Low-Carb Diets Are Working, Study Says

I've read this article -- I have a lot of criticisms for the design of the study, starting with the study population. I can't quote exact numbers from memory, but the initial test population was roughly equal men and women but totalled less than 100 subjects. Drop out rates were at >40%, with less dropouts in the carbohydrate-restricted cohort. All the test subjects had very high BMIs at the beginning of the study as well, so the study only investigates the "very" obese. This leads me also to discount the conclusions made by popular media from this study -- they don't seem to understand its limits and are, therefore, willing to make over-generalized pronouncements to the public that this is "proof" that Atkins works. I am glad the study was done, but I wish the media would send their medical correspondents to school to learn the limitations of the scientific method as it applies to individual studies.
 
Zep said:
herbaliser, do you know WHY you are losing weight? The answer is simple, and I quote you yourself: Use more calories than you consume is the ONLY way to lose weight.

Simple, no?
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Yes, BUT:

1. Higher protein/fat foods tend to stay in your system and suppress hunger longer, leading people to generally to eat less (assuming they don't just eat for the sake of eating).

2. A high-carb/low calorie diet tends to slow the metabolic rate more than a low-carb/moderate calorie diet. As the metabolic rate is basically the measure of how fast you use calories...

3. It's been suggested that you excrete more unprocessed calories on a low-carb diet, so what you eat does not necessarily equal what you consume. I know Atkins claims this, and I believe there is some evidence to support the claim.

Personally, I've found my energy levels to be much more steady on Atkins. Having been on it now for about 5 weeks, I'm back to being able to go for a 20+ mile bike ride without an energy crash or significant aftereffects the next day. I figure I eat between 1600 and 2000 kcal a day (tracked on Fitday), typically including only about 30-35 grams of net carbs. I'm pretty much never hungry, and when I am, it's not as uncomfortable as before. And I can now take my pants off without unbuttoning them...

did
 
sickstan said:
I've read this article -- I have a lot of criticisms for the design of the study, starting with the study population. I can't quote exact numbers from memory, but the initial test population was roughly equal men and women but totalled less than 100 subjects. Drop out rates were at >40%, with less dropouts in the carbohydrate-restricted cohort. All the test subjects had very high BMIs at the beginning of the study as well, so the study only investigates the "very" obese. This leads me also to discount the conclusions made by popular media from this study -- they don't seem to understand its limits and are, therefore, willing to make over-generalized pronouncements to the public that this is "proof" that Atkins works. I am glad the study was done, but I wish the media would send their medical correspondents to school to learn the limitations of the scientific method as it applies to individual studies.
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I would agree with this criticism of this particular study. It's also suffering from the assumption that the effects on the extremely obese can be applied to everyone else.

It's not the only study however to suggest that the way the body responds to calories depends on the insulin system.
 
Zep said:
In fact, here's something that seems to indicate that Atkins had it diametrically wrong:
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They are in absolutely no position to make that reccommendation, as only .9% of the subjects of that study followed a reduced-carb diet.

In your earlier post of links, I saw little information relevant to a low-carb diet; none of them actually did significant study of those diets, when they did mention low-carb diets, they pretty much just spouted the dogma of the last 50 years. That's part of the problem - low-carb eating has not been extensively studied in that time.

did
 
Another possible interpretation: as most people who've done low-carb know, there's an immediate and quite dramatic weight loss that occurs during the first few days of a low-carb regime. It can range from a pound up to 15 or 20 pounds, depending on how overweight you are. This immediate weight loss, however, is not fat loss. It’s water loss. For boring technical reasons, when you go into ketosis, you stop retaining as much water.

Therefore, the difference in weight lost between the low fat group and the higher calorie low carb group could be explained by the water loss you get when you go into ketosis. In other words, it’s not a difference in the amount of fat lost, but in the amount of fat lost + the amount of water lost (although I’m not sure how to reconcile that with the low-carb group that ate fewer calories).

Hopefully, when the full article comes out, it’ll include bodyfat analyses of the participants. If there was an actual difference in bodyfat loss, not just overall weight loss, then that would be really interesting (also, there could be differences in the amount of muscle lost - losing more weight but also losing more muscle wouldn't be so great).

With an n per condition of only 7, I’m still wary of relying on these data too heavily. And just how long was the study, anyway, 12 weeks? That’s a short enough time frame that these differences could even out over another 3 months or 6 months.

And really, every group in the study lost weight, so what these data really seem to show is that all the diets worked, if you have a restaurant preparing and supplying you with all the food you are allowed to eat each day!
 
Zep said:
References worth reading for people who think low-carb diets work:
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Earth to Zep: I've lost 33 lbs in the last three - four months or so having only changed my diet to a low-carb diet. If anything, I probably eat more calories because I now eat the super double baco grease bomb burger for lunch nearly every day. Last night I went to a steak place and didn't bother to cut the fat off first. And I'm just as sedintary as I was before I started.

I know this is just a anecdotal evidence, but I kept notes for the first 14 weeks. Here is the weight portion of my notes, taken at the beginning of the week.

Weight
Week 1 231.0
Week 2 226.0
Week 3 224.6
Week 4 220.4
Week 5 219.0
Week 6 218.6
Week 7 214.4
Week 8 211.8
Week 9 212.4
Week 10 208.8
Week 11 206.0
Week 12 205.2
Week 13 206.6
Week 14 202.4

As of this morning, I was at 198.6.

There is something happening here that is resulting in my weight loss. When I cheat and have a slice of pizza or some corn chips, I gain a quick couple of pounds. When I stick to the diet, it falls right back off after a couple of days.

To say it doesn't work is simply not true. The question is, why does it work?
 
Upchurch said:
Earth to Zep: I've lost 33 lbs in the last three - four months or so having only changed my diet to a low-carb diet. If anything, I probably eat more calories because I now eat the super double baco grease bomb burger for lunch nearly every day. Last night I went to a steak place and didn't bother to cut the fat off first. And I'm just as sedintary as I was before I started.
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You think you are eating more calories, but you don't know. Because you aren't tracking. I know I've said this before, but people are ridiculusly bad at estimating their own food intake properly.

There is something happening here that is resulting in my weight loss. When I cheat and have a slice of pizza or some corn chips, I gain a quick couple of pounds. When I stick to the diet, it falls right back off after a couple of days.
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Water. Eating minimal carbs causes an immediate weight loss as your muscles release water. I may not have these details exactly right, but being in ketosis causes your muscles to release glycogen, and each molecule of glycogen is bound to two molecules of water. Therefore, when you drop your carb intake, you lose water - anywhere from a couple of pounds up to 8, 10, or even 15. However, as soon as you leave ketosis (eat carbs), your muscles replenish their glycogen stores and you regain that water, causing you to gain weight.

That's why when you cheat by eating pizza, the next day the scale has goes up a couple of pounds. It's the water weight you've regained by replenishing muscle glycogen. Going back into ketosis causes you to shed that water and immediately lose several pounds.

I'm not denying that you can lose weight on a low-carb diet - I follow a low-carb way of eating myself. It seems more plausable to me, however that the mechanism of low-carb relates more to the hunger suppression you get by eating primarily protein and fat. My own anecdotle experience is that I can lose weight on a low-fat diet, a low-carb diet, or an eat nothing but cake diet, as long as my calorie intake is below maintenance levels (I've been tracking my calorie intake - admittidly imperfectly, but as best I can - for about 2 years now).

Lower-carb plans work better for me because of the hunger suppression effects.
 
dissonance said:

Lower-carb plans work better for me because of the hunger suppression effects.
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That's it exactly. I began working out daily about a year ago and watched as my weight gradually went down, but around May I realized that I had to change my diet if I wanted to lose any more.

I went on Atkins and have probably lost about 30 lbs of fat while gaining several pounds of muscle.

People who say, "You have to burn more than you consume" have it right, but they are not helpful. They are over-simplifying the issue. There are too many other factors at play in diets. Psychological concerns are probably the biggest problem.

It might just as well be said that in order to save on gas you shouldn't dirve your car to work every day. Use some alternative form of transportation. Sure, that's a great idea, and of course it makes sense, but is it really practical? Does it help at all to state the obvious? No.
 
A Horizon on Atkins coming up: Uncovering the Atkins diet secret

And what is the secret?
the quantity of protein the regime encourages, acts like an appetite suppressant.
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... which, er, several people on this thread already mentioned. Some secret. It seems that the experiment appears to have a sample size of two.

Still, Atkins is the diet we all love to hate or love in equal proportions, and the transcript to the Horizon programme will be up just after broadcast, so non-UK residents can play along at home too.
 
Upchurch said:
Earth to Zep: ...
There is something happening here that is resulting in my weight loss. When I cheat and have a slice of pizza or some corn chips, I gain a quick couple of pounds. When I stick to the diet, it falls right back off after a couple of days.

To say it doesn't work is simply not true. The question is, why does it work?
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The other questions are:
o How long does it continue to work?
o What is the prognosis for the post-diet period?

The evidence that was cited earlier suggests this diet's early success is not sustained over the long haul. Also, that the post-diet regain is problematic. What you posted here corroborates both the "early success" evidence as well (unfortunately) as the post-diet evidence.
 
Low carb diets don't work any better if by "better" we mean more fat loss with the same calories ingested. Low carbs however usually blunt appetite for many people. The initial weight loss is of course water that sooner or later will be regained.
 
If you can lose weight and eat anything you want, why would you restrict carbs? This is my problem with Atkins. IT is restrictive, thus it isn't real, i.e. because it is restrictive, many people will fall off the wagon (one of the great flaws of most diet studies is that they only look at who is successful at the end of the study, not who falls by the way-side along the road).

Over the last two years, I've lost apx. 40 pounds and kept it off. Have 25 more to go.

I eat anything; I just have to account for it...calories in/calories out (Zep is dead on). I also exercise, though exercise is a maintenance thing not a weight loss thing. I even lose weight though we eat out occasionally. It is reasonable portion control and exercise.

People don't want to count calories, but it is a life style choice. Besides most of the best literature says lose the weight slowly to keep it off...30 pounds in three months is considered by most to be too fast (and one of my problems with Atkins, it is the promise of quick weight loss, and that is where people screw up).

In the end it is about changing what you eat and how you live your life. You need not exclude food groups, just be reasonable in your consumption and you will both lose weight and keep it off. And, as said above, don't expect to do it in a month or three or six...it needs to be over time (even years) and you must change how you eat not what...

Just my two cents worth....

In reading this over, I wanted to be clear on something...you can't lose weight eating cheesecake. You can lose weight and still eat cheesecake, in resonable ammounts, occasionally. The point isn't to cut cheesecake (or bread, or cookies, or cheese, or whatever out) it is to know what you are eating and how it balances with the rest of your dietary intake. I.e. it isn't about dieting, it doesn't work. It is about living, I expect to live the rest of my life being conscious of how much I eat and exersize on a daily basis, not a fanatic, just plugged in.
 
BillHoyt said:
What is the prognosis for the post-diet period?
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by "post-diet" can i assume you mean going back to the eating habits that made that person heavy to begin with? if so then the only prognosis has to be weight gain.

of course atkins doesnt recommend a post-diet period. Rather he advocates making the atkins program a lifestyle. Which i've found to be hard to do even though i found the program to lower my weight and cholesterol (there are only so many interesting ways to prepare meat, eggs and certain vegetables and fruit). So it just comes down to discipline, saying no to foods you know you shouldn't be eating, a discipline that people who go up and down with their weight (such as myself) basically don't have (barring weight gain due to medical problems)
 
HarryKeogh said:


by "post-diet" can i assume you mean going back to the eating habits that made that person heavy to begin with? if so then the only prognosis has to be weight gain.
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By "post-diet" I mean the period following your loss of weight.
 
headscratcher4 said:
If you can lose weight and eat anything you want, why would you restrict carbs? This is my problem with Atkins. IT is restrictive, thus it isn't real, i.e. because it is restrictive, many people will fall off the wagon
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of course, the diet you are on restricts calories. but yet you find it workable and "real". Do people not fall of the wagon (in fact most people) on low calorie diets?

and Atkins never says you can eat anything you want and lose weight. I don't understand what your first sentence is referring to.
 
HarryKeogh said:


of course, the diet you are on restricts calories. but yet you find it workable and "real". Do people not fall of the wagon (in fact most people) on low calorie diets?

and Atkins never says you can eat anything you want and lose weight. I don't understand what your first sentence is referring to.
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A point well taken...but I guess I contend that my basic points have some merrit..i.e. you restrict the kinds of foods you eat the temptation to fall off to eat those foods is that much greater, and also the speed aspect remains troubling.
 
I saw a snippet on Fox News about low carb diets. They called the people who are sold on low carb as "meat-puppets." LOL

Just thought I would share the smile.
 
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