Losing weight and staying healthy can be a struggle, but cutting down on one particular thing can have real benefits that you’ll be able see on your waistline, skin, and teeth
A woman who dropped 81 pounds in one year has revealed how she achieved it by cutting one thing from her diet. At this time of year many people are thinking about cutting a bit of weight, or making changes to improve their health and fitness.
Angelina Marie, who has 300,000 followers combined on Instagram and TikTok, regularly posts content about her own weight loss. She said at the start of her journey she weighed 209 lbs, or 14.9 stone – and a year later she was 128 lbs, or 9.1 stone.
She said she had achieved this by cutting one thing from her diet – and it’s something that we all eat every single day. In an Instagram post Angelina said: “I didn’t realize how bad I felt… until I finally felt GOOD.
“The inflammation, the bloating, the cravings, the exhaustion… I thought that was just adulting. Then I cut out sugar and…
“Seven days: 11 lbs gone. Seven months: 75 lbs gone. And the craziest part? I did LESS than ever before and the inflammation was melting off of me. No restriction. No starving. No crazy workouts. Just real food and consistency.
“My insulin resistance reversed, my hormones got back on track, my energy was on another level, and I’ve truly never felt better. I spent years doing everything ‘right’… and the thing holding me back was the damn sugar.”
Health experts widely back limiting the amount of sugar in your diet, with the NHS recommending adults should consume no more than 30 grams per day. According to Spire Healthcare, reducing sugar can help you maintain a healthy weight and avoid crashes by maintaining the release of sugar into your bloodstream at a steady level.
It can also improve your skin, as well as reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, benefit your dental health, and reduce the risk of liver disease. People who eat a lot of sugar are also at greater risk of heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, and high blood pressure.
There are many ways to cut sugar from your diet, such as cutting out fizzy drinks and sweetened breakfast cereal.
Although some, including Angelina, back the carnivore diet – which involves only eating meat, fish, and other animal products such as eggs and dairy products – as a good way to eliminate sugar and lose weight, health experts warn against it, saying it lacks basic nutrients such as carbohydrates and fibre.
The British Heart Foundation says scientific research on the long-term benefits of the diet is “limited and inconclusive”. The organisation said: “The carnivore diet is not healthy and may have serious consequences for your health. One of the main issues is that it’s high in saturated fats due to its high amounts of red meat and dairy.
“Too much saturated fat can increase levels of bad cholesterol (known as non-HDL cholesterol) in the blood. Processed meat can also be high in salt, which can increase your risk of high blood pressure.
“Both high cholesterol and high blood pressure raise the risk of developing coronary heart disease and having a heart attack or stroke. That’s why the NHS recommends eating 70g or less of red or processed meat a day.”
The BHF said a healthier alternative is the Mediterranean diet, which includes a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, and seeds, while also avoiding sugar.