Low-carb dieters eat more, still lose

[Guest guest]

Here's another reason:

 

Low-carb dieters eat more, still lose

 

Associated Press

 

The dietary establishment has long argued it's impossible, but a new

study offers intriguing evidence for the idea that people on

low-carbohydrate diets can actually eat more than folks on standard

lowfat plans and still lose weight.

PERHAPS NO idea is more controversial in the diet world than the

contention -- long espoused by the late Dr. Robert Atkins -- that

people on low-carbohydrate diets can consume more calories without

paying a price on the scales.

 

Over the past year, several small studies have shown, to many experts'

surprise, that the Atkins approach actually does work better, at least

in the short run. Dieters lose more than those on a standard American

Heart Association plan without driving up their cholesterol levels, as

many feared would happen.

 

Skeptics contend, however, that these dieters simply must be eating

less. Maybe the low-carb diets are more satisfying, so they do not get

so hungry. Or perhaps the food choices are just so limited that

low-carb dieters are too bored to eat a lot.

 

Now, a small but carefully controlled study offers a strong hint that

maybe Atkins was right: People on low-carb, high-fat diets actually can

eat more.

 

The study, directed by Penelope Greene of the Harvard School of Public

Health and presented at a meeting here this week of the American

Association for the Study of Obesity, found that people eating an extra

300 calories a day on a very low-carb regimen lost just as much during

a 12-week study as those on a standard lowfat diet.

 

Over the course of the study, they consumed an extra 25,000 calories.

That should have added up to about seven pounds. But for some reason,

it did not.

 

" There does indeed seem to be something about a low-carb diet that says

you can eat more calories and lose a similar amount of weight, " Greene

said.

 

That strikes at one of the most revered beliefs in nutrition: A calorie

is a calorie is a calorie. It does not matter whether they come from

bacon or mashed potatoes; they all go on the waistline in just the same

way.

 

Not even Greene says this settles the case, but some at the meeting

found her report fascinating.

 

" A lot of our assumptions about a calorie is a calorie are being

challenged, " said Marlene Schwartz of Yale. " As scientists, we need to

be open-minded. "

 

Others, though, found the data hard to swallow.

 

" It doesn't make sense, does it? " said Barbara Rolls of Pennsylvania

State University. " It violates the laws of thermodynamics. No one has

ever found any miraculous metabolic effects. "

 

In the study, 21 overweight volunteers were divided into three

categories: Two groups were randomly assigned to either lowfat or

low-carb diets with 1,500 calories for women and 1,800 for men; a third

group was also low-carb but got an extra 300 calories a day.

 

The study was unique because all the food was prepared at an upscale

Italian restaurant in Cambridge, Mass., so researchers knew exactly

what they ate. Most earlier studies simply sent people home with diet

plans to follow as best they could.

 

Each afternoon, the volunteers picked up that evening's dinner, a

bedtime snack and the next day's breakfast and lunch. Instead of lots

of red meat and saturated fat, which many find disturbing about

low-carb diets, these people ate mostly fish, chicken, salads,

vegetables and unsaturated oils.

 

" This is not what people think of when they think about an Atkins

diet, " Greene said. Nevertheless, the Atkins organization agreed to pay

for the research, though it had no input into the study's design,

conduct or analysis.

 

Everyone's food looked similar but was cooked to different recipes. The

low-carb meals were 5 percent carbohydrate, 15 percent protein and 65

percent fat. The rest got 55 percent carbohydrate, 15 percent protein

and 30 percent fat.

 

In the end, everyone lost weight. Those on the lower-cal, low-carb

regimen took off 23 pounds, while people who got the same calories on

the lowfat approach lost 17 pounds. The big surprise, though, was that

volunteers getting the extra 300 calories a day of low-carb food lost

20 pounds.

 

" It's very intriguing, but it raises more questions than it answers, "

said Gary Foster of the University of Pennsylvania. " There is lots of

data to suggest this shouldn't be true. "

 

Greene said she can only guess why the people getting the extra

calories did so well. Maybe they burned up more calories digesting

their food.

 

Dr. Samuel Klein of Washington University, the obesity organization's

president, called the results " hard to believe " and said perhaps the

people eating more calories also got more exercise or they were less

apt to cheat because they were less hungry.

 

© 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be

published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

MSNBC Terms, Conditions and Privacy ©2003

 

 

On Monday, October 13, 2003, at 01:57 AM,

wrote:

 

> f it was me I would quit sugar and grains and load up on vitamin C to

> go

> with a natural food diet that I cooked myself!