People who have lost the most weight over 25 months have not followed a strict plan. Instead, they have strengthened their protein and fiber intake and built flexible routines that correspond to their lives.
The results, published in Science and Practice obesity, show that diets work better when adapted to individual needs. This approach allowed participants to create sustainable habits rather than counting short -term corrective.
After a year, the results between the groups differ strongly. About 41% of participants had lost almost 13% of their body weight. The rest, however, experienced a drop of just over 2%. These figures come from the program to improve individualized food, or IDIP, which combines education and data tools to show how nutrients affect weight loss. The goal is not to restrict, but to teach people to eat more intelligently.
Manabu T. Nakamura, who teaches nutrition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, led the study. He said that the IDIP model gives people the freedom to try different styles of food. “Flexibility and personalization are essential to create programs that optimize the success of people with the diet to lose weight and maintain it,” said Nakamura.
He noted that the path of each person seems different, and real success comes from learning and adaptation. “The IDIP approach allows participants to experiment with various food iterations, and the knowledge and skills they develop while losing weight serves as a basis for sustainable support.”
The program revolves around three main objectives: eat more protein, eat more fiber and keep daily calories 1,500 below. To help this, researchers have designed a unique visual tool. Built on the guidelines of the institutes of Medicine, the tool allows users to see the density of proteins and fibers in their meals. This facilitates the implementation and achievement of daily targets without needing to follow each bite.
What makes IDIP different is the accent on education, not on restriction. Instead of telling people what to eat, it shows them how to make better choices by themselves. This mixture of advice and freedom helped many participants build habits with whom they could stick, long after the end of the study.
Participants used the foods to which they were already used to eating as a base and worked to change their meals by increasing their protein intake to around 80 grams per day and their fiber intake to around 20 grams per day. This change helped participants make healthier choices while remaining at a diet they could maintain.
As the study progressed, the research team has monitored the weight and food habits of participants using compatible Wi-Fi scales, discovering solid links between protein consumption and fibers and weight loss.
“Research strongly suggests that increasing protein and fiber intake while simultaneously reducing calories is necessary to optimize the safety and efficiency of weight loss regimes,” said Mindy H. Lee, the first author of the study and a dietitian-nutritionist recorded in the IDIP program. Lee stressed that proteins and fibers help not only weight loss, but also help protect muscle mass, which is crucial during weight loss efforts.
Nakamura highlighted the importance of maintaining muscle mass while losing weight, especially in the context of popular weight loss drugs. “Recently, the popularity of injectable weight loss drugs has increased,” he noted. “However, the use of these drugs when the food intake is strongly limited will cause serious side effects of muscle and bone loss unless the protein intake is increased during weight loss.”
The study included 22 participants, aged 30 to 64, with nine men and 13 women. Most participants had already tried to lose weight several times and had various health problems, including high cholesterol (54%), skeletal problems (50%) and hypertension or sleep apnea (36%). Some participants also had diagnoses of diabetes, non -alcoholic liver steatosis, cancer or depression.
The study revealed that the participants who had been diagnosed with depression lost significantly less weight than those without depression. On average, they lost only 2.4% of their starting weight, compared to 8.39% among those without depression.
Interestingly, the presence of other comorbidities, such as high cholesterol or skeletal problems, has not significantly affected the weight loss of the participants. In addition, the study found no major difference in weight loss between men and women or between older and younger participants.
The analysis of the body composition has shown that participants were able to maintain their lean muscle mass while eliminating fat. On average, they lost 7.1 kilograms of fat in six months, and 78% of the weight they lost consisted in fat.
Over time, the participants reduced their fat mass by an average of 42.6 kilograms at the start of the program at 35.7 kilograms at 15 months. The waist also experienced a significant reduction, participants losing about 7 centimeters to six months and a total of 9 centimeters per point of 15 months.
One of the main conclusions of the study was the strong correlation between the success of the contribution of proteins and fibers and weight loss, especially in the first three months.
Nakamura explained: “The strong correlation suggests that participants who were able to develop sustainable food changes in the first three months continued to lose weight in the following months, while those who have struggled to implement sustainable diets have rarely managed to change their diet in recent months.”
The research team has also hypothesized that early success of weight loss may have helped certain participants to maintain motivation and to stick to their food plan. Those who lost weight in the first months have probably experienced increased confidence, encouraging them to continue to follow their personalized diet.
Overall, this study highlights the importance of creating individual, flexible and sustainable food plans which focus on increasing protein and fiber intake. By allowing participants to make small personalized changes and to experience their diet, programs like IDIP can help individuals to succeed in the long term in weight loss while maintaining their overall health.
