jsfantome- Журнал, 11 окт 11

Today's journal is a copy/paste of an online article I found interesting: Jonny Bowden, The Rogue Nutritionist.


Hi,

We Americans aren’t fond of complexity and nuance. Maybe it’s the pace of our society, the influence of the "fast cut" or the speed of our Blackberries that has reprogrammed our brains and shortened our attention spans.

Who knows?

All I know is this: when it comes to nutrition information, people want it short, fast, and easy to understand.

Ah, were it that simple.

This desire for quick, easy answers is especially prevalent in the low-carb world, which has been a bit quick to adopt the notion that losing weight is simply a matter of counting carbs.

As H. L. Mencken once said...

"For every complex problem there is a simple solution. And it is almost always wrong."

Keep reading...

As those who read my book, "Living Low Carb: Controlled Carbohydrate Eating for Long-Term Weight Loss" know, from the beginning of the twentieth century the playbook for weight loss consisted of one simple strategy: reduce calories.

Enter Robert Atkins...

He made a generation of frustrated dieters sit up and take notice when he maintained that carbohydrate-laden foods trigger an accelerated release of insulin, which in turn encourages fat storage, while limiting fat burning.

According to Atkins, monitoring your carb intake forces your body to rely more heavily on fat as fuel; furthermore, limiting carbs cuts your appetite.

Makes sense. After all, which are you more likely to do:

Eat six bowls of cereal while watching TV or...
Pig out on Brussels sprouts and steak?

Atkins told us to not count calories (at least at first) and focus instead on the source of those calories. Millions of dieters found they could eat more food than their previous Spartan low-fat diets had allowed, and could still lose weight.

Ah, weight-loss nirvana. So far, so good...

This notion was given some credence when scientific studies started backing it up. For example, one important study placed obese teenage boys on one of two diets:

A conventional low-fat, calorie-controlled diet; 1,100 calories per day. The Atkins induction phase, in which carbs are limited to 20 grams (but you can eat all the fat and protein you like); 1,800 calories per day. The Atkins group lost more weight.

Clearly, weight loss is about more than just calories.

But the whole thing went south when people began assuming that because calories aren’t the whole picture, calories don’t count at all.

One of the best studies to demonstrate that both carbohydrates and calories matter was a study conducted by Dr. Penelope Green of Harvard University. She put participants into one of two groups:

Group One: 1,500 calorie-per-day low-fat regimen
Group Two: low-carb program of 1800 calories.
The result?

Group Two- the low-carb group consuming 1800 calories- lost a bit more weight than Group One, the low-fat group consuming only 1500 calories.

But here’s where it gets interesting...

She added a third group to the study. This group combined the low-carb fare of group two with the lower-calorie intake (1500 calories) of group one.

And this group- low-carb/ lower calorie—lost the most weight of all.

The point is this: you can’t completely ignore calories. Eat too many of them and you will stall or prevent weight loss on any diet. It’s that simple. I’ve seen folks eat two whole chickens for dinner and then wonder what went wrong, because, after all, it was a "low-carb dinner."

Sure, your low-carb plan will allow a bit more wiggle room than the standard low-fat diet, and your appetite may be naturally curbed anyway, but don’t think you can disregard quantity altogether just because your carb count is low.

Sorry. Don’t shoot the messenger. I wish it were different.

Because we were so delighted by the revelation that calorie counting wasn’t the only answer, we adopted the misconception that calories don’t matter at all.

They do.

To get the best out of your controlled-carbohydrate eating plan, you need to pay attention to both carbs and calories.

Adjust your calorie intake to the amount suited for your particular metabolism, limit your carbs so you don’t send your hormones (particularly insulin) into an orgy of fat storage, increase your fiber, and you’ve got the perfect nutritional trifecta.

Size—at least when it comes to portions- really does matter.

Warmly,

Jonny Bowden
The Rogue Nutritionist


Carbs, Calories, and Fiber ... interesting trifecta...

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