Research from Cornell University shows that keeping your lollies out of site can curb candy consumption. The candy munching patterns of 40 female secretaries where examined to see whether the proximity and visibility of candy influenced how much they ate. When the candy was visible, the office workers ate 2.2 more candies each day. The office workers ate 1.8 candies when they were placed on their desk compared to being placed two metres away.

Of interest, the authors noted was the trend for subjects to underestimate how many candies they ate from their desk, but overestimate how many eaten two from metres away.

Reference: The Office Candy Dish: Proximity's influence on estimated and actual consumption. Wansink, B. etal, International Journal of Obesity & Metabolic Disorders, 17 Jan 2006.

Take Home: Two more lollies a day may not seem like much, but the calories can add up over time. If you have candy in the house or office cover it up and keep it out of reach.Better still, replace the candy dish with a fruit bowl and you might find you eat more of these healthy snacks.

To analyse the effects of potion size and energy density on energy intake, Professor Barbara Rolls and her team at Penn State University reduced both portion sizes and the calorie content of meals and snacks by one quarter over a two-day period.

When the 24 young women cut portions, they ate 10% less calories each day (231 Cal/d). Cutting energy in foods resulted in a 24% calorie reduction (575 Cal/d). Reducing both portions and energy density had a greater affect and without a significant increase in hunger.

Based on these results and knowing that 1kg of fat contains 7700 Cal, it would only take around 10 days to lose 1kg of fat by using the 25% calorie and potion downsizing strategy in this study.

Reference: Reductions in portion size and energy density of foods are additive and lead to sustained decreases in energy intake. Rolls, B. etal, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 83, No. 1, 11-17 Jan 2006.

Take Home: Small savings on portions and energy can cut daily calories You'll be less likely to feel hungry with small changes and therefore more likely to stick to your diet.

The oft-repeated health message tells us that walking 10,000 steps a day is the minimum necessary to prevent reaching unhealthy weight levels. So it's no surprise that a study has quantified the weight control benefits of activity at different daily step levels.

Professor Terry Dwyer and his team at Melbourne's Murdoch Children's Research Institute analysed the data on diet, TV time, physical activity, smoking and other information gathered from 1126 men and women in six Tasmanian census districts who had completed the 1999-2000 AusDiab questionnaire. Weight, waist circumference and BMI measures were also taken.

The participants wore a pedometer for two weekdays, a measure accepted as 89 per cent reliable as a gauge of normal activity.

The main result revealed was that walking more steps each day is most beneficial in terms of body weight and associated health outcomes for those not already active. The greatest impact of increasing the number of steps a person walks each day is going to come when physical activity is already low as the following figures show.

The difference between an average 2000 and 4000 steps daily was 2.8 cm in waist circumference for men, and 2.2 cm for women. However, the difference between an average of 10,000 and 12,000 steps a day was 0.7 cm for men and 0.6 cm for women.

The researchers point out that their study is based on survey data which compares step level between different groups. To verify these findings we need to see a study that takes all the before and after measurements and asks people to add 2000 steps to their day and see what happens.

Reference: The inverse relationship between number of steps per day and obesity in a population-based sample: the AusDiab study. Dwyer, T., etal, International Journal of Obesity, Vol 31, No. 5, May 2007.

Take Home: If you are a couch potatoe, adding 2000 steps to your day has a great fat loss benefit. There's appears to be less return on your investment as you become more active.

Successful weight management often requires adherence to a set food and fitness routine. Now research shows that some personality types may need to work harder than others at their slimming program. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine used the Temperament and Character Inventory to measure the personality of 264 lean (BMI < 25) and 56 obese people (BMI > 35) in the general St Louis population.

The psych-testing was also done on 183 obese people enrolled in the university's 22-week weight management program as a comparison.

Obese people in the population scored higher on the novelty-seeking scale (impulsive, easily bored, try to avoid monotony) but lower in persistence and self-directedness (ability to set and pursue meaningful goals) than their lean neighbours.

Patients who succeeded in the weight-management program (with success defined as a weight loss of at least 10 per cent) scored lower on novelty seeking than those who were unsuccessful. Successful weight losers also scored higher than obese people in the population in reward dependence (dedicated and sociable) and co-operativeness.

Dr Shelby Sullivan and her team conclude that personality differences do exist between lean and obese people. Differences also exist between obese people who seek and succeed at behavioural weight-management therapies and those who don't succeed, with the latter likely to be easily bored. It may be that obese people eat to avoid monotony; it's also likely that those who don't stick with weight-loss programs find them boring and tedious.

Reference: Personality characteristics in obesity and relationship with successful weight loss. Sullivan, S. etal, International Journal of Obesity, Vol 31, No. 4, April 2007

Take Home: The answer to addressing attrition rates in weight-management programs may be in beating the boredom - including more variety in meals and mixing up the physical activity routine.

Alcohol calories can quickly add up, especially if you over-pour every glass. That's what Professor Brian Wansink discovered in an experiment conducted on 189 college students and 86 bartenders at the University of Illinois.

When subjects were asked to pour a US shot of alcohol (1.5 ounces, 44.3 ml) into short, wide (tumbler) glasses and narrow, tall (highball) glass, the students poured 30% more into the short glass (59.1 ml vs 45.5 ml) even though they thought they poured more into the tall glass. And ten practices didn't improve pouring accuracy with short glasses. Even the bartenders with an average of over six years experience, poured 20.5% more alcohol into the tumblers.

Reference: Shape of glass and amount of alcohol poured: comparative study of effect of practice and concentration. Wansink, B & van Ittersum, K, British Medical Journal, Vol 331, 24-31 Dec 2005.

Take Home: You could be getting more calories you think in a short glass. To be more accurate and limit calories, choose a tall, narrow glass for alcoholic and sugary drinks.

The idea that a good night's sleep is just as good as a workout for fat loss won't be popular with gym owners. But the link between sleep and obesity is a hot topic for obesity researchers. In a paper written by no less than twenty scientists, the authors build a case that less sleep can cause increased body weight.

In surveys of both children and adults, hours of sleep per night is inversely related to BMI. At the same time American's have gotten fatter, their average adult daily sleep has dropped from nine to seven hours. Studies also show that hormonal and brain chemical changes associated with increased appetite including decreased leptin and thyroid stimulating hormone occur with sleep deprivation.

Reference: Putative contributors to the secular increase in obesity: exploring the roads less travelled. Keith, S.W. etal., International Journal of Obesity, Vol 30, 1585-94, November 2006.

Take Home: While scientists gather more data, including more sophisticated measurements of sleep than self-reports, the evidence is enough to place a good night's sleep on your fat loss program along with your gym workout.

Coffee often gets a bad wrap and like dairy, finds its way into the prohibited list of foods in many diet books. However, growing evidence indicates coffee drinkers have better glucose tolerance and a lower risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes than their coffee-free counterparts.
In a study which correlated the number of daily brews against diagnosis of diabetes in 88,259 younger and middle aged women, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found the following.

Women who drank 1 cup per day were 87% less likely than non-coffee drinkers to get diabetes over the 10-year study period. Women who drank 2-3 cups were 58% less likely to be diagnosed than non-coffee drinkers. The risk dropped a little more to 53% for women who average 4 or more cups each day.

As the results were similar for all types of coffee - caffeinated, decaffeinated, filtered and instant - the researchers suggested that chemicals in coffee, other than caffeine may havea role in protecting against Type 2 Diabetes. The authors caution that coffee and caffeine consumption can still contribute to high blood pressure and insomnia in some people, so the choice to drink coffee needs to consider these potential negative effects.

Reference: Coffee, caffeine, and risk of type 2 diabetes. Van Dam, R etal, Diabetes Care, Vol 29, Feb 2006.

Take Home: As diabetes is strongly related to weight gain and obesity, focus on major dietary changes, like cutting the amount of fat, alcohol and sugar you eat, rather than going cold turkey on caffeine. Two-three cups a day may provide the best benefits without the side effects.

Children with television sets in their bedrooms are more likely to be overweight than those without TVs in their bedrooms. Dr A.M. Adachi-Mejia and colleagues at Dartmouth Medical School found children with televisions in their rooms were 1.3 times as likely to be overweight than those who didn't.

The researchers surveyed 2,343 New Hampshire and Vermont children aged between nine and 12, and spoke by telephone with one parent of each child. They found 22.3 per cent of the children were overweight, with overweight defined as equal to or above the 95th percentile on age and gender-standardised child body mass index scales.

Almost half of all the children - 48.2 per cent - had televisions in their bedrooms. Among children with televisions in their bedrooms 27.3 per cent were overweight, compared to 17.7 per cent of those without televisions in their bedrooms.

The authors found that even after controlling for factors known to increase the risk of child overweight - socio-economic factors, frequency of television watching and the amount of physical activity - the bedroom TV remained a key factor. Although it's not yet clear why, it's suggested that bedroom viewing may be linked to the double whammy risk of increased sedentary activity and food advertising-induced snacking. Interestingly, this study didn't find a link with another sedentary activity, internet time.

Reference: Children with a TV in their bedroom at higher risk for being overweight. Adachi-Majia, A.M., et al., International Journal of Obesity (2007) 3, 644-651. Published online 12 September 2006.

Take Home: If you want to reduce the risk of your child becoming overweight, keep the TV out of his or her bedroom. The same message may apply equally as well to parents' bedrooms too.

Overeating carbohydrates at night is something to avoid when you are watching your weight. However, Ahmad Afaghi and colleagues at the University of Sydney's School of Exercise and Sport Science have found a reason to eat specific carbohydrates for dinner.

Insomnia and difficulties in staying or returning to sleep are common in Western society - in one Australian study, 17 per cent of men and 25 per cent of women in one city reported sleep problems. Now the answer may be as simple as eating a high-glycaemic index (GI) meal, four hours before bedtime.

The researchers compared the affects of eating a 600g steamed rice meal of either Jasmine rice (high-GI = 109) or Mahatma rice (low-GI = 50) on the time duration from the meal until sleep (referred to as “sleep onset latency”).

Afaghi found that the high-GI rice meal reduced the time it took to get 12 participants to sleep by 48.6 per cent compared to the low-GI rice meal.

They also found that eating the high-GI meal four hours before bedtime reduced the sleep onset latency by 38.3 per cent when compared to eating the same meal one hour before bedtime.

The chemical and biological reasons relate to the production of tryptophan - which is known to have a role in producing the sleep-inducing, brain neurotransmitter serotonin - and how carbohydrates increase the amount of tryptophan passing into the brain compared to the amounts of other large amino acids.

It was thought in this study, as has been observed before, that the high-GI meal produced greater blood insulin levels, which in turn delivered more tryptophan-inducing carbohydrate into the brain, more quickly.

The Sydney Uni scientists pointed out that the affects they observed may not be as great with a mixed meal including protein, as the protein would result in less tryptophan production.

Reference: High-glycaemic-index carbohydrate meals shorten sleep onset. Afaghi, A., O'Connor, H., & Chow, C.M., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2007) 85, 426-430. Downloaded 20 February 2007.

Take Home: Eating a high-GI meal like Jasmine rice about four hours before planned bedtime is likely to help insomniacs find some rest. It's certainly a cheaper first option than medication or therapy! For fat loss, getting to sleep sooner may help avoid more of those lat night munchies that can stack on the calories. This is a cheap experiment you can try yourself at home.

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has been shown to reduce weight gain and dramatically decrease fat mass in animals. Now, in the first study that has used sensitive body composition measures and controlled for self-reported physical activity and dietary intake, CLA has been found to reduce body fat in overweight adult humans - and decrease holiday weight gain.

Abigail Watras and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison gave 20 healthy, overweight men and women (BMI between 25 and 30) 3.2 grams of CLA each day for six months, and gave another 20 participants a CLA-free placebo. The CLA was given in capsules from the Cognis Corporation of Illinois.

Body composition, blood and other tests were conducted at the beginning of the study and after six months. Body fat was measured by the four-compartment model, which involves taking data from a dual x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) body scan and underwater weighing. This takes some extra effort and is more accurate than bioelectrical impedance testing used in some previous studies.

Subjects self-reported their physical activity and dietary intake, along with potentially influential adverse events such as colds, depression and nausea.

The results showed that in the CLA group, weight loss at six months was greater than in the placebo group, whether expressed in kg change or as a percentage change. BMI was reduced in the CLA group.

The researchers also examined in the impact of CLA on holiday weight gain, which has been shown to contribute to the creeping, age-related weight gain in adults. Consequently, comparisons were made between monthly weight change during the pre-holiday (August-October), holiday-season (November and December) and post-holiday (January-March) months. Those who took CLA also gained less weight per month during this six month period than did the placebo group.

Before you rush off to get a case of CLA, note that the researchers cautioned that some of the benefit may have come from a reduced energy intake observed during the study period. Also, although there appeared to be no adverse side effects, the scientists suggest further study into the impact of taking CLA for long periods.

Reference: The role of conjugated linoleic acid in reducing body fat and preventing holiday weight gain. Watras, A.C., etal., International Journal of Obesity, Vol 31, No. 3, March 2007.

Take Home: With more favourable studies and medical approval, CLA supplementation may provide some extra help in avoiding the holiday bulge or for fat loss in general.

The motor car is marvel of modern engineering, but increasingly it is stealing our opportunities for physical activity and calorie burning. Evidence for this comes from a May 2006 analysis of the NSW Continous Health Survey (2003) in which transport modes were checked against activity levels and body weight in almost 7000 workers.

The survey found that driving was the main mode of transport to work (69%), followed by public transport (15%), 7% said they walked only, 2% cycled and 6% worked at home.

Those who drove to work versus using other travel modes including walking, cycling and public transport were more likely to carry excess weight. And the more often they drove to work the greater their reported weight. This relates to another US study in which there was a 6% greater chance of carrying excess weight for each additional hour spent in a car.
People who drove were also less likely to meet the recommended health target of 150 minutes of physical activity each week.

Car usage, which increased by 20% in Australia in the decade between 1981 and 1991 could explain why many people are getting less of an opportunity to be active.

Reference: Driving to work and overweight and obesity: findings from the 2003 New South Wales Health Survey, Australia Wen, LM. etal, International Journal of Obesity & Metabolic Disorders, May 2006.

Take Home: Whatever your mode of transport to work; aim to make part of your journey active travel. When you need to travel at other times, ask yourself, “Could I walk instead or how could I add some walking into my day?”

Several research studies have shown that a single meal containing chilli can slightly increase metabolic rate and fat burning after eating. Now researchers at the University of Tasmania have shown that habitual consumption of chili dishes may offer additional benefits.

To check out the chili effect, 36 subjects ate a `bland' and `chili' diet for 4 weeks each. Masterfoods provided the fresh chopped chili (30g per day of 55% cayenne chili) which was added to meals during the chili diet period.

After both bland and chili diet periods, the 22 women and 14 men were fed a meal with 30g chili and had various laboratory measurements taken afterwards.

There were two major results. Firstly, that blood insulin levels were significantly lower following the chili meal at the end of the chili diet. And secondly, that this effect was greater in the subjects who were overweight. As high blood sugar and insulin levels following meals are risk factors for diabetes and heart disease, the scientists were excited to discover that chili could help control insulin levels.

Although it's not yet known exactly how chili has it's effect, we suspect it has something to do with chili's active ingredient capsaicin, of which there was about 33mg in the chili blend.

Reference: Effects of chili consumption on postprandial glucose, insulin, and energy metabolism. Kiran, DK. Etal. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 84, 63-9 July 2006.

Take Home: Being a regular chili lover could help cut your health risk, so seek out more of the hot stuff. Regarding the amount, keep in mind that the study participants said that they would find it difficult to eat more chili over a long period.

Can cold water help you lose weight by causing your body to expend more energy to heat the water to body temperature after drinking it? It's a good question, but the answer is likely to be no, based on a study from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

The researchers compared the effects of drinking 500ml of cold water versus water at room temperature on metabolic rate during the hour after consumption. In the 8 volunteers, drinking water that had been cooled to 3 degrees Celsius caused a small increase in energy expenditure of 4.5% over an hour.
However, the scientists concluded, “Cooling the water before drinking only stimulated a small thermogenic (heating) response, well below the theoretical energy cost of warming the water to body temperature. These results cast doubt on water as a thermogenic agent for the management of obesity.”

Reference: Water-induced thermogenesis reconsidered - the effects of osmolality and water temperature on energy expenditure after drinking. Brown, C. etal, Journal of Clinical
Endocrinology & Metabolism, Pub online July 5, 2006.

Take Home: A big drink of cold water may help stave off a hunger craving and reduce the calories you consume, but it's not going to burn up any extra calories.

Repeating the process of weight loss and weight regain is known as weight cycling. It's what bodybuilders do when they go from one competition to the next. Unfortunately, bodybuilding in your 20's may make you fatter in your 50's, according to researchers from the University of Helsinki.

To study the affects of weight cycling at a young age, the team checked the weight of almost 2000 elite male athletes at least 20 years after they competed at an international level for Finland. The group included 370 boxers, weight lifters and wrestlers who were categorized as `weight cyclers' due to the demands of their sports. Another group of 834 men with no athletic background were age-matched as a control group.

Results showed that the weight cycler group of athletes gained the most weight with an increase of 5.2 Body Mass Index (BMI) points from age 20 years to their maximum weight at age 58 years. The control group gained 4.2 BMI points and the other athletes 3.3 BMI points.

Although the researchers didn't measure body composition they were pretty sure that weight gain was from body fat, especially knowing that middle-aged men will be experiencing sarcopenia. Based on evidence from other studies, the speculated causes of greater weight gain in the weight cyclers was either a lowered metabolic rate, increased energy intake associated with binge eating or a combination of the two.

Reference: Weight cycling of athletes and subsequent weight gain in middle age. Saarni, S.E. etal., International Journal of Obesity, Vol 30, 1639-44,
November 2006.

Take Home: The authors say it best, “For many young persons with perceived rather than real excess weight, a temporary success in the relentless pursuit for thinness may predict an ever increasing problem with weight maintenance as well as increased risk of eating disorders.”

Adhering to a weight loss program, particularly by keeping appointments with a counselor or attending regular group meetings is always a challenge. Now one large study of a commercial weight loss program suggests it's well worth the effort.

Carrie Finley and colleagues examined the records of 60,164 people who enrolled in the US Jenny Craig “Platinum” program between May 2001 and May 2002. They looked at how long each participant stayed in the program, and the weekly measurements of each person's average and percentage weight loss (until 52 weeks).

Those who dropped out after four weeks lost about 1 per cent of their starting body weight, compared to 12 per cent among those who remained at least 40 weeks. Those who stayed the year benefited most: the women lost 16 per cent and the men 13 per cent of their initial body weight.

Even so, long-term retention rates still weren't high: 73 per cent remained after four weeks, but only 6.6 per cent still attended regularly at 52 weeks.
The average starting weight of those who stayed the year was higher than that of those who dropped out earlier, suggesting that Jenny Craig customers with more to lose stick around for longer.

Reference: Retention rates and weight loss in a commercial weight loss program. Finley, C.E., et al., International Journal of Obesity (2007) 31, 292-298. Published online 6 June 2006.

Take Home: If you start a weight loss program that involves regular appointments or meetings, keep attending these. The longer you stay in a commercial weight loss program, the more weight you'll lose. It could be that people who weigh more perceive a greater health risk and are more motivated to attend program visits.

Results from Portugal's National Health Interview Survey 1998-99 of over 37,000 people reveals that the more milk you drink, the less chance you have a being overweight, at least for men, and women younger than 55 years. Scientists from the University of Lisboa found that normal weight men reported drinking on average 252 ml each day compared to 187 ml for obese men.

This small but significant difference in milk drinking habits adds to growing evidence that milk, dairy or calcium may assist with weight management. It's thought that dietary calcium may enhance the body's cells ability to burn fat (lipolysis), particularly in people with low-calcium intakes. The authors also suggest milk could help increase satiety as part of a protein-rich diet.

Reference: Milk intake is inversely related to obesity in men and in young women: data from the Portuguese Health Interview Survey 1998-1999. Moniz, E. etal, International Journal of Obesity, Vol 30, Jan 2006.

Take Home: Some diets place a ban on dairy products. But evidence shows this dietary restriction may make it harder to lose weight. Aim to consume 2-3 serves of low-fat dairy as part of a healthy fat loss diet.