Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Currently there are many ways to lose weight and reduce bad fat. One of them is the Mediterranean diet which is said to be good for elderly or elderly people.
In the new study, seniors who followed a low-calorie Mediterranean diet and exercised minimally for up to six days a week gained muscle and lost some fat.
“This study shows that a calorie-controlled Mediterranean diet plus exercise not only results in weight loss. It results in a redistribution of body composition from fat to muscle,” said Dr. David Katz, a preventive medicine and lifestyle specialist who was not involved in this research, was quoted on Saturday (21/10/2023).
In addition to losing overall body fat, participants in the study also lost dangerous visceral belly fat, a cause of diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
In general, visceral abdominal fat cannot be seen because it is located behind the abdominal muscles, surrounding organs deep in the abdomen. If visceral fat accounts for about 10% of your total body fat mass, that’s normal and healthy, according to the Cleveland Clinic. However, too much visceral fat can cause inflammation and contribute to chronic disease.
“This study confirms that we can significantly change our metabolic status,” said leading nutrition researcher Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Part of a longer study
The study was part of an eight-year randomized clinical trial in Spain, with 23 research centers testing how diet and exercise can reduce cardiovascular risk in men and women aged between 55 and 75 years. A total of 6,874 participants in the trial were overweight or obese.
The new study, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network Open, examined one- and three-year outcomes in a subpopulation of 1,521 people who underwent scans to determine levels of visceral abdominal fat.
Half of the group were asked to follow a Mediterranean diet with a 30% reduction in calories and limit their intake of added sugars, biscuits, processed breads and cereals, butter, cream, processed meats and sugary drinks.
Additionally, the intervention group received help from a trained dietitian three times a month for the first year, along with training on how to self-monitor and set goals.
The same group was also asked to increase their aerobic exercise over time to walking 45 minutes or more a day along with exercises to improve strength, flexibility and balance, all of which are important for aging well.
“When you reduce calories, you lose lean mass and fat. If you add exercise, it helps to protect lean mass, especially if you add resistance training to build muscle.
“In general, the ideal is to lose fat, keep muscle,” said Katz, President and Founder of the nonprofit True Health Initiative.
The remaining participants were given general advice during twice-yearly group sessions and served as the control group for the study.
“It would be more informative if the control group received similar high-intention support (even if it only contained general advice),” said Gunter Kuhnle, professor of food science and nutrition at the University of Reading in England.
“Motivation and adherence are critical in research investigating behavior change, and the study design clearly supports such interventions,” Kuhnle said via email.
A simple but significant finding
At the end of one year, people in the intervention group who followed a low-calorie Mediterranean diet and exercised lost a little body fat over the first year, but the amount was much more than in the control group.
However, the intervention group regained some of its fat in the second and third years as dietary advice and support was removed. The amount of body fat lost in the control group remained stable over three years.
However, only participants from the intervention group experienced a reduction in grams of visceral fat mass, while visceral fat mass remained unchanged in the control group, according to the study.
Both groups did gain some muscle mass, but the intervention group had better body composition because they lost more fat than muscle.
“The most profound thing for me was the 3-year follow-up,” said Dr. Christopher Gardner, a professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center in California who leads the Nutrition Studies Research Group. He was not involved in this research.
Mediterranean diet
Research has found that the Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk of diabetes, high cholesterol, dementia, memory loss, depression, and breast cancer.
This eating pattern has also been linked to stronger bones, a healthier heart, and a longer life. In this eating pattern, large meals can only be eaten once, namely between midday and evening.
The Mediterranean diet still allows the consumption of protein and fat sources, such as fish, white meat, red meat and eggs, but in smaller quantities and also limits the consumption of sugar or other added sweeteners.
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Originally posted 2023-10-21 04:15:02.