Lose weight

Some people believe that doing exercise, eating a healthy diet and having a positive attitude can make you lose weight. Now it seems there is a secret to losing weight that many people don’t want you to know – or property prices could go through the roof!

What am I talking about? Recent research has suggested that spending time at altitude can help you lose weight. A study into weight loss found that taking obese people to extremely high places (a mountain-top retreat was used in this case) helped them lose weight without any special diet or exercise regimes.

Lose weight

Lose weight

The scientists now think that the thinner air at altitude meant that the participants in the program had a smaller appetite, and their metabolism was increased, meaning they burned calories without needing to work out.

The study was written about in the journal Obesity, released in February.

Generally, research such as this is done using fit people – athletes or hikers – and so it was always thought that they were losing weight due to other factors. Now it may be possible that the loss was actually due to the altitude and not their attitudes.

People have been warned, however, that this study was carried out in a very small sample, and needs to be understood and studied before everyone runs to the hills to lose weight!