Promotion of dietary carbohydrate as an approach to weight maintenance after initial weight loss: a pilot study

Abstract

Correspondence T. Kirk,Aim To test a novel approach to weight management based on positive advice to eat more carbohydrate-rich foods.Methods Twenty-nine overweight/mildly obese male and female volunteers were recruited. For a 2-week period they were required to replace one main meal each day with a serving of breakfast cereal. This was followed by 4 weeks eating adlib on a high-carbohydrate regime. Each subject, who acted as his/her own control, kept a 3-day unweighed food diary at baseline, 2 weeks and 6 weeks. Anthropometric measurements were made at each stage.Results Twenty-two subjects completed the study. Mean weight loss at 2 weeks was 2.0 kg, a statistically significant reduction, which was maintained at 6 weeks. Significant changes in mean energy intake (2 2.29 MJ day 21 ), in percentage energy from carbohydrate (+ 8%) and from fat (± 11%) were observed after 2 weeks, and remained significant at the end of the study. ConclusionsThe results of this pilot study show that replacing a main meal with breakfast cereal led to moderate weight loss, and a follow-up high-carbohydrate phase enabled weight loss to be sustained. We suggest that this regime has potential for further investigation and that promotion of carbohydrate-rich foods should be part of public health messages for weight control.

Systematic reviews of and integrated report on the quantitative, qualitative and economic evidence base for the management of obesity in men

“…140,146,155 It was not clear whether or not any advice on behaviour change was given in these studies. All of the remaining studies discussed in this chapter provided dietary and exercise advice and behaviour change training, and four of these also provided an exercise programme to attend.…”

“…Of the mixed-sex reports, seven were retrospective cohort studies with follow-up periods ranging from 12 weeks 150 to 24 months. 31 We included two prospective cohort studies, 31,155 which reported data for men at 6 weeks and 12 months respectively. Four reports were of studies using male-orientated sports settings to facilitate recruitment and intervention delivery; two involved four Scottish Premier League (SPL) football clubs 138,141 and two involved one Rugby League club.…”

Weight management using a meal replacement strategy: meta and pooling analysis from six studies

“…From a potential list of 276 publications, 30 met the criteria as a meal replacement and 20 were eliminated for reasons listed in the Appendix. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] Of the remaining 10, four were eliminated for lack of a prospective control arm and six met the criteria for analysis: (1) PMR according to the stated definition, (2) randomized trial comparing PMR to a traditional low calorie diet plan, (3) study duration 43 months, (4) subjects 418 y, (5) no selfreported data included. In the fifth study (ULM), the control group followed an RCD for the first 3 months and then the PMR plan for the subsequent 9 months of treatment.…”

Effect of two breakfasts, different in carbohydrate composition, on hunger and satiety and mood in healthy men

“…[4][5][6] Weight loss and food consumption of low-glycemic index (GI) food or of carbohydrates have been speculated to improve obesity as well as insulin resistance. [6][7][8] In general, the fat consumption has decreased in the western societies, and therefore the rise in prevalence of obesity needs to be explained by other dietary and environmental factors, for example the increase of simple carbohydrates and the decrease in physical activity. The effect of consumption of a low-fat diet on body weight reduction and on HDL-cholesterol decrease has been debated before, 9,10 illustrating that specific food consumption might have positive as well as negative effects.…”