Weight Loss: Deciding The Right Diet Plan

After comparison between two popular and diet plans, the Atkins diet was found to be the better one. Researchers observed that it was more effective in cutting down the flab in the obese but otherwise healthy women. It was actually better than the usually prescribed low-fat diet.

Investigators studied 53 obese women for a period of six months. The subjects were divided into two groups with one taking a low-fat approach, eating 30 percent of calories from fat and the other half on very-low-carbohydrate diet popularized by Dr. Robert Atkins.

Careful observation after the study period revealed that the Atkins group shed nearly 18.5 pounds, about 10 of it from body fat and the rest due to loss of water and lean muscle. At the same time, the low-fat group lost about nine pounds, about five of them from body fat.

During the two-week induction phase of the Atkins diet, carbohydrates are limited to 20 grams a day, about the amount found in one medium apple and less than a sixth of the 130-gram daily minimum recently set by the National Academy of Sciences. Carbohydrates rich in fiber, fruit, bread, grains, starchy vegetables and any dairy products other than cheese, cream or butter are strictly prohibited.

The new findings are part of the effort to examine the widely used but little researched Atkins diet. Scientists and physicians have also expressed concern that there might be health consequences for those who follow the Atkins approach, which allows foods high in saturated fat that could potentially raise blood cholesterol levels and heart disease risk.

The program induces ketosis, a physiological state in which blood sugar levels drop so low that fat stores are broken down and converted by the liver to ketone bodies, which are used for energy. Even eating a small amount of carbohydrates can shift the body out of ketosis. After the induction phase, the Atkins program allows up to 60 grams of carbohydrates a day, provided that ketone bodies are still present in the urine

By comparison, food records showed that the low-fat diet group, while consuming about the same number of calories, took in about 169 grams a day of carbohydrates. Constipation was a one of the major problem for those in the Atkins group. Most of the study subjects said that it was difficult to live without fruit and some grains.

Actually there is no dearth of studies that point to beneficial effects of a very-low-carbohydrate approach. One study reported that severely obese patients lost more weight without detrimental effects than a similar group assigned to follow a low-fat diet.

Researchers cautioned that these and other recent findings should not be viewed as the answer to the obesity epidemic. Besides, there's a lot of evidence to suggest that diets rich in fiber, fruit and vegetables are associated with lower rates of disease.

Investigators felt that some people might do better with the Atkins approach while others lose more weight on a more traditional, low-fat diet. A complete understanding of weight loss is yet to be achieved and till that time anything that helps the cause is to be taken as a positive development.