The Best Way to Keep Weight Off

Losing weight is only half the battle — for many people, the bigger challenge is keeping the weight off over the long term. But is there a secret formula for success? To find out, Live Science interviewed experts and conducted a weekslong search for the best studies on the topic of keeping weight off. We combed through the evidence, and boiled it down to provide simple, science-based tips for how to maintain a slimmer, healthier self.

After a diet, it's common for people to regain some or all of the weight they lost — sometimes this is called "yo-yo dieting." A 1999 study estimated that just 20 percent of overweight or obese Americans are successful at losing at least 10 percent of their body weight, and keeping this weight off for at least a year. In fact, even people who are eventually successful at maintaining weight loss often go through several failed attempts first, other research shows. Researchers who followed more than 700 people who successfully lost at least 30 lbs. (13.6 kg) and kept it off for a year or more found that 91 percent reported they had previously made unsuccessful weight-loss attempts before they were finally able to keep the weight off.

"The challenge is that your body is very able to adapt to change," said Dr. Bruce Lee, director of the Global Obesity Prevention Center at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. "If you have been at a certain weight for a while, then the body tends to try to maintain that weight," Lee told Live Science.

But there is good news: Studies have revealed that people who are successful in keeping weight off share common habits. Although people tend to lose weight in lots of different ways, "what they're doing to maintain weight loss is a little more consistent," said J. Graham Thomas, an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Weight Control & Diabetes Research Center of The Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.

We describe in detail below the exercise and dietary habits most commonly seen in people who successfully keep weight off, and the science behind them.

Successful strategies for keeping weight off, and some pitfalls to look out for.
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Why is it so hard to keep weight off?

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The truth is that, if you want to keep weight off, the cards are stacked against you: Your brain and your body are hard-wired to regain lost weight. This, combined with the abundance of high-calorie foods available today, makes it all too easy to put the pounds back on, experts told Live Science. After you've lost weight, your metabolism slows down, so you burn fewer calories thanwould be expected, even when you're at rest. "Your body goes from being like a truck, burning a lot of fuel, to being more like a Prius, burning less gas to go the same distance, when you've lost weight," Thomas said. This happens because your brain senses your fat stores are low, and sends signals to the muscles to become more efficient.

In fact, people who lose 10 percent of their body weight actually need to eat 20 percent fewer calories once they reach their new weight, compared with other people with the same weight, to maintain their weight loss, said Dr. Michael Rosenbaum, a professor of pediatrics and medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, who has studied weight-loss maintenance. For example, a person who weighed 200 lbs (90.7 kg), and then lost 20 lbs (9 kg), so that his or her weight was now 180 lbs (81.6 kg), would require about 300 to 400 fewer calories per day than a person who naturally weighed 180 lbs. "It's a disproportionately lower number of calories to stay right where you are," he said.

On top of this metabolic slowdown, multiple systems in the body undergo changes that affect our desire to eat. For example, after weight loss, your appetite increases, you have to eat more to feel satiated and you may increase your preference for higher calorie foods, according to a 2015 review paper from a government-backed panel of weight-loss experts. Areas of the brain involved in the ability to resist eating are also less active, Rosenbaum said.

"You've created the best possible scenario to regain the weight you've lost," Rosenbaum said.

Things that you want to be aware of as you lose the weight.
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Physiological factors that keep weight on and drive a person to overconsume high-calorie foods would have been useful back when humans were hunter-gathers, and had to cope with periods of famine. But these adaptations are problematic today in developed countries, where high-calorie foods are so readily available. "Our brains and our bodies and our genetics are not well suited to our current environment," Thomas said.

Not getting enough sleep may also interfere with maintaining weight loss. A 2012 study found that sleep-deprived people show more activity in the brain's reward center when looking at pictures of unhealthy foods, and are more interested in these foods, than people who are well rested. And a study published  in 2013 found that people who spent five nights in a sleep lab, sleeping just five hours a night, gained nearly 2 lbs (0.9 kg) over a two-week period, because they were overeating.

Finally, although many people can resist high-calorie foods for a limited period, it's often hard to keep this up over the long term, Thomas said. This may be because, when a person is losing weight, they experience the reward of seeing the pounds drop off, but when they're simply maintaining weight, this reward goes away, according to the 2015 review paper.

Beating the odds

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But despite these obstacles, there are some people who've managed to beat the odds, and keep weight off for years. To better understand how these dieters kept their weight off, in 1994 researchers at Brown Medical School and the University of Colorado launched the National Weight Control Registry, which tracks the habits of individuals with successful weight-loss maintenance. It's now the largest study of its kind, with more than 10,000 people. Because of the large size and long duration of the study, much of what we know about successful weight loss comes from this registry.

To be included in the study, adults need to have lost at least 30 lbs (13.6 kg), and kept it off for at least a year. But the average person in the study has lost 66 pounds (30 kg), and kept it off for 5.5 years. Participants must also provide verification of their weight loss, such as medical records. Every year, participants answer questions about their weight, diet and physical activity, as well as their strategies for maintaining weight loss. More than two dozen scientific papers have been published from the registry. Some of the most important findings from the registry are highlighted below.

Common traits of those successfully losing the weight.
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How much exercise do you need?

When you're trying to lose weight, your diet is the most important factor, but when you're trying to maintain weight loss, exercise becomes the most important factor, said Dr. Jacinda Nicklas, a physician and weight-loss researcher at the University of Colorado Denver's School of Medicine.

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Studies involving data from the National Weight Control Registry have shown that people who successfully keep weight off exercise more than the average person; for example, they walk for 60 to 75 minutes per day. In line with these findings, Nicklas recommends 60 to 70 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (like walking) per day, six days a week. If you do more vigorous activity, such as running, then your exercise routine doesn't need to be quite as long: about 35 to 45 minutes a day is enough, she said.

Because this amount of activity can seem daunting, Nicklas recommends that people start increasing their physical activity levels during the weight-loss phase, so that by the time they get to the maintenance phase, they are ready for the high levels of activity needed to maintain weight loss The researchers at the National Weight Control Registry note that, although 60 minutes per day is the average amount of exercise for the registry participants, some people engage in less activity and still keep their weight off. But Thomas recommends at least 200 minutes a week (or about 40 minutes a day, five days a week) to maintain weight loss. [2016 Best Pedometers]

One reason exercise is important for keeping weight off is that studies suggest it can prevent the metabolic slowdown that happens with weight loss, so the body burns more calories even in a resting state than it would if the person wasn't exercising regularly, Thomas said. Higher amounts of physical activity also mean you don't have to be as strict about your diet as you were when trying to shed pounds. "In order to counterbalance being more free with your diet, you have to have the exercise to have a buffer to prevent weight gain," Nicklas said. But this doesn't mean you can eat whatever you want — you still have to be careful with your diet so that you don't consume more calories than you burn. [The Great Calorie Debate: Does Weight Loss Come Down to a Simple Equation?]

Are certain foods better for keeping weight off?

There's no "magic" diet for maintaining weight loss, Nicklas said, but studies of the National Weight Control Registry do find some consistent eating habits that may be helpful. Overall, people in the registry tend to consume low-calorie, low-fat foods. On average, they eat about 1,380 calories per day, with 29 percent of their calories coming from fat. (Men in the registry eat about 420 calories more per day than women, on average.)

Registry participants are more likely to say they eat "modified foods" that contain less fat and sugar, compared with people who've always been a healthy weight.

For example:

• About 60 percent eat low-fat dairy, compared with 49 percent of people who have always been a normal weight.


• Registry participants consume three times more servings of artificially sweetened soft drinks, like diet soda, compared with people who have always been a normal weight.


• About 55 percent said they ate low-calorie dressings and sauces, compared with 44 percent of people who have always been a normal weight.

Eating these "modified foods" may help people consume a satisfying volume of food without eating excessive calories and fat, the researchers said. What's more, participants in the National Weight Control Registry have less variety in their diet — they come up with a healthy diet that works for them, and don't stray from it much. "These folks are selecting a more limited diet of 'safe foods' that they eat over and over again," Thomas said. [4 Calorie-Cutting Tips That Won't Leave You Hungry]

This "boring" type of eating may work to help sustain weight loss because it creates an environment that's essentially the opposite of one that promotes weight gain — where there are a variety of tasty, high-calorie foods. "Just by limiting the variety of foods that we allow ourselves to consume, we reduce the likelihood of unintentionally overeating foods with an unknown number of calories, fat grams, etc.," Thomas said. In addition, when people eat the same foods over and over, they become less excited by the foods, and so eat less of them, he said.

More than three-quarters of registry participants also say they eat breakfast every day. This fits with studies showing that people who skip breakfast tend to weigh more than people who eat a healthy morning meal, according to the National Institutes of Health. It may be that people who skip meals end up feeling hungrier later in the day, and this causes them to overeat. "One theory is that eating breakfast in the morning helps reduce the likelihood that hunger becomes overwhelming and uncontrollable over the course of the day," Thomas said. In addition to breakfast, registry participants eat other regular meals — on average, participants eat about five times a day.

In addition, they go out to eat less frequently than the typical American. On average, registry participants eat less than one fast-food meal per week, on average, compared with two to three fast-food meals per week for the typical American, studies have found.

The Mediterranean diet includes fruits, vegetables, grains, fish, eggs and milk (in moderation) and olive oil.
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Many experts emphasize that a successful diet is one that can be maintained long term. This means you should not completely deprive yourself of your favorite foods, or starve yourself all day. You can eat foods you like in moderation, but this should be balanced with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, leaner meats, low-fat dairy products and water. "This balance can aid fullness [and] reduce cravings ... while keeping caloric intake lower," said Mary Ellen DiPaola, a registered dietitian at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.

Michaela Kiernan, a senior research scientist at Stanford University School of Medicine, recommends trying to find some healthful, low-calorie foods that you think taste as good as the high-calorie foods you used to eat. This will probably mean that you'll need to try lots of new foods in order to find wholesome "replacements" that work for you, Kiernan said. And when you do indulge in your favorite, high-calorie foods, you should eat them mindfully — savor and relish them, Kiernan said. Mindful eating may help you feel satisfied without consuming too much.

DiPaola also suggests planning meals to avoid overeating, including what it is you wish to eat, when and where you will buy the food, how it will be prepared, how much you will eat and when it will be eaten.

What other habits are important?

Another important habit for maintaining weight loss is self-monitoring, which means keeping close tabs on your weight and eating habits. Studies have found that people in the National Weight Control Registry weigh themselves at least once a week, and over half of them track their daily food intake. Monitoring weight is important so that people know right away when the pounds are starting to creep back. "It's easier to catch and reverse a weight gain of a few pounds than it is to catch and reverse a weight gain of 10 to 15 lbs (4.5 to 6.8 kg)," Thomas said.

Some early studies suggest that technologies, like smartphone apps, can help with self-monitoring, or may even improve self-monitoring over traditional paper diaries. For example, a small 2014 study found that people tracked their diet more consistently with an app than with pen and paper. This may be because apps make tracking easier, and can be more engaging, Thomas said. [The Best Calorie-Counter Apps]

The number you see when you step on the scale doesn't tell the whole story about how healthy (or unhealthy) you may be.
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Kiernan said that people can start some of the habits that will help them maintain their weight loss even before they actually lose weight. For example, sherecommends that you weigh yourself daily to see how your body weight fluctuates even when you aren't on a diet. You can then come up with a 5-pound range for the upper and lower limits to your current weight. When your weight gets close to the upper limit of your range, you can make small changes to keep yourself at your current weight, like eating 20 percent less at meals for a few days, or taking an extra walk, Kiernan said. Once you've familiarized yourself with these strategies, you can use them to help maintain weight after weight loss.

In a 2012 study, Kiernan found that women who mastered these weight-maintenance strategies before they embarked on a weight-loss program were better able to keep the pounds off later. A year after the weight-loss program ended, women who learned the maintenance skills first regained only 3 lbs (1.3 kg), while women who lost weight first regained 7 lbs (3.2 kg). Kiernan also recommends anticipating life disruptions — like vacations — and making small tweaks in advance. For example, you can work to get to the bottom of your weight range before going on vacation.

Reducing "screen time" may also help with weight-loss maintenance. A2006 study of 1,400 members of the National Weight Control Registry found that 62 percent said they watched 10 or fewer hours of TV per week. At the time the study was conducted, the typical American spent, on average, 28 hours per week watching TV.

And support from family or friends may also help people stay on the right track to maintain their weight. A 1999 study of 166 people who had participated in a weight-loss program found that 66 percent of people who brought friends with them to the program sessions maintained their full weight loss six months after the program ended, compared with 24 percent of those who attended the sessions alone.

But certain kinds of support may be better than others. Researchers in Greece looked at differences in support between 289 people who were able to maintain their weight loss for over a year, and 122 people who regained their weight. The study, detailed online Jan. 22, 2016, in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, found that people who regained weight actually received more support overall from their social network, but it was often in the form of reminders of what they should and shouldn't do. In contrast, people who maintained their weight received more compliments about their weight, and their friends were more likely to actively help them with their maintenance goal, for example, byeating healthful foods with them.


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Low-Fiber Diet May Change Gut Microbes for Generations

Diets that are low in fiber may cause irreversible changes to populations of gut bacteria, and those changes may be passed on over generations, new research suggests.

In experiments, mice that were fed a low-fiber diet lost certain species of the bacteria in their gut over time, and the mice did not completely recover them even after they were switched to a high-fiber diet.

What's more, the depleted microbial community, called the microbiome, was passed on from parent to offspring, and worsened over time: After four generations of mice had eaten a low-fiber diet, most of the bacteria species normally found in the animals' gut microbiome were completely missing, the researchers found.

The study, which was published Wednesday (Jan. 13) in the journal Nature, may have implications for humans, said study lead author Erica Sonnenburg, a microbiome researcher at Stanford University in California. [5 Ways Gut Bacteria Affect Your Health]

"We all accept that we pass our human genes on to our children," Sonnenburg told Live Science. But "we also have to consider that our children inherit the microbial set of genes that we pass on to them," she added. "We need to really think about the dietary decisions that a generation makes, because those dietary decisions can dramatically influence the microbiome that we then pass on to our offspring."

Partners in evolution

For 150,000 years, early modern humans likely ate a high-fiber diet, rich in unrefined plants, fruits, nuts and seeds, Sonnenburg said. But humans can't digest fiber on their own — a community of microbes co-evolved with people and helped to process fiber in the intestinal tract.

Things changed over the past 100 years, as industrialization led to the development of fast and highly processed, low-fiber foods. People in the Western world now consume just an average of 15 grams of fiberper day, which is one-tenth of the fiber eaten by some modern-day hunter-gatherer populations, the researchers said.

The trend toward a lower-fiber diet accelerated in the past 50 to 60 years, meaning that now three to four generations of people have grown up eating low-fiber diets, Sonnenburg said.

Changing diet

To investigate the impact of this dietary shift, Sonnenburg and her colleagues raised a set of mice in a completely germ-free environment so that their intestinal tracts were free of microbes. Then, they transplanted microbes from human guts into those of the mice.

Half of the mice ate high-fiber, plant-rich food, while the other half consumed kibble that was identical in terms of protein, fat and calorie content, but contained almost no fiber.

Within a few weeks, the total number of different bacterial species in the fiber-free mice dwindled, and for more than half of the microbial species, the number of cells in the population declined by at least 75 percent.

After a seven-week stint on the low-fiber diet, the mice were switched to a high-fiber diet. Although most of the microbial species originally found in the gut rebounded, at least one-third never returned to their original abundance, the researchers said.

Next, the scientists reared more mice in a germ-free environment, where they were exposed to microbes only through their parents (that had eaten low-fiber diets). Each generation of mice offspring also ate a low-fiber diet.

Each generation showed a progressively lower diversity in their gut microbes. By the fourth generation, three out of four of the bacterial species originally found in the mice's gut were gone. And when the great-grandchildren of the original mice were put back on a high-fiber diet, most of the lost microbes never re-emerged. However, when the scientists gave those fourth-generation mice a fecal transplant (in which researchers processedgut material from one mouse and used a tube to deliver it into another's digestive tract), along with a high-fiber diet, it helped the gut microbiome return to its original state, the researchers found.

In contrast, the microbial community in the comparison group of mice, which were fed a high-fiber diet, did not experience dramatic population shifts.

Long-term consequences

The findings dovetail with the results of other studies done in humans. For instance, hunter-gatherers in Papua New Guinea, Africa and South America live on different continents yet harbor the same species of microbes in their gut — and those microbes are absent in people living in developed countries, Sonnenburg said. The hunter-gatherers also have more diverse gut microbial communities.

It's still not clear that the Western, low-diversity gut microbiome poses a problem for human health. But studies have tied lower gut microbe diversity in the human gut to conditions such as allergies, asthma and obesity. And pathogenic bacteria, such as Clostridium difficile, have an easier time gaining a foothold after a course of antibiotics have wiped out the beneficial bacteria in the gut, Sonnenburg said.

If low-diversity microbiomes do lead to health problems, and switching to a high-fiber diet doesn't completely fix those problems, one possible solution would be to do fecal transplants from hunter-gatherers or others who eat more traditional diets into people who eat lower-fiber diets, Sonnenburg said. However, a lot of work must first be done to ensure that any poop transplants would be beneficial and safe, she added.

In the meantime, it has been shown that high-fiber diets do increase microbial diversity, and thousands of studies tie a diet rich in fruits and vegetables to a host of health benefits. Therefore, eating more fruits and veggies is a simple, healthy step people can take right now, Sonnenburg said.

"We're this composite organism of human parts and microbial parts," Sonnenburg said. "Taking care of this microbial organ we have inside of us could be one of the biggest things we can do to improve our health."

 


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Cardiac Arrest Deadlier in a High Rise, Study Says

People who go into cardiac arrest (their hearts stop beating) on the middle or upper floors of high-rise buildings may be less likely to survive the ordeal than those on the lowest floors, found a new study from Canada.

Over the five-year study period, 4.2 percent of patients in Toronto who went into cardiac arrestwhile located below the third floor survived, whereas 2.6 percent of those on floors 3 and above survived, according to the study. In fact, less than 1 percent of those above the 16th floor survived, and in the data set, there were no cardiac-arrest survivors from above the 25th floor.

To improve survival of people experiencing cardiac arrest in high-rise buildings, bystanders should do everything possible to reduce delays for first responders, said Ian Drennan, an author of the new study, an advanced-care paramedic and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto.

"If they can notify somebody at the front desk, the security concierge or anyone there that 911 responders are coming, let's make sure that the building's open, that the elevators are waiting and that they have access to get on the elevators to get up to the floors," then that can increase survival, Drennan said. [10 Amazing Facts About Your Heart]

Heightened risk?

Once a patient's heart stops beating, his or her chance of survival decreases by 7 to 10 percent for every minute that passes before the use of defibrillation (electrically shocking the heart back into action), the authors wrote in their study.

Previous research had found that longer times spent waiting for first responders to arrive on the scene were associated with lower survival rates after cardiac arrests, the authors wrote. Research had also found that in high-rise buildings, it could take several minutes for first responders to reach a patient after arriving at the building, adding an additional delay, the authors wrote.

For example, a 2007 study in New York City measured the time it took first responders to reach patients after arriving on scene at different types of buildings and locations — the "vertical response time," as the study termed it.

"We found that when EMS [emergency medical services] was called for an medical emergency, there were substantial delays in reaching the patient, and particularly from the time the medics left the ambulance in search of the patient," said Dr. Robert A. Silverman, who was the first author of that 2007 study and is an associate professor of emergency medicine at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine in Hempstead, New York.

"The greatest delays were found in multistory, residential buildings," Silverman told Live Science.

"Barriers to reaching the patient included the height and complexity of the layout of the building, locked lobby doors, and the lack of an escort that could have facilitated movement to the location of the patient," along with slow-moving elevators, Silverman said.

But it was unknown before now how such delays affected patient survival, Drennan said.

To find out, Drennan and his colleagues analyzed data from a medical database of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests that occurred in private residences in Toronto and the surrounding area between 2007 and 2012.

The researchers also measured the "vertical response time" and found that emergency workers took 3 minutes, on average, to reach patients below the third floor, but an average of nearly 5 minutes to reach patients on the third floor or above.

Recommendations

People can help by getting trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation(CPR) and making sure that automated external defibrillators (AEDs) — which are defibrillation devices designed for bystander use — are available, Drennan said.

'Time is everything in a cardiac arrest. The sooner the patient receives care, including bystander CPR, the more likely [he or she is] to survive," Silverman added.

The study appeared Monday (Jan. 18) in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.


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Don't Blame Pot for Teens' IQ Drop, Study Says

Smoking pot can be a health concern for teens, but it is unlikely to cause a decline in their thinking abilities, a new study finds.

Instead, the results suggest that if teens experience a cognitive decline, other factors, such as genetics or that young person's family environment, are more likely to be responsible for the drop, the researchers said. "It could be that they come from a neighborhood or a home where intellectual development is not highly encouraged," said study author Joshua D. Isen, of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

The implications of the new findings are that "it is unlikely that the exposure to marijuana itself is causing children to show intellectual change," Isen told Live Science.

Previous research on marijuana use during adolescence has yielded mixed results. Some studies have linked use of the drug during adolescence with a decline in cognitive ability. But other studies have suggested that the potential effects of marijuana on cognition were temporary, and that they wore off within several months after young users quit smoking.

In the new study, the researchers looked at the relationship between marijuana use and intelligence based on data from two studies of twins that involved more than 3,000 participants. In the first study, which involved nearly 800 twins, the researchers administered IQ tests to measure the twins' intelligence when they were 9 or 10 years old, and again when they were 19 or 20 years old. The researchers also asked the young people whether they used marijuana at any time throughout their middle school or high school years. [6 Foods That Are Good For Your Brain]

In the second study, which involved nearly 2,300 twins, the researchers also used IQ tests, this time testing the twins at age 11 or 12, and again when they were 17 to 18. Again, the researchers asked the young people whether they used pot while they were in middle school and high school.

In the study of nearly 800 twins, the participants' baseline IQ scores did not show significant differences between the average IQ scores of kids who had smoked marijuana and those who had not used the drug.

However, it may be that smarter kids don't start using marijuana in the first place, the researchers said. For example, among the kids in the other study, the average score on the vocabulary test was 98.8 among the kids who later used marijuana, compared with 100.7 among those who didn'tuse the drug. Similarly, the average score on the general knowledge test was 97.9 among future users, compared with 101.2 among nonusers.

When the researchers looked at the IQ patterns in both groups, comparing the beginning and the end of the follow-up periods, results showed that the kids' vocabulary IQ scores declined over time among the young people who used marijuana while they were in middle school or high school.

However, when the researchers compared the changes in IQ between individuals within the the same twin pairs, in which one twin had used marijuana and the other had not, they found that there were no significant differences in the extent to which both twins' IQ's might have changed over time. In other words, the twins who used marijuana did not develop greater cognitive deficits over time, compared to their twin siblings who didn't use the drug.

Though the new findings may cast doubt on the idea that smoking marijuana makes kids less intelligent, "it doesn't mean that marijuana use itself is harmless," Isen told Live Science.

Dr. Scott Krakower, an assistant unit chief of psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York, who was not involved in the study, agreed, saying that, despite the new findings on marijuana and overall IQ, there may be "other variables, other consequences that can come from using cannabis." For example, the marijuana users in the study used more drugs and alcohol, compared with marijuana nonusers, he noted. Moreover, the users did have some reduction in their vocabulary scores, he added.

The new study was published Monday (Jan. 18) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


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Eating Healthy Fats May Reduce Deaths from Heart Disease

Encouraging people to eat healthy fats such as those found in olive oil or fish could help prevent more than a million deaths from heart disease worldwide each year, according to a new study.

In fact, the number of deaths from heart disease due to insufficient intake of healthy fats is almost three times' greater than the number of deaths due to excessive intake of saturated fats, according to the researchers. (Saturated fats are found in meat, cheeses, other dairy products as well as palm and coconut oils.)

"Policies for decades have focused on saturated fats as the priority for preventing heart disease, but we found that in most countries, a too-little intake of healthy fats was the big problem, bigger than saturated fat," said study author Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston.

In the study, researchers looked at data on people's diets and rates of death from heart disease from 186 countries in 2010. They estimated that 711,800 deaths from heart disease that year —or 10.3 percent of all deaths from heart disease worldwide — were due to people eatingtoo little of the healthy fats called "omega-6 polyunsaturated fats," which can be found in vegetable oils.

In comparison, only about one-third of this number — 250,900 deaths, or 3.6 percent, of worldwide deaths from heart disease — were due to people eating too much saturated fat. [10 Amazing Facts About Your Heart]

The reason why so many more deaths could be prevented by increasing the intake of healthy fat is likely that there are additional health benefits when people consume omega-6 polyunsaturated fats instead of carbohydrates, the researchers said.

For example, "Instead of having two pieces of bread, have half a piece of bread and lots of olive oil or lots of healthy cooking oil or nuts," Mozaffarian told Live Science.

The researchers also found that 537,200 deaths in 2010 were due to anexcessive intake of trans fat, including those in processed, baked and fried foods as well as cooking fats used in certain countries.

When the researchers looked at patterns of deaths from heart disease over time, they found that the proportion of deaths from heart disease due to an insufficient intake of omega-6 polyunsaturated fat declined 9 percent between 1990 and 2010.

In comparison, the proportion of deaths from heart disease due to a high intake of saturated fats declined by 21 percent. Deaths from heart disease due to a high consumption of trans fat rose by 4 percent during this time, the study found.

The new results suggest that "people should be increasing their healthy fats as long as they are doing it in place of animal fats, or, even better, in place of refined starch and carbohydrates," Mozaffarian said. Such healthy fats can be found in fish, nuts and vegetable oil, he said.

In the U.S., heart disease is the leading cause of death, and kills about 610,000 people every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Along with eating a healthy diet, people can prevent heart disease by getting regular exercise, maintaining a healthy body weight and refraining from smoking.

The new study was published today (Jan. 20) in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

 


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