Personalised diets: another fad?

The search for a diet that will effect weight-loss over the short term and subsequent weight maintenance over the long term has been ongoing for decades.

Many diets that make headlines and best sellers, while popular, rarely stand the test of time.

Research that has pitted high fat diets, low fat/high carbohydrate diets,and high protein diets of equal calories against each other has found little difference in weight loss among the participants in the short term.

In the long term, 6 months to a year the difference in weight loss is negligible and many of the participants gain back their lost weight.

None of the diets were easy to adhere to over the long term.

The majority of popular diets are based on calorie restriction, restriction of particular foods,  and/or a particular combination of macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein and fat.

Often it is the restriction in calories along with restriction of particular foods which makes the diets unsustainable.

Over the years research has identified several factors which contribute to weight loss and weight gain some of which are inherent in your body and which you potentially cannot change.

Various hormones and enzymes such as ghrelin (an appetite stimulant), peptide YY (thought to be involved in satiety) and leptin (also thought to be involved in satiety), digestive enzymes and insulin are involved in the whole process of eating, digestion, absorption and utilisation of nutrients obtained in the food you eat.

Recent research suggests these factors potentially play a significant role in whether or not some people are successful at losing weight.

Researchers have identified three types of eaters who have significant problems losing weight:

• Feaster
• Craver
• Emotional eater

Based on their scientific knowledge, the researchers from Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the UK put the following hypotheses to the test with a group of 75 participants over a period of 12 weeks.

The Feaster

The Feaster cannot stop eating once they start. In response to food in your...link to the full article to learn more.