Cutting just a few calories offers big health benefits

After a weeks-long camping trip through remote desert and mountain areas across the West, I had to tighten my belt a full notch. Literally. I’m in reasonably good shape and, at 5–11, I consistently weigh around 151 pounds, so I was surprised when I stepped on the scales back home and found I’d dropped 10 pounds.

Here’s the kicker: I felt great.

I was in a good mood and my body felt trim and capable of doing just about anything except holding up my pants. And there’s only one explanation: I ate less out there.

My wife and I packed no cookies for our offroad excursion, couldn’t phone in 4WD pizza delivery and, in a true test of willpower, had no freezer for ice cream. After chewing on what happened, I dug into the research on calorie restriction, and I can confidently serve up this compelling morsel:

Cutting calories, even modestly, is really good you. It gives your hard-working bodily organs a break and boosts the immune system to protect against both physical and mental diseases, promoting longer and healthier life.

Just nix six Oreos

It’s a sad fact that most diets don’t work. Any initial weight loss and improvement in cardiovascular health derived early on largely evaporate after a year, according to a review of 121 studies on 14 popular diet schemes, including Atkins, paleo and keto.