The simple act of increasing your fiber intake, without further recommendations, is almost as effective on weight as a much more complex set of multiple measures, according to a new study.
Eat less of this, more of that, cook like this, season like that, move as much… there are a thousand and one little things you can do to lose weight. But these multiple measures are not necessarily suitable for everyone. A simple and unique measure such as increasing the consumption of foods containing fiber (fruits, vegetables, whole grains), is already effective.
30 grams of fiber per day, nothing more
This was shown by a study conducted in Worcester, Massachusetts, which compared the effect of this simple measure to that of more complex measures for losing weight. It concerns 240 adults with metabolic syndrome, who had to change their eating habits for 1 year.
Half of them simply needed to eat more fiber from food, not supplements, to reach 30g per day. No other restrictions or recommendations were imposed on them. The other half had to follow a more complex lifestyle modification program, based on the recommendations of the American Heart Association (AHA).
On the scale, the results show that the simple “fiber” measure allows you to lose 2.1 kg, which is not huge, but not so far from the weight loss achieved with the multiple measures, which is 2 .7 kg. The AHA measures remain more effective, but this study underlines the interest that the simple recommendation concerning fibers can already have.
Yunsheng MA et al., Ann Intern Med, 2015; 162(4): 248-257
