Can low carb dieters eat all they want, and still lose weight? by Tanya Zilberter, PhD

protein, 65% fat. The low fat group got 55%

carbohydrate, 15% protein, 30% fat.

Results:

1. All dieters lost weight, but those on low carb diet

lost more than the low fat group -- even while consuming

MORE calories:

- Group on lower-cal, low-carb diet lost an average of 23

lbs.

- Group on same-calories low-fat diet lost an average of

17 lbs.

- Group on extra 300 calories, low-carb diet lost an

average of 20 lbs.

2. Over the course of the study, the group of low carb

dieters who got an extra 300 calories a day consumed extra 25,000

calories. That should have added up to

about seven pounds. But for some reason, it did not.

Discussion:

"It doesn't make sense, does it?" said Barbara Rolls

of Pennsylvania State University. "It violates the

laws of thermodynamics. No one has ever found any

miraculous metabolic effects."

So it violates the laws of thermodynamics, huh? Not so

fast! When it comes to calorie counting, the "calorie

is a calorie" concept is very deceiving.

Let's see what we count when we think we

count calories. When you burn a piece of wood in a

stove, you can directly measure how much heat energy

it produces. Then you can claim that you know how many

calories a piece of wood contains, right? Not exactly.

You should specify what kind of wood it was, dry or

wet, how you burned it, etc. Because if you spent

another material to start the burning, you should

subtract these calories from the total; if the wood was wet you

should take into account the calories that the water

evaporation took. So even with a piece of wood, it's

not that simple.

Now look at a piece of food. You know how they tell

how many calories it contains? Same way they talk

about a piece of wood in a stove. It's the calorie

number that the food would produce by being burnt in a

stove.

Then in addition to the wood's calorie estimation (that takes

into account the dryness, etc.), you should add many

more circumstances: how hard should one chew it

before being able to swallow, how hard one's enzyme

system will have work to digest it, will it influence

the hormones in charge of fat storing? What about its effect on the

hormones in charge of fat burning?

Which chain of reactions will it trigger, activity-wise

or metabolism-wise? Will it make one sleepy, thus

conserving the energy? Ot will it make one jumpy, thus

wasting the energy?

Study #3 by: Laboratory of Applied Physiology,

Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies,

Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan

Reported: J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2003

Dec;88(12):5661-7

Method:

Healthy boys, aged 8-11 yr, were examined for resting

energy expenditure and the thermic effect of a meal,

which were measured for three hours after a

same-calorie but high-fat or a high-carb meals.

Results:

There was no changes after high carbohydrate meals but

there was an increase in resting energy expenditure

after a high-fat meal.

If the researchers in the Study #2 would have measured

resting energy expenditure and the thermic effects of the

meals, they would probably have registered the same changes.

Then everybody would make a sigh of relief:

none of the laws of thermodynamics have been violated:

yes, the low-carb dieters COULD INDEED eat more

calories and lose more weight than the low-fat group

while violating no physical laws because -- they just

burnt more, all the time, even at rest. It's that simple.

Go to Page 1

BIO:

Tanya Zilberter, PhD, is a researcher, health educator, exercise physiologist, and scientific journalist.

In health sciences since 1972, Dr. Zilberter authored several hundred scientific and popular publications, including four print books and more than a dozen of eBooks.

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