Low carb tests best for fat loss....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 6-28-2012

Three diets were tested.

Each of them caused lower calories burned which tends to slow fat loss or fat regain.

Each of the 3 diets had the same number of calories.  That was low enough all the people studied lost weight.

Calorie-wise the low fat one had 60% carbs, 20% fat, and 20% protein

It caused a drop in total calories burned of 423 calories a day.

The second group was called the low glycemic group which was in between on carbs but emphasized low glycemic ones such as beans and low glycemic fruit apparently.

Calorie-wise the low glycemic group had 40% carbs, 40% fat, & 20% protein

It caused a drop total calories burned of 297 calories a day.

Calorie-wise the very low carb group had 10% carbs, 60% fat, and 30% protein.

It caused a drop total calories burned of 97 calories a day.

The researchers from Children's Hospital Boston published their preliminary research in JAMA.

This means that over time the low carb group will lose more fat, regain less, and the people eating that way will likely keep more of it off.  Also due to the high protein part, the low carb people will lose less muscle and other lean weight. More of their weight loss will be fat!

My initial comments: 

People who like meat and cheese tend to do quite well on the low carb diets. 

And because the extra protein and fat does turn off hunger while carbs tend to cause rebound hunger, almost everyone on a low carb diet is less hungry than the other two groups!

Secondly, people who lose fat and keep it off average about 400 calories a day of exercise.  Exercise, except for overdone long duration cardio and too fast increases in intensity, also improves virtually all the markers for heart disease.  So, people who exercise that much, except for people who overdo carbs, lose fat and keep it off even with this reduction in calories burned found in the study!

David Ludwig, a noted fat loss expert and I believe one of the researchers, noted that the low fat diet had the worst impact on heart health – including insulin sensitivity worse, triglyceride levels higher and HDL cholesterol levels down.  

But Dr Ludwig also noted that the low carb diet increased inflammation which is also a cause of heart disease.

Worse, a recent study also came out showing that the traditional Atkins diet did tend over time to have heart disease causing effects.

What is the win win strategy using this new information?

There are several.

One is from a study that found people who only ate a low calorie super low carb diet two days a week lost MORE fat and weight than people doing it all 7 days a week.

The calories eaten dropped less.  But it looks like the nearly 700 calories a week drop in total calories burned may have dropped to near zero.  In addition, this twice a week group was clearly less hungry and felt far less restricted.  That means that the chances of them continuing until they lost all their excess fat and their chances of keeping it off went up a great deal!

Second, bacon and butter and cheese and other fatty meats from animals fed grains are excessively high in omega 6 oils.  And using oils high in omega 6 such corn oil and soy oil also add omega 6.  When people eat that stuff and get very little omega 3 oil, their chronic inflammation DOES go way up. That is proven to cause heart disease and there is evidence it raises the risk of cancer a good bit too.

Those foods fit the low carb diet just fine and many people using the Atkins diet eat them.

The Atkins people ARE right.  The very high carb diets are so heart disease causing that much of the data on HDL and blood sugar and triglycerides even in people who eat this junk DOES get better.  But due to this inflammation effect, long term this kind of low carb diet is a BAD idea.

But, the better news is two fold. 

1.  There’s a very big list of high protein foods and oils that do NOT have omega 6 in excess!

Beef and lamb from animals fed only grass may be best eaten in moderation and their cost helps people do that! But they do NOT have the excess omega 6 oils that cause inflammation.  Shrimp, lobster, crab, & oysters from sustainable sources avoid excess omega 6.  So do eggs from pastured hens.  And, wild caught fish avoids the pollutants in farmed fish, has no omega 6 oils to speak of and many kinds are high in omega 3!  Mushrooms have no oil and no omega 6.  You can also get cheese and butter from animals fed only grass.

There’s also a way to get some inexpensive high protein foods from grain fed animals. The problem with meat, poultry, and dairy from grain fed animals is in their fat.  If you eat these foods in moderation in nonfat, very lowfat, and low fat versions, you can have a high protein low carb diet and with only modest boosts to your inflammation.  Nonfat cottage cheese  works.  You can also use lean cuts of beef where you cut out the visible fat and drain off the fat that comes out of them when they are cooked and then add back some spices and extra virgin olive oil.  Cooking skinless poultry this way also works.  (With milk, it’s a bit high carb and nonfat and 1% are made with inflammation-boosting dried milk.  Drinking some 2% lowfat milk is a better health choice though it doesn’t quite fit as a low carb food.)

By emphasizing such protein foods and deleting high carb junk foods and adding a lot of vegetables the DASH II diet lowers high blood sugar and has other health benefits, for example.

Extra virgin olive oil, avocados, and nuts have mostly monosaturated fat and very little omega 6 oils.  Plus, except for people allergic to avocados or nuts, they all have multiple health benefits too!  (Nuts are so high in health OK oil, fiber, and protein they are zero glycemic and are one of the few foods that contain carbs that are OK in a low carb diet.)

So if you only go to super low carb foods two or three or four times a week and eat these health OK protein foods and oils all 7 days each week, you can lose fat.  And, you can do it without the inflammation boost of the grain fed fats.

2.  As with the protein and oils and fats, it also makes a dramatic difference what carbs you eat all 7 days a week.

The better choices have a lot of fiber and water content and have massive health benefits.  Non starchy vegetables and low glycemic whole fruit do have carbs.  But they are very low calorie and very filling.  Each cruciferous vegetable fits from radishes to broccoli to water cress to cabbage to cauliflower to Brussels sprouts.  Eating them raw strongly prevents cancer.  So does eating onions and garlic and most spices derived from plants, notably turmeric.

Low glycemic fruits include whole apples & berries such as blue berries and raspberries and straw berries and stone fruits from cherries to plums.  They have massive health benefits.  The fact that they are much safer to eat if they are grown organically helps you eat them in moderation also.

Beans and lentils and black-eyed peas are a bit higher in carbs but are also high in protein and fiber and are low glycemic.

Less starchy vegetables such as squash and yams and sweet potatoes but not russet potatoes are higher glycemic but not very high and have strong health benefits.

Real, 100 % whole grains are high glycemic and have a lot of carbs.  They do have some decent nutrients and a good bit of fiber.  But on low carb days, they should be skipped!

Meanwhile excess intake of sugar, more than three or four times a week, all high fructose corn syrup, all refined grains, and artificial sweeteners are both harmful to your health and fattening.  They are even more fattening in soft drink form since the delayed increase in hunger happens but with no decrease in hunger when you drink them.  At least with these foods, you initially become less hungry.

In conclusion, if you don’t eat a super low carb diet every day; you eat health OK protein foods and oils as protein and fat sources; and you eat the healthiest carbs each time you have any carbs, you can lose fat and weight.  And, you’ll minimize any increase in hunger or decrease in total daily calories burned. 

That’s beginning to repeatedly test as best at keeping you lean AND keeping you healthy.

And, for both fat loss and good health adding strength training, interval cardio, and as much moderate exercise as you can fit in each week is extremely valuable and effective.