People continue to disbelive that it’s not as simple as calories in, calories out, but there are more links coming out to how meat consumption is directly connected to long-term weight gain. A new study from Imperial College, London, followed the dietary habits of 370,000 adults across Europe for five years.
What was the result?
- Those who ate the least meat gained the least weight
- Eating an additional 250 grams of meat was the equivalent of an extra 4.4 pounds over five years
What’s the connection between meat and extra weight?
- Meat is so dense in calories, so their overall energy is higher making weight management harder
- It makes sense that vegetarian/vegan diets would be lower in overall energy, and therefore weight management is easier
What this study proves
What makes this study different is that the caloric intake and dietary pattern were controlled. The research team also managed the education, physical activity and smoking habits of participants. Even with the caloric and physical variables controlled, an adult consuming 2,200 daily calories with relatively little meat would gain less weight than a participant with a similar caloric intake who ate more meat.
This means diets that promote high meat consumption for long-term weight loss is completely wrong. In fact, the study which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, explains, “our results do not support that a high-protein diet prevents obesity or promotes long-term weight loss, contrary to what has been advocated.”