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And she's losing weight eating all her favorite foods.
"I'm eating fried chicken, macaroni and cheese and I love steak," said Kiosea.
Her secret is the "sprinkles diet" developed by Dr. Alan Hirsch from the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation.
"What the sprinkles are is they're a unique blend of different sweet flavors and salty flavors, things like cheddar cheese, mocha, horseradish or strawberry," said Dr. Hirsch.
The sprinkles are non-caloric and contain artificial and natural ingredients.
You simply shake them on whatever you eat. The salty ones go on savory things and the sweet ones go on things like yogurt or cereal.
If you try them right out of the container, you may taste the flavor, but once they're on your meal that flavor disappears.
"What we're doing is intensifying the smell and the taste of the food," said Dr. Hirsch.
Which says Hirsch, suppresses hunger and tricks the brain into feeling full.
"It would induce something called sensory specific satiety. It makes your brain perceive that you've eaten more than you have and thus you eat less and lose weight," said Dr. Hirsch.
"I used to go out for sushi and I used to eat four or five rolls. Now I'm mostly just having one roll," said Kiosea.
Dr. Hirsch just completed a peer reviewed clinical study of nearly 1500 people who used the sprinkles without changing their diet or exercise routine.
"We found an average weight loss over six months of 30 ½ pounds," said Dr. Hirsch.
"These findings are very interesting," said Elisa Zied from the American Dietetic Association.
Zied is intrigued with the finding yet wonders what happens if you stop sprinkling.
"If you're not doing what you did to lose weight, probably you won't be able to keep the weight off. Most dieters start to gain weight back after six months," explains Zied.
Long term effects haven't been studied, yet some study participants who have stopped sprinkling are keeping the weight off, and losing more.
"Our hope is that as people lost 20, 30, 40 pounds, they begin to feel better about themselves. Then they would inadvertently exercise and induce a snowball effect causing them to achieve further weight loss," said said Dr. Hirsch.
Web Extra Information
Dr. Alan Hirsch, MD, is the founder and neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago. Dr. Hirsch specializes in the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of many smell- and taste-related disorders. He has conducted more than 180 different studies, including the most recent dealing with the sprinkles and weight loss. In his research of 1436 people who used the sprinkles on everything they ate (without changing their diets), the average weight loss was 30.5 pounds over six months.
The sprinkles will be on sale mid-June. They will be available on the Web site www.trysensa.com .
Elisa Zied is a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association (ADA) and is a registered dietitian.
For information on the organization, diet tips, nutritition fact sheets and much more click here.
