You're human, so chances are, you're interested in getting more sleep, having better sex and improving your mood.
A secret to all these things -- at least according to one new study -- is calorie restriction.
Researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, recruited more than 200 healthy women and men between the ages of 20 and 50. Each had a body mass index between 22.0 and 28.0, making them either normal weight or overweight, but not obese.
The scientists behind this research, led by Corby Martin of Pennington's Ingestive Behavior Laboratory,
separated the participants into two groups for the two-year study: one
that would be bound to a diet that restricted calories by 25%, and a
control group whose members could continue to eat whatever they wanted.
After
two years, adults on the calorie-restricted diet reported better moods,
less stress, increased sex drive and better sleep, compared to the
adults who didn't cut their calories.
The
authors believe this is the first study to determine whether long-term
calorie restriction in normal-weight individuals affects both physical
and psychological well-being.
"Calorie
restrictions had some favorable effects on the outcomes, and weight
loss was associated with improvement in many of the end points," the
authors said.
Members of the
calorie-restricted group lost 16.8 pounds on average, and there was
virtually no weight change among control group participants. Although
the calorie restriction goal was 25% for the trial group, the average
actually achieved was 11.9% -- not even half of the goal. It's unclear
whether the benefits would be greater with more extreme calorie
restriction, or if negative outcomes would start to outweigh the
positives. In the past, concerns have been raised about the potential
negative effects of calorie restriction, namely due to malnutrition or
lack of essential nutrients.
Martin
said it was impossible to quantify whether the effects were related
specifically to calorie restriction or weight loss in general.
"The
key message from our study is that achieving about a 12% calorie
restriction over two years and losing 10% of your body weight resulted
in positive effects on mood, quality of life and sexual function,"
Martin said in an email to CNN.
One
anomaly was that men in the control group, who consumed more calories,
reported higher levels of sexual arousal than the calorie-restricted
men. But when it came to measuring overall quality of sex, researchers
also considered sexual cognition and fantasy, sexual behavior and
experience, orgasm and sex drive and relationships. All things
considered, the calorie-restricted group scored higher.
There
are some limitations on the study. Almost three-quarters of the people
in the study were female and more than three-quarters were white, so
it's tough to generalize the results to a broader population. The
participants also self-reported the quality of their moods, sleep and
sex.
You wanna sleep better, be in a better mood and wanna enjoy a better sex, you gotta cut down your calories....
Good Morning and Do have a wonderful day!!!
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