In a six-month study of 180 overweight adults, researchers found that whole-grain cereals helped people lose weight while boosting their consumption of fiber, magnesium and vitamin B-6.

Their intake of these nutrients was higher than that of dieters who cut calories but did not eat whole-grain cereal. The implication, say researchers, is that fiber-rich cereals can help people cut calories while maintaining or improving the quality of their diet.

A problem with cutting out calories or certain foods to shed pounds is that nutrients can be lost from the diet. The current findings suggest that whole-grain cereals can help prevent some of these losses, according to Dr. Kathleen J. Melanson, an assistant professor of nutrition science at the University of Rhode Island, Kingston and the study¡¯s lead author.

She and her colleagues arrived at their results by comparing three weight-loss strategies: exercise only; exercise plus a reduced-calorie diet that emphasized whole-grain cereals; and exercise plus a low-cal diet that included no cereals.

The researchers randomly assigned 180 overweight, sedentary men and women to one of the three groups. Those in the ¡°cereal¡± group were given packets of whole-grain breakfast cereal and were told to eat a serving twice a day for the first half of the study, then once a day for the remaining time.

In the end, both diet groups lost more weight than the exercise-only group, with dieters in each dropping roughly 12 pounds, on average. But the cereal group cut down on saturated fat to a greater extent and bumped up their fiber, magnesium and B-6 intake.