Who doesn’t want more sleep, better sex, and a happier mood – ami’rite?
Well, according a new study at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana, the key to achieving this blissful state is to simply cut calories.
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The researchers gathered 200 healthy men and women between the ages of 20 and 50 who were considered either normal or over-weight (BMI between 22 and 28), but not obese.
The participants were then separated into two groups for the two-year long study: the first group was a control group whose member’s lifestyle and diet would not change at all, and the second group was bound to a 25% restricted calorie diet.
After the two-year experiment ended, the general consensus between the research team was that the group who cut calories reported being less stressed, had a happier mood, an increased libido, and slept like a baby.
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The big kicker in this study is that each person in the calorie restricted group lost an average of 16.8 pounds by the time the study finished – the control group had virtually no weight loss whatsoever.
However, the goal was for the calorie restricted participants to restrict calories by 25%, when they actually only achieved an 11.9% daily calorie restriction. It is not certain whether the results would have increased with more extreme calorie restriction, or if a negative trend pattern would begin to occur.
Also, it’ impossible to tell whether or not these positive changes in the calorie restricted group occurred specifically because of calorie restriction or if they were just a consequence of the weight loss that resulted from the calorie restriction.
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The researchers stated:
The key message from our study is that achieving about a 12% calorie restriction over two years and losing 10% of your body weight, resulted in positive effects on mood, quality of life, and sexual function.
It should be noted, however, that the demographic of the participants in this study provide limited overall accuracy. Well over half of the participants were female, and 75% of the participants were white, and all participant results were self-reported, so it is difficult to generalize these results and apply them to the broader public.
Curated article from:
CNN
