Atkins may have been right all along. A number of recent studies have suggested that a high-fat, low carbohydrate diet may be more effective at taking off weight than a high-carb diet.
Some argue that successful low carb/high fat diets are also low calorie diets because people on these diets – while enjoying lots of fatty foods – are actually eating less. There’s some truth to that. If you eliminate most high carbohydrate foods from your diet, you are more likely to become bored with what you are allowed to eat and might wind up eating less of it. But a recent study at the Harvard School of Public Health seems to suggest that low carb diets actually do take off more weight, even when controlling for caloric intake.
Penelope Greene, a nutritionist at the Harvard School for Public Health, has conducted a study, albeit with a small sample; found that a group of dieters who consumed 1800 calories (for women) and 2100 calories (for men) lost the same amount of weight as the women who consumed 1500 and the men who consumed 1800 calories. In other words, staying away from carbohydrates seems to have same effect as cutting out an additional 300 calories a day.
The results of this study fly in the face of the widely held assumption that calories are the only factor when it comes to loosing weight and gives credence to the theories of the late Dr. Robert Atkins and others who advocate counting carbohydrates rather than calories.
My own experience bears this out as well. I don’t make any scientific claims nor do I necessarily believe that others will have the same results, but of my many attempts to loose weight, cutting down on carbohydrates has always yielded more success than trying to cut out calories from fat.
I always assumed it was because high protein and higher fat meals were more satiating then meals high in carbohydrates and that I probably was eating fewer calories along with fewer carbs, but Greene’s study suggests that there may be another factor. Perhaps carbs do actually contribute to weight gain, independent of the calorie issue.
There is also the possibility that people on the low carb/higher fat group in the study may have been more physically active than the other group or more compliant with their diet. This study, however, was more controlled than many diet studies because participants eat food given to them by the researchers rather than prepare their own food or eat in restaurants. By requiring the participants to other eat study food is the bet method known to avoid non-compliance with the research study’s eating regiment.
The main criticism of the Atkins diet is not only that it’s high in fat, but also high in saturated fat and cholesterol. There are plenty of medical experts who agree that fat, in itself, isn’t the culprit as long as you cut back on saturated fat and trans-fat. Fat from nuts, seeds and vegetables (such as avocado) has been shown in some studies to actually help lower cholesterol when used moderately during a weight control program.
Do you have kids who are overweight? If so, you’re not alone. One in 10 American children are obese – about a third are overweight. Fast food A study just completed at Boston’s Children’s Hospital found that kids who are already obese not only eat more at the fast food restaurant but when they get home as well. The researchers studied 28 obsese children and 26 that were normal size. Both groups were invited to eat as much as they want at a fast food restaurant. They all started out with a large meal and they all ate it but the obese children ate more – 67% of their daily allotment of calories vs. 57% for the leaner kids. The real problem, however, happened later in the day. Once they got home, the obese kids ate, on average, 400 more calories than their leaner counterparts.
The lesson here, according to the researchers, is that overweight kids are less likely to compensate for a large meal than thinner kids. In other words, the normal kids cut back on their later eating because they were full while the obese kids kept on eating despite the large meal earlier in the day.
This research has implications for parents, trying to help their overweight kids and, even though it didn’t study adults, I think the findings might apply to grownups as well. I know that I’m capable of eating a very large breakfast, followed by a large lunch, in between meal snacks and then a large dinner. My son, who is thin, seems to have a better “thermostat” when it comes to cutting back later in the day after a large meal.
The lesson – put some thought into how you’re eating and don’t let appetite alone control what you eat.
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