loss is associated with several well-known medical benefits, such as reduced risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol—all risk factors for the development of heart disease," explains Dr. Deepak Bhatt, an interventional cardiologist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School.

Losing weight sometimes takes experimentation. If you give a diet your best shot and it doesn't work long term, maybe it wasn't the right one for you, your metabolism, or your situation. Genes, family, your environment — even your friends — influence how, why, what, and how much you eat, so don't get too discouraged or beat yourself up because a diet that "worked for everybody" didn't pay off for you. Try another, keeping in mind that almost any diet will help you shed pounds — at least for a short time.

Here's a look at three common diet approaches.