Cutting the carbs may be part of the solution
As far as popular vote is concerned, there has been little that has polarized people more than low carbohydrate eating such as the Atkins plan. The low carb component has some people running to the breakfast table while others are bewildered by the weight loss claims with the lashings of bacon and fried eggs.
And contrary to the belief of many health experts, they actual do work. Chief Endocrinologist Dr. Guenther Boden of the Temple University’s School of Medicine conducted carefully controlled research on these types of diets. Using the hospital setting where calories can be controlled, his group found that people actually end up eating less overall compared to free ranging carb eaters, and thus lose weight.
Dr. Boden claims that carbohydrates stimulate excessive appetite in some people and those on low carb diets tend to cut out about 1000 calories a day. The study highlights that there are individual ‘appetite’ differences and for some people this will be a good way to shed some extra kilos.
Although not shown in this study, it’s also quite possible that carbohydrates have a more appetite stimulating effect in some people than in others. Sugar cravers, whether conditioned or genetically predisposed, could wind up eating more when given free access to carbohydrate. This could also explain why a low carbohydrate approach like Atkins works well for some people – at least over the short term – but not necessarily for others.
The big question around low carb diets has always been whether they can stand the test of time. Research suggests that these eating plans are hard to sustain and can explain why body weight can bounce back within a year when they return to normal eating patterns.
Eating low carb may help you eat less in the short term to lose some weight but it is probably what you do after that counts the most. The message from this study is simple - it’s not how much carbohydrate, it’s how much you eat overall that counts. In other words it comes down to how often, how much and how energy rich the foods are that you consume.
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