The Atkins diet and the South Beach diet have one thing in common. They promote the latest craze of eating all the carbs you want, and still lose weight. I'm here to research to see if this type of diet can help promote weight loss as well as keeping your health. I'm going to look into some studies that can back it up and also rejects its ideas. There will be some case studies and research analyses that can help me find out if this type of diet is truly effective. Some diet experts are mad by the diet, saying that it goes against the model of most health organizations, which supports a diet low in fat. Scientific proof shows that the more fruits and veggies you eat and keeping in low with the saturated fats will reduces the risk of heart disease, some types of cancer and other health problems.
Can Low Carb, High Fat Diets Promote Health and Weight Loss?
Eat a lot of meats and potatoes. Sounds simple? A new experiment conducted at Duke University Medical Center, they had 50 volunteers eating at about 25 grams a day for six months. 80% of then stuck to the entire diet and lost about an average 10lbs. of the original weight, which was about 20lbs. each (Hellmich, 2002). In another study, they had 63 people who were 30lbs. overweight separated into two groups taking some different diets. One group was on the Atkins diet, while the other was on a traditional diet consuming about 30% of calories, 55% from carbs, and 15% of protein. After six months of this experiment, it was found that the dieters on the Atkins diet lost 10% of the weight compared to the 5% who were on the traditional diet. They also found improvements on cholesterol levels and triglycerides on the Atkins dieters, but they are not sure if it is due to the cutback on junk food or the diet.
Losing weight from a low-carb diet has many factors. A low carb diet has some diuretic effect so you will experience a loss of water weight. Because a low carb diet is high in protein and fat and takes longer to digest then carbs, its curbs your appetite, so you get a feeling of fullness faster. It also has you eating less calories so the fewer calories you consume versus the calories your burn will give you some weight loss. The other side of this diet though is that sometimes your diet will include foods that are high in saturated fats and cholesterol. According to (NutritionHealth, 2004) a study conducted at Duke University showed that the LDL's rose 30% of dieters following a low carb diet. Of the 45 participants 30% of them showed increase in LDL's of more 10%.
Another issue with high protein diets is that it can make your body to go into a metabolic state called ketosis which is dangerous since your body burns fat instead of glucose for energy. Ketosis produces materials known as ketones that form in the body which can cause organ failure.
People are finding it difficult on which diet to follow. Low Fat vs. Low Carb, Low Carb vs. Low calorie, and practically any method they can find to help them lose weight. We have one case where they have a challenge between Low Fat vs. Low Carb. A new study was just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine testing a low-carb diet against a conventional low-fat one. We have some researchers that conducted an experiment involving 307 volunteers and split them into two groups. One on the Atkins Diet and the other group was on a low-fat diet. After three months, they ate no more than 20g of carbs a day which is the stage four of the Atkins diet. Group 2 went on a diet that required 1200-1500 calories for women and 1500-1800 calories for men each day as long as they keep the fat to 30% or less calories. This is a plan they had to stick on for the whole two years.
Six months into the study, they found that the low carb group had lower diastolic blood pressure, lower triglycerides and lower VLDL's. At the end of the two year experiment they also found that the low carb group had higher HDL's levels 23% percent higher when they started (Bowden, 2010). Now both groups lost weight but also regained a little back. So the point of this whole study is that even though it didn't show a difference in weight loss between the two groups, it did show a difference within the cardiovascular system. The low carb group was significantly higher in that category than the low-fat group. Granted the first six months of the test, everyone was sticking to the diet, but two years is a long time to try to stick to that strict policy for the first time, so you have a few people slip back to the old ways which problem skewed the data. But just going on the first six months showed progress for the Low carb group.
Another study showed where they compared three different diet plans to see which of the three would have the most weight loss results. They compared the low-fat diet, low-carb diet and the Mediterranean diet. Going on a two year diet plan they found that the Low-fat dieters lost an average of 7.3 pounds, followed by the Mediterranean diet which was 10.1 pounds and lastly the Low carb diet at a 12.1 pounds (McKenzie, 2008). They even claimed after two years of eating that the cholesterol levels were lower, so when giving up the carbs the body lowers insulin levels which don't produce bad cholesterol.
The truth about Low Carb/High Protein diets is like a dream job. Making a lot of money and actually enjoying it. Well that's similar to this diet; eat all the meat, eggs, and pasta while losing weight would make anyone join this diet fad. People will seek how quickly you lose the weight in the first few weeks caused by the water loss and the full feeling you get. Maybe the low carb fanatics think the end results justify the means. It's worth the risk even though your average dieter doesn't know the health risk involved.
We Americans spend tons of money every year on products that will promise to make you lose weight, and new diets continually show up. Regardless of this spending, few people manage to lose weight and make the diet program work for them. Studies have shown that 80% to 85% of dieters who dropped weight will put it back on within 1 to 5 years. People fail at this because they control what kinds of food and how much of food, or want dieters to purchase special food.
Researchers say the more carbs you eat changes the insulin levels in a way that can change your appetite. Here is a study that goes out and tries to prove that theory. Temple University School of medicine conducted a study that monitors 10 obese patients with Type II diabetes in a hospital where they can monitor every bite that is eaten. They take blood samples every day. For about a week they ate normal and at the second week they ate exactly 21g of carbs a day, but the key is that they can eat as much protein and fat as they want. After the two weeks their insulin levels dropped 23% curbing their appetite making them lost an average of 3.5 pounds (McVeigh, 2005).
There are some reports that the low-carb diet helps reduce insulin resistance. When you are insulin resistant, your cells will not transport insulin to the fat and sugar cells. Down regulation is what it's called. When you're insulin resistant, you have a lot of insulin trying to be transported to the cells. The cells think there is enough insulin out there, so they stop sending out receptors to the exterior of the cells. So with a low carb diet, your insulin goes and there isn't much insulin receptors trying to feed the cells. Now you start dropping the pounds. Finally, the cells start sending up more receptors to bring in the fuel, like the opposite of down regulation now you have a process called up-regulation. The cells are now sensitive to the insulin slowly becoming a condition you most want. Insulin sensitivity helps you to lose weight.
Low carb diets definitely helps you lose weight but can it do it for the long term. Some researchers bash low carb diets because they think it's a two week phase on quickly losing weight but can it sustain healthy living for the rest of your life. A Low-carb diet has been popular for many years. Only now, most experts have a disregard for these diets as useless for weight loss. Research shows low-carb diets have encouraging effects on some blood lipid levels when connected with weight loss.
Some might be against that low-carb diets are working and safe and should be used. On the other hand, if the goal of losing weight and being healthy is to change the way you eat to maintain weight loss for life and if the primary purpose is to promote health in the long term, then low-carb diet is probably not a good choice.
In the New England Journal of Medicine, they performed a 20 year old study on the effects of Low Carb diets and coronary heart disease to see if they are linked. They evaluated data on over 80,000 women. They made them fill out a questionnaire that was used to calculate a low-carb diet score, so they can find of the percentage of energy as carbohydrate, fat, and protein. The link between the low-carbohydrate-diet score and the risk of coronary heart disease was studied.
Here is a sample of the test scores. The highest score had the greater intake.
After their findings, they concluded that the diets lower in carbohydrate and higher in protein and did not show any link where there was any increase in coronary heart disease. The women who chose vegetables as a protein source, their diets calculated as having lower risk of heart disease (Halton, 2006).
Bowden, J. (2010). HEALTHY SOLUTIONS. LOW-FAT VS. LOW-CARB DIETS: THE REMATCH. Better Nutrtion.
Halton, T. L. (2006, November 6). New England Journal of Medicine. Retrieved January 15, 2011, from New England Journal of Medicine: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa055317#t=articleResults
Hellmich, N. (2002, August 07). Researchers chew the fat on merits of the Atkins diet. USA Today.
McKenzie, J. (2008, July 16). Walt Disney Company. Retrieved January 15, 2011, from Walt Disney Internet Group: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=5388954&page=1
McVeigh, G. (2005, September). Why low-carb diets work. Prevention.
NutritionHealth. (2004). Bad Cholesterol News For Low-Carb Dieters. Nutrition Health Review: The Consumer's Medical Journal, 16.
