PULLMAN, Wash.–Diet and exercise have long been the top two elements of effective weight loss. Now add a third: reading the labels on packaged foods.
What’s more important: an extra hour of sleep or getting up early to exercise?
Most weight-loss plans center around a balance between caloric intake and energy expenditure. However, new research has shed light on a new factor that is necessary to shed pounds: timing. Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), in collaboration with the University of Murcia and Tufts University, have found that it’s not simply what you eat, but also when you eat, that may help with weight-loss regulation.
People who have lost 10 percent or more of their body weight are more likely to avoid regaining 5 pounds or more if they weigh themselves regularly, especially daily. In a study conducted by Rena Wing of Brown University Medical School in Providence, R.I., 61 percent of those who weighed themselves daily maintained their loss within a 5-pound range after a year and a half. Only 32 percent of those who weighed themselves less frequently were similarly successful.
It’s no secret that on average Americans are getting heavier, and it isn’t from muscle weight.