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How Low Calorie Diets Fail
By Linda | June 30, 2008
If you’ve ever dieted, you probably noticed you ended up gaining weight in the end. I started out pretty close to a normal weight, but after dieting on and off for 5 years, gained 50 pounds more than when I started. The more strict the diet the more dramatic the weight gain. This paradox is well documented.
One of the first studies on weight loss diets was conducted in 1944 by Ancel Keys, the guy who first proposed saturated fats cause heart disease (still a theory). He also invented K rations for WWII soldiers.
Keys put 32 men on 1570-calorie low-fat diets. I don’t know about you but this is more calories than I ever dreamed of in my diet days. He called it a starvation experiment. The men lost 15 pounds in 6 months.
In the end, they gained back all the weight they lost, plus 5 percent of their starting weight, a roughly ten pound weight gain. More disturbing however, they ended up losing muscle and gaining 50% more body fat than they started with.
During the study the men became cold, lethargic, apathetic and depressed. Their hair fell out. They lost interest in their normal activities. They lost their sex drive. Metabolisms dropped by more than half. Food became an obsession and the group compulsively collected recipes and studied cookbooks while imbibing huge amounts of coffee and constantly chewing gum. Five suffered character neurosis and two were committed to a psychiatric ward.
As the study concluded, Keyes allowed the men up to 3000 calories a day, the amount they once ate normally. But this wasn’t enough; the men remained hungry and craved more food. When the men were finally allowed to eat all they wanted, they overate. A single meal of 8000 calories wasn’t even enough for some, despite the physical discomfort of all that food.
Why do medical professionals still urge the obese to follow low-fat, low-calorie diets? Is there a way to boost metabolism without reducing calories?
Topics: Weight Loss Diets |
June 30th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Wow! I never knew about that study, but do know about the effects of dieting. I tell my kids that the best thing they can do is to keep a healthy weight forever. Once you gain a few pounds and then lose them, it becomes so easy to gain them back again. You know the old joke - I gained and lost 200 lbs… the same 20 lbs 10 different times. Sad joke, but so true.
I seem to have an active metabolism, but my weight still seems to go up and down about 8 or 10 lbs a few times over the course of a year. I worry about what will happen when my metabolism finally slows down for good. If I am lucky, my appetite will decrease at about the same time.
One question, though. How do you respond to the old claim that a calorie is a calorie, period? And that losing or gaining weight is simply a matter of how you balance burning calories with consuming calories?
I really believe that there are different kinds of calories. I joke about having a fast metabolism because people are envious of how much I eat. But I think it is what type of calories I eat that keeps me from gaining a lot of weight. I think if I ate the same number of calories, but got them from fast food, processed food, white flour and sugar, etc. I would gain weight. Does that make any nutritional sense?
Wills last blog post..Is This Greenwashing?
July 1st, 2008 at 11:55 am
Will,
Great question. A calorie is a calorie as long as one is using a bomb calorimeter, a device that measures the heat of combustion, or calorie value, of something. Here, everything is controlled and a calorie is a precise measure.
The human body is different. We don’t burn food like a calorimeter or we would glow in the dark. In the body, certain foods and herbs, exercise, hormones, nutrients and other factors can cause us to burn calories faster than normal, or average.
Conversely, certain foods, hormones and other factors promote fat-storage and slow calorie and fat-burning.
A calorie will always be known as a specific unit of heat, but the body uses calories from different sources and under different circumstances differently.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:39 am
Linda, I am so excited by your new e - moves, blog and web and I wish you every success. As one who has tried most “dieting” things all that is left is to enjoy everything and I love life to the full including the full stomach! Most of the time I try not to think about the extra weight I have gained very gradually over the years but then it seems to be one area of myself that I haven’t got “right” and becomes panic stations - what to eat and when, whose guidelines to follow, what will make me feel good and of course like most people I WANT IT NOW. So I am really up for following your realistic and sensible ways of living in tune with my day to day. I realise the hardest thing for me is the organising of it all so I really need the bloggers to tell me what they are having for their breakfast, lunches and dinners and snacks, perhaps then I will get sorted with a shopping list and not find that I have yet again bought nothing in the fridge or cupboards worth eating.
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
I appreciate your honesty Caroline.
I can share with you two super-healthy breakfast ideas that have been big hits with several clients lately:
whole milk yogurt (try goat or sheep yogurts), 2 tbsp ground flax seeds, a handful lightly toasted walnuts
or
a bowl of cooked millet (a delicious yellow colored whole grain). Be sure to use a pinch of sea salt in cooking, 1- 1.5 Tbsp grass fed butter or coconut oil (or a mix), a big handful walnuts or almonds.
Super filling, tasty, satisfying and natural fat-burners.
Email me about lunch and dinner ideas.
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:38 am
Hi Linda! Sugar, sugar, sugar. When I’m happy, sad, depressed, content…you name the emotion and sugar is there. So exciting, the anticipation of it…the purchasing of it…finally eating the sugary item…and then BOOM! Crash and burn. When that occurs, I SWEAR to myself that it’s over, my affair with sugar…then it all begins again. For me, it’s all or nothing. I know that I am addictied and cannot consume sugary things. Once I start, the cravings that follow consume me. I am a sugar addict and it’s not fun. It is finally affecting my health, both physical and emotional. How to get off the merry-go-round? I’ve done it before…for 2 years. I felt great, looked great…but that all changed by eating a single piece of chocolate on a whim, which led me directly back to old behavior. I was addicted again and still am. Question is: how to begin again? What do I tell myself and do when the cravings become unbearable? Nothing I do seems to be working Linda, HELP!!!
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Having been on every diet in the world and failing and then working with you on an eating plan that has changed my life, I am living proof that diets don’t work! I believe that diets don’t work because diets load you up on low-fat things and try to sell you on the point that it “allows you to eat pizza and chocolate” but these are foods that are depleted of all natural nutrition and you end up wanting to eat 3 of everything!! I will admit that eating truly healthy (the way you have taught me) can be very challenging being that I was raised on boxed Mac & Cheese and had never tasted a vegetable, but when I commit and do it I’ve never felt better in my life and the weight really does just fall off and eventually I lose all of the unhealthy cravings, my question….how do you keep yourself from falling off the health wagon when your at a party and there is cake and chips, etc.? and then to make it worse people question you for not joining in the eating frenzy?
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:42 pm
I hear you Lisa and Jessica and all of you who’ve struggled with the incredibly strong pull that sugar or chips can have over us, even when we long to be lean and healthy. I was there. I know that conflicting feeling well; There was a time when I thought of sugar almost incessantly. I could easily eat a half gallon of ice cream, if no one was looking. I remember standing in the chilly garage of my parent’s home eating frozen Christmas cookies stored in the freezer. I used to lay in bed at night and plot the brownies and fruit crisps I would seek out come morning. I used to make cookies, devouring the whole batch of sweet dough before they hit the oven.
I don’t consider myself an overly strong person, yet I overcame these urges. They’re gone! You can do this too AND gradually revamp your diet so you feel lean and vitalized.
Step one, review my Stop Sugar Craving article on this site. ttp://www.lindaprout.com/articles/Sugarcravings.phpStep
You need to implement each of these steps, don’t just read this and nod O.K. because you think about doing these things or you’ve done some of them. Do them. All.
Get sweets out of your house. Realize it takes about a month to get the urge for sugar out of your system and out of your mind. Stay away from all tempting events, restaurants, cafes, bakeries…. for a month. It is hard; do it anyway. You’ll be glad.
See yourself happily enjoying savory foods. Picture yourself (create a mental vision) enjoying a meal or break without needing or wanting sugar. Imagine yourself feeling blase, or unmoved, when you look at your favorite chocolate candy, the same way you feel when you see a pencil.
And finally, when you go to parties and there is cake and chips, grab your soda water and your olives or chicken or veggies or cheese and go find someone fun to talk to. Smile when people question you for not “joining in” with the sugar. This is a sign they are struggling with sugar too. When you really give up a sugar addiction, people no longer seem to need you to eat it for them.
July 6th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I can not tell you all how right on Linda is!! Read her comment word-for-word, print it out and post it on your fridge…it’s so true-you can abolish sugar cravings when you eat healthy fat, veggies and greens and enough protein. I have been a ‘follower’ of Linda’s for over 7 years.
Low-fat eating plans are not satisfying and with this type of eating, your body yearns for more…I would usually crave sugar and carbs which left me feeling lethargic and not as lean as I feel today. I too have taken the leap of faith and added much more healthy fat in my diet…I now put a generous amount of grass-fed butter on my eggs in the morning; grill my veggies with olive oil and snack on full-fat cheese and tons of nuts!! I love the way I feel and effortlessly weight has come off. I have so much energy and now I eat for vitality, which helps with keeping up with an infant & toddler. Eating this way has prevented the drops in blood sugar I was feeling with breakfasts that consisted of energy bars and bagels, and/or skipping them because I was too busy with the kids.
It took me a little over a month to not be searching for something sweet after my meals. If you are having a sweet craving, you can try eating some more of your protein from dinner or cut up an avocado or grab a handful of nuts. I am now able to look at chocolate cake and not ‘have to have it’. I realize that after I eat it, I won’t feel good and I remember that eating sugar ages you inside out as well…no one wants that:) Try the healthy fats-you will feel satisfied and pleased with yourself on many levels:)
July 8th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
One last thing…what worked for me was taking little steps. I first started by focusing on my breakfasts and making changes there. For me, it didn’t happen overnight. Be patient…
July 10th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Here I am reading all your wonderful comments, stimulated by the depth of candor and honesty - as I battle inflammation in my lungs for the fifth day. Granted, there is plenty of smoke in the air from local fires, but I believe this goes deeper and may be a wake-up call for me to address a challenge of my own. I am also a nutritionist who advises clients on the very topics Linda has reviewed above. My issue is also sweet cravings which have been modified but not eliminated. I still bake regularly (using agave nectar and whole grains)and always ‘enjoy’ something sweet at the end of my evening meal. My day starts with a fresh fruit smoothie, including plain organic kefir, flax oil, almond milk and protein powder. I pour it over homemade granola (low on sweet and oil)and feel satiated for approximately 3 hours. Yes, I am blessed with the angel of fast metabolism - but that, too, is starting to change (I’m 50 this year.) So I end up snacking on a healthy protein (hard boiled egg, etc.)which I probably should have started the day with! My point is that even us ‘professionals’ have issues and need a good reminder on what options can provide a solution.
Thank you, Linda, for sharing your knowledge and experience. I’ll keep you posted - and hopefully clear the congestion…
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 pm
boy this website is a real find for me.i dont feel like I am the only one with this problem When I read some stories it feels like I have written them
michelle fergusons last blog post..Memorial to be held for Hendra victim (AAP)
August 23rd, 2008 at 7:57 am
Michelle:
Glad to hear you feel you’re not alone. Check out the latest post on overeating for some ideas on how to turn things around.