If you’re in menopause and overweight, would it matter if you diet continuously versus some of the time?
What if you tried to loose weight for 5 weeks and then you took a break for 5 weeks and just tried not to gain weight for the next 5 weeks.
A new study just published in the journal Menopause looked at that type of off and on dieting and compared it to dieting continuously.
Here’s what they found. Both ways were equally effective in losing weight. body fat and waist size. However, the women who did the intermittent diet also lost a bit more lean body mass (muscle).
The good news is that this difference in lean body mass did not affect the women’s metabolism. Also, both diet groups improved their total cholesterol and their LDL or bad cholesterol. After one year, both groups were equally successful in keeping the weight off.
This is good news for dieters. It is a small study of only 25 obese women, but at least for now, it seems that you can take a break from dieting every 5 weeks as long as you don’t bounce back up in weight during your break.
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