Shadowing Practice: Want to Lose Weight? Try Counting Calories - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
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40 sentences
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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
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How many calories we eat appears to be more important than what we eat when we eat too much.
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That was the finding of a new study that should be satisfying to anyone who counts calories for weight control.
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More than one billion adults are overweight.
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The World Health Organization calls obesity a global epidemic.
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Government researchers have just reported their latest estimates for the United States.
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The good news, obesity rates have not increased much in recent years.
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The bad news, they have not decreased either.
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More than one-third of adults were obese in 2009 and 2010.
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Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight knows there are all kinds of conflicting diet plans.
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Some tell people not to eat carbohydrates.
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Others say not to eat fats.
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Still others say to eat more protein or to eat less protein.
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Dr. George Bray at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana led the new study.
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He wanted to know if protein affects weight gain.
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Twenty-five healthy adults were in the study.
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They were overfed by almost a thousand calories a day over an eight-week period.
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in food are a measure of energy.
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The people followed diets with low,
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normal or high levels of protein.
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Normal was defined as 15% of energy from protein.
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Dr. Bray says all of them gained weight.
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Fat storage was exactly the same with all three levels of protein.
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It was the calories that they ate that affected the body fat that that they stored.
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Those who ate a higher percentage of protein gained more lean body mass.
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Dr. Bray says the opposite happened on a low protein diet.
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If your protein intakes low,
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you'll actually lose body mass even though you're eating an excess amount of calories.
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He tells his patients to weigh themselves regularly so they can know quickly if they gain weight.
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His study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian at the Harvard School of Public Health studies the relationship between diet and conditions like heart disease and diabetes.
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He says, we don't need to go down a list of avoid this,
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avoid that, become, you know, food police.
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really actually mostly foods that should be increased.
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It's fruits, vegetables, whole grains,
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fish, vegetable oils and nuts.
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He says increasing these six foods by about one serving each day would reduce obesity
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and help slow the epidemic of obesity-related diseases.
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For VOA Special English, I'm Alex Villarreal.
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You can find a video about the study at voaspecialenglish.com.

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About This Lesson

In this lesson, you will practice your English listening and speaking skills through a fascinating health report about the importance of counting calories for weight loss. The content revolves around recent studies related to diet, weight management, and obesity. By engaging with this material, you will enhance your vocabulary, improve your pronunciation, and develop your ability to discuss health and nutrition topics. This practice can be especially beneficial for learners interested in discussing lifestyle choices in English.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

  • calories - units of energy provided by food.
  • obesity - the condition of being excessively overweight.
  • diet plans - structured food intake strategies for weight management.
  • protein - an essential nutrient that contributes to muscle and body mass.
  • lean body mass - the weight of everything in the body except fat.
  • energy intake - the total amount of calories consumed.
  • food police - a colloquial term referring to those who scrutinize others' eating habits.
  • heart disease - a range of conditions that affect the heart's function.

Practice Tips

To maximize your learning through this video, consider using the shadowing technique. Start by listening to a short segment of the audio and pausing after each sentence. This will allow you to repeat what you hear in real-time, mimicking the speaker's speed and intonation. Note that the pacing in this video is moderate, making it ideal for shadowing practice.

As you engage with the content, pay attention to how the speakers articulate keywords and phrases related to health and diet. Utilize shadowing apps or shadowing sites that allow you to record your voice. This will enable you to compare your pronunciation with the original audio. Additionally, focusing on the rhythm and stress of the sentences can help reinforce your speaking skills. Regular practice will help you become more confident in your English-speaking abilities, particularly when discussing health-related topics.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

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