It’s not surprising that people are still trying to figure out the best diet for weight loss. Weight loss is something many people struggle with, and every year we see a new “weight loss plan” or diet that promises success…but they all seem to fade out like the ones before them.
But don’t give up hope, because real weight loss success exists.
Can you guess what diet guarantees weight loss success?
THE BEST DIET FOR WEIGHT LOSS
In 2017, a group of researchers in New Zealand published the BROAD study. In this study, they brought a whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) diet to the poorest region of the country with the highest obesity rates. For 12 weeks of semi-weekly classes, they advised on how to eat a low-fat diet centered around fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.
The WFPB diet is defined as an eating pattern that minimizes the intake of meat, eggs, dairy, and processed food (junk food), and maximizes the consumption of WFPB foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes (beans, split peas, chickpeas, and lentils), whole grains, nuts and seeds, mushrooms, and herbs and spices.
Sometimes this diet is confused with being a vegetarian or vegan, but they are not the same thing.
Many vegetarians fill their plates and stomachs with the types of foods mentioned above. However, some have diets that omit meat but include “fake meats,” and include fried foods, and are heavy in fats, oils, and junk foods like cookies and candies. (This is why you can be a vegetarian and still be incredibly unhealthy!)
THE RESULTS OF THE WFPB ON WEIGHT LOSS
Even without restriction on portions and being able to freely eat all the healthy food they wanted, those in the study lost an average of 19 lbs by the end of three months of the study.
The really amazing part is that six months later, they were down….
27 lbs!
How did this group lose so much weight and manage to keep it off?
A whole-food, plant-based diet achieved the greatest weight loss ever recorded at both six and twelve months compared to any other such interventions published in the medical literature.
How does the WFPB help us live longer?
This lifestyle of eating WFPB may help prevent each of our top fifteen killers:
(1) heart disease, (2) lung diseases, (3) iatrogenic (“death by doctor”), (4) brain diseases, (5) digestive cancers, (6) infections, (7) diabetes, (8) high blood pressure, (9) liver diseases, (10) blood cancers, (11) kidney disease, (12) breast cancer, (13) suicidal depression (14) prostate cancer, and (15) Parkinson’s disease.
The recorded breaking study can be read in full for free at www.nature.com/articles/nutd20173
HOW CAN YOU ACHIEVE PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS?
Permanent weight loss requires permanent dietary changes. Healthier habits need to become a way of life.
Want more information on permanent weight loss? There’s a great in-depth read called How Not To Diet written by Dr. Michael Greger. He’s the author of How Not to Die from Cancer, which I wrote about last year. You can read that article here.
His book, How Not to Diet, is definitely worth a read if you want to understand the science of permanent weight loss and why in a world filled with “cutting-edge diets” we still have high rates of obesity, cancer, heart disease, and inflammatory diseases.
When you consider WFPB as a weight-loss strategy, it’s extremely effective. But when you think about the long-term positive effects it will have on your life? It’s amazing!