The debate has raged on for decades, but a study directed by Penelope Greene of the Harvard School of Public Health has actually found that people who are following a lower carb diet can consume more calories than people on a standard low-fat diet and still lose weight!
Dr. Atkins first trumpeted that restricting carbs allowed for less attention to be paid to caloric intake, but lately many people have said this idea was wrong. However, if you follow the studies, even expert's are surprised that this approach works better for fat loss (at least in a short run study). The fear with low carbing is that people will not be able to stick to the diet long-term. This is obviously a personal choice, but there are many enticing reasons for embracing this as a lifestyle choice.
First, it has been shown time and time again that this way of eating helps cholesterol levels and make people feel more satisfied (less hungry) when trying to diet. Now, the studies show you can actually eat more and still lose weight.
Penelope Greene's study, found that people eating an extra 300 calories a day on a very low-carb regimen lost just as much during a 12-week study as those on a standard low-fat diet. This belies the popular nutrition belief that a calorie is a calorie no matter what food the calorie comes from.
In the study, 21 overweight volunteers were divided into three categories: Two groups were given either low-fat or restricted carb diets that consisted of 1,500 calories daily for women and 1,800 calories daily for men; a third group was given a low-carb diet but we told to eat an extra 300 calories a day.
The food for the study was made under controlled circumstances at an elite Italian restaurant in Cambridge, Mass., so there could be no cheating on the diets. Study participants picked up the prescribed food each day. Unlike many other studies that relied on red meat, these dieters dined primarily on chicken, fish, vegetables, salads, and unsaturated oils.
All of the food looked pretty much the same, but there were differences in how it was prepared. The less carb meals were 5 percent carbohydrate, 15 percent protein and 65 percent fat. The rest got 55 percent carbohydrate, 15 percent protein and 30 percent fat.
Everyone in the study did lose weight. The lower-cal, low-carb regimen shed an average of 23 pounds. Those who ate the same number of calories on the low-fat diet lost and average of 17 pounds. But, the low-carb volunteers eating the extra 300 calories a day lost an average of 20 pounds.
"It's very intriguing, but it raises more questions than it answers," said Gary Foster of the University of Pennsylvania. "There is lots of data to suggest this shouldn't be true."
Dr. Samuel Klein of Washington University, the obesity organization's president, called the results "hard to believe" and said perhaps the people eating more calories also got more exercise or they were less apt to cheat because they were less hungry.
Any way you look at it, a low carb diet can definitely help you shed fat!
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