Doctors in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have followed the meal-time habits of more than 500 people for six years,     1    (find) weight change is most affected by the size and     2    (frequent) of meals rather than the interval (间隔) from first to last meal. It challenges the popular trend of intermittent fasting (禁食疗方)     3     a useful weight loss strategy.

Intermittent fasting, also referred to as time-restricted feeding, is a dietary strategy where all meals     4    (consume) during a short window of time each day. These windows can extend from 6 to 10 hours, resulting in a person essentially fasting for up to 18 hours each day.

The idea reveals     5     is no link between the lime of a person’s eating window each day and weight changes. “Based on other studies that have come out, including     6    (we), we are starting to think timing of meals most likely doesn’t produce     7     instant impact on weight loss,” said doctor Bennett. “What does matter, however, is the total number of medium and large meals a person eats over the day.” It suggests simply eating smaller meals, less frequently, is     8     ultimately leads to weight loss.

All of this doesn’t mean intermittent fasting strategies won’t help. But what does seem increasingly clear is that the weight loss benefits occasionally     9    (see) with these eating strategies may be primarily driven by a reduced caloric intake. It doesn’t mean you can simply eat all you want in a short window each day and still expect     10    (lose) weight.

4 . Approximately 40 percent adults and 19 percent children in the US are obese (肥胖的). Obese people are at increased risk of many serious diseases, including high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.     1     If you are suffering from these, here’s a way of losing weight that you can try.

Dietary “self-monitoring” is a common strategy that people use to lose weight.     2    The theory is that when thinking of what you put in your body, you’ll make healthier decisions. Can it really be that easy? There’s no doubt that dietary self-monitoring has been shown to help lose weight.     3    

Recently, researchers studied obese individuates in otherwise good health who participated in a 24- week weight control program where they recorded their daily dietary intake using an online program. The findings demonstrated that people who continued to record their food intake daily for 24 weeks lost more weight compared to those who quit noting their intake.     4     In comparison, those who recorded less than 2 times daily lost less weight.

Researchers found the more often people logged what they ate, the more weight they might lose. They noted people might have greater success with weight loss if they recorded their dietary intake about three times a day, rather than recording all of their meals in one sitting.

    5     Dietary self-monitoring can be performed in different ways — using an online program, using a pencil or using smartphone applications, so it is important to find what works for you.

5 . For anyone trying to lose weight, there’s a truth we can all universally acknowledge that better health is often positioned as a numbers game. Hit the right number, and all your health problems will magically resolve, so the logic goes. Yet increasingly, science is revealing that losing weight may not be a silver bullet after all. In a mouse study published in the journal Science, looking specifically at an inflammatory(炎症的) eye condition linked to obesity called macular degeneration(黄斑退化), researchers found the struggle for better health doesn’t necessarily begin and end with weight loss.

Researchers conducted experiments on mice that were fed a high-fat diet for 11 weeks, making them gain weight. The mice were then put on a diet of low-fat food for 9 weeks, making them lose weight. Another group of mice only ate the low-fat diet as a control. Researchers shot lasers into the eyes of both the yo-yo dieter mice and the control mice to encourage atypical blood vessel(非典型性血管) growth, a mark of macular degeneration.

Among the mice that had gained and then lost weight, there was about 40 percent more atypical blood vessel growth than their stable diet peers. Driving the growth appeared to be macrophages(巨噬细胞). In the yo-yo dieter mice, these cells had been reprogrammed to cause inflammation. Taken together, these cells appeared to have an outsize role in atypical blood vessel growth in the eyes. Meanwhile, in the mice fed only a low-fat diet, inflammatory changes were absent. The results suggest that eating a high-fat diet that causes weight gain, even if followed by weight loss, leaves an inflammatory mark on mouse macrophages.

The research comes during a period of renewed interest in anti-obesity drugs. But medicines that help people shed pounds do not treat inflammation linked to a history of weight gain. “How to engage these findings with medicine interventions is a challenge,” says Bapat, head of the research.

7 . One study found that 20% of its participants resolved to lose weight on January 1. Diets don't work long- term- most people eventually gain back the weight, if not even more-and lower body weight doesn't mean better health.

Changing your diet in the name of losing weight can do you real harm. But that doesn't mean you can't benefit from eating differently. If you're not feeling physically well or your relationship with food feels off, it's not a bad idea to change the way you eat. It's possible to better your weight control by being more mindful about what you eat. Doing so may even lead to changes in your body composition. The key is to correct the idea that losing weight should be your driving goal.

People are more likely to maintain resolutions that involve an addition to their routine, rather than goals that require avoiding something appealing. Instead of resolving to limit treats, set a goal to eat a greater variety of foods. Try adding vegetable to every meal, or eating a piece of fruit for your afternoon snack.

The idea of adding instead of subtracting (减去) can guide you to make meals more nutrient-rich. Instead of giving up chips and cookies, aim to pair them with what benefits your health - slices of orange or a handful of nut. Mix leafy greens into your soup or throw some cabbage into your morning egg.

Besides, tracking each day that you maintain your resolutions can make the goal feel measurable. “Start out small, ”says Vivienne, a psychologist, “Rather than saying 'I will do this every day', say 'I'm going to do it two or three times a week. ”

10 . Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev say that the popular dieting strategy of serving food on smaller plates does not necessarily trick us into eating less.

“Plate size doesn’t matter as much as we think it does,” says Dr. Tzvi Ganel, head of the study in a media release. “Even if you’re hungry and haven’t eaten, or are trying to cut back on portions (份), a serving looks similar whether it fills a smaller plate or is surrounded by empty space on a larger one.”

Some dieters may try eating off of smaller plates, hoping that they will feel full because the serving size appears larger on the smaller plate. This strategy is based on the classic Delbouef illusion (错觉), which found that people seeing a black circle inside a larger circle perceived the circle to be smaller than when the same sized black circle was placed inside a smaller circle.

Researchers determined that hunger seems to help with visual perception of food portions. In the experiment, participants who had eaten recently had a difficult time estimating pizza portions that were placed on larger versus smaller trays. But participants who had not eaten for at least three hours were better able to estimate portion sizes correctly.

The authors remind that their results only applied to food sizes. Both groups of participants performed about the same when asked to compare sizes of black circles and hubcaps (轮毂) placed inside different sized circles. Study authors say the results suggest that hunger strengthens our ability to analyze and process what we are seeing.

“Over the last decade, restaurants and other food businesses have been using progressively smaller dishes to adapt to the perceptual bias (偏差) that it will reduce food consumption,” says Ganel. “This study debunks that view. When people are hungry, especially when dieting, they are less likely to be fooled by the plate size, more likely to realize they are eating less and more ready to overeating later.”

So don’t kid yourself. Put away the Barbie plates and give it three hours. Then grab that giant plate and dig in. Your eyes will choose the right size.