Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: low fat low calorie low carb diet

Question:
I know there are some low-carbers here and thought maybe this would be a place to ask my questions. I tried the low-carb diet amost two years ago and it wasn't for me. But that was before the low carb diet was as popular as it is now and I'm guessing htere has been a lot of research since on the diet, so my questions may now have answers. When I tried the low-carb diet there were a couple of widely-held beliefs about the WOL that I'm wondering if are true. 1. When you low-carb and go into ketosis (which you want to do, I was told) and then you cheat, it takes a few days for your body to get back into weight-loss mode. So if you go to a birthday party on Saturday, give into temptation and eat a big slice of frosted cake and a scoop of ice cream, you not only negated your weight loss for Saturday but, despite being strictly low-carb after that, for Sunday and Monday and maybe Tuesday, too. Note that no one ever used that to be a good excuse for not getting right back on plan, but it was considered important information for the low-carber to have. Is it true? 2. If you lose weight low-carbing then regain a lot of it back, your second (and any other later) round will be slower going than the first time. That is, if you averaged, say, three pounds per week the first low-carb diet, you might average only a pound or so a week the second time around. There was only anecdotal evidence for this, but lots of people had such anecdotes. Is it true? I have no real reason for wanting answers to these questions other than strong curiosity about how the human body works with respect to nutrition.

Answer:
It wasn't for me because I found it too restrictive. It wasn't for me because I found it too restrictive. I have no intention of starting a low-carb WOE. What gave you the idea I did? My understanding is that it's not the same issue. Suppose there are two people, one who is low-carbing, the other following a low-calorie plan. Each has consumed foods totalling 1000 calories before the party, and each is at a weight and metabolism level where 1500 calories daily will maintain the weight. At the party each eats a piece of frosted chocolate layer cake (248 calories, 41 grams of carbs per Fitday) and a cup of chocolate ice cream (273 calories, 37 grams carbs per Fitday). The low calorie person will basically maintain his/her weight having consumed 21 calories more than what is needed to maintain. The next day he or she will resume losing weight, assuming of course that he or she eats the budgeted number of calories fo weight-loss. But the low-carber, as I understand it, has gone out of ketosis and effectively derailed his or her diet program for 2 or 3 days. Is my understanding correct? (And before you accuse me again of looking for unfair disadvantages, I want to know only because I'm curious about how the human body works in regards to nutrition. I have nothing against the low-carb WOE and know people for whom it was and continues to be the perfect plan.) Not according to my understanding. The person who loses weight on a low-calorie plan and regains a lot of it will do about as well on the low-calorie plan the next time around. I have heard however that this is not true ofr the low-carber, wonder if what I heard was accurate, and if there are any theories as to why this is so. True enough, but I don't know a single person who decides to yoyo. Everyone I know who has lost significant weight has declared that he or she will never put the weight back on, and yet most have done so. It's a hard fact of life that the recidivism rate for any weight loss plan is high.