Dieting is already a very difficult thing for many people to do, but when it begins to make you feel unhappy or deprived it can decrease your chances of reaching the goal of the diet-which might make you even more unhappy! There is an abundance or information documenting the connection between dieting and extreme irritability.
Must a weight-loss diet make you feel grumpy and deprived though? Not if you eat certain kinds of foods, says Australian research scientist Grant D. Brinkworth, PhD. In a year-long study, Dr. Brinkworth explored how 2 popular diets affected mood, with regularly scheduled assessments at 8, 24, 40 and 52 weeks. He gathered 106 overweight and obese adults, average age of 50, and randomly assigned them to 1 of 2 diets. The first was high-fat, low-carb — à la the Atkins diet, while the other was exactly the opposite — high-carb, low-fat. Both diets counted daily calorie intake and allowed dieters to eat within the range of 1,400 to 1,700/day.
At the end of the study year, members of both groups had lost, on average, 30.2 pounds — enough to please most any dieter. But how did the dieters in the respective groups feel?
Mood and Your Food
Using 3 different assessment tools, researchers found that both groups showed improved mood at 8 weeks, but the good feelings continued throughout the year only for the high-carb group. Indeed, at the end of the year these men and women remained happier than the high-fat dieters who, though they had succeeded in losing as much weight, had returned to their pre-diet low spirits.
When I contacted Dr. Brinkworth about his study, he told me that both groups were told to follow the diets precisely for the first 8 weeks, but after that were allowed to make some food exchanges so they could enjoy some (though limited) flexibility and choice. Overall, the high-fat group was allowed more than twice as much beef, chicken and fish, plus full-fat dairy products (versus reduced or nonfat for the high-carb dieters). On the other hand, high-carb dieters had far more foods to choose from and also were allowed to eat what lots of us call “comfort foods” in the form of a potato 3 times a week, pasta or rice 4 times a week, and beans or lentils twice a week.
Why? Some Theories
Dr. Brinkworth says the exact mechanism for how foods affect mood is unknown, but one possibility is that a very low-carb diet is a substantially different way to eat for many people; and repeatedly denying themselves the carbs they’ve enjoyed over the years affects mood. Another possibility — carbs can increase mood-enhancing serotonin concentrations in the brain, compared with eating additional fat and proteins which has the opposite effect. However, Dr. Brinkworth says the study didn’t measure this variable.
The take-home? Pay attention to how you feel so you’ll be more likely to stay with your diet. Dr. Brinkworth told me that people who are used to having comfort foods should factor them into their weight loss plan in small amounts, while those who love a good steak can and should work that preference into their diet as well.
Source(s):
Grant D. Brinkworth, PhD, research scientist, department of human nutrition of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Adelaide, and an adjunct research fellow, School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide.
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Reprinted with the permission of:
Bottom Line Publications/Daily Health News
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