According to the most recent government figures 61.3% of adults in England are overweight and 30% of children. It's difficult to know just how many people are dieting at any one time, but a recent poll of 2000 men and women in Britain, found that three-quarters had embarked on a diet in the past year. This amounts to an awful lot of people fighting flab.
Small changes in eating habits promotes weight loss
You don't have to diet to lose weight. Making small but regular changes to your eating habits can work just as well. American researchers proved this by sending participants three customised tips to follow for a month. Tips included: keeping counters clear of all but healthy food, never eating directly from a package, eating something hot for breakfast within the first hour of waking up, avoiding going more than three or four hours without something small to eat and putting down utensils between bites to slow down eating. Those who stayed on the programme for three months lost an average 1% of their initial weight.
Eating 40% less food could extend your life
Eating less may make us live longer. At least that applies if you extrapolate from tests on rats. Scientists from The Institute of Health Ageing at University College London found if they reduced a rat's diet by 40%, the rat lived 20-30% longer. In human terms it's thought that would amount to 20 years more of human life. That said 40% is far more than any normal diet and, as we all know, even moderate calorie restriction can be a tad trying.
