Harvard says one of my doctors was right. When I was in my late twenties I had 10 pounds I couldn’t lose, no matter what. As now, popular diets abounded and I asked my doctor what she recommended. “Eat little,” she said. I remember this because she was both willowy and unconcerned and because I was already subsisting on bunny food.
Now a two-year clincial trial by the Harvard School of Public Health, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, concludes a heart-healthy diet, and keeping the amounts down, matter most. Dr. Frank M. Sacks, the study’s lead author, told the Boston Globe, “It’s not so important whether they eat higher carbohydrates or higher protein or lower carbohydrates or lower protein. What really matters is just plain, simple old quantity: how much people eat.”
The study involved 811 men and women who were randomly assigned one of four heart-healthy, reduced-calorie diets with different fat, carb and protein levels. All pledged to exercise 90 minutes per week and were asked to attend group sessions for support. They all lost weight and inches no matter which of the diets they followed. The 80% who stuck it out the full two years averaged a weight loss of 13 pounds in the first six months and kept off nine pounds by the end. Those who also attended the group sessions lost significantly more.
The diets all cut calories by 750 per day, with a minimum daily intake of 1,200. “It’s just the calories that count,” Dr. Sacks said, adding, “The further diet is from a person’s customary intake, the harder it is to stick with it in the long term.”
In other words, eat familiar foods we like but less of them. Just like my skinny doctor said.
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Well, duh. Occam’s razor meets the diet-food industry. The year I took off 20 pounds (and kept it off for two years until Ike, when anxiety-eating started again) I had a simple note tacked to my computer. It said, “Fewer calories. More exercise”.
Now, the note’s back and I’m on track. Glad to see that Harvard and the NEJM have decided to get on board!
shoreacres’s last blog post..Watching Comet Lulin
Well, duh. HAHAHA! Well, you’d think so, but I know several people who are eating foods they hate and denying themselves foods they like, just because of South Beach or Atkins or whatever. Some are terrified — and that’s not an exaggeration — that a carb might sneak into their mouths. So if this study is right and a calorie is a calorie (which I heard years ago from another study) then they have no need to continue being miserable. Which is ironic, since losing weight was supposed to make them happier.
Oy. I love that you put your note on the computer, not the fridge. I’m going to follow your example. The sitting in front of the keyboard does me in. It was so easy in NY when I walked everywhere. Here, if I want to go for a good, long walk, I have to drive somewhere first.
One thing that could help would be to eat off of smaller plates and bowls. And eat foods that make you chew more so you take longer to finish.
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Those are excellent tips, Nate. I know they work because I’ve done both of them! A big glass of water about 30 minutes before a meal is another good helper and it’s good for our skin and bodies too.
I forgot to mention – I’m enjoying the changes from day to day in the appearance of your blog. Just when I get used to denim, there’s silky smooth chocolate brown!
shoreacres’s last blog post..Watching Comet Lulin
Thanks, Shore! I love brown and bllue together. Everything that came before the brown paper bag header that’s here now was a placeholder till I got the look I was after. I actually created the last one from pixels until I found a bag good enough to scan. The life of an insomniac…
I still have one more change (to the nav tabs) and I keep changing my mind about what I want to do. It’ll be a challenge, whatever I decide on so cross your fingers. If they’re missing someday, I blew it.
I thought, well duh, too. But you made some excellent points.
And yes, the site looks wonderful!
Vivian J. Paige’s last blog post..What Matters February editorial roundtable
Thanks, Vivian, on both counts! I know you know what I went through, although my bare-bones start wasn’t as bare as yours.
Bon appetit!
I’ve actually done better than ever logging calories and eating whatever I want within those calories, so HERE, HERE! Wish it hadn’t taken so long to figure it out, but you’re right on getting sidetracked by so many diet ideas. (((((HUGS))))) sandi
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{{{{Sandi}}}} – Congratulations and keep up the good work! You know what the study results, and the extra success of those who went to support meetings, made me think of? Weight Watchers. Calories, meetings and they’ve been around forever. They must be doing something right.
Sooo good to see you!
I’ve read several reports of the “new” findings now, and I’m amazed by their breathless tone. It’s another example of re-discovering the obvious.
In the ’50s and ’60s, no self-respecting woman would have been caught without her calorie counter in her purse. Those little volumes let you calculate the calories in that fruit-and-cottage-cheese-platter or a hamburger and fries in mere seconds. You could see those booklets being consulted under restaurant tables for years. Matter of fact, my mom still has hers!
shoreacres’s last blog post..Watching Comet Lulin
Shore, you know as well as I do there’s money in writing a diet book that catches on, and that goes back decades. We’re obsessed with dieting from an early age. Got any book ideas? We can collaborate and buy lots of chocolate.
My mom had one of those little calorie books too. And boy, do I remember the “cottage cheese and overcooked burger without a bun” plate she always ordered when I could persuade her to have lunch at a dime store when we were shopping on Saturdays. No wonder she objected.
I dunno about breathless, but I do know one of us is already #5 at the old G search engine for harvard study calorie, right behind CNN, Harvard itself twice and some low carb newsletter. I’ll take that.
You’ve got google juice! How many calories in that? As for breathless, imagine me when I did a search for “the task at hand” and found myself #1, above the Int’l Herald Tribune, American Spectator, Barrons and Haaretz Israel News. I gave myself an extra cup of coffee and five minutes of self-congratulation. (Well, plus this, of course.)
OK. Now I’m off to use up some of those calories.
shoreacres’s last blog post..Watching Comet Lulin
One calorie, I think. Remember the old Tab jingle that went One calorie less than Tab is water. One calorie more than water is Tab? That’s g juice.
#1 is fun — congrats. A couple of my recipes are #1 but they’ve been around a while and have had time to get there. I’m really surprised by how quickly this one placed so high. Go figure!
That’s a great, clear message — almost Newtonian in its thermodynamic simplicity, and yet it’s amazing how often it’s misunderstood. I can still remember my grandfather eating lettuce after a meal because he thought ’slimming food’ would help him lose weight.
The most staggering aspect here, and the reason for all those millions of failed diets, is the sheer timescale of the willpower required. As someone who exercises a lot (in order to be able to eat) it still astounds me how the energy input and expenditure equation works. Running or walking a mile is around 100-140 calories. A pound of weight is equivalent to 3500 excess calories. Which means you have to walk or run around 30 miles to lose a single pound (ignoring the temporary dehydration effects).
Taking 500-700 calories out of your diet (which is hard) will see you lose just over a pound a week, or maybe 2 kg a month. And few people can stick with a diet even for that long.
On the other hand, consuming 100 calories fewer a day every day for a whole year (which sounds easy, but is still quite tricky in the longer term) will save you 36,500 calories or just over 10 pounds (close to 5 kg) in a year. That’s just one fewer glass of fruit juce a day — proving just how slow and steady is the most effective way to lasting weight loss.
Right then. There are (still) only 364 days to go.
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Your logic (and math) is impeccable and time and again, my whole life really, I’ve heard that slow and steady wins this race. Yet I, like millions, hope for some magic solution that’s easy, fast and sustainable. And of course, it doesn’t exist. I’m reminded of Nathan Lane’s line in The Birdcage about his yo-yoing weight, that he’s gained and lost 100 pounds (or 200?) over the years and it’s true for so many. I wish I had a dollar for every pound lost and put back on, one pound here and five there in either direction.
100 calories a day is realistic, achievable so many ways, whether by eating less or moving more. The two taken together seem surefire, if slow.
You probably saw yesterday’s Guardian piece on marathons and nutrition but if not, or for anyone else interested, it’s here.
Thanks for your comment. Great perspective.
Ooooh. Thanks for the link. The sun is out, and the daffodils are smiling in St James’ Park this week just across the finish line from the London Marathon. Sadly no place in the ballot for me, yet again, but my feet can’t walk by that spot at this time of year without hopping in excitement.
You’re welcome. Here, we’ve forgotten what sun is and the daffodils are still under a lot of snow and I always wonder why the Boston Marathon isn’t switched from Patriot’s Day in April to some other day when the weather might be more hospitable.