Mediterranean Diet Help Me Lose Weight?
Mediterranean dishes are often packed with calories due to the large amounts of oil used and may, in fact, be higher in calories than a standard diet. Dressing on salads, olive oil drizzled over food before serving, fried foods, pasta mixed with olive oil and oily pasta sauces soon tot up the calories. Plus all that bread served in addition to pasta or rice simply adds more calories. Red wine is also packed with calories a small glass still contains 100 calories.
Bottom line: If you want to follow a Mediterranean Diet, you’ll still need to stick to your daily calorie allowance as recommended by Weight Loss Resources if you want to shift those pounds. And ultimately, that will probably mean going easy on the olive oil, bread and red wine!
Having said this, a small American study has shown that following a calorie restricted Mediterranean Diet may actually help you to keep the weight off once you’ve lost those pounds. In the study, 61 overweight adults followed either a standard low fat diet or a Mediterranean Diet both containing the same number of calories. After six months, both groups had lost the same amount of weight but a big difference was seen in how well they kept the weight off. After a year, many of the people who followed the Mediterranean Diet had stuck with the diet and maintained their weight loss, whereas those who followed the low fat diet found it difficult to stick to and regained all those lost pounds, plus a few more!
Are there any negatives?
As well as being potentially high in calories, many Mediterranean dishes also contain a lot of salt and then more salt is often added at the table.
It’s easy to get into the habit of gradually drinking more and more red wine before you know it, one small glass has become half a bottle every night and that’s a lot of calories and more than the maximum amount recommended for good health.
Low intakes of dairy products may mean that calcium intakes are low and this can increase the risk of osteoporosis in later life. Furthermore, research shows that the calcium in low fat dairy products can aid weight loss, particularly fat around the midriff so skipping dairy means you’re also potentially skipping a slimming benefit.
Similarly, low intakes of red meat and eggs can make it hard for women to meet their requirements for iron, a mineral that keeps the blood healthy and prevents a condition called anaemia. This is a worry as currently, a quarter of females aged 19 to 64 years have iron intakes below the minimum amount needed to stay heal.
