Low-fat yoghurts are popular on weight loss diets purely for their nutritional values. They are often high in protein, calcium, vitamins, and live culture or probiotics, which all look after people’s bones and teeth and help prevent digestive problems.
There has been scepticism around eating dairy when trying to lose weight but a study found that yoghurt may help burn belly fat therefore suggesting not to ditch dairy when dieting.
The 12 week experiment conducted by the University of Tennessee, saw 34 obese people assigned a low-calorie diet.
Sixteen of them were given pills with 400 to 500mg of calcium per day, whereas the other 18 people ate a higher calcium diet.
This included enough yoghurt that added up to 1,100mg of calcium.
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Lead scientist Michael Zemel, found that all participants lost “a lot of fat”, but the group who were consuming more yoghurt lost 10lb and 60 percent belly fat compared to the first group, who lost 6lb and 26 percent belly fat.
They also only lost a quarter of an inch from their waist size compared to the yoghurt group whose waists shrunk by more than an inch and a half.
Zemel commented: “Not only did yoghurt help the study participants lose more weight, the average weight loss was 13 pounds.”
He said that adding three daily servings of yoghurt to a reduced-calorie diet can greatly increase fat loss.
“When we put people on diets that include three servings of yoghurt a day, we’re able to nearly double the amount of fat that’s lost, compared to people on a low-dairy diet,” Zemel said.
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People wanting to lose weight should look at calorie restriction, and low-fat yoghurt usually contains between 100 and 120 calories per serving.
And, choices such as low-fat Greek yoghurt, have been found to contain twice as much satiating protein as traditional yoghurt.
This means it will keep people feeling fuller longer and control their appetite.
According to Healthline, replacing a high-fat, low-protein food with yoghurt may boost weight loss.
A study gave 20 healthy women either 160 calories (six ounces or 159 grams) of yoghurt as an afternoon snack or the same number of calories from high-fat crackers and chocolate.
The women who consumed the yoghurt felt fuller for longer and were eating an average of 100 less calories at dinner.
Its popularity in the weight loss arena is apparent and there now is such a thing as the Yoghurt Diet.
Nutritionist, Ana Luque, wrote a book about the eating pattern, where she claims that yoghurt is “the secret” to losing weight and supporting overall health.