Science-Based Stunts to Make You Lose Weight Rapidly or Slowly : Enteral Nutrition Strips 6cm off Your Waist in One Week, Guar Gum (Fiber) May Help You Lose Weight in Many
Yes, drastic measures will make the weight melt faster, but even if you tube-feed yourself lean, you will not stay this way without lifestyle changes like an increase in fiber intake. |
You don't get that? Well, I guess that's a science guy's way of saying we are dealing with totally different ways of losing weight, of which one, i.e. the use of guar gum to increase the satiety effects of your meals, suitable for long-term weight loss, while the other, i.e. the use of a very low-calorie
You can learn more about the fiber at the SuppVersity
In spite of the fact that I hope that few of you are in a situation similar to the one the 364 severely overweight patients (59% women; all with a mean BMI of whopping 46.6 ± 7.2 kg/m²) who participated in a recent study from Italy, I believe that you may be interested to hear how these guys and gals lost 5.4cm of their waists and improved their insulin levels by 11 pts and their glucose levels by 16 pts within only 14 days.
Figure 1: Changes in relevant markers of body comp. glucose and lipid metabolism (Castalado. 2015). |
low-calorie (~6 kcal/kg of ideal body weight/day) protein-based formula (2000 mL per day) the scientists used can actually work its full weight loss magic.
Table 1: Ingredients (Castalado. 2015). |
Fiber increases satiety, but more importantly, it also reduces food intake
In the end, it's not actually new that fiber can make you feel more satiated. What is yet by no means clear, however, is (a) whether this is a "one-time thing", i.e. whether the effect will still be there, when you got accustomed to high fiber foods, and (b) whether an acute feeling of increased satiety after a "fiber-upped" food (= foods that are artificially supplemented with fiber) will also make you eat less on subsequent meals.
Soluble or insoluble, what's "better"? Soluble fiber is the fiber that will be fermented by the bacteria in your gut, insoluble fiber will pass "right through" (that's an over-generalization obviously). These bacteria turn the fiber into short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) which have two important functions (1) they serve as an energy source and (2) they interact with certain receptors in your gut and trigger the production of "satiety hormones" like the "fat-burning-insulin-sensitizing hormone" GLP-1. Effect (1) has mislead scientists to believe that the energy from the SCFAs may hamper the beneficial effects of fiber (and in certain cases does actually happen | Isken. 2010), but the overwhelming evidence shows that both have beneficial effects on your metabolic, intestinal and overall health (Weickert. 2008; Howarth. 2001; Papathanasopoulos. 2012).
Both has recently been studied by scientists from Taiyo Kagaku R&D. In three separate studies, Rao et al. determined the whether small doses of partially hydrolysed guar gum (PHGG), a soluble dietary fibre would effect post-meal satiation and subsequent energy intake with acute and long term administration."The following three separate studies were conducted: in study 1, healthy subjects (n 12) consumed 2g of PHGG along with breakfast, lunch and an evening snack; in study 2, healthy subjects (n = 24) consumed 2 g of PHGG or dextrin along with yogurt as breakfast for 2 weeks; in study 3, healthy subjects (n = 6) took 6 g each of either PHGG or indigestible dextrin or inulin along with lunch" (Rao. 2015)The results of the studies confirmed that (1) the acute satiety effect of soluble fiber (in this case guar gum) persists (at least for two weeks) and that (2) slightly larger amounts of soluble fiber will have beneficial effects on energy intake.
SuppVersity Suggested Previous Article: "Polydextrose and Resistant Maltodextrin as Dieting Aids W/ GLP-1 Boosting & Appetite Reducing Effects: 7% Reduced Energy Intake per 10g/day of Polydextrose in Clinical Trials" | read the full article |
What I do recommend, though, is a high-fiber diet. In that I am not entirely sure, however, if supplementing your diet with extra fiber (for example as guar gum) is the ideal solution for those of you who want to lose weight. Why? Well, if you try to achieve your daily fiber goals (like 25g+ as it is suggested by AHA reasearchers, for example | Howarth. 2001) solely via natural sources, this will make you gravitate towards healthier food items and you all know: It's the food you eat, not its macros that determines whether it'll make you fat or help you to lean out | Comment on Facebook!
- Castaldo, Giuseppe, et al. "A 2-Week Course of Enteral Treatment with a Very Low-Calorie Protein-Based Formula for the Management of Severe Obesity." International Journal of Endocrinology 2015 (2015).
- Isken, Frank, et al. "Effects of long-term soluble vs. insoluble dietary fiber intake on high-fat diet-induced obesity in C57BL/6J mice." The Journal of nutritional biochemistry 21.4 (2010): 278-284.
- Howarth, Nancy C., Edward Saltzman, and Susan B. Roberts. "Dietary fiber and weight regulation." Nutrition reviews 59.5 (2001): 129-139.
- Papathanasopoulos, Athanasios, and Michael Camilleri. "Dietary fiber supplements: effects in obesity and metabolic syndrome and relationship to gastrointestinal functions." Gastroenterology 138.1 (2010): 65-72.
- Rao, Theertham Pradyumna, et al. "Post-meal perceivable satiety and subsequent energy intake with intake of partially hydrolysed guar gum." British Journal of Nutrition 113.09 (2015): 1489-1498.
- Weickert, Martin O., and Andreas FH Pfeiffer. "Metabolic effects of dietary fiber consumption and prevention of diabetes." The Journal of nutrition 138.3 (2008): 439-442.