Is there a fast and easy way to lose weight?

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

• Not quite right... Eating more calories than you burn is what puts the fat on. Eat enough fatty, high protein foods and you'll still gain weight - even if you eat very few carbs.

  • Report
  

  by Friartuck on March 3rd, 2010

• Incorrect. If that were true then the Atkins diet wouldn't work. Yet it does. In multiple clinical trials it has beat all the other diets in weight loss even though they consume more calories on it.
  In fact, I dare you. Go on a no carb diet and try and gain weight (if you are overweight). It can't be done, no matter how much you eat or how little you exercise.

  • Report
  

  by Anonymous on March 3rd, 2010

• No, that is incorrect. Atkins does work, yes - because the types of food you eat can make you feel fuller quicker, and for longer - therefore people tend to eat a bit less.
  Calories are still calories. You cannot defeat basic physics and chemistry.
  "A review of 107 research studies on various low-carbohydrate, high-protein weight-loss diets concluded that weight loss on these diets is not due to any special effect of restricting carbohydrate; rather, weight loss depended on the extent to which the dieters’ caloric intake fell and how long they continued with their regimens."
  See http://www.atkinsdietalert.org/advisory.html
  There is no magic way of losing weight by eating more of anything...

  • Report
  

  by Friartuck on March 3rd, 2010

• No physical laws are being violated. If it's about only about calorie consumption and energy expended then a person should be able to lose all their excess weight by only cutting their caloric intake by a small amount while engaging in the same amount of physical activity as before. That's plainly not the case.
  Weight gain is strongly influenced by hormones, especially insulin. And carbs greatly affect how much insulin our bodies produce.
  Your 107 studies refer to high protein diets. Almost all of them are observational studies, anyhow. They are worthless for determining cause and effect.
  In any case the only proof is through trial. I challenge anyone who is overweight to try and gain weight on a no carb diet. It can't be done, no matter how much you eat. If you are right it should be very easy, indeed, to do this.

  • Report
  

  by Anonymous on March 4th, 2010

• Look, whatever okay? A couple of hundred longer term studies measuring what weight loss people experienced on a variety of diets - atkins being one (which IS high protein btw). Yes, 'observational' - ie: watching real people actually on the diets.
  I've given you a reference to a large number of studies. Where are the references to these "trials" of yours that prove you can eat huge amounts of fat and protein and not gain weight? So far it is just you insisting it's true...

  • Report
  

  by Friartuck on March 4th, 2010

• Nov. 18 (Associated Press) - Multitudes swear by the high-fat, low-carbohydrate Atkins diet, and now a carefully controlled study backs them up: Low-carb may actually take off more weight than low-fat and may be surprisingly better for cholesterol, too.
  
  For years, the Atkins formula of sparing carbohydrates and loading up on taboo fatty foods has been blasphemy to many in the health establishment, who view it as a formula for cardiovascular ruin.
  
  But now, some of the same researchers who long scoffed at the diet are putting it to the test, and they say the results astonish them. Rather than making cholesterol soar, as they feared, the diet actually appears to improve it, and volunteers take off more weight.
  
  Still, the number of overweight people studied this way is small, and the research does not examine possible long-term ills or advantages, including how long people keep the pounds off.
  
  So for now, the researchers say that much more research is necessary before the Atkins diet can be given an across-the-board endorsement, but at least they believe it is safe enough to take into much larger studies.
  
  Atkins vs AHA Diet
  At least three formal studies of the Atkins diet have been presented at medical conferences over the past year, and all have reached similar results. The latest, conducted by Dr. Eric Westman of Duke University, was presented Monday at the annual scientific meeting of the American Heart Association, long a stronghold of support for the traditional low-fat approach.
  
  Westman, an internist at Duke’s diet and fitness center, said he decided to study the Atkins approach because of concern over so many patients and friends taking it up on their own. He approached the Robert C. Atkins foundation in New York City to finance the research.
  
  Westman studied 120 overweight volunteers, who were randomly assigned to the Atkins diet or the heart association’s Step 1 diet, a widely used low-fat approach. On the Atkins diet, people limited their carbs to less than 20 grams a day, and 60 percent of their calories came from fat. “It was high fat, off the scale,” he said.
  
  After six months, the people on the Atkins diet had lost 31 pounds, compared with 20 pounds on the AHA diet, and more people stuck with the Atkins regimen.
  
  Total cholesterol fell slightly in both groups. However, those on the Atkins diet had an 11 percent increase in HDL, the good cholesterol, and a 49 percent drop in triglycerides. On the AHA diet, HDL was unchanged, and triglycerides dropped 22 percent. High triglycerides may raise the risk of heart disease.
  
  While the volunteers’ total amounts of LDL, the bad cholesterol, did not change much on either diet, there was evidence that it had shifted to a form that may be less likely to clog the arteries.
  
  That's one.

  • Report
  

  by Anonymous on March 4th, 2010

• That's good - but it in no way whatsoever backs the claim "eat as much fat as you want and you cannot put on weight".
  If that were true, eskimo's would be truly skinny buggers.
  It speaks to the fact that high protein/fat, low carb diets do, in fact, help people lose weight. That is not in dispute. I agree. The fanciful claim of "eat as much as you want, you cannot get bigger" is what I'm objecting to.

  • Report
  

  by Friartuck on March 4th, 2010

• If you read up on the Atkins diet you see three phases - Induction, Weight Loss and Maintenance. During the 'Weight Loss' phase you are eating 1500 calories a day. That's 500 a day less than 'average' - and much less than what you'd eat if you were quite overweight.
  That is what makes it work - plus the fact that people are more likely to keep to the diet because food they eat (high in protein as well as fat) makes them feel satisfied more quickly and for longer.
  The study you listed above simply points out that some of the cholesterol concerns people thought would apply to a fatty diet actually didn't.

  • Report
  

  by Friartuck on March 4th, 2010

• "That's good - but it in no way whatsoever backs the claim "eat as much fat as you want and you cannot put on weight"."
  
  There are no calorie restrictions on the Atkins diet. There is on the others. Still, you might be right that the Atkins is a low calorie diet in disguise. I have seen no evidence either way. The amount of calories consumed by the Atkins dieteres was not recorded as they don't count calories. Unfortunately, no study has ever been done to test Atkins' claim. It almost seems as if nutrition science isn't curious to find out how a diet without caloric restriction can work. Hmmmm. Oh, and by the way, the Eskimos were reported by Stefansson in "Adventures in diet" were never overweight. Google that.
  In any case, if the Atkins works by satisfying people's appetites and isn't dangerous to heart health, as is commonly claimed, then why would anyone go on the other diets?
  Since there hasn't been a scientific study done to determine if you can eat all you want, as long as it's not carbs, and still lose weight, I repeat my challenge. Prove me wrong. Have a person who is overweight eat a lot of calories (no carbs) without exercising and see if it's possible to gain weight. I couldn't. In fact, I lost almost 40 pounds.

  • Report
  

  by Anonymous on March 5th, 2010

• Read the Atkins diet!! It specifies the three different phases of induction, weight loss and maintenance. It is a way of controlling calories.
  The reason you'd not live on an Atkins diet because there are other concerns around bowel cancer (in particular) because the diet is not balanced. It removes large amounts of food we'd normally eat. Any diet that removes balance is dangerous in the long term.

  • Report
  

  by Friartuck on March 6th, 2010

• There is no point to your "challenge". It is a long term, well known fact - established for an extremely long time. Anecdotal evidence "I did such and such and experienced so and so" is no evidence at all. It is not controlled and useless for basing broad statements like "eat all you want of this and not gain weight" - a claim that is extraordinary and so requires extraordinary evidence - which is non-existent.

  • Report
  

  by Friartuck on March 6th, 2010

• "It removes large amounts of food we'd normally eat."
  
  How do you know what constitutes normal? It would stand to reason that a modern diet should be considered abnormal.
  
  "Any diet that removes balance is dangerous in the long term."
  
  What do you mean by balance? Balanced against what? Why do we assume that a diet needs to be balanced in the first place? And how do you know what is dangerous? No long term studies have ever been done.
  
  "a claim that is extraordinary and so requires extraordinary evidence"
  
  This is far from an extraordinary claim. The most common way for people to lose weight for over 100 years was the low carb Banting diet. The Atkins is just the latest version.
  
  In any case, if it's such a ridiculous claim then it should be very, very easy to prove wrong. Yet you say;
  
  "There is no point to your "challenge"."
  
  Sure there is. To prove me wrong. Or just plain curiosity. But there seems to be an incredible lack of it here. Don't you want to know? Or have you already made up your mind long ago and don't want to be bothered with conflicting evidence? A lot of people get like that when they become old.

  • Report
  

  by Anonymous on March 7th, 2010

Comments