interesting article

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Low-carb dieters eat more, still lose

Study: high-fat regimen consumes more without weight gain

ASSOCIATED PRESS

FORT LAUDERDALE, Oct. 13 — The dietary establishment has long argued it’s

impossible, but a new study offers intriguing evidence for the idea that people

on low-carbohydrate diets can actually eat more than folks on standard lowfat

plans and still lose weight.

PERHAPS NO idea is more controversial in the diet world than the

contention — long espoused by the late Dr. Atkins — that people on

low-carbohydrate diets can consume more calories without paying a price on the

scales.

Over the past year, several small studies have shown, to many experts’

surprise, that the Atkins approach actually does work better, at least in the

short run. Dieters lose more than those on a standard American Heart

Association plan without driving up their cholesterol levels, as many feared

would

happen.

Skeptics contend, however, that these dieters simply must be eating

less. Maybe the low-carb diets are more satisfying, so they do not get so

hungry. Or perhaps the food choices are just so limited that low-carb dieters

are

too bored to eat a lot.

Now, a small but carefully controlled study offers a strong hint that

maybe Atkins was right: People on low-carb, high-fat diets actually can eat

more.

The study, directed by Penelope Greene of the Harvard School of

Public Health and presented at a meeting here this week of the American

Association

for the Study of Obesity, 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 lowfat diet.

Over the course of the study, they consumed an extra 25,000 calories.

That should have added up to about seven pounds. But for some reason, it did

not.

“There does indeed seem to be something about a low-carb diet that

says you can eat more calories and lose a similar amount of weight,†Greene

said.

That strikes at one of the most revered beliefs in nutrition: A

calorie is a calorie is a calorie. It does not matter whether they come from

bacon

or mashed potatoes; they all go on the waistline in just the same way.

Not even Greene says this settles the case, but some at the meeting

found her report fascinating.

“A lot of our assumptions about a calorie is a calorie are being

challenged,†said Marlene Schwartz of Yale. “As scientists, we need to be

open-minded.â€

Others, though, found the data hard to swallow.

“It doesn’t make sense, does it?†said Barbara Rolls of

Pennsylvania

State University. “It violates the laws of thermodynamics. No one has ever

found any miraculous metabolic effects.â€

In the study, 21 overweight volunteers were divided into three

categories: Two groups were randomly assigned to either lowfat or low-carb diets

with

1,500 calories for women and 1,800 for men; a third group was also low-carb

but got an extra 300 calories a day.

The study was unique because all the food was prepared at an upscale

Italian restaurant in Cambridge, Mass., so researchers knew exactly what they

ate. Most earlier studies simply sent people home with diet plans to follow as

best they could.

Each afternoon, the volunteers picked up that evening’s dinner, a

bedtime snack and the next day’s breakfast and lunch. Instead of lots of red

meat

and saturated fat, which many find disturbing about low-carb diets, these

people ate mostly fish, chicken, salads, vegetables and unsaturated oils.

“This is not what people think of when they think about an Atkins diet,

†Greene said. Nevertheless, the Atkins organization agreed to pay for the

research, though it had no input into the study’s design, conduct or analysis.

Everyone’s food looked similar but was cooked to different recipes.

The low-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.

In the end, everyone lost weight. Those on the lower-cal, low-carb

regimen took off 23 pounds, while people who got the same calories on the lowfat

approach lost 17 pounds. The big surprise, though, was that volunteers getting

the extra 300 calories a day of low-carb food lost 20 pounds.

“It’s very intriguing, but it raises more questions than it

answers,â€

said of the University of Pennsylvania. “There is lots of data to

suggest this shouldn’t be true.â€

Greene said she can only guess why the people getting the extra

calories did so well. Maybe they burned up more calories digesting their food.

Dr. 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.