The right diet

[coach hale]

Dietary adherence and weight loss success among overweight women: results from the A TO Z weight loss study. S Alhassan et. al.

Background: Dietary adherence has been implicated as an important factor in the success of dieting strategies; however, studies assessing and investigating its association with weight loss success are scarce.

Objective: We aimed to document the level of dietary adherence using measured diet data and to examine its association with weight loss success.

Design: Secondary analysis was performed using data from 181 free-living overweight/obese women (mean±s.d. age¼43±5 years, body mass index¼31±4kgm_2) participating in a 1-year randomized clinical trial (the A TO Z study) comparing popular weight loss diets (Atkins, Zone and Ornish). Participants’ dietary adherence was assessed as the difference between their respective assigned diet’s recommended macronutrient goals and their self-reported intake. Association between dietary adherence and 12-month weight change was computed using Spearman’s correlations. Differences in baseline characteristics
and macronutrient intake between the most and least adherent tertiles for diet groups were compared using t-tests.

Results: Within each diet group, adherence score was significantly correlated with 12-month weight change (Atkins, rs¼0.42, P¼0.0003; Zone, rs¼0.34, P¼0.009 and Ornish, rs¼0.38, P¼0.004). Twelve-month weight change in the most vs least adherent tertiles, respectively, was _8.3±5.6 vs _1.9±5.8 kg, P¼0.0006 (Atkins); _3.7±6.3 vs _0.4±6.8 kg, P¼0.12 (Zone) and _6.5±6.8 vs _1.7±7.9 kg, P¼0.06 (Ornish).

Conclusions: Regardless of assigned diet groups, 12-month weight change was greater in the most adherent compared to the least adherent tertiles. These results suggest that strategies to increase adherence may deserve more emphasis than the specific macronutrient composition of the weight loss diet itself in supporting successful weight loss.
International Journal of Obesity advance online publication, 12 February 2008; doi:10.1038/ijo.2008.8

The key to finding the right diet is finding one you will stick with. If the eating regimen creates a cal deficit (below maintenance) weight loss will occur. People have lost weight following many different kinds of diets. The right diet for you depends on numerous factors. An important factor often forgot is food likes and dislikes. To some people taste does not seem to matter (or at least they say so). For the average gen fitness enthusiast dislike or boredom with food intake is probably the key reason the diet fails. There is nothing wrong with eating what you would like (if you have no allergies, intolerances or metabolic disorders affected by consumption of that food) assuming it fits into the cal plan. If making weight for a competition, trying to dry out or drop as much weight in a short time as possible are the objectives then specific nutrient intake becomes more important.

Thanks,
Coach Hale
www.maxcondition.com