Madrid: A diet rich in proteins can help to avoid regaining weight after weight loss, according to new reseach.
Increasing the consumption of proteins in ones diet can help to avoid regaining weight after successfully losing weight through diet and exercise; on the other hand, the glycemic index does not play a significant role.
This was the preliminary conclusion of the Diogenes project (diet, obesity and genes, the largest European study into nutrition and obesity.
Adult participants from 400 families from eight countries (Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Greece, Czech Republic, Germany and Spain), were tracked over the course of six months, during which they were required to lose at least 8% of their body weight.
At this stage the entire family was included in the weight-loss regimen. In total, 763 individuals lost an average of 11.2 kilograms per person, for a total of 8,500 kilograms, the equivalent of four adult elephants.
Five randomly-assigned diets
In the next phase of the experiment, 565 families (763 adults and 787 children) followed one of five randomly-assigned diets; four of these diets combined diverse proportions of protein and carbohydrate intakes, and the fifth was based on the previous eating habits of the family, with advice on healthy diet.
Those families which were assigned a high-protein diet did not recover the weight previously lost, whereas those assigned other diets recovered between 2 and 2.5 kg of the weight lost during the prior stage.
The definitive findings of the project will be known in May of 2009, when the projects researchers will participate in the European Congress on Obesity in Amsterdam.