Wednesday - July 16, 2008

Long Term Study Shows Atkins Most Effective Diet Method

The Atkins diet may have proved itself after all: A low-carb diet and a Mediterranean-style regimen helped people lose more weight than a traditional low-fat diet in one of the longest and largest studies to compare the dueling weight-loss techniques. A bigger surprise: The low-carb diet improved cholesterol more than the other two. Some critics had predicted the opposite.

“It is a vindication,” said Abby Bloch of the Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Foundation, a philanthropy group that honors the Atkins’ diet’s creator and was the study’s main funder.

However, all three approaches — the low-carb diet, a low-fat diet and a so-called Mediterranean diet — achieved weight loss and improved cholesterol. The study is remarkable not only because it lasted two years, much longer than most, but also because of the huge proportion of people who stuck with the diets — 85 percent.

Pretty neat. I remember when Atkins was all the rage, and the critics all had this major Stuck On Stupid criticism: Atkins doesn’t work once you stop dieting. Well, duh! Morons.

The research was done in a controlled environment — an isolated nuclear research facility in Israel. The 322 participants got their main meal of the day, lunch, at a central cafeteria ...
In the cafeteria, the appropriate foods for each diet were identified with colored dots, using red for low-fat, green for Mediterranean and blue for low-carb.
As for breakfast and dinner, the dieters were counseled on how to stick to their eating plans and were asked to fill out questionnaires on what they ate, Stampfer said.

The low-fat diet — no more than 30 percent of calories from fat — restricted calories and cholesterol and focused on low-fat grains, vegetables and fruits as options. The Mediterranean diet had similar calorie, fat and cholesterol restrictions, emphasizing poultry, fish, olive oil and nuts.

The low-carb diet set limits for carbohydrates, but none for calories or fat. It urged dieters to choose vegetarian sources of fat and protein.

“So not a lot of butter and eggs and cream,” said Madelyn Fernstrom, a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center weight management expert who reviewed the study but was not involved in it.

But that’s what Atkins IS: red meat, butter, eggs, cream. And your one cup of dry salad a day.

Average weight loss for those in the low-carb group was 10.3 pounds after two years. Those in the Mediterranean diet lost 10 pounds, and those on the low-fat regimen dropped 6.5.

More surprising were the measures of cholesterol. Critics have long acknowledged that an Atkins-style diet could help people lose weight but feared that over the long term, it may drive up cholesterol because it allows more fat.

But the low-carb approach seemed to trigger the most improvement in several cholesterol measures, including the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL, the “good” cholesterol. For example, someone with total cholesterol of 200 and an HDL of 50 would have a ratio of 4 to 1. The optimum ratio is 3.5 to 1, according to the American Heart Association.

Doctors see that ratio as a sign of a patient’s risk for hardening of the arteries. “You want that low,” Stampfer said.

The ratio declined by 20 percent in people on the low-carb diet, compared to 16 percent in those on the Mediterranean and 12 percent in low-fat dieters.

But was this really a vindication for Atkins? Because these people weren’t really doing the Atkins diet. Atkins lets you eat all the red meat you want. Actually it specifically says not to get your protien from vegetable sources. Ok, the study was done in Israel, so of course there wasn’t bacon or pork chops, but this emphasis on beans and fish? What the heck is that all about? Maybe they were trying to save money or something.

I did the Atkins diet 5 years ago. I was at least 75 pounds overweight. My wife and I were both out of work that summer, and her mother needed a complete kitchen remodeling. Seriously, it was Board Of Health time if we didn’t make some fixes. And the MIL was 100+ lbs overweight herself. So the three of us decided to suffer together. For 94 days of broiling summer we did the kitchen. What started out as a simple project grew and grew and grew, until we wound up ripping the place right down to the studs and the joists and even replacing them due to dry rot. New subflooring, new wallboard, insulation, new ceiling, 5 new circuits with GFI, new lighting, all new appliances, ducted fan, new cabinets and floor tiles and paint. A custom butcher block work surface installed specifically for someone her height (4’9"). And stained coped moulding, which is the ultimate bitch job if you don’t know how its done. And I didn’t. So I worked my ass off every day, all summer long. And we followed Atkins like we were religious converts. And I did 85% of all the work, and learned to be a master drywaller, and learned to hate old houses with a rare passion. And frameless cabinetry. That crap still gives me nightmares. Spend the extra money and get real cabinets. The frameless models will suck your soul dry when the MIL decides she wants matching clear oak moulding.

Atkins has this entry phase they call “induction”. It says you only have to do it for 2 weeks, but you’ll lose more weight if you stay on it longer. So we stayed on induction 6 weeks, until we were ready to kill each other. I remember the three of us going to McDonald’s one night, buying some burgers and throwing away the buns, eating what was left with a plastic fork. We just couldn’t take it any more, and wheedled the employees into giving us free fries. One. Fry. Each. It was beyond pathetic. Anyway, at the end of the “3 week” project I had lost 60lbs, and I’ve got “owesies” on my MIL for the rest of her life, even if she lives to be 120.

But we had eggs and bacon for breakfast every day. Lots of bacon. And steaks. And chops. And cheese. And fat, fat, and more fat. And our one cup of dry salad a day. And no bread, and no sugar. It was awful. But it gets easier over time they claimed! Like. Bloody. Hell. The only thing that gets easier is your urge to kill. But, to be fair, this was the only time in my life I ever went on a diet, so I don’t know what being on any other kind of diet is like. And 5 years later, after eating whatever the heck I wanted when I wanted, I’ve gained most of it back. It’s time to give it another go. Guys with a lot to loose usually drop 20lbs in the first 2 weeks; so even if you only last a month it will get you off to a good start.

So I guess my wandering point is that an average loss of 10.5lbs seems rather slight to me. Maybe these skinny desert nerds didn’t have much to lose in the first place.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/16/2008 at 09:19 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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