October 1, 2012

How calories count

Gary Taubes, author of Why We Get Fat, likes to point out, "When you are cutting calories, you are also cutting carbs."

I was reading this article in the NY Times where he discussed a recent study. People ate the same number of calories; only it was three different compositions. One was low fat/high carb, one was low glycemic, and one was low carb/high fat.

All lost weight. They were lowering their calories, after all, and that generally works for anyone... at first.

Calorie comparisons miss an important point.
But the low carb folks lost the most weight. They had their metabolisms slow down the least from the loss of weight. And they had the greatest lost of actual fat tissue; not lean mass.

The participants reported that low carb was the easiest to stick to because they weren't hungry; the only one of the three diets tested to work this magic.

From my perspective, the Way of Eating that allows a person better health, better body composition, and not suffer from hunger... has to be the way we are supposed to eat. Don't you think?