Why low carb diets don't work

grinch031

Before you say, "see told you so!" or get angry and say, "but I lost 50 lbs in one month on low-carb", let me explain myself. This website represents the journey of one doctor trying to get to the bottom of the truth behind what goes on during low carb diets both as far as health and weight loss, and also how it affects exercise performance.

Commonly you'll hear people say that low carb diets work short term, but in the end they are unsustainable and fail. That might be true, but its also true about any diet that you can possibly conceive. However the reason low carb diets fail is generally different than why low calorie diets fail. Low carb diets often fail for reasons as described in the article. Low calorie diets (without regards to the quality of the foods eaten) can fail for very different reasons such as chronic hunger (due to leptin deficiency, elevated fasting insulin, etc.), inability to accurately account for both Cals IN and OUT, or that calorie counting is just plain tedious.

http://waroninsulin.com/nutrition/if-low-carb-eating-is-so-effective-why-are-people-still-overweight

Also for anyone who wants to better understand why the insulin hypothesis could very well be a possibility, consider Dr. Attia's personal journey below. He is a perfect example of a normal, healthy endurance athlete who had a moderate weight problem, but has demonstrated elevated amounts of insulin while on a standard American diet that very well could have been the root cause. After going on a ketogenic diet, his health has taken quite a turn for the better. Anyways this is NOT an attempt to prove the hypothesis (n=1, right?), but to demonstrate that it very well COULD play a role as a major cause of obesity.

http://waroninsulin.com/why-i-decided-to-lose-weight

My own experience is VERY similar to Dr. Attia's. The difference is I'm a marathon runner and he is a swimmer. Also I haven't had the luxury of measuring any of my health markers or exercise performance.

yesthistime

Bump. Let's do this.

cba4994

The smallest I have ever gotten was when I was following a low carb diet, SUGAR BUSTERS, about 10 years ago. I have just started back on it this week and I also have had the oppotunity to have a baseline labs that include Apo B, insulin, LP(a) mass etc.... and I plan to have them drawn again in about 3 months to see if the diet results in lower cholesterol, insulin as well as hopefully return to a slimmer size. Friend me if you would like to hear about whether low carb diet results in improved labs as well as weight loss. Thanks for posting the article, very interesting.

katielauren2001

Low GI is probably more feasible in the long term. I think carbs (slow releasing ones) are needed.

Glucocorticoid

Insulin…an Undeserved Bad Reputation
http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=319