10 Lies About The Atkins Diet : Lie #6
Lie #6: A brand new study just proved that the
Atkins diet gives you a metabolic advantage so you really can eat as
much as you want
A 12 week study conducted by the Harvard School of Public
Health and presented in October 2003 to the North American Association
for the Study of Obesity found that subjects on a low carb regimen lost
just as much weight as those on a standard high carb, low fat diet.
The shocking part was that the group on the Atkins diet
could eat 300 more calories than the group eating the conventional high
carb food pyramid diet. This left researchers scratching their heads
saying,
"It doesn't make sense - it defies the laws of thermodynamics."
"A lot of our assumptions about a calorie is a calorie are being
challenged."
Unfortunately, some of the Atkins troops were quick to
interpret the results as meaning, "See, I told you calories don't
count."
Actually, calories do count and the explanation for these
results is quite simple.
A calorie is NOT just a calorie. If all calories were created
equal then a 2000 calorie diet of Krispy crème doughnuts would have
the same effect as a 2000 calorie diet of chicken breast and green vegetables.
Do you really think these two diets will have the same effects on your
health and body composition?
Certain foods and certain diets DO give you a metabolic
advantage. One advantage is the effect of a diet's composition on your
hormones; namely insulin and glucagon.
A second advantage is called the thermic effect of food.
The thermic effect of food means that a certain number of calories are
used just to digest and absorb the food, leaving a net calorie value
substantially less than the total amount of caloric energy that was
contained in the food.
For example, a lean protein food such as chicken breast
has a thermic effect of around 20-30%. This means that for every 100
calories of chicken breast consumed, the NET energy utilized by the
body is only 70-80 calories. (Some people call this "negative calories.")
Stated differently, this means you really CAN lose weight
on a higher calorie intake if you eat foods with a high thermic effect.
What's especially interesting - giving confirmation of
the metabolic advantage of a high protein diet - is that the foods provided
in this particular study were low carb, but NOT typical Atkins fare.
Instead of lots of red meat and saturated fat, the subjects ate mostly
fish, chicken, salads, vegetables and unsaturated oils.
I think study's director, Penelope Green, hit the nail
on the head when she said, "Maybe they (the low carb, high protein
group) burned up more calories digesting their food."
Truth is, not one study has ever proven that you can "eat
as much as you want" on Atkins or any diet. Even when a diet provides
a metabolic advantage, AFTER that advantage is factored in and you look
at NET calorie utilization, you are still left with the calories in
versus calories out equation.
This article was provided by GHF.
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