How Nutrition Scores help you lose weight: our latest research
We’ve been investigating how effectively our Nutrition Score feature helps people lose weight — and found some incredible results. With over 15,000 users involved, our study shows:
- you can trust Nutrition Scores to educate and guide you toward your goals
- powerful insights that may change the way you eat for health and weight loss
And in September 2024, we presented these exciting results at the UK Congress on Obesity.
What are Nutrition Scores?
After logging a meal or snack, Simple analyzes its overall nutritional quality and provides a Nutrition Score of either Optimal, Good, Fair, or Low. These scores are an easy way to encourage users to lose weight through balancing their meal choices over time.
When users use Nutrition Scores to understand what they eat, paired with time-restricted eating (also known as intermittent fasting) — they’re supported to choose healthy foods during their eating window. These two things combined lead to greater weight loss than either one alone.
We look at these nutrient factors to build each Nutrition Score:
- calorie density
- protein
- fiber
- sugar
- saturated fats
- unsaturated fats
- calcium
- sodium
Using insights like “low in calorie density” and “high in unsaturated fats,” Nutrition Scores will show you how your meals are helping you reach your weight loss goals — and where you could easily improve for better results.
What we learned
We tracked over 15,000 people who used Nutrition Scores regularly over 12 weeks to balance their choices. Here’s what we found:
Weight loss results
- By week 4, people lost an average of 2.8% of their body weight.
- By week 8, that number went up to 4.3%.
- By week 12, they’d lost 5.5%.
This is particularly exciting, as 5% weight loss is associated with improved overall health and a lower risk of serious conditions, like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Most impactful nutrition choices
- Meals that were low in calories and contained healthy fats were the best for weight loss.
- Cutting back on sugar and saturated fats also played a key role in helping people shed pounds, especially early on.
- Meals that were low in sugar helped with weight loss, especially in the early stages.
- Most of the other insights — like high protein, high fiber, etc. — were linked to weight loss at all time points.
What does this mean for you?
There are some clear takeaways from this research that can help you on your weight loss journey with Simple.
1. Eat more low calorie-density meals
Focus on making meals with foods that are lower in calories but still keep you full, like fruits, veggies, lean proteins, and whole grains. These kinds of meals had the biggest impact on weight loss, especially in the first few weeks.
2. Don’t fear healthy fat
Fats aren’t the enemy! Healthy fats — like the ones in avocados, nuts, and olive oil — were the strongest predictors of weight loss at the 12-week mark. A thumb-sized portion with each meal is a great way to go.
3. Cut down on sugar and saturated fat
Reducing sugar (e.g., candy, cookies) and saturated fat (e.g., fried foods, fatty meats) really helps, particularly in the early stages of weight loss. These changes make a real difference and set you up for long-term success.
This research shows how powerful it is to make informed, nutritious choices when it comes to weight loss. Whether you’ve been tracking meals for a while or you’re just starting out, eating balanced meals with the right nutrients can help you reach your goals.
To start eating healthier meals today — and make sure you’re getting all the nutrients Nutrition Scores (and your health) loves to see, like calcium — check out our intermittent fasting food list.
Our big moment at the UK Congress on Obesity
We’re so excited to share these results with the world. Presenting our findings at the UK Congress on Obesity is a great opportunity to show how nutrition can drive real, lasting weight loss results — and hopefully inspire more innovations in the field of nutrition!
If you’ve never used Simple before, now’s the perfect time. Take the quiz, tell us about your goals, and join the millions of Simple users who are achieving the weight loss they’ve always dreamt of. We’re excited to work with you. See you in the app!
