It’s often reported that eating grapefruit, or drinking grapefruit juice will help you lose weight. For example the BBC reported in 2004 on a study at the Scrpps Clinic in San Diego saying:

Ken Fujioka and colleagues at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego California enrolled 100 obese patients with an average weight of 218 pounds in the study.

One group of volunteers ate half a grapefruit before each meal three times a day, while another drank a glass of grapefruit juice before every meal. A third did not include grapefruit in their meals.

After 12 weeks, those eating grapefruit had lost an average of 3.6 pounds, and some shed as much as 10 pounds.

The participants drinking grapefruit juice lost an average of 3.3 pounds. But those in the control group who consumed no grapefruit only lost an average of 0.5 pounds.

So it seems you can lose weight just by adding grapefruit to your diet. Awesome – if you like grapefruit. But there’s a few small problems with the idea that grapefruit will help you lose weight:

1. There doesn’t appear to be any further scientific research that collaborates this finding.
2. Dr. Ken Fujioka is quoted in news reports as saying: “The only dietary change, was the intake of Florida grapefruit and grapefruit juice“. When you consider that the research was funded by the Florida Department of Citrus which markets Florida grapefruit it does seem like the results of the study might have been somewhat skewed by commercial interests.

So does grapefruit help you lose weight?

I can’t say for sure, but I suspect that for many of us eating more grapefruit is a step in the right direction even if it’s only to help us eat the minimum of five portions of fruit and vegetables per day.

It’s counter intuitive – most of us skip a meal when trying to lose weight – but you will probably lose more weight by eating more meals per day. Over the last year I’ve found that by eating small sortions more frequently I do better with my weight loss.

As a result I now aim for 6 “meals” per day. Each meal varies between a 110Kcal protein shake or a handful of nuts and raisins to a full cooked meal containing around 500kcal. My aim is to average 300 kcal per meal for a daily average of around 1800 to 2000kcal. Although as I get fittern and get more exercise that will probably rise in line with the extra requirements for energy to support the exercise.

So what are the benefits of eating more frequently when it comes to losing weight? Well firstly studies have found that there is a correlation between skipping breakfast and obesity. As the researchers noted skipping breakfast was:

…associated with a lower diet quality and concentrated energy intakes through higher protein intakes at lunch and the consumption of snacks higher in energy and carbohydrate in the afternoon and evening;

Which brings us nicely to the other benefit of eating more frequently. If you’ve planned to have 6 meals a day, then you’re eating a meal every 2 to 3 hours which means your energy intake is more even throughout the day and you’re less likely to snack knowing that your next meal is not far away.

Despite easy access to clean water many of us the live in the west are dehydrated. What we drink does not help either, much of it, for example caffeinated drinks and alcohol has a diuretic effect (dehydrates us and makes us wee more).

Unfortunately our bodies depend on water to function correctly, so when we’re dehydrated our bodies aren’t working as efficiently as they should, which impacts our health and wellbeing. The simple fix is to drink more water and less of the other stuff.

The bonus is that by drinking more water you’re more likely to lose weight – and you’ve not even had to give up your favourite foods to benefit from it!

There are in fact several reasons to drink water to lose weight:

1. our brains often confuse being thirsty with being hungry. So when you feel hungry have a glass of water and wait 20 minutes you might well find you’re no longer hungry.
2. drinking more water (especially cold water) burns additional energy as your body works to maintain it’s internal temperature.
3. water fills up your stomach making you feel fuller.
4. Some scientific studies (for example the one listed below) have shown that drinking around 500ml (two glasses) of water before a meal results in you consuming around 13% less than you otherwise would have.

So how much water should i drink to lose weight? Well it’ll vary from person to person, but you’re almost certainly not drinking enough!

Reference quoted:

Davy BM, Dennis EA, Dengo L, Wilson KL, Davy KP. Water consumption Reduces Energy Intake at a Breakfast Meal in Obese Older Adults. JADA 2008; 108: 1236-1239.

It should be fairly obvious to anyone that eating less food will result in weight loss. It is after all the basis of most weight loss diets.

What’s not obvious is that many of us eat too much simply because we’re given (or take) large portions and not just because we’re greedy but sometimes just because that looks like the right sized portion for the plate we’re eating off. In other words we over serve ourselves when we use larger plates and, according to the experts we tend to eat 92% of what we serve ourselves.

The solution? Use a smaller plate. It almost sounds too simple, but one study claims that 70% of people felt more satisfied with a smaller portion when it was served on a smaller plate. One study found that a reduction in plate size from 12″ to 10″ would reduce calorific intake by 22%. In real terms that translates to around 9Kg per year of weight loss.

You can find more information (and some of the scientific evidence) on the Small Plate Movement website.