Counting Calories to Lose Weight doesn't Work; how else do you explain how Peanut Butter is Slimming?

Everyone should be familiar by now with how Americans have been growing bigger and bigger with each generation. And we aren't just talking about those who somehow are unlucky enough to have genes that predispose them to being overweight. People who when they were in their 30s had no trouble with their weight often find that in their 40s, keeping the weight off is more difficult each year. Of course, people blame themselves - they should be counting calories to lose weight and visiting the gym a lot more often, they tell themselves. Everyone knows that these are what you need to do to stay slim and healthy, don't they?

Why doesn't this kind of advice ever seem to work? Is it just that people find it very distasteful to exercise and to eat responsibly? Or is it possible that the advice we've all received so far is wrong that counting calories to lose weight is the way to go?

The research in question was done at Harvard University; it involved following more than 100,000 healthy, slim, middle-class people, get this, for up to 20 years. Every two years, all these thousands of people would be given very intricately-designed questionnaires about their weight, their lifestyle habits and their eating habits. The study just came out in the New England Journal of Medicine a couple of months ago.

On average, the study found that all these people gained about 15 pounds in 20 years. The study concludes that counting calories to lose weight isn't the right approach at all. You aren't supposed to avoid fatty foods, and eat everything in moderation. The new mantra according to study is that you don't need to watch your calories as much is a need to watch where they come from.

As for exercise, while the study does find exercising makes you lose weight, it doesn’t work like you would expect. When measured every four years, the people who exercised the most were only about 2 pounds lighter than those who exercised the least. Exercise isn't as important, they've concluded, as what you choose to eat. If America is getting fatter by the year, it isn't that America doesn't exercise properly; it is just that Americans don't eat properly. That has to be bad news for all the health clubs out there.

As for the kind of foods that you should eat or avoid, the study had some surprising findings and some expected ones. Junk foods like french fries, chips, soda, fruit juice and white bread can be quite fattening. Full cream dairy products - milk and cheese - don't raise your weight. Peanut butter and nuts on the other hand actually make you lose weight. It's vegetable fat and it is good for you.

And unlike what they tell you in that famous Seinfeld episode with the low-fat yogurt, full-cream yogurt according to the study, with its healthy bacteria, can actually help you lose weight. It makes your gut a whole lot healthier and it makes you less hungry.

When Low Calorie Snacks don't Work, could Imaginary High Calorie Treats do the Trick?

If you're over 50 and you've put off losing weight for this long, you'll probably find that getting rid of those generously proportioned love handles can be all but impossible. Not without a frightful amount of determination can you make any headway losing weight. The trouble, usually, comes not just from finding the determination to exercise everyday. Usually, finding the heart to cut down on one's snacks or to switch entirely to tasteless low-calorie snacks can be difficult as well. The thing is, people can go overboard even with low calorie snacks. Indeed, they say that 100-calorie snack packs are actually far worse than full-sized packs. The packages may be made to contain no more than 100 calories; but no one stops you from eating many of them. Here is where a study done by the Carnegie Mellon University and published in the Science journal comes in.

This is what the study says, basically - there is a way to trick your mind into wanting to eat less. It's the power of imagination that you turn to. Imagine in detail the entire process of biting into, chewing up and swallowing a great and wonderful treat (not bland low calorie snacks) that you've always loved and crave; if you do it enough times, your mind will feel cloyed with the very idea of that delicious snack.

In this study, they tested a few dozen people on this idea. They asked people to sit there and imagine in great detail the whole process of eating M&M's that they loved. The more M&Ms the group was asked to imagine picking up and eating, the less they wanted to eat M&Ms when they were actually presented with a bowlful afterwards.

If someone asked you to imagine in detail everything that could happen to you if you were attacked by someone, usually, your brain would be able to do such a good job of imagining it, you could find yourself put off the rest of the evening. When you imagine in enough detail the experience you have eating something you really love, your brain, or at least a part of it, actually believes that you're eating it. And it releases some of the chemicals it would if you really were eating the stuff. Those chemicals give you the satisfaction of having actually eaten something you love.

So does this thing actually work in real life with real people? People who really try this, imagining a nice pizza that is crispy and gooey at the same time, with the heat and aroma of cooking pizzas, sauces and spices in the air, usually find that after a few tries, they do feel that they can do without the snack they crave. However, it usually doesn't have any real effect on their weight. Somehow, the brain tries to compensate by getting you to eat a lot more when it's regular mealtime. People find that when they indulge their imagination both with special treats and with their regular meals, they really can lose weight - usually at the rate of a couple of pounds a week. It can really work if you stick with it. Try losing two pounds a weeks with low calorie snacks.