For many people, January means a month of trying to eat healthier and exercising more. Every year, new and clever diets emerge, however, their functionality is often unproven.
In 2017, Danish scientists were able to prove that a series of diets actually had an effect. In the following, you can familiarise yourself with three of them.
The Math Diet
It created a bit of a stir when The Math Diet emerged in the beginning of 2017. The man behind the idea is professor and technology researcher at Aalborg University; Jakob Stoustrup - and the idea is actually rather simple.
The diet states that you must not eat more than you have lost since your last meal.
You might have heard about the diet and theory of which you cannot consume more calories than what you burn in a whole day, if you want to lose weight. The idea behind The Math Diet is much of the same, but instead of counting calories, you simply count the weight of your food.
Jakob Stoustrup has tried the diet himself. He decided that he wanted to lose 16lb in 31 days - equivalent of 239 grams a day.
Therefore, he weighed himself prior to each meal, and noted the difference between his weight, and what he was allowed to weigh. The difference was equivalent to the weight of the food, he was allowed to consume.
Scientists have approved the method, but point out that it will only work if you eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly.
The Bike Diet
This diet is not complicated, and is simply about using your bike, when going to work, instead of driving your car. One of the reasons, why a lot of people find it hard to stick to their diet, is because they find it hard to find the time to go to the gym. It can be difficult finding enough free time in the calendar to go to the gym regularly, because we are busy with everyday life.
Therefore, it is a really good idea to drive your bike to work instead of driving your car. A study showed that obese people, who bike to work rather than taking the car, lose weight at the same rate as someone who spends a lot of time at the gym.
If you prefer to run or walk to work as an alternative, this is also an option. Scientists point out the importance of choosing a form of exercise you enjoy. Doing so will make it easier to stay motivated.
Small changes
As most can attest to, it can be difficult to completely change your life from one day to another. Therefore, is it also a possibility to change one habit at a time.
A Ph.D. submission from 2017 showed that small changes to our daily routine can have a huge impact. Maja Schøler, Anthropologist and Ph.D. at the Department of Ethnology and Centre for Healthy Ageing, University of Copenhagen, observed twelve men in their attempt to change their way of life.
After 15 months, all 12 men had achieved their goal. The reason was that they didn’t go overboard. The conclusion of the experiment was that small changes have major impacts. For example:
- Replace the cream in the coffee with milk and gradually move towards black coffee
- Get daily notifications that remind you to eat healthy snacks in between meals
- Bring a list of healthy foods, when going shopping
- Work in groups that share the same goal as you, e.g. the whole household
There are numerous ways to achieve weight loss. But if you want to avoid modern and undocumented diets, you can try one of the three mentioned in this article.
