A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#bull**** .... I only believe a bit of what I read on the internet.

It does not matter what you eat as how much you eat ... no deficit no loss. Pure and simple.

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What "we"? I eat a low carb diet. Not on purpose, but since I don't eat grains, beans, or packaged food it ends up low carb. I ate a 40-30-30 diet based on my BMR and TDEE for years - gained 8-10lbs a year. Now I eat less because I'm not hungry all day and the scale is going down in numbers finally.
In short, this study doesn't fly in my face at all, it supports what I've chosen as right for me.

The article states you don't have to count calories.

And, you believe "the article"?

There is no quick fix. You don't have to literally count calories if you don't want to, but you do have to eat less calories than you burn to lose weight. Really, there is no shortcut.

It sure does. A calorie is a calorie regardless if it comes from carrots or cookies, protein, fat or carbs. Weight loss is simple math, calories in versus calories out.

People are missing the point of low carb and how it works. Calories do matter, they always will matter. A lot of people can eat low carb and lose weight on it without counting calories, it naturally puts them in a deficit. Some people, including myself, that doesn’t work for(well it didn’t work in the past, might work now). I would just simply over eat.
It ultimately boils down to insulin control. Anytime you eat, you increase insulin. Reduce insulin you reduce your waist. Reducing calories reduces insulin, exercise reduces insulin, low carb reduces insulin. It boils down to excessive levels of insulin. High carb foods make it easier for people to binge and over eat, rarely hear of people binging on vegetables and lean meats. Insulin sensitive is a huge factor in all this, this is also genetics. Some people can eat high processed carbs all day and be rail thin, others can not. It’s genetics.
I have lost 225lbs, I have done it on high carb, I have done it on low carb. I have ate whatever I wanted and focused on calories and lost weight as well. For me personally, I would have “cheat days.” Sometimes, binges will just get out of hand even after I lost my weight, I always believed “carbs feed carbs” the more carbs you eat, the more you want. I knew my binging issue was a carb issue, I cut them out, and I might over eat sometimes, max 2,500 calories a day when my goal is 1,800. This is a hell lot better than last month, when I would hit over 3,000 calories a day over eating on junk food. I believe if you limit carbs, your weight regulates itself for most people. Also there are many health benefits to low carb(well to keto).
People say “calories in vs calories out” That’s just stating the obvious. You are fat because you ate more calories than you burned. That’s not the solution to the problem. That’s like saying, “It’s cold outside because it’s not hot” dumb reply. There is a reason why people OVER EAT, this goes back to the insulin issue. Which is rarely if ever addressed.

The study isn't saying that calories don't matter because they certainly do. No educated person is ever going to dispute that.

The study is mearly pointing out that by going "low carb". And more importantly whole foods that people eat fewer calories without actually focusing on calorie counting.

Pertinent Quote from the study.
“It shows that in a free-living setting, cutting your carbs helps you lose weight without focusing on calories. And that’s really important because someone can change what they eat more easily than trying to cut down on their calories.”

Obviously if you still manage to over eat on a low carb diet you will not lose fat.

The other point was the improvments in the test subjects health markers compared to the low fat eating test subjects.

All you people who don't believe in the low carb diet obviously don't have health issues. It's like the thin person who says "I've Never had to diet in my life!" Well thanks. Nice to know. In the real world people aren't all the same. I always knew I didn't eat that much and yet I've always struggled with my weight as an adult. With myfitnesspal I have for the first time ever tracked calories. And I'm under nearly every day. But I concentrated so much on the calories that I was over the 50g per day of carbs that I try to stick to. And the weight started creeping back on. Since doing low carb my borderline thyroid is healthy, my PCOS has cleared and so has my insulin resistance. So don't dismiss sth just because You don't need it.

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All I'm gonna say is what I know has worked for me. Without watching portion sizes at all or worrying at all about calories, I dropped 8 pounds by cutting out gluten and refined sugar.

Foods with gluten and refined sugar generally have more calories, thus my guess is you created a calorie deficit by cutting them out of your diet.

LOL. What?

#bull**** .... I only believe a bit of what I read on the internet.

It does not matter what you eat as how much you eat ... no deficit no loss. Pure and simple.

The study is from the National Institute of Health, not some guy or gal trying to sell a fad diet book.

It's bull. In order to lose weight, you MUST eat less calories than you burn. Nobody gets to be a special snowflake in the world of weight loss.

It's an article in the New York Times which is biased toward the Atkins diet. There are no references to the "studies" or peer reviewed articles which, to me, means this content of this article is pretty meaningless.

Amazing how quick some people are to try and tear something down, just because they think it conflicts with their own little viewpoint about weight loss. Before crying media bias, a bit of reading comprehension might be useful. What they're almost certainly talking about is what we've known for years - that low carb diets allow many people (not all) to naturally create a caloric deficit even when they're not focusing on tracking their calories. That doesn't mean they aren't creating a caloric deficit - it means their focus isn't on calories every day, but rather focusing on low carb foods. In short, it just reinforces that satiation is a very powerful factor when it comes to weight loss.

I did some hunting online and found more about this study at Reuters. Here's the difference between the diets:

For the new study, she and her colleagues recruited 148 obese men and women between the ages of 22 and 75. None of the participants had heart disease or diabetes.

Half were randomly assigned to follow a low-carbohydrate diet for a year, and the other half were assigned to a low-fat diet for a year. They were told to not change their physical activity throughout the trial.

All participants attended regular meetings where they learned about portion control, healthy eating and overall nutrition. They were also offered one meal-replacement bar or shake per day.

The only difference between the groups was the proportions of carbohydrate and fat in their diets.

Those in the low-carbohydrate group were told to eat at no more than 40 grams of digestible carbohydrates per day. ("Digestible carbs" equals total carbs minus total fiber.)

Those in the low-fat group were told not to get more than 30 percent of their daily energy from fat and no more than 55 percent of their daily energy from carbohydrates.

Note the difference in how the diets were laid out. The low carb group was given a specific amount - no more than 40g digestible carbs per day - regardless of calorie intake. The low fat group was given percentages relative to their individual calorie intake - no more than 30% from fat, 55% from carbs.

Here's a link to the Reuters article if anyone wants to read it: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/01/us-carbon-fat-study-idUSKBN0GW33P20140901

And here's the link to the data from the actual study, not full article unless you have a subscription: http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1900694

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Interesting article in today's New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/health/low-carb-vs-low-fat-diet.html

From the article:

“To my knowledge, this is one of the first long-term trials that’s given these diets without calorie restrictions,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, who was not involved in the new study. “It shows that in a free-living setting, cutting your carbs helps you lose weight without focusing on calories. And that’s really important because someone can change what they eat more easily than trying to cut down on their calories.”

Flies in the face of everything we believe here.

No. It backs up everything we believe here. If you cut carbs, whether you intend to or not, you are cutting calories. Just because you're not counting calories doesn't mean you're not eating less of them if you are eating less carbs.

Any diet that works does so because of a calorie deficit, whether intentional or not.