Calorie Cutting Pays Big Dividends

by Karen Asp (Subscribe to Karen Asp's posts)
Jul 14th 2009 9:00AM

Categories: Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

Photo: catsper, Flickr

If you've ever tried cutting calories, you know how important calories are. As it turns out, cutting calories isn't only good for your waistline, it could also slow aging.

So says a new study from the journal Science in which researchers followed more than 70 monkeys for 20 years. Half of the monkeys followed a calorie-restricted but nutrient-dense diet, eventually eating 30 percent less calories than they normally would. Meanwhile, the other half ate whatever they wanted.

In the end, 53 percent of the calorie-restricted were still living by the end of the study, compared to only 34 percent in the other group. Even more important, monkeys that ate fewer calories stayed healthier for longer periods of time. In fact, they were three times less likely to develop age-related diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes.They also showed improvements in brain health. "All of these changes are helping slow the aging process," says Dr. Richard Weindruch, lead study author and professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Another one of his studies even found that calorie restriction could help oppose loss of muscle with aging.

Because monkeys and humans are closely related, the results may apply to you, too. However, Weindruch is hesitant to make recommendations for humans, saying a 30 percent reduction may be too extreme for most people. "And if you're lowering your food intake, you could also run into malnutrition," he says. If you want to try this, work with a qualified nutrition expert who can make sure that while you're cutting calories, you're getting the nutrients you need.

My take on this? Cutting 30 percent of calories does sound a bit extreme. But if shaving a few calories could help me live healthier, boost brain health and keep my weight in check, sign me up -- as long as I don't have to give up my favorite occasional splurge: A Dairy Queen Blizzard with Reese's peanut butter cup.

Comments (2)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Harry Johnson Jr. 7-14-2009 @ 3:34PM

As a trainer, I have found that, most weight loss related problems boil down to one source: FOOD.

If you are not making progress, and your weight loss efforts have stalled, first, ensure that your weight training and
Many times food is the culprit hindering people from weight loss success.

If exercises are being performed properly and consistently; then analyze your food intake. Food is the biggest hurdle that most of us contend with in terms of getting into top shape. The reasons are many and complex.

Thus, if you are not achieving results, the first thing to do is to check your food intake. Are you eating the right amounts of the right foods at the right times? If you find that you are doing everything else right, and are still not making progress, the way to get back on the path to progress is to carefully analyze the type and amount of food you have been eating. Most likely, the problem is one of excess calories. Even if you are eating the best foods for your body, taking in more calories than you need causes you to accumulate fat.

It is a physiological fact that, in order to lose fat, you must take in less calories than you use on a daily basis over a consistently long period of time. This is the only sure-fire way to guarantee steady and continual progress.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Harry Johnson Jr is the 1998 Body For Life Champion - You can learn more about losing weight and getting into great shape at his blog, www.harryjohnsonjr.com

Dr. Charles Martin 7-25-2009 @ 10:39AM

Obviously, this is a controversial topic. People who struggle with blood sugar control and weight management, whether they have prediabetes or already have developed type 2 diabetes, generally do best with a healthy eating plan that emphasizes vegetables, grains and legumes that are low on the glycemic index plus lean proteins, coupled with regular moderate physical activity.

We write extensively about related issues at http://dentistryfordiabetics.com/blog, especially the links between elevated blood sugar and gum disease that can interfere with diabetes control and significantly increase risk of serious health events such as heart attack, stroke and blindness.

- Charles Martin, DDS
Founder, Dentistry For Diabetics