When you start dieting these days, people love to tell you how you should be doing it. Here's my response to the Low-carb, high-protein advocates:
Low carb has become the new foundation for better dieting and faster weight loss. It is the go-to diet that has been around long enough to lure people into a false perception that it is not a fad diet. Low carb is perceived as an alternative to calorie counting, but what’s the truth about low carb (aka high protein) dieting?
The theory behind low carb diets begins with the truth. Carbohydrates are sugars, but remember that our bodies turn starch into sugars, too, so we get glucose readings from all kinds of high carbohydrate foods; including breads, pasta, rice, potatoes, sweets, and fruit. That’s right, many low carb diets won’t let you have fruit! Glucose provides long-term energy and if we use that energy to exercise or live actively, we will burn those carbohydrates. Back to the theory we are told that what we don’t use turns to fat in our bodies. On a high protein diet, you consume so few carbohydrates, that your body is forced to feed off the fats in your body instead of using protein or carbs. In actuality it can also feed off muscle which is why weight training is often pushed with low carb diets – so you don’t lose muscle tone and realize that the diet is hurting you. Low carb advocates would have you believe that by leaving carbs out of your diet, you’ll know you are burning fat because that’s all there is to burn for energy. Am I the only one who thinks this sounds exhausting? Our bodies are designed in a very intelligent way and if its initial instinct is to burn carbs, the idea of forcing it to burn fats seems inefficient to me. Now wonder it’s the diet of the lazy. I am not criticizing laziness because I am the first to admit that I hate exercise! I just can’t fathom feeling more energetic while taking away your body’s main source of energy.
“But it works!” is the cry of low carb dieters as they tell me how their struggle with counting calories has never worked. Why does it work? First of all, ask yourself how filling is junk food? Usually if you eat potato chips, french fries, a candy bar, or a tasty filled sponge cake treat, you enjoy the flavor while it lasts, but almost immediately want to eat more. These don’t fill you up and they certainly don’t provide a long term satisfaction. If you eat a slab of meat with a side of carrots, you’ll feel full sooner and the feeling will last longer. You have, therefore, just consumed fewer calories than most overweight people do when they indulge in delicious treats. The evidence is out there. Low carb diets cut calories, too. A person who consumes 2,000+ calories in meats, butter, and other high fat foods – also known as high protein diet approved foods – loses weight because they were consuming more than that before they started their diet. It fills the tummy quicker than high carb foods so they think they are eating more when, in actuality, they have cut their calories the same as me.
The second reason people get such “great results” on a low carbohydrate diet is that protein acts a little like a diuretic. Ever been on a water pill? What’s the first thing that happens? Several pounds drop off like they are melting and often the weight loss program you are on is enhanced so that you lose just a little more at a time than when you are not on a water pill (that is, if you take the water pill on a regular schedule). Proteins force the kidney’s to work harder which sort of washes the weight out of your body. This is not sustainable. Imagine for a moment what this does to your kidneys! Hydration becomes an issue, followed by overworking the kidneys.
Confirming the theory that the low carb diet is giving these dieters great results is that if they eat just a few carbs and cheat, they put weight on. Clearly this means that the low carbs are keeping the weight off. Let’s go back to the water pill. What happens when you stop taking them? Immediately, you gain weight. Your body needs water so flushing it out of the system with a diuretic or by eating foods with diuretic properties is not going to help the problem.
Low carb diets are also not sustainable. For people who have found success on the diet, it’s only because when they reach their weight loss goal they are willing to go back on the low carb diet often in order to maintain. I find it to restrictive and know myself well enough to know I would have trouble recommitting if even for a few days a month.
One of the most important things to consider in any diet is you. You have to be committed or no diet will work – low carb included. This means that if you are finally ready to commit to a diet full of meat, cheese, butter and often very little fruit, you are probably ready to commit to a low calorie diet that didn’t work for you before. It’s a state of mind and maybe you just weren’t ready before. Nutritionists and scientists can agree on one thing. Calories are calories whether they are protein or carbohydrate. If you burn more than your consume, you should lose weight. Yeah, that part sounds easy, but not everyone burns at the same rate so for some it might take more work or fewer calories than their neighbor which is why some people don't think they lose weight.
I suck a little because I read a resource and checked the credentials so that I could say this with inarguable clarity, but I lost the source now. Yesterday I read that a study was done where men on a low calorie diet and men a low carbohydrate diet were compared long term (not just the first week). Evidence showed that in an overall comparison, the people on both diets cut calories and both groups lost weight at the same rate.
Now comes the scary part.
That state where the body feeds on its own fats instead of carbs? That has a name. It’s a metabolic state known as ketosis and by forcing your body to burn a lot of fat instead of glucose, the body produces ketones “which can cause organs to fail and result in gout, kidney stones, or kidney failure. Ketones can also dull a person's appetite, cause nausea and bad breath. Ketosis can be prevented by eating at least 100 grams of carbohydrates a day.”2
High protein diets do provide calcium, but the more meat proteins a person consumes, minerals including calcium are leached from the bones. Now you are at risk for osteoporosis and aren’t women at enough risk as it is?
High protein = higher fats. Clog your arties and increase your cholesterol? Sounds like a great plan. This, of course, leads to heart disease…
Now the good hard facts. A balanced diet is about 40-50% carbohydrates. In my research I found plenty of sources about how little you should eat for a low carb diet and how a healthy diet has more. Eventually I stumbled across sources written by a certified nutritionist, a doctor, and a medical resource page which all recommend something in that range. Sometimes it is easier to find what we shouldn’t be eating than what we should!
It's unpopular to say these days, but I challenge the belief that Low Carb diets are the way to go. The way it should go, imo, is the way of the Tab cola and the grapefruit diet. Away.
Sources include, but not limited to:
2. WebMD
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