The self-control, when on a diet, is perceived as a tough and time-consuming, but according to a recent research only 14.6 minutes on average per day are required in order to meet the wanted results.

The researches show that in order to achieve an effective weight loss the nutrition intakes must be tracked throughout the whole day and recorded right after each intake.

The diet self-control is considered to be so unpleasant and time-consuming, that not many people have the willpower to start and continue it afterwards.

A research, done by researchers from the University of Vermont and the University of South Carolina, is the first of its type and its purpose is to determine the amount of time, which is necessary for execution of diet self-control.

“People hate it; they think it's onerous and awful, but the question we had was: How much time does dietary self-monitoring really take?” says Jean Harvey, president of the department of Nutrition and Nutrition Science in the University of Vermont and the leading author in the research. “The answer is, not very much.”

Harvey and her colleges studied the self-control nutrition habits of 142 online participants in a behavioral program dedicated to weight control. For a period of 24 weeks, the participants met once a week for an online group session, led by a qualified nutritionist.

After six months of monitoring of their nutrition intake, the most successful participants in the behavioral program dedicated to weight control spent 14.6 minutes per day on average for this activity. The participants in the program recorded the consumed foods and drinks as well as the size of the portions and the methods of their preparation.

The participants who have lost 10% of their body weight (the most successful participants) have spent 23.2 minutes on average per day for self-control during the first month of the program. Up to the sixth month the time was reduced to 14.6 minutes.

The main reason which determined the weight loss success was not the time spent on monitoring but the frequency of the records. People who spent most time and included most details did not have necessarily better results. “Those who self-monitored three or more times per day, and were consistent day after day, were the most successful.” says Harvey.

My Body Creator not only makes the users’ creation of self-control habits easier, by automatically generating nutrition plan with options for changes, but it also takes into consideration the users’ success rate, which allows the application to adapt continuously the program. As an addition, the effectiveness increases significantly due to the individually prepared training program.

References:

University of Vermont. "Is the most effective weight-loss strategy really that hard? New study shows dietary self-monitoring takes less than 15 minutes a day." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 February 2019.