Good news! Experts recommend eating dessert to lose weight

You can have your cake and eat it! People on a weight loss journey often struggle with controlling their cravings. Cutting back on sugar is one of the many rules they’re told to follow. But scientists are now asking to satisfy your cravings. A new research suggests that indulging those cravings, in moderation, may be the key to long-term success.

A recent study conducted by the researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found that eating crave foods with meals lessens cravings and boosts weight loss. They observed that consuming crave foods as ‘desserts’ helped people on a weight loss journey manage cravings, and lose more weight.

Oftentimes, people struggle with managing their cravings during dieting, and enter an eternal battle with their willpower to resist the tempting sweets, snacks, and other foods they love. However, the researchers in food science and human nutrition found that eating dessert may be the optimal strategy for losing weight, keeping it off, and keeping cravings at bay.

Weight loss and cravings

In a clinical trial, people who incorporated craved foods into a balanced meal plan lost more weight during the 12-month weight-loss program, and their cravings remained minimal through the subsequent 12 months of maintenance.

Then-graduate student Nouf W. Alfouzan and nutrition professor Manabu T. Nakamura, who published their findings in the journal Physiology and Behavior, said that the participants' food cravings decreased while losing weight and remained minimal as long as they did not regain weight. These participants were part of a large project, conducted by the physicians at Carle Clinic in Urbana, Illinois, that aimed to broaden the outreach of an in-person weight-loss program called the Individualized Dietary Improvement Program by converting it to an online format called EMPOWER.

“We recruited obese patients ages 18 to 75 who had comorbidities like hypertension and diabetes and could benefit from losing weight. Cravings are a big problem for many people. If they have a lot of cravings, it is very difficult to lose weight. Even when they are able to control their cravings and lose weight, if the cravings come back, they regain the weight,” Nakamura said.

Can satisfying cravings lead to weight loss?

While past research showed that cravings often decreased during weight loss, Nakamura and Alfouzan noted it was unclear if this continued after reaching a goal or stopping the diet. Alfouzan, the first author of the new study, aimed to explore this and see if fewer cravings were linked to more weight loss.

In the dietary program, the participants were educated about key nutrients, helping them make informed decisions about their food selections until sustainable dietary changes are achieved, Nakamura said. Over the first year, participants followed an online curriculum featuring 22 nutrition education sessions. These lessons included strategies for managing cravings, especially through what the researchers called an ‘inclusion strategy,’ incorporating small portions of craved foods within well-balanced meals.

“If you are eating and snacking randomly, it’s very hard to control. Some dietary programs exclude certain foods. Our plan used an ‘inclusion strategy,’ in which people incorporated small portions of craved foods within a well-balanced meal,” Nakamura said.

In an interval of six months, the participants filled a questionnaire about their cravings for specific foods. These included high-fat foods such as hot dogs and fried chicken, fast food fats like hamburgers and chips, sweets such as cakes and cookies, and carbohydrates such as biscuits and pancakes. In another survey, the researchers recorded the frequency and intensity of participants’ cravings. Using a scale ranging from 1 (never) to 6 (always), individuals rated themselves on statements such as, “Whenever I have food cravings, I find myself making plans to eat,” and “I have no willpower to resist my food cravings.” The intensity of each dieter’s cravings was calculated by adding their scores for all 15 statements.

The participants were also asked to weigh themselves every day after getting out of bed and before breakfast using a Wi-Fi scale that transmitted the data to the researchers so they could track the changes.
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A total of 30 people participated in the weight-loss program, and by the end of the first year, 24 participants remained, with an average weight loss of 7.9% of their starting weight. During the second year, which focused on maintenance, 20 participants completed the program, maintaining an average loss of 6.7%. Participants who lost more than 5% of their body weight experienced significant reductions in both the frequency and intensity of their cravings. The researchers found that individuals’ craving for food in general and for specific types of foods such as sweets and carbohydrates diminished during the year of weight loss and stabilized during maintenance.

The study found that individuals’ reduced cravings correlated with decreased body fat rather than the negative energy balance of dieting. “This basically debunks the hungry fat cell theory, a longstanding hypothesis that fat cells become starved for energy and trigger cravings, causing dieters to eat and ultimately regain what they lost. But that is not the case. As long as you stay at a healthy weight, your cravings will remain low,” Nakamura said.

Among the 24 participants who remained in the study at 12 months, more than half reported that they used the inclusion strategy to manage cravings. Some even had the craving foods, as frequently as one to three times a day, while others used it once a week or more. Those who used the strategy lost significantly more weight compared with other participants and experienced a great reduction in their cravings for sweet and high-fat foods.

“Consistency is another key to managing cravings and weight. The popular myth is that you have to have a very strong will to fend off temptation, but that is not the case. Fluctuations in eating patterns, meal times, and amounts trigger cravings, too. You have to be consistent,” Nakamura said.