For most of her life, weight had never been a struggle for Brisbane-based superannuation officer Emma Hewison.
Hewison pointed to a focus on high-protein and low-GI foods as one of the diet’s biggest selling points.
In particular, she ate a lot of yoghurt, oats, boiled eggs, nuts, meats such as steak, salmon and lamb, and fruits such as bananas.
CSIRO, which is currently celebrating a decade of its Total Wellbeing Diet, found bananas are the most-eaten food for people trying to lose weight.
The science agency said more than 900,000 bananas have been consumed by members tracking their food intake with the program over the past 10 years.
Avocados come in second, followed by mixed-salad vegetables, tomatoes and carrots.
Overnight oats, stir-fry and healthy chocolate brownies marked some of the favourite recipes from the CSIRO program, suggesting members’ preference for ease and convenience as they balance busy lifestyles with achieving their health goals.
Following the trend towards simplicity, walking outdoors was the most common exercise recorded by the diet’s participants, with members pounding the pavement for more than 22 million minutes over the past decade.
Walking the dog also made the top-10 exercises list by CSIRO diet participants, while the top 50 contained more everyday activities such as general gardening (No.11), cleaning the house (No.12), and window-shopping (No.44).
Over 1.2 million Australians have been affected by the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet throughout its evolution from the original book to its current digital platform featuring an AI weight-loss coach.
Over the past 10 years, 21 per cent of members were moved out of the obese category; the total weight loss by all members comes to 558,000kg, equivalent to 46 double-decker buses.
CSIRO research scientist Dr Gilly Hendrie said this milestone demonstrates the critical role Australian science has played in addressing the current trend in weight gain.
“The need for evidence-based, sustainable weight-loss solutions has never been more important,” she said.
“On average Australian adults seem to gain about five kilograms over a 20-year period, while two-thirds of the population are considered overweight or obese.
“With the right support, 12 weeks is all it takes to get the ball rolling and lose a significant amount of weight, improving wellbeing and reducing the risk of developing chronic diseases related to being overweight.”
Aussie weight-loss diet preferences
(thenewdaily.com.au)
