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Effect of Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults

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Re: Effect of Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

calorie intake and expenditure is a description not a prescription . this is about as useful as saying "make more money than you spend" in order to become wealthy. sure, that's true, but it won't help you make $10 million. how do you eliminate the desire to waste time and money on useless pursuits? that is the analogy we need to use to reframe this discussion. yes, there is a certain level of maturity and self-contro…

I'd say it's harder to quit eating badly than it is to quit cigarettes: You can live a long life without ever touching a cigarette again. But you won't get far with going cold turkey on food.

Food is also harder because a) the healthy option is more expensive and b) sugar and heavy processing is in so much of the food available that it's hard to avoid, or sometimes even detect.

Re: Effect of Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults

#32

Unsurprising results- calories intake & expenditure defines weight loss/gain, not other nutrition information like fat, carbs, vitamins, etc.

calorie intake and expenditure is a description not a prescription . this is about as useful as saying "make more money than you spend" in order to become wealthy. sure, that's true, but it won't help you make $10 million. how do you eliminate the desire to waste time and money on useless pursuits? that is the analogy we need to use to reframe this discussion. yes, there is a certain level of maturity and self-contro…

Good points, but there is something else going on.

If you travel alot you start to see that every culture is heavy on carbs: Rice, pasta, potatoes, noodles, bread. They are ubiquitous.

Find a frenchmen that isn't eating bread from first meal to last...or an asian with rice / noodles. Or an Italian with pasta / bread, etc.

There is something else wrong here. I don't pretend to know what it is, but it seems like its almost a "food culture" problem. The most immediate things you notice are: (a) Americans portion size is double the rest of the world, and (b) Americans eat very very fast.

Re: Effect of Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults

#33
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30% of a 2000-calorie diet is going to be 150g of carbohydrates per day. Not very low carb at all.

> 30% of a 2000-calorie diet is going to be 150g of carbohydrates per day. 600g

There are 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate.

Re: Effect of Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults

#35

>>In the HLF vs HLC diets, respectively, the mean 12-month macronutrient distributions were 48% vs 30% for carbohydrates, 29% vs 45% for fat, and 21% vs 23% for protein. 30% carbs is hardly "low-carb". Indeed, most low-carb diets suggest 50g or less carbs per day - 200 calories or less. https://www.dietdoctor.com/how-low-carb-is-low-carb edit: why am I being downvoted?

[deleted]

Re: Effect of Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults

#36

Unsurprising results- calories intake & expenditure defines weight loss/gain, not other nutrition information like fat, carbs, vitamins, etc.

calorie intake and expenditure is a description not a prescription . this is about as useful as saying "make more money than you spend" in order to become wealthy. sure, that's true, but it won't help you make $10 million. how do you eliminate the desire to waste time and money on useless pursuits? that is the analogy we need to use to reframe this discussion. yes, there is a certain level of maturity and self-contro…

Meat and animal protein is actually more insulinogenic than many common carbohydrates.

https://www.drcarney.com/blog/entry/low-carb-theory-regardin...

Pretty much everybody agrees that eating a lot of sugar or processed simple carbs is a bad idea but the demonization of high fiber, complex carbs has no basis in science.

Re: Effect of Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults

#37
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

calorie intake and expenditure is a description not a prescription . this is about as useful as saying "make more money than you spend" in order to become wealthy. sure, that's true, but it won't help you make $10 million. how do you eliminate the desire to waste time and money on useless pursuits? that is the analogy we need to use to reframe this discussion. yes, there is a certain level of maturity and self-contro…

Good points, but there is something else going on. If you travel alot you start to see that every culture is heavy on carbs: Rice, pasta, potatoes, noodles, bread. They are ubiquitous. Find a frenchmen that isn't eating bread from first meal to last...or an asian with rice / noodles. Or an Italian with pasta / bread, etc. There is something else wrong here. I don't pretend to know what it is, but it seems like its al…

[deleted]

Re: Effect of Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults

#38
post #10

Low-Carb proponents don't necessarily disagree that 'a calorie is a calorie' in the physics sense. We just feel there's no need to be hungry when you can eat to satiation and still lose weight, and that unnecessarily high glucose in the bloodstream is not good for you anyway.

Complex carbs like potatoes are some of the most satiating and nutritious foods you can eat:

https://scottabelfitness.com/potato-and-the-satiety-index/

High fat diets can also be satiating but there are a lot of downsides to eating saturated fats, which make up most of the fats in the typical keto/paleo high fat diet.

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-saturated-fat-studies-s...

Re: Effect of Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults

#39
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. The good old "eat less" diet works, but is not as sexy as all the fad ones.

So I can eat just cardboard, so long as I don't eat so much of it that I can't expend the energy? It's nowhere near as simple as that.

You can eat whatever the hell you want, so long as you don't eat so much of it that you don't burn off the energy. It's precisely that simple.

Of course, you could say it's complex because you have to choose to reduce your energy intake, and the way that we make that choice is complex. But in that sense, everything is complex.

Re: Effect of Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say it's harder to quit eating badly than it is to quit cigarettes: You can live a long life without ever touching a cigarette again. But you won't get far with going cold turkey on food.

Food is also harder because a) the healthy option is more expensive and b) sugar and heavy processing is in so much of the food available that it's hard to avoid, or sometimes even detect.

Healthy food is often more expensive but there are healthy options for cheap. Rice, beans, and vegetables are all pretty cheap and can form the base for a lot of different meals. The hardest part for me eating healthy was having to relearn a completely different set of recipes
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