Significant Weight Loss in Only 15 Minutes!

The quest for easy, sustainable weight loss is never-ending. One need only look at the endless fad diets, exercise gimmicks, and celebrity quick-fixes that assault our consciousness on a daily basis for proof that the masses are craving something, anything to help them achieve the physique they’ve always wanted.

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A new study suggests that the path to that highly sought after beach body might not be that tedious or difficult after all. In fact, you might be able to get there with only 15 minutes of real “work” per day.

The Study

Research has pretty conclusively shown that the single biggest factor to the success of any diet is adherence (i.e. your ability to stick to it), and the best predictor of success for individuals undertaking a fat loss venture is nutrition tracking -- monitoring and recording what you eat on a daily basis.

This process of nutrition tracking (weighing, measuring, recording, logging, etc.) is viewed by many as tedious, time-wasting, and troublesome, but new research suggests this perception is not reality.

Published in Obesity, a team of researchers set out to investigate the dietary self-monitoring habits of 142 individuals (90.8% women, avg. BMI = 35.8) in a 6-month online behavioral weight control intervention. ^[1]

Each week, test subjects met online for group session led by a trained dietitian. As part of the study, subjects were required to log onto a food recording website to document their calories and fat for all foods and beverages consumed. Participants also recorded portion sizes and the preparation method used in the cooking of their food (for ex. Grilled, baked, broiled, fried, etc.)

While participants were on the food tracking site, the website recorded how frequently they logged on and the time spent each session logging their food.

The most successful dieters (those who lost 10% of their body weight) spent an average of 23.2 minutes per day logging their nutrition during the first month of the dietary intervention. By the sixth month, time spent tracking for the 10%-ers had dropped to under 15 minutes per day (14.6 minutes on average). ^[1]

Based on data collected from the website, those who lost the most weight did not spend the most amount of time logging their food. This runs counter to the commonly held belief that tracking nutrition is tedious and time-consuming.

Additionally, the data collected from the nutrition tracking site also found that those who logged on more frequently lost more weight. Individuals who had lost the most weight after the 24-week trial logging in an average of 2.7 times per day compared with 1.7 times per day for those who lost less than 10% of their body weight.

Furthermore, individuals who logged more than 20 days each month lost more weight than subjects who only logged 11 days per month.

Based on these results, the takeaway here regarding weight loss is that tracking of any amount is better than no tracking at all, and the more frequently you do it, the faster you become with tracking and the more likely you are to lose greater amounts of weight.

Do you track your nutrition? If so, how long do you spend tracking it daily and how meticulous are you with your food logging?

Leave your thoughts down below!

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