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There are a lot of complicated diets out there. Even if you try to simplify it, it can be hard to mess it up.
Scientists decided to try and find one simple diet rule to follow that would lead to weight loss--and they found it!
In a study for the American College of Physicians, researchers took 240 adults with metabolic syndrome, a combination of health conditions that increase your risk of heart disease, and a body mass index in the obese range.
They asked 119 of them to follow the American Heart Association's dietary guidelines. Unlike a juice cleanse, the American Heart Association's dietary guidelines are intended to be sustainable for long periods of time. The guidelines simply eating a lot more fruits and vegetables, minimizing intake of partially hydrogenated fats and sugary foods and drinks, eating little to no salt, eating fat-free and low-fat dairy products, and seriously cutting back on alcohol intake.
They asked the rest of the 121 participants to follow one simple rule: eat more fiber (at least 30 grams a day). Neither groups were asked to exercise.
After one year, the participants weighed in. Turns out, the group that followed the American Heart Association's dietary guidelines lost, on average, 5.95 pounds. On the other hand, the participants that just ate more fiber lost 4.6 pounds on average.
While it's true that the participants in the American Heart Association's dietary guidelines lost more weight, those that ate more fiber still lost a significant amount of weight in comparison from following just eating more fiber.
If you want to add more fiber to your diet, do it slowly! Don't suddenly start eating 30 grams of fiber a day, or you might feel bloated and constipated. Also, make sure you don't eat all your fiber for the day in one sitting or you'll feel incredibly gassy, bloated, and overly full. Simply sprinkle fiber-filled foods throughout your day!
What do you think about this study? Let us know what you think in the comments!
