A Diet Should Change Eating Habits For Sustained Weight Loss
The first problem in discussing low carbohydrate diets is to define what is meant by a low carbohydrate diet. The Food and Nutrition Board recommends that people consume 45-65% of their calories from carbohydrates. Within this range some people do better at the upper end and some at the lower end of carbohydrate intake. People following a low carbohydrate diet are eating far less carbohydrate than this and are usually doing so as part of a weight loss diet.
Dieting is a major obsession in the United States. From this obsession has come an incredible variety of popular diet theories on how to lose weight. Many of these diets are successful at helping people to lose weight. The question of whether a diet is truly successful, however, depends on the criteria that are used to judge the diet. Ideally a diet should result in weight loss, result in changes to eating habits so that weight loss is maintained in the long term, use real food, and the diet should promote health. A diet that does not change eating habits for a sustained weight loss or that causes health issues is not a successful diet.
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Result in weight loss that is maintained? Since going low-carb 4 years ago, I lost 18 kg (13 kg in the first 3 months) and have kept it off (BMI now 19.1), even though I eat whenever and as much as I want to.
Use real food ? I eat more fresh, unprocessed food now than when I was eating low- fat .
Promote health ? My blood tests improved as shown below:
2005:
BMI = 24.7
triglycerides = 174
total cholesterol = 133
tot chol/HDL = 3.5
2008:
BMI = 19.4
triglycerides = 49
total cholesterol = 188
tot chol/HDL = 2.4
I haven't had a cold or flu in 4 years, even though I stopped taking a multi-vitamin when I went low-carb (I used to get sick frequently). I have lots more energy , even though I sleep less.
Like Newbirth, I will never go back to my old lifestyle. I love my body now and my body loves me back!
I don't know about everyone, but for I and many other low-carbers, this diet IS a change in lifestyle. I will never go back to how I used to eat. The carbs I do eat come from healthy sources such as veggies; I get well more than the recommended 5 servings a day. I currently eat about 100 net grams a day - about 25-30% of my daily calories. This give me more than enough energy for my daily activities including the gym, and including running on the treadmill twice a week (covering just under 3 miles most times).
So yes, this is a lifestyle change, not a temporary "diet."
I get to eat healthy real whole foods like beef, chicken, salmon, cheese, butter, and even delicious vegetables like spinach, greens, cauliflower, broccoli, almonds, macadamia nuts, and so many more you don't have room for me to list them all. Is this an "unhealthy" diet? If I described this to most doctors and other medical professionals, I don't think any of them would honestly say eating this way is bad for you.
I appreciate your concern for people, Dr. Rengers, but why not allow people to make a choice about what is healthy for them based on a variety of healthy choices. The individualization of diet is what is too often neglected by people in positions of power over health in the United States these days and it's time for that to change. How about recommending low-carb alongside low-fat diets as a means of showing your understanding of this basic health concept?
Yes, the dieting obsession in our country is horrendous and it's such a shame there are so many shysters who are only interested in making a buck off of the misery of the overweight and obese. But you can't lump low-carb into that category because it has been a godsend to many of us who have chosen to apply it in our lives with great long-term results!
I challenge anyone, including Dr. Bruce Rengers, to tell me that I'm worse off today than I would have been had I not lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet four years ago. And to me, beyond the weight loss benefits which were nice has been the incredible improvements in my HDL "good" cholesterol which has gone WAY UP and my triglycerides which have plummeted below 100 and stayed there. I am healthier today at the age of 36 than I have ever been in my entire life.
Dr. Rengers is right on target when he shares that a change in eating habits is the only thing that will bring about a healthy, sustained, long-term weight loss success. But what he fails to realize is that the high-fat, low-carb diet is that lifestyle change that so many of us who deal with blood sugar and insulin issues choose to follow rather than the conventional low-fat, high-carb diets that are recommended by the so-called health "experts."
While it is true "low-carb" has never been defined, that doesn't mean we just throw our hands up in the air and act like there are no benefits to eating a diet that is much lower than the recommended 45-65% carbohydrates. For diabetics especially, reducing carbs to 20%, 10%, even 3% of total caloric intake is not just something they need to do to lose weight--it is VITAL to controlling the amount of insulin that is squirting from their pancreas in their body.