So many of you have found 17 Science-Backed Tips for Sustained and Healthy Weight Loss as fascinating as I have! Now that we know what foods to eat to promote weight loss, it’s time to get into the all the practices we’ve been told for years will lead to weight loss and see if they are supported by actual research. Make sure you pin this one, it’s definitely one you’ll want to refer back to! 

In How Not to Diet, Dr. Michael Greger digs into all of the best research surrounding weight-loss. He not only tells us the best way to eat, but also whether all of the weight-loss advice we’ve heard over the years is backed up by science or not. This 500 page book is packed with interesting info and I highly recommend it, but until you have the chance to read it, I’m sharing some highlights here.

The best weight loss advice?

Make your long term health your top priority and the weight-loss will follow.

For many people, habits that align with long term health also lead to a healthy weight. But sometimes you are already doing those things without losing weight, and sometimes a move towards a healthier diet can even cause weight gain.

Hormone or other issues can make weight loss more difficult, and a history of dieting can make extra pounds especially sticky. In these situations Dr. Greger provides tweaks to a plant-based diet–meal timing, metabolic boosters and exercise findings to help you make the process as efficient as possible. 

You can find Dr. Greger’s 21 tweaks in his Daily Dozen app. The Daily Dozen app has been around for several years, helping you make sure you fill up on the healthiest foods first every day. Now you have the option to include his 21 tweaks to accelerate weight loss. In terms of creating healthy habits, tracking your food and other habits is a great way to solidify new behaviors.

All of these come from the Weight Loss Boosters section of How Not to Diet.

As Dr. Greger says, “What we eat matters most, but how we eat and when can also make a difference.” And with that, here is what we know about effectively boosting weight loss based on the best research available. 

1. Accountability

Would you believe that the most successful obesity treatment ever published in medical literature is free? The Trevose program has a different cost: if members fail to attend meetings or meet their weight-loss goals, they are kicked out immediately and can never return. After 2 years in the Trevose program, the average weight loss is 39 lbs, compared to just 6 in Weight Watchers.

What about regularly weighing in on the scale? It it helpful or discouraging? As long as individuals have some information and understanding of what they should be doing to lose weight, studies have shown regular self-weighing to be associated with better weight loss and actually less depression, disordered eating and body dissatisfaction. You can even get bluetooth scales that will graph your progress on your device for under $30!

2. Amping AMPK

Activating AMPK is essentially the process of telling our body to burn it’s fat stores. It’s a process that can be stimulated in a variety of ways, but one of the most effective researchers found is by consuming vinegar. Without any changes to their diet, research subjects consuming 2 TBSP of vinegar/day lost about 5 lbs over two months without any additional changes to their diet.

So be generous dressing your salads with balsamic or apple cider vinegar and aid your body in the fat burning process [I’m a fan of this balsamic dressing]! Dr. Greger recommends spreading vinegar intake over the course of the day (2 tsp per meal) AND eating it with food. What about breakfast? You might want to try chocolate or berry-flavored vinegar.

3. Appetite Suppression

Chia has been found to offer some lasting satiety when added to foods, but the real star of the show is flax. While some studies showed weight loss of up to 20 lbs in subjects eating flax compared to those who didn’t, when all of the studies on flax are combined in a meta-analysis, flax is was shown to lead to a more reasonable loss of about 4 lbs over a few months.

My favorite thing about flax is that it is the least expensive of the 3 most common smoothie seeds (flax, chia, and hemp) and that it has the most research supporting numerous health benefits. Even Organic Flax from Whole Foods is only $2.99/lb and I usually pay much less than that in the bulk bins. It’s powerful against cancer, protects the skin and now aids in weight loss.

To save money AND dramatically improve its efficacy, buy flax seeds whole and grind them yourself. They can be ground in the blender and then I will store them in my freezer for a short time to add to breakfast. Or add them whole before you blend your smoothie. These flax seed energy bites really hit the spot for me when I want a little something sweet that is also satisfying and packed with nutrition.

Cumin
Research shows that over a three-month period, those having about a teaspoon of added cumin/day lost about four more pounds and nearly an inch off their waists.

Black Cumin isn’t related to cumin at all, but is another spice popular in Indian and Middle Eastern dishes. It’s been hailed for hundreds of years as a miracle herb, and has been shown to improve cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar control with just a sprinkle of the spice. And the only side effects were loss of appetite and weight loss.

Saffron is another spice that in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, led to five pounds and an inch off the waist in eight weeks. It’s also been found to be effective in battling depression and the only side-effect is diminished appetite. It doesn’t take much saffron, roughly an eighth of a teaspoon.

Anyone have any favorite black cumin or saffron recipes to tell me about? Time to experiment with these two!

4. Chronobiology

Chronobiology is the study of how the rhythms of the sun, moon and seasons affect our bodies’ natural cycles.

We’ve always heard that breakfast is the most important day, and it turns out that the association between obesity and breakfast-skipping is one of the most scientifically solid assertions out there: “the probability that the association found between obesity and breakfast-skipping was just a fluke is lower than the chances of winning the lottery not once but five times–and then getting struck and killed by lightning”

In a variety of studies, individuals who ate breakfast on average, consumed hundreds more calories than those who didn’t, without any significant weight gain. And in one study, between one group who ate the majority of their calories in the morning and another that ate the same number of calories later in the day, the early eaters ended up about five pounds lighter than the later eaters.

But we all know mornings can be totally crazy! Here’s the breakfast system we’ve found to work really well for us.

One possible reason is that our bodies’ ability to keep blood sugars under control diminishes as the day goes on. A meal eaten at 8:00 pm can have double the blood sugar response as one eaten at 8:00 am!

Other things to naturally tune into our circadian rhythms are:

• Sleep during the night and be active during the day
• Sleep enough (seven to eight hours a night)
• Early to bed, early to rise
• Avoid bright light exposure at night
• Sleep in total darkness when possible
• Eat dinner at least two and a half hours before going to bed
• Avoid eating at night

5. Eating Rate

One study found that smoothies were not as satiating as eating the same fruits and water whole. Did blending them up have an effect? It turns out that the tendency to gulp down smoothies in less time is the factor, so if you’re a smoothie person like I am, just find a way to drink your smoothies slowly.

Slowing down the eating process is what’s important here, so figure out what works for you: solid versus liquid, thick versus thin, spoon versus straw or just plain try to slow down when you eat. Your mothers advice to slower-eating will leave you more satiated eating less food.

6. Exercise Tweaks

Exercise is likely one of the first things that comes to mind when working towards a weight-loss goal. Would you believe that even though 90% of Americans believe that exercise is as or more important than diet for weight-loss, the science shows otherwise? Although exercise has a tremendous ability to improve overall health, mood and reduce stress, when isolated for it’s impact on weight-loss exercise yields results that are small to none.

Think about it. Strenuous exercise for an hour might burn somewhere in the ballpark of 350 calories. But a junk food snack containing 70 or more calories can be consumed in minutes. Further, many exercisers consume more calories after exercise, even if they only perceive they worked hard.

Please don’t stop exercising or think you don’t need to start, but if you haven’t gotten the weight-loss you were expecting from consistent exercise program, knowing this may bring a lot of peace of mind.

Exercise, especially higher intensity, can increase the metabolic rate (burning around 50 additional calories after exercise is completed). Studies also show that exercising before breakfast, in warmer temperatures and doing activities that are viewed as enjoyable rather than difficult can make it more effective at aiding in weight-loss, but focusing on the right diet first is what will really fuel results.

7. Eat Your Thylakoids

Thylakoids are where photosynthesis takes place. When we eat them they are able to resist digestive enzymes and as it turns out, those eating more greens have a significantly reduced cravings for junk AND feel more satiated over all. The darker the greens the more powerful, so Lacinato kale is one of the best options.

Have you heard of oxalates? Individuals prone to kidney stones, they tend to absorb more oxalates and ultimately end up with kidney stones. Spinach is perhaps the highest oxalate food out there, along with swiss chard and beet greens. For most people, normal consumption of these greens is not a problem. But if spinach is the only green you’re eating, you’re prone to kidney stones, or you’re like Dr. Greger and aiming to eat a pound of greens a day, you’ll want to work in some low oxalate greens such as kale, collards and arugula make up the majority of your intake.

8. Fat Burners

Some spices can ramp up fat burning without adding any additional calories: jalapeno peppers, red pepper powder, ginger and possibly ceylon cinnamon have all shown some indications of aiding weight-loss without other changes to the diet. Typical cinnamon (cassia, or any cinnamon in the U.S. not specified as ceylon), can cause liver toxicity when adults consume more than a teaspoon or children ¼ tsp so look for ceylon cinnamon when you shop.

9. Habit Formation

While many have label extra weight as a result of poor motivation, the reality is most of life is made up of our habits. And our habits are influenced much more by our environment than our will-power.

Once you know which habits you’d like to change, here are a few things that are shown to help:

Change the Cue: often our habits have triggers–situations or circumstances that tend to lead to certain behaviors for us. When you get home do you automatically head for the snack cabinet? Can you make healthy snacks more convenient than unhealthy ones? Many studies have shown that we are much more likely to have healthy habits if the people around us have healthy habits.

As Dr. Greger said, “Health-wise, it matters little what we eat on birthdays, holidays, or special occasions (unless for you every day is National Hot Dog Day). It’s the day-to-day that adds up, which is why our eating habits are so important for good or for ill.”

Implication Intentions: The best way to change a habit is to: a) decide what behavior you will do instead (rather than just vowing not to do a certain thing), and then decide when and where.
So for me afternoons are the time I am most likely to eat an excess of sweet or salty snacks, and it’s definitely more of a mindless habit than anything hunger driven, so I might say, “When I feel like snacking after lunch, I will drink water or a smoothie.”

As Dr. Greger puts it, “the need for will-power is replaced by an eerie compulsion just to do the right thing.”

For more powerful info on habit change, James Clear is the master. I highly recommend his book Atomic Habits

10. Hydration

For a long time drinking more water has been associated with successful weight-loss. Although many studies made it difficult to know whether it was actually the water or if it was one of many habits healthy people were already doing. Was it just because they were drinking water instead of soda or milk or maybe just generally more health conscious than your typical Dr. Pepper drinker? Even dairy-industry studies have found that drinking less than a cup of milk can exaggerate the insulin spike as much as white bread.

Further research shows that being well-hydrated does in fact promote more fat-burning and being in a perpetually dehydrated state promotes weight-gain.

In terms of water-purification, the EPA estimates between 2 and 17 percent of bladder cancer cases in the U.S. are due to the by-products of disinfection agents. Basically the chlorine and other chemicals that save us from all the things lurking in water also leave by-products that can be highly problematic.

Make sure to change your water filters according to schedule, as they may be growing bacteria and losing their filtering capacity long before the water starts to taste off.

And can you drink too much? Yes, even healthy kidneys can only handle about 3 cups of water per hour. Dr. Greger recommends about 9 cups of water per day for women and about 13 cups for men. Of course intense exercise and other factors can change your needs, so aiming for light yellow urine will help you know if you’re in the right zone.

11. Inflammation Quenchers

Inflammation throughout the body is not only tied to a host of diseases, it can also hinder weight-loss.

The single most pro-inflammatory food component is saturated fat, while the single most anti-inflammatory food component is fiber. So a diet centered around plant foods which are rich in fiber and crowds out the saturated fat in animal and junk foods.

12. Intermittent Fasting

Fasting is a hot topic in the health world right now, and when it comes to weight-loss, not eating is certainly a sure fire way to get results quick. While at one point, long-term fasting (medically supervised) was used to reduce obesity, most patients ended up gaining the weight back, or worse, dying.

The only thing that may be a hotter topic than fasting right now is the Ketogenic Diet, which in theory mimicks fasting by eating a very low-carb diet. While the Keto Diet does result in rapid loss of about 4 lbs on average, it is mostly water weight that is lost, not excess fat. Further, the high intake of fat and meat may exacerbate diabetes, heart disease and cancer. While the Ketogenic Diet has been shown to be extremely helpful for pediatric epilepsy patients not responding to other methods, it’s not at all safe or effective for the general population.

While a variety of approaches to fasting have been suggested and studied, the methods with the most promise seem to be time-restricted eating, or keeping your meals between a shorter window of time during the day. Essentially cutting out the late-night snacking and eating the bulk of your calories in the beginning of the day have a powerful effect.

13. Meal Frequency

What about the common advice to eat more frequently, smaller meals throughout the day? Most studies haven’t shown a real benefit here, but what they do see is that the more often people eat, the more food they tend to eat.

If you were to take the exact same food and portion it throughout the day in 3 meals or 6 it wouldn’t have a big impact on weight-loss, but most people will end up just eating more food. The negative impact of foods that will spike blood sugar, such as processed foods, soda and even orange juice can be reduced if these foods are eaten with meals.

14. Metabolic Boosters

While some drug and supplement companies have come up with ways to boost metabolism, they come with the price of very dangerous side-effects. A simple, effective and virtually free way to have a similar effect? Water. Drinking 2 cups of cold water on an empty stomach a few times a day can have a dramatic effect on metabolism, resulting in a 25 percent increase in metabolic rate within an hour. Salt water and herbal teas have been tested without the same effects, so swapping out other beverages for straight water may be one of the simplest ways to lose weight there is. Stainless steel water bottles are one of the best ways to keep your water cold AND avoid some of the downsides of plastic.

Note: again, the kidneys cannot handle more than 3 cups of water an hour, so aim for around 2. One with kidney or heart failure would want to talk with their doctor about extra water intake, and beta-blocker drugs (ending it lol) can sometimes block the effect.

15. Mild Trendelenburg

Okay, this has to be the craziest suggestion in this book! Essentially Trendelenburg is elevating your feet above your head, named after Mr. Trendelenburg who found some benefits of doing it during surgery. For weight-loss, the idea is that you elevate the foot of your bed so that you sleep with your head down at a 6 degree angle. In one study the the proportion of fat subjects were burning shot up by 40 percent, all while laying down.

But sleeping with your feet above your head can cause fainting, space headaches (extra blood pooling in the head and a common complaint of astronauts) and has a number of other risks. You’ll definitely want to read all that Dr. Greger has to say about it as you shouldn’t try this if you have any heart or lung issues, problems with your brain, or even a family history of glaucoma. Research to support the safety and efficacy of this one is also limited so I’d definitely start with other suggestions first!

16. Negative Calorie Preloading

Starting a meal with foods that have less than 100 calories per cup can reduce overall consumption–this can be water, fruits, vegetables, soups or salads. Am I the only one wondering if I can apply these principles to feeding a slew of boys that may eat me to the poorhouse in a few years? 🙂

17. Sleep Enhancement

Too little sleep (6 hours or less) as well as too much (more than 9 hours) have some correlations with increased diabetes and life-expectancy. And it should come as no surprise that those who don’t sleep as much tend to eat more. But even when caloric intake was controlled and subjects lost the same amount of weight, those not sleeping enough lost lean body mass compared to the body fat lost by subjects who slept enough. Screens and insomnia can get in the way of sleep though, which is why the Four Rules of Sleep Conditioning can help:

• Go to bed only when you’re sleepy
• Don’t use your bed for eating, reading or screen time
• If you can’t fall asleep within 15-20 minutes, get up, leave the bedroom and don’t go back until you’re sleepy again. Repeat as necessary
• Get up at the same time every morning no matter how little sleep you got

Four rules of sleep hygiene:

• Exercise regularly
• Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol before bedtime
• Make the bedroom dark, cool, comfortable and quiet
• Establish a relaxing bedtime routine

Avoiding naps is sometimes added to the list, but most research does not show naps to interfere with nighttime sleep.

Aim for at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night.

18. Stress Hormone Relief

Stress can affect our weight, so finding ways to avoid major stressors is the first step. Since much of our stress likely comes from family, work and other responsibilities that can’t be easily eliminated, exercise and mindfulness techniques can mitigate the impact.

I have finally made the mindfulness habit stick, and it’s thanks to this book by Emily Fletcher. She spells out specific habits along with all of the benefits that come with learning to calm your mind.

To further buffer the release of the stress hormone cortisol, we can reduce our intake of saturated fats and animal protein and pile on the plants. But you already knew that, didn’t you!

19. Wall Off Your Calories

Breaking down the structural wall of foods–such as grinding whole grains into flour, causing quicker digestion, more impact on blood sugar, ultimately making weight loss more difficult.

The denser structure of whole grain pasta makes it a better choice than the airy texture of whole grain bread.  The airy texture of bread compared to the more dense texture of pasta makes it more quickly digested, more prone to blood sugar spikes and ultimately making weight loss more difficult.

Check this out: BROL is the ultra whole grain breakfast Dr. Greger eats most days:

BROL (Barley, Rye, Oats, Lentils)
Barley groats (purple barley)
Rye berries
Oats groats
Black lentils/beluga lentils (this variety has the highest antioxidant level)

Combine equal parts of each of the 4 in a air tight container. Then combine 1 scoop BROL with 2 scoops water and cook on high pressure in the Instant Pot for 30 minutes.

What was the most surprising weight-loss booster for you? Aside from Trendelenburg which sounds outright crazy, I think the data on water intake and breakfast are so interesting.

If you’re already eating well and taking the best care of your body without seeing the weight-loss results you’re hoping for, this should give you some ideas of things that may help.