5 fascinating studies to think about for your health!
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the One Day at a Time podcast. Again, sharing research, sharing some insights from the community, from myself, helping people for many years and hopefully helping you today to live one day at a time and to just get going on some momentum. I know a lot of you messaging sometimes saying, I've got momentum, I feel injured, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. I'm not feeling on top of things.
Speaker 1:The secret is, you're not always feeling on top of things most of the time, and it's to really take a step back and realize the good things you do. And that's part of the secret to feeling like a bit better about each day. But I want to cover a few interesting studies today from the research on weight loss and stuff that's actually quite fascinating. And one of them I read a year ago about this milkshake test where they give people the same milkshake, one was called a healthy shake and one was called like a really bad shake. They were exactly the same calories, like 600 plus calories, like dirty shake it was called.
Speaker 1:And the actual changes in their blood was different between them if they believed it was healthy or not. That's quite crazy to think about. And there's another study from 2011, similar one called Mind Over Milkshake. So one day the shake was labeled sensible shake and the other day it was labeled indulgent shake. And when they actually tested out the hormone, the ghrelin, the hormone that determines if you're going to feel hungry or not, the group that thought it was an indulgent shake saw a big drop in that, so like they felt full and the people that thought it wasn't an indulgent shake was light calories, didn't get the same impact, so felt a bit hungry afterwards, but exactly the same shake, exactly the same calories and macros.
Speaker 1:And you think that's crazy. So sometimes our mindset is about that. We know from other research studies, like the plate size matters, and plates have actually gone bigger, so the food on the plate looks less. So if you make the plate smaller and it look like the food is bigger, that might play a role. And we've seen that, that people will keep eating and think it's a normal serving size the plate size goes bigger.
Speaker 1:So, like, we're quite deceived a lot. And I think when we're not eating mindfully as well, we get more deceived because we don't register things. We think it was quick. We didn't think it was enough and all that stuff. And a lot of this has to do with slowing down, chewing, thinking this is enough, this is nourishing me, la la la.
Speaker 1:And it's going to help a lot. And I think the mindset's got a big role in that. That's why it's important that you do take your time to calm down when you eat. This is the same advice for me, to be honest, because I eat so quick. There was another study done on maids and the maids, obviously, they do a lot of work.
Speaker 1:They move, they walk, they pick things up, everything. So they do a lot of exercise. One group wasn't told anything. The other group who were doing like hotel maids were given a fifteen minute presentation to explain, Hey, what you're doing in this job is actually meeting the requirements the government says you need to be healthy, it's awesome for you, well done, basically. And then they looked at him like a few months later, and the group that was told like, what they're doing meets the exercise standards, had gone on to improve their health in other ways, lost some body fat percentage and lowered their blood pressure and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:And obviously, they would have probably been motivated by the fact that they're doing enough exercise, therefore they eat better, they might do better. So that's part of it. But again, another psychological thing. If you're doing a lot of steps as part of your work, as part of your job, amazing, you're getting like a double effect there, but tie out with good nutrition and stuff is amazing. But don't be fooled like that, What you're doing is not enough.
Speaker 1:Like if can only do one workout a week or get out there and that's all you can do, then it's enough for now and be comfortable and accept that because it can go a long way into motivating you to take other actions. If you always think you're never doing enough, you'll never do enough and you'll always break on things, which comes to the last idea I want to mention, which is the all or nothing trap. So the all or nothing trap, we've spoken about it, rigid approaches to dieting is not good, flat out, you need a flexible approach. You want to be like bamboo, bamboo doesn't break in the wind. An oak tree as big or strong as it is will fall down, maybe if the wind is strong enough.
Speaker 1:So, this was a 1975 study, and I'm going to read some of it out because I've got some information there that I need to make sure I get right. The setup was the researchers brought in two types of people, restrained eaters, so chronic dieters, and unrestrained eaters who are non dieters. So, let's make it simple. They brought in always people dieting and people who don't diet. They told them they were going to do a cookie taste test.
Speaker 1:So, before the cookie taste test, they preloaded them. Group one was given nothing. Group two was given two large milkshakes to make sure they broke their diet for the day. Make sense? So here's the findings.
Speaker 1:The non dieters behaved logically. The ones who drank the two milkshakes were full and ate fewer cookies. So like, yeah, about two milkshakes, probably don't need more cookies. I'll eat less. The dieters behaved illogically.
Speaker 1:The dieters who drank the two milkshakes and thus ruined their diet threw their hands up and said, What the hell? I've already blown it, and ate far more cookies than the dieters who had nothing. Right? So, it proves that this all or nothing mindset, the cause of the binge is actually the mindset itself a lot of the times, not actually what you've just done. Because you can have two milkshakes, logically speaking, you've consumed 1,500 calories, maybe 1,000 calories, depends on the milkshake, maybe less.
Speaker 1:You haven't even reached maintenance at that point. Yes, you would have eaten other things in that day, but to say you've ruined something when you look at a weekly average is crazy. Like that is not a huge dent in your weekly average. Just because it's a milkshake and it's dense doesn't mean it has to ruin it. But the mindset that it has, bugger it, what's the point?
Speaker 1:And then you feel guilty. The guilt causes you to want to emotionally eat to kind of not feel bad because we get pleasure from food and it's kind of vicious circle. And I think, look, we can't be having that relationship with ourselves. It's a jail we put ourselves in. And it's important that you realize, hey, I'm rigid with things, I'm not a perfect human being, it is not compatible.
Speaker 1:I am not perfect. So how can I be rigid with things when I'm not like that? I'm a human being. So you have to make sure that have a flexible approach to everything you do. I'll try my best.
Speaker 1:When it comes to nutrition, I'll try my best. When it comes to eating foods, I know I should be going for the nutrient dense lean meats and vegetables, but sometimes I'm going to have the chicken noodles with extra fried rice or whatever. Do you know what I mean? I'm going to have that Five Guys burger. Fine, be flexible and you'll have a better approach to things.
Speaker 1:You'll have a better relationship. You'll have less binge eating episodes, less anxiety about food, less of this diet culture in your mind, and it would be a lot lighter for you. Do you mind saying it'd be a lot lighter? And the final one I want to cover, the Twinkie diet. I've covered this a few times, but it's important.
Speaker 1:Ten week diet, Professor Mark Hall basically ate a chocolate and sweets diet. So two thirds of the calories came from like what we'd call junk food Doritos, Twinkies, sugary cereals. He ate 1,800 calories a day, but his maintenance was 2,600. He lost 27 pounds in ten weeks. But not only that, his bad cholesterol dropped by 20% and his good cholesterol increased by 20%.
Speaker 1:And this is the ultimate demonstration of, yes, calorie deficit over anything causes weight loss. He was in a deficit. It's not recommended to do what he did and he even says that, but he just wants for you to understand, if you're after weight loss, get into deficit first. Then once you're in a deficit, Hey, your protein is too low, you better work on it. Okay, let me work on my protein.
Speaker 1:Or, Hey, I'm eating these foods that are really eating up my calorie allowance and I'm not feeling much from them. Should I change them from fruits? Should I add more veggies into my meals to make myself fuller for longer? Hey, should I stop eating meal deals from Tesco because it's like 600, 700 calories? If I did meal prep, I could have four fifty calorie meal, better quality, higher protein, I maybe do that.
Speaker 1:It is gradual. You need to do it step by step and be flexible as well. That's the kind of way to do change. That's the only realistic way. If we look at experts in habits like BJ Fogg and stuff, it's clear that this is the way Tiny Habits, and even BJ Fogg says in Tiny Habits that for you to make change, you have to be nonjudgmental.
Speaker 1:You have to be like a scientist. If you are judging yourself a little If you are judging yourself all the time, then it's going be hard to make change. Because you're always in this loop. And there's one more I want to cover actually, is the exercise doesn't burn more calories in sight. So they looked at the tribe, modern day hunter gatherers in Tanzania, and basically they found that their energy expenditure, total energy expenditure was nearly the same as a modern American.
Speaker 1:There was no difference essentially. You should think, well, they must be bringing more calories. That's why they're leaner and none of them are obese. What happens with exercises that the body or constrained daily energy model or kind of energy compensation, the more exercise you do doesn't mean you're going to burn more net calories at the end of the day. Your body compensates, meaning for the rest of the day, it shuts down a bit more, it moves less, you become less, you fidget less, like it wants to conserve energy now.
Speaker 1:So if you think you can work your way out of it and just keep burning more and more calories, there is a ceiling that is hit and you get diminishing returns and actually then negative returns in the end because you're going to be worn out, burned out. That's why walking is something good. It's gradual. It doesn't tend to have the compensatory effects of hard exercise. So that's why we recommend as an activity base, you have your steps go up.
Speaker 1:It doesn't require workouts at that point, steps go up. But if you are serious about muscle retention and getting strength and being strong into your 50, 60, 70s, you need to be adding in some resistance training eventually. So steps, resistance training, high protein, or moderate protein if you're in maintenance, but high protein and its deficit, and then happy days. So hopefully that was interesting for you to cover some interesting studies there. Take it seriously.
Speaker 1:This is what the literature is telling us and apply it sensibly. So be flexible, gradually work towards your goals, Don't try and change everything all the time. Your mindset about stuff is important. If you think a food is going to kill you and you hate it, then maybe it will cause an internal reaction that is like a stress response, which isn't good. Be mindful how you speak to yourself.
Speaker 1:All of this comes together into a healthier living and less stressful living, basically. Removing diet culture is the answer. But have a good day, and I'll see you back here tomorrow.
