Low Carb Diets
Low Carb diets (to the suprise of many) are more than 30 years old, the low carbohydrate or the “low carb diet" has become the latest buzz in dieting. In the early 70’s a doctor name Robert Atkins designed a diet that would help him control his weight and allowed fast weight loss. He based the diet around his knowledge of human physiology and the way your body can convert from burning sugars to burning stored fats in times of starvation. He proposed a diet that set the body into a state known as ketosis, which is one of the body's natural processes for the metabolism of body fat. The diet consists of very little carbohydrate intake (as few as 20 grams per day), some roughage to help with digestion, and plenty of protein and fat. While it is hard to believe that such a diet could produce weight loss, the fact remain that a low carb diet is very effective if you stay with it and do not deviate from it once you start. Unlike most diets that try to change behavior and caloric intake to induce weight loss, the low carb diet actually changes your metabolism to aid in weight loss. In the medical world is also known as the proper diet to lower triglycerides.
In many ways, the low carb diet has replaced the low fat diet of the 80’s and 90’s. Just as many food companies jumped on the low fat bandwagon, we are seeing more and more food companies including fast food restaurant offering low carb alternatives to their standard faire.
The low carb diet is not for everyone. If you suffer from high blood pressure and you are taking medication to control it you should not try it. Also, anyone who exercises vigorously for more than hour at a time could risk hypoglycemic shock because the body is not able to convert sugar quickly enough to keep up with demand.
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Recent studies revealed that this diet working because people eat less food. A meticulously conducted short-term study completed by Temple University researchers reported that participants in a new study lost weight when they restricted carbohydrates simply because they ate fewer calories. The researchers found no evidence to support other popular theories for why low-carb diets work, such as the idea that calories from carbs are somehow burned less efficiently than calories from other sources. They claim that the diet had nothing to do with water being shed or with carbohydrates being somehow different in the way that they are metabolized by the body. The only conclusion was that people ate less. Even if this gets in contradiction with some very prominent researchers that always stated the idea that you can cut carbohydrates without cutting calories and lose weight. The studies found that people lost weight because they took in fewer calories.
Low Carb Diet Studies reveal:
The studied impact of low-carb diet on calories revealed new reality. The 10 obese study participants, who all had type 2 diabetes, cut their calorie intake by a third while on the most carbohydrate-restrictive phase of the low-carb diet. This shows the real success this diet gets among average persons. Because the subjects were housed in a hospital research center for the length of the 21-day study, investigators were able to track every calorie that was eaten and burned. They also measured fat- and water-derived weight loss, blood sugar control, and cholesterol levels.
The participants ate their regular diets for the first seven days. They then followed the low-carb diet for the next two weeks, limiting carbohydrates to just 20 grams a day but eating unlimited amounts of protein and fat. Prior to starting the low-carb diet, the subjects ate an average of 3,100 calories a day. While on the low-carb diet, they ate about 2,100 calories, even though they were told to eat as much of the permitted foods as they wanted.
The participants lost an average of 3.6 pounds while on the low-carb diet, their blood sugar level normalized and their cholesterol levels also improved. The studies were published in the March 15 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. They proved that the weight loss in the Atkins diet is due to reduced calorie intake.
When asked if carbohydrates can stimulate appetite, doctors answered that they were amazed to find that the participants did not compensate for eating fewer carbs by eating more of other foods. They seemed happy with the low-carb diet and did not complain of hunger, as they ate 1,000 fewer calories a day and did not miss them. This made researchers believe that it was the carbs that fueled their excessive appetites in the first place, while the carbohydrates intensively stimulated their appetite.
On the other hand, some doctors believe the monotony of low-carb diet explains why people eat less. This is why most people also don't stay on any restrictive weight loss plan for very long. The strategy for usual weight loss diet is to restrict choice, while in this case, monotony is essential to why people eat less.
Also, it seems to be no convincing evidence that low-carb diets are easier to stay on or help people lose more weight than other approaches to weight loss. A recent yearlong study compared the Atkins low-carb diet to three other popular diets. The people in the study lost about the same amount of weight in a year - a modest 4 to 7 pounds - whether they were on Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, or the Zone. And compliance was a problem with all of the diets. Only about half of those on Atkins or Ornish stayed on the diets for a year, and about 65% of those on the Zone or Weight Watchers diets stuck with the plans.
We can see that some people on each of these diets did very well and others didn't. The conclusion might be that one approach to weight loss is not the answer for everyone. One solution could be that dieters might lose more weight by switching weight loss strategies from time to time. Switching between different diets with different approaches to food restriction may be the best approach to the long-term management of obesity.
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