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Soup or salad before a meal helps weight loss-study

reuters.com — Eating a low-calorie soup or salad at the start of a meal to curb hunger could be the key to dieters' success, according to a U.S. rating of eight popular diet plans.

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  • dweeb79, on 10/12/2007, -4/+46Exercise works as well.
    • trghpy, on 10/12/2007, -21/+15So does a glass of water.
      Salids have no calories worth mentioning except what you add with dressing. If you put ***** loads of ranch dressing on your salid then don't bother.
      Most soups are minimal in calories also.

      In other words, you're starting your meal with something already in your tummy making you feel full faster.

      Weight loss from dieting is still stupid. Only healthy way is through exercise.
    • gtluke, on 10/12/2007, -14/+19what do you two suggest for me then? since i was nearly crippled in an accident and have a very difficult time exercising.
      this is a good article, followed by stupid digg'ers
    • olddirtycr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22@gtluke

      Eat healthy, eat a soup or salad before each meal, like the article says.
    • dericko, on 10/12/2007, -7/+14@trghpy

      I've lost 30 pounds or so since I stopped eating meat.

      Now, I'm losing even more weight since I've stopped eating out so much.

      A proper diet is VERY important. It's all about the calorie intake. What do you think exercise does? It uses the calories that you take in from the day.
    • dweeb79, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5@gtluke

      Well if u still maintain the ability to move your arms u can perform biking with your arms.

      If you can't do anything my suggestion is not eat like pig and drink plenty of water.
    • lebe0024, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11You can't do it on exercise alone. Exercise will have limited results if you're eating way too much. Last summer, I ran 4 miles three times a week, but didn't change my eating habits. I didn't lose any weight. This summer, I'm doing less exercise by I'm watching my diet more, and I'm losing weight.
    • seasleepy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@gtluke: If your doctor's told you not to exercise, then don't. But otherwise, there are likely exercises you can do. You may not be able to go running, but if you can walk, take a short walk every day (or every few days if every day would be too taxing). I'm sure your doctor or physical therapist would have recommendations for appropriate and safe exercises you could try.

      For the mostly able-bodied population though, exercise is the obvious option that is ignored when they try to lose weight or improve their health, and so it's not exactly dumb to bring it up.
    • Lanlost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Why was trghpy dugg down? .. Everything he said was true. He didn't say that this applied to people that were physically handicapped.. as the article was not about that. It wasn't a stab on you.

      Not that proper diet isn't important either.. but what are you doing trying to lose weight with a proper diet in the first place?
    • trghpy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5@dericko
      Congrats on the weight loss.
      But my point still stands, an in shape cardiovascular system is more important to me than an arbitary weight number.

      @lanlost
      I said too much with out enough point. My appologies to those who are legitimattly disabled.
    • aguita, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1They are talking about general dieting. Dieting is only a short term solution involved with a lot of bad health habits. The only way to loose weight and keep it off is to expend more energy than you consume.
    • cblalock, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Its amazing to me the looks on people's faces when I tell them how i've lost 21 lbs (and counting) over the past 4 weeks. I eat around 1100-1300 calories a day and balance that between proteins, healthy carbs and the like. I run 2 miles at least every other day, ride my bike 3-5 miles on the off days and do pushups, situps, crunches and pullups for about an hour every night along with some dumbbell weight lifting.

      Its not that hard, it just takes daily determination and discipline.

      All these people just keep asking, "Yeah, but whats your SECRET" no secret. healthy diet + hard exercise = weight loss
    • PURPLEDRINK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The reason for this is because when eating a meal, most people eat to fast. Our ancestors did not have well prepared and tasty meals, they had to pick at and sometimes really chew their food. Because the stomach does not trigger any feelings of "full" until about 20 minutes latter, causing people who even eat at a speed resembling common dinner etiquette to gorge a well prepared (and tasty!) meal down. Eating a soap or salad 5-10 minutes before a real meal, such as fries/sandwich triggers the feeling of "full" more naturally. Best advice really is to eat any food at a slow (and as others might find it, very slow), casual pace.
    • betobeto, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15 months of continous gym exercise but no radical diet changes have taught me that no matter how hard or frequently you exercise, what really counts to lose weight is to stick to a real, supervised diet discipline. That's what will make you lose weight in spades. But of course, that is the hardest part to do, much more than exercise itself. Me, I'm just happy to go to the gym for the stress relieving part, which is more than enough reward for me.
    • rhabd0mancer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1cblalock,

      You'll gain it all back when you start eating normally again.
    • dime, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2"I've lost 30 pounds or so since I stopped eating meat."

      Heh... I was a vegetarian for 10+ years. This past winter, I started eating meat again.

      In four months, I dropped the 15 pounds I gained since going veg.

      It's odd - I think you lose weight initially when you drop the meat... but after a few years, you (or at least I) start compensating by eating bigger portions and incorporating more cheese and butter to satisfy certain cravings. Now that I eat meat again, those cravings are satisfied, I end up eating less food, and stay feeling full longer.

    • LogicBomB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@gtluke:

      People like you really bother me. The digger's were not stupid. Stop acting as if everything said is supposed to apply to every situation. When someone says "milk is a great way to build bones" don't jump in with "well I'm lactose intolerant". If someone says "running is a great way to get exercise" don't jump in and say "i'm in a wheelchair". If someone says "nuts make a great snack on the go" don't talk about your allergies.

      Exercise and a reasonable diet is a great way to loose weight on a permanent basis because it instills lifestyle changes. If you cannot exercise, instead of calling people stupid, how about asking what alternative methods might be instead of griping about how it can't work for you?
    • joshua5, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Lets also not forget that 'low fat' does not mean 'eat the whole box'.
  • ziki, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15They should invent a treadmill that is connected to a computer, the more you run, the more headlines come up on digg.
    • johnhummel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3There was the story of the guy who replaced his chair with an exercise bike for when he was playing WoW - so something like that could work.
    • sdcarter, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3He calls it Warbiking. Here's a link to his blog:
      http://theweightlifter.blogspot.com/

      Also, something worth noting/sharing since I'm a fat-ass who almost always NEEDS a midnight snack before bed, the food you ingest before bed is just converted into fat. The best thing to stave off hunger pangs is 8-10oz of water. The way it was explained to me is that your body is just saying it's thirsty and you naturally drink something while eating so the two wind up being unnecessarily paired together.
  • uranium, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8wow... would never have figured that out
    • underthelinux, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10seriously...
      SHOCKING! Eating low calorie food to fill you up before eating high calorie food leads to weight loss. jinkies!
    • PURPLEDRINK, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Maybe all we need to loose weight this summer is our Guinness. brilliant! ...brilliant!
    • silverchrysalis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1wait- Guinness isn't a meal?
  • tekz0r, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2trghpy beat me to it.. but i'm not going to erase what i just wrote because you can just consider it a supporting example ;) digg me down if you must.
    --
    I haven't RTFA but if I were to wager a guess at why this is logical, it would be that they are usually (in the case of a salad) very low caloric appetizers that essentially "fill you up" so you don't gauge yourself with the rest of your meal, thus, you are helped in losing weight because you just don't eat as much of the bad stuff.


    That said, I used a similar tactic while in the dining halls in my college days, by drinking a full glass of water before eating it would help curb my appetite a bit so I wouldn't over eat (all you can eat dining halls..).
    • tekz0r, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Would like to add that I didn't RTFD either. ;)


      (description.. for the laypers. (dumb and dumber reference))


      send me to oblivion.
    • Tarnum, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It's a classic. A glass of hot water with a some honey (not sugar) does the trick as well. By the time you get your food, you already feel half-full.
  • mywhitenoise, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2yeah, and then my date will piss me off when she spent my money on the meal she's not going to eat.
  • Gatchaman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Stupid that they did a current study of this since itś been known for a long time now. Of course it helps with weight loss, because youŕe filling up on healthier stuff, leaving less room for the crapola, fatty main course.
  • sdipaola, on 10/12/2007, -7/+0These tools are still rather simple for 'remote office' use, netvibes is great and wins for ui and looks ( and web 2.0 hipness), but I find that the firefox/igoogle (was Google personal homepage)combo gives me more sophisticated tools for my remote office needs. igoogle is obviously tied to deeper google tools ( gmail,gcal,gdocs,gnotebook all which have igoogle homepage modules. And while 'remember the milk' (todo) is OK, I switched to toodledo as a better todo tool that syncs with igoogle and gcal.

    -steve
    • silverchrysalis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1hmm. i'm thinking a 'wrong thread' diagnosis fits here.
  • 13x13, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4A spoonful of peanut butter, nuts, or slices of avacado(Items high in the good type of fat) about 10-15 minutes before you eat It activates ghrelin, a hormone that lets you know you're full. It will you eat less
    • mojoe1185, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1You dumb ass a spoonful of peanut butter would just add another 100 calories to you diet, not a good move.
    • imamessy1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If you go out and eat the whole plate of food as opposed to half you would with the peanut butter, that's an extra 300-500 calories (just an assumption based on the fact that a hamburger at a casual dining restaurant is about 1000 cals). The 100 cals you get from the peanut butter is nothing and a teaspoon full isn't 100 cals, and it's a good fat (although natural peanut butter would be better because there's no sugar, but the texture leaves something to be desired). Soup or salad are likely to be pretty close, and soups have loads of sodium.

      This is hardly a new concept. You can also eat slower and drink water between bites.
    • 13x13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Actually you will eat less would be more accurate...stupid work as a distraction from digging all day.
  • NoTiG, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Of course they don't mention that its temporary weight loss. Any kind of caloric restriction is temporary... in other words as soon as you eat normally you will put weight back on. It simply slows your metabolism down. Kind of stupid actually. People just need to eat better quality food, regulate their insulin levels.. and exercise (and eat normally )
  • digitalArtform, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It causes weight GAIN in a restaurant - since you order everything while you are still hungry
  • mojoe1185, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The fact that this article tells you to eat in order to lose weight is why it is popular, eating is easy, deciding not to is not. To lose weight simply eat less calories than you burn a day. Now that can mean eat less, exercise the same, or eat the same, exercises more, or eat less and exercise more. Do any of those things and you WILL lose weight.

    http://www.hpathy.com/healthtools/calories-need.asp
  • baustin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Dieting is just as important, if not more so than exercise. If you're trying to lose weight, you need a caloric deficit in your diet, which doesn't happen if you're eating a ton of food or food full of pointless calories. One excellent thing to cut out of your diet is high fructose corn syrup.
  • MadMastaZ, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Here's how you help your weight loss:

    stop stuffing your face
    get outside and exercise
    sex is also a workout.

    This is only going to teach people "Oh, we don't need to exercise to lose weight, let's just eat soup or a salad before we eat dinner!"
  • Eliza101, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Wait, eating salad will help me study weight loss? AWESOME.
  • Incom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Yea, but alot of people will continue to eat even if they are not hungry.
    • COinOR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1so true. considering the huge portions served in restaurants, i'm _trying_ to eat only half of my meal and save the rest for later. i definitely notice a difference when i'm able to stick to this (body feels good & healthy) and when i don't (body feels horrible & bloated).
    • Duston, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@coinor (#6601272)
      One thing I have been doing for about a year now is ordering off the kids menu. The portion size is much more appropriate.

      (plus when you ride in on a Harley, hang your leather jacket on the back of your chair, then ask for a kids menu the looks are priceless)
  • tehjarvis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think it's funny how many people try fad diets these days. Everyone already knows what they should be eating. Less pizza and more veggies. More chicken/fish and less red meat. Eating every 2 or 3 hours actually keeps your metabolism up. Even if one of those meals is just a can of tuna with crackers and some fruit. If you're just eating 2 big meals a day, you're shocking your body. You go without food for so long that your body is storing everything it can from those meals. Also don't drink anything with calories. A buddy of mine lost 20 pounds in 3 months by just drinking water and not drinking soda every meal.

    Of course there's genetic implications, some people are bigger than others no matter what. You should just focus on BEING healthy rather than looking awesome, and that's where a lot of people fail.
    • mojoe1185, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2None of that is true, if you eat less, than your body burns, you will lose weight, "veggies...chicken/fish" unnecessary, simply focus on calories, and I promise you, you will lose weight.
    • shawnanigans, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Plus red meat is delicious, and if it was half as bad as people make it out to be I would be dead. So would all of Alberta.
  • onemadfool, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm sure I'll get slammed for this but here goes...To lose weight...YOU HAVE TO EAT.
    It's not how much you eat; it's WHAT you eat. It's more than simple calorie counting. Basically, your body needs "X" amount of calories a day just to perform minimal bodily functions. Most of us don't eat even the bare minimum our bodies need, so our bodies go into starvation mode, and every calorie we do eat, our body stores.

    If you are eating enough to fuel your body’s minimum requirement, then you'll start to burn calories and lose weight. Exercise is must in any diet and of course there is much more to it than that, but I'm not going to go into the whole reasoning behind it. If you want to know more, check out a book called "Choose to Lose". I use it, and it's great. You are never hungry, and honestly, it's very hard in the beginning to eat the amount of food you actually need to eat to lose weight.
  • cp101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2A nice, leafy green salad with vinegar after a meal does more good than one before a meal. It'll speed up digestion. Though, one before does slightly curb appetite, but, there's no such thing as eating too much salad ;)
  • theOster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1a "loss-study"?
  • TheToecutter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Eating a low-calorie soup or salad at the start of a meal to curb hunger could be the key to dieters' success."

    Really?
  • rhabd0mancer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Kenny Bania always has soup before a meal.
  • Manuelmty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Xenadrine anyone?
  • Cirrius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Did they REALLY need a study to find out that eating food A before food B makes you eat less of food B?
  • dathutmeballs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0They should say "salad or soup." This one time I was given the option of soup or salad and it sounded like "super salad."

    I ended up getting the salad and missed out on some good soup
  • Sedaak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'm surprised so few people have heard of the Shangri-La diet. I don't advocate the diet for everyone, just for rapid and healthy weight loss. Understanding how it works shows you that our metabolic system is worlds more complicated than "caloric intake". If you search for shangrila diet you will get tons of stories. If you aren't used to sugar and choose that method then sugar will give you a headache, and since you probably won't desire caffeine as much the reduced intake may cause headaches.

    Someone well versed in the Shangri-La diet will probably view this article as an amateur version of itself since the salad is considered efficient, but not optimal.
  • Gmanater, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I lost a 115 pounds by beginning each meal with salad and then equal portions of other food groups.

    The salad I ate really did make me eat less of the other foods because I was already full by the time I got to them. And for those people that like to eat and feel full, this is great.

    This study is confirmed by me, but it only helps when your doing other things to help lose weight. For example, I was eating differently and running 3 miles a day. Exercise and eating habits are essential for true weightloss. (And by true I mean for the rest of your life.)
    • stotch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1fascinating, note to self.. dont let myself become 115 pounds overweight
  • Sedaak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@tarnum
    honey in a glass is remarkably similar to shangrila, but I would suggest an hour before the meal at least so your entire body is aware of the calories you took in before you start eating so to speak.
  • bobangitanov2, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2this study is as intelligent as the curliest pubic hair on the right side of my scrotum
  • voodoobru, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0BREAKING!: not eating helps weight loss
  • voodooray, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Soups work for me. Didn't really understand the mechanics of why, until I saw/read this:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=423572&in_page_id=1774

    The section on calcium is interesting too. The BBC created a documentary about this too, going so far as using an MRI scan to see physically what happens in the body to account for the effects on satiety. See "How to be slim":

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/

    Plenty of info for on what foods which leave you feeling fuller longer.
  • jonpaul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Many people take this one step further, and just have the soup or the salad, and skip the "main meal" altogether. A hearty soup can contain all the nutrients and calories required and is easy to digest. Just have two bowls of soup to lose weight!
  • 1stin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Clam Chowder... yummy!!!
  • SeaOverflowing, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0I agree with this. A low-calorie soup or salad at the start of a meal will help anyone lose weight. In fact, soup and salad can be meal itself. In summer, it is better to eat less.
  • humblepatience, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1It says to bore yourself thin by eating the same foods over and over - the monotony will cause you to eat less. (2nd page, part about 5 steps people used to keep 30 lbs off for a year

    I call BS on that one, you are supposed to vary what you eat I.E. just a like a hunger-gatherer so that your body can get all the nutrients it needs to stay healthy and on the move
  • caramelMangoMan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Hi guys I work at a company called Gold Group, and we are currently running a campaign for our client Lipton, meant to call attention to the healthy benefits of tea! The site for the campaign is located at http://www.fightindooritis.com, it features some fun videos and messages you can send to friends, as well as a rebate for up to $15 savings on Lipton teas! We hope you find the site interesting and are able to share it with your friends and readers.
  • m98076, on 01/31/2008, -0/+0Interesting
    http://bestweight-losspills.blogspot.com/
  • paulclough, on 02/12/2008, -0/+0find weightloss techniques at http://www.yourlossweight.info
  • cwalker3, on 05/07/2008, -0/+0This is true because by eating a lower calorie meal it keeps you from eating too much for your main meal. The only thing you should watch for is making sure soup and salad is not all you eat. http://www.makeoverfitness.com
  • michellephilips, on 08/06/2008, -0/+0first they order the soup. then they order the salad. then they have the main course.
    anyone in a restaurant isnt going to eat a bowl of soup and a piece of lettuce. get real.

    http://www.how-to-lose-weight-quickly.co.nr
  • EmmaGiraldi, on 08/19/2008, -0/+0If you are a fatty like me trying to lose belly fat http://www.2losebellyfat.com/
  •  

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