Counting your calories or restricting yourself to certain foods might help you lose some weight, but what if there’s another way?
A revolutionary new study led by a team of endocrinology and metabolism researchers finally sheds some light on how weight loss can no longer be an issue.
Here is what you need to know.
Reprogram Your Metabolism and Lose Weight
As per the new team’s findings, reducing isoleucine, leucine, and valine might actually do wonders to your body.
The researchers work include tests on mice in the lab. So, we might still have to wait a bit more until they do some actual research on humans.
However, the findings are genuinely intriguing and offer a new perspective on the diet and nutrition field.
The new study includes:
The Western Diet
First, the researchers fed mice with a high-sugar, high-fat, classic Western diet for a couple of months.
Reducing Isoleucine
Next, we can imagine what happened to the mice: they got obese. So, the team needed to switch the rodents’ diets.
Here’s where the team found something really intriguing.
They discovered that the mice started to eat more food but still losing weight, while the branch chain amino acid isoleucine was reduced.
Researchers explain:
“[…] the weight loss was primarily caused by a faster metabolism, where the body burns more calories as heat while resting.”
Moreover, the mice’s diets were leaner and had healthier blood sugar metabolism.
Isoleucine Sources
Foods like poultry, fish, lentils, meat, nuts, seeds, eggs, and cheese are rich in isoleucine. Usually, we consume this food while following a low-carb diet or paleo.
Reducing Valine and Leucine
We can find valine in foods such as asparagus, peas, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, spinach, and peanuts.
Researchers found that reducing the valine intake had weaker effects compared to isoleucine restriction. Still, the effects were visible.
Finally, reducing the leucine levels had no benefits at all to metabolism. Food rich in leucine includes legumes, dairy, beans, and soy.
The Takeaway
Researchers explain that the recent discovery shows a real opportunity to reevaluate diets. The reason?
“[…] evidence from animal models suggests that low-protein diets help shed fat even with normal caloric intake by reprogramming metabolism.”
They will continue their work, figuring out more significant details. We might see soon new research based on humans’ evaluations.
