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A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

nytimes.com

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Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#41

Post by Nav_Panel »

Taylorious wrote: post #32
buss wrote: post #9

For anyone who has access to the paper ( http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1900694 ) and is skilled in reading medical research papers, I would love to know if they account for snacking. When I briefly tried a low-carb diet (just out of curiosity, not to lose weight as I'm already quite healthy) I found that I was unable to snack because almost all snack foods are loaded with carbs. I can only eat so much beef…

Its weird that this pops up on HN because I have been trying a low carb diet for the last 2.5 weeks (with quite a bit of success). I have run into the same issue as you in regards to snacking. The best snack I found was flavored almonds. They are about 4 carbs an ounce and come in a bunch of flavors (coconut is my favorite). I have had a huge sweet tooth my whole life but I find the thing that I crave the most is fru…

> Cheeseburgers are amazing but they are a hell of a lot less appealing with no bun, onions, tomato, or ketchup

This is true, but honestly the only one of those you really need to cut out is the bun. The onions and tomato add up to 2-3g of carbs, and the ketchup is another 4g, so the whole burger in a lettuce wrap would be 6-7g of carbs, not at all bad for a meal! For reference, I use myfitnesspal to keep track of my food consumption and to research carb/calorie counts.

> Eating no more than like 20 carbs a day is really hard and for me it affects the quality of my life too much

Would 50g be more sustainable? Or 100g? From what I've seen, the 20g limit is mostly an introductory phase. 50g is still a huge reduction from what most people consume on a daily basis.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#42

Post by kazinator »

alrs wrote: post #10
nicklovescode wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe you would be downvoted less harshly if you provided a few reputable sources to back your statement.

This subject freaks people out, vegetarians especially. A huge part of identity for some people is based on the knowledge that they're living on a healthy plant-based diet. It turns out that said diet is less healthy than subsisting on bacon grease. This causes cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance causes knee-jerk downvotes. Citations? How about the study spelled out in the article?

You can have saturated fats on a plant diet: coconut and palm oil, for example. (These are even used in infant formula, incidentally).

There are animals that eat plants rather than other animals: they are called herbivores. Herbivores somehow develop muscles.

We can't eat exactly like herbivores. Herbivores eat grass and leaves in huge quantities and have the digestive system for it: they can get enough protein and overall calories that way.

Still, we can achieve a given number of calories and a desired fraction of them from protein and fat, using vegetable sources.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#43

Post by unethical_ban »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #5

To bad it's environmentally unsustainable. There's no way our ecosystem can survive all of us eating eggs, tuna, and chicken all day. We need to consume less animal products not more. Low carb is fine for a few wealthy people who want to lose weight but it's not a responsible solution to the public health problem. What about a low-junk food diet? No cqlorie restrictions but no refined carbs? I don't think we need ti…

Yep, and there will never be a world where we all eat the same thing. Let the poor eat wheat.

Paleo is pretty affordable at the lower-middle class, if you're willing to put the effort in and cook. My biggest hurdle is how easy unhealthy stuff is.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#44

Post by alrs »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #38
alrs wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This subject freaks people out, vegetarians especially. A huge part of identity for some people is based on the knowledge that they're living on a healthy plant-based diet. It turns out that said diet is less healthy than subsisting on bacon grease. This causes cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance causes knee-jerk downvotes. Citations? How about the study spelled out in the article?

The reddit thread, you mean? Are we calling those articles now? The vegetarian thing does not folow . Just because keto/atkins/paleo works, doesn't mean anything else works. Nothing is better than the low calorie diet.

No, not Reddit. The NYT article that we are commenting on.

I offer up the reddit link for anyone interested in the mechanics of HFLC.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#45

Post by tootie »

afafsd wrote: post #22
latch wrote: post #11

It'd be nice to have this squared with research in vegetarianism (high-carb, low-fat) which long term studies indicate has a number of health benefits [1] My own take, which I've mentioned before, is that the the starting point is so bad (refined carbohydrates) that you can pretty much walk in any direction and get positive results. That is, what people are eating doesn't matter nearly as much as what people aren't.…

Pretty much. You could probably come up with a diet that says you're not allowed to eat anything starting with a letter in the first half of the alphabet, and anyone who stuck to it would lose weight, because all of a sudden they'd be thinking carefully about what they ate rather than eating whatever took their fancy at any given moment. Sticking to these diets is the hardest thing. I spent a few months on a paleo di…

The study they are discussing set up test subject with two different diets. One low in fat, one low in carbs. Low in carbs had far better outcomes. I agree that cutting anything will implicitly cut calories, it seems low carb really is superior.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#46

Post by chriskanan »

drcode wrote: post #26

I know this is just anecdotal coincidence (and not really that interesting to most people other than myself) but today when I weighed myself I had my ideal body weight for the first time in my life. This is after following a low carb diet for six months and losing 50 pounds... so throw another vote in the "yes, low carb seems to be effective" bucket. The findings in this article are certainly music to my ears. (Here…

Same here, except I'm not at my ideal weight yet. Since starting a low-carb and fairly lean meat diet, I've lost 20 lbs in three months (200 -> 180, and hoping to get back to my pre-grad school weight of 160). I feel awesome, and I intend to keep up with this in the long-term.

The diet is basically to eat lean protein sources (scallops, salmon, round or loin steaks, chicken without skin, whey protein shakes (brand dependent), etc.) with broccoli, spinach, or another high fiber low carb green vegetable with every meal (4-6 meals per day). Assuming I haven't had any "cheat meals," the last meal of every 3rd day on this diet is a sweet potato/yam as a kind of carb refeed. I've really enjoyed the diet and I feel much better. I based it off of this source (but I used a somewhat lower calorie calculation than they suggest, since the diet is for bodybuilders): http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/docs/2007/gameover_vol2.pdf

At work I have a Quest Nutrition protein bar as a snack, which satisfies the fiber and protein requirements.

Before this, I followed a "healthy" Mediterranean diet for 2 years and failed to lose any weight even with exercise, but at least I didn't gain any either.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#47

Post by latch »

joelrunyon wrote: post #30
afafsd wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much. You could probably come up with a diet that says you're not allowed to eat anything starting with a letter in the first half of the alphabet, and anyone who stuck to it would lose weight, because all of a sudden they'd be thinking carefully about what they ate rather than eating whatever took their fancy at any given moment. Sticking to these diets is the hardest thing. I spent a few months on a paleo di…

> I don't think dietary changes are worth it unless you can reasonably stick to them for the rest of your life Curious if you could name one food that was particularly difficult to cut out.

Can't speak for your parent, but cheese seems to be a major stumbling point for a lot of people.

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#48

Post by hendzen »

kdoggy wrote: post #29
hendzen wrote: post #6

Here is the actual paper (paywalled) : http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1900694 Anyone have access that can upload it to Scribd or similar?

https://mega.co.nz/#!G4sEBYbT!kIzq_xi4-9zlWsRElqfjzTKUV6-tCm...

Thanks!

Some noteworthy excerpts:

- Participants assigned to the low-carbohydrate diet were instructed to maintain an intake of digestible carbohydrate (total carbohydrate minus total fiber) of less than 40 g/d.

- The reduction in body weight was significantly greater in the low-carbohydrate group (mean difference in change at 12 months, 3.5 kg; P=0.002)

- those on the low-carbohydrate diet had significantly greater proportional reductions in fat mass (mean difference in change at 12 months, 1.5% P=0.011)

- those on the low-carbohydrate diet had significantly greater proportional increases in lean mass (mean difference in change at 12 months, 1.7%; P=0.003)

- Compared with a low-fat diet, a low-carbohydrate diet resulted in greater improvements in body composition, HDL cholesterol level, ratio of total– HDL cholesterol, triglyceride level, CRP level, and estimated 10-year CHD risk

- Dietitians were not blinded to the study hypothesis(!!). To avoid potential differences in dietary counseling due to this, we used specific and detailed scripts for all counseling sessions and trained staff to deliver the scripts without deviation.

- The proportion of participants with detectable urinary ketone levels was significantly higher in the low-carbohydrate group than in the low-fat group at 3, 6, and 12 months (data not shown)

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#49

Post by wfjackson »

alrs wrote: post #10
nicklovescode wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe you would be downvoted less harshly if you provided a few reputable sources to back your statement.

This subject freaks people out, vegetarians especially. A huge part of identity for some people is based on the knowledge that they're living on a healthy plant-based diet. It turns out that said diet is less healthy than subsisting on bacon grease. This causes cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance causes knee-jerk downvotes. Citations? How about the study spelled out in the article?

Where in the referenced article did it mention that the low fat diet was a plant based diet?

Here's a citation against your assertion.

http://www.jfponline.com/fileadmin/qhi/jfp/pdfs/6307/JFP_063...

Re: A Call for a Low-Carb Diet

#50

Post by Elizer0x0309 »

Add to the fact that carbs cause a lot of what I like to call depressive-crashes, compared to caffeine-crashes for example.

Since off carbs I'm on a high and yes a I do a lot of caffeine, the latter doesn't lead to depressive moods and also no weight gain!

Carbs are still useful for high intensity athletes and before a high endurance workout (I'm talking fruits here and not the junk food).

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