Study: Eating less is not the best method to lose weight

According to recent research that was just published in the journal Appetite, when it comes to dieting, what you eat has a greater impact on your calorie consumption than how much food you consume.

The new study was conducted by Faris Zuraikat, a doctoral student in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Pennsylvania State University, and it is the result of a 1-year randomized controlled experiment that looked at the effects of various food quantities on weight reduction.

The earlier study sought to investigate the so-called "portion size effect," which happens when people are given larger quantities than they requested but nevertheless eat more food.

In order to do this, the prior study taught the participants how to exert more control over their portions and provided them with practical portion control tools.

The purpose of this new trial study was to determine whether persons who had previously received portion control training would react differently from untrained individuals to rising portion sizes.

Researchers "[were] particularly interested in whether those untrained individuals with overweight and obesity or normal weight changed in their response," according to the study's first author.

Calorie consumption and the impact of portion size

To find out, the researchers gathered three groups of women: 39 women with overweight and obese who had taken part in the portion-controlling trial, 29 healthy "control" women who had a regular weight and had not taken part in the previous trial, and 34 women who were overweight but had not taken part in it.

Every woman in the study had identical foods once per week for four weeks, but the portions got bigger in random order.

Furthermore, and maybe more importantly, there were variations in the food's caloric composition. The menu included both high-calorie dishes like garlic bread and low-calorie foods like salads.

According to the study, the ladies in all three groups ate more when given larger servings.

However, the group that had received portion management instruction in the earlier experiment ingested fewer calories than the untrained group.

The authors state that meals with a higher proportion of lower-[energy density] foods than controls were to blame for the trained participants' decreased energy consumption.

The study's principal author adds that although each group received the same meals, their culinary preferences varied. “The participants who went through the training consumed more of the lower calorie-dense foods and less of the higher calorie-dense foods than the untrained controls.”

“Consequently, trained participants’ calorie intake was less than that of the control groups, whose intake didn’t differ by weight status.”

Why it's crucial to choose low-calorie foods

The results demonstrate that picking healthy, lower-calorie-dense foods was more effective and sustainable than just attempting to avoid sizable quantities of higher-calorie options, according to the study's main researcher, who also explains the relevance of the findings.

As Zuraikat continues, “If you choose high-calorie-dense foods but restrict the amount that you’re eating, portions will be too small, and you’re likely to get hungry,”

Co-author of the study and Penn State professor of nutritional sciences Barbara Rolls adds her two cents.

“The study supports the idea that eating less of the higher-calorie-dense foods and more of the nutritious, lower-calorie-dense foods can help to manage hunger while consuming fewer calories.”

Barbara Rolls

She continues, “You still have a full plate ... but you’re changing the proportions of the different types of foods.”

Given that people who wish to lose weight are frequently advised to eat "a bit of everything," as long as it is done in moderation, the findings are especially noteworthy.

Instead, a new study seems to indicate that choosing more nutrient-dense, calorie-reduced foods is much more crucial than attempting to eat less.