http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/diet.....ap/index.html

My first impression was the folks studied were not on a low-carb diet (29% fat?). They were already higher carb at 90 grams and it's not a stretch to go from there to even more high carb. Sigh.

What do you guys think? Is this the death nail for low-carb as so many people are beginning to say? I can't believe that - my feeling is there will always be a core of low-carbers. Perhaps this will just weed out the folks, hey?

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Jennifer (veteran low-carber and author)

I agree, Jen. I don't understand their parameters. I also think that there will always be a great many people who won't eat low carb properly and who will conclude that it "doesn't work" when, in fact, they weren't really adopting the low carb lifestyle. Oh, well. Their loss ... or should I say "gain."

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The article does say however that many dieters who claimed to be eating low carb were not eating few enough carbs to be successful, but that seemed to be its only redeeming quality.

I read it a couple of times today trying to make sense of it. . .and couldn't seem to make much sense of it at all. . .I don't think it is the death nail for LC, but it will send a few looking to soemthing else for weight loss.

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Lori

232/190/130
My other journal http://www.lowcarbeating.com/bb/showthread.php?t=1130

I have access to the abstract of the study, and will be interviewing the person who presented this study .. also others who were there.

Stay tuned for further updates....

Thanks, Andrea.

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We'll be waiting...

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Ozzie's Place

Well at least it accomplished one positive thing. Just because of this article I joined the National weight Control registry. I've been meaning to for quite a while. Maybe the problem is the "fad" of low carb hasn't quite caught up to the one year, lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off, requirement for joing the NWCR.

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my blog

Very good point. I'm interviewing the researcher at 1:15 today eastern.
I'll be posting something on the LCLmag.com site. I'm also interviewing some other folks about it, too...

they can take away the LOW CARB products... but they CANNOT take low carb FOOD away from me...
i just think you cannot argue with SUCCESS... so maybe people who WRITE these articles need to listen to people doing low carb on a daily life changing way... perhaps reading FORUMS such as THIS one...
instead of some "statistics" (sorry rob..*L*)
and i would like to know how MUCH fat these so called low carbers added?? atkins never recommended UNLIMITED carbs.. protein OR FAT... if you read the book... he doesnt even recommend all the stuff WE eat on a daily basis and lose... imagine if people *mock horror* actually FOLLOWED his plan.. THEN how much would we lose..*L*..i dont recall him advocating spoons of splenda and cream cheese... blocks of cheddar... piles of bacon and eggs...*sigh*... he recommends portion control... and i wonder how many of US are actually following those guidelines?
not me.. and yet i stand here 50 + pounds down... easily.. painlessly.. and almost a year later...

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kims SECOND journal is HERE
kims new blog
KIMS BLOG !!
SUGARFREE BLOG

I just read about this study yesterday in one of our local papers. I was going to post on it but hadn't gotten around to it. I wanted to encourage all the long term (over one year) veterans to register. It's a study done out of Colroado but I don't know how they find their participants so it would be nice to get some positive info from people on this site that have been at for over a year and are still going strong.

If you'd like to join here's the link

http://www.nwcr.ws/

When I hit a year I'll be sure to sign up as well and keep up on my good results I expect to have.

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Noël


Worry doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrows, it empties today of its strengths.

Wow, Andrea, that's awesome! Look forward to your feedback.

Maggie too true.

Good for you, Rob!

I think it must be hard for the folks at Atkins Nutritional Center to constantly have to feel on the defensive. I think the government has an agenda. I mean companies like Twinkies are going out of business and many other besides. The wheat board is probably hurting and let's face it, it is way cheaper to feed the masses on freely available and inexpensive carbs, than on quality protein and the fat of the land, so to speak.

Did you hear what those lovely "View" ladies did? They basically announced the doom of the low-carb diet, the day after Dr. Atkins' widow appeared on their show. The cheek of it - do they have no respect?

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Jennifer (veteran low-carber and author)

The really sad thing is that people who are discouraged from doing lc by articles like this will return to eating potatoes, white flour, sugar, white rice and possibly end up with more health problems. The portion in Atkins book about diabetes and pre-diabetes really addresses the problems of low fat dieting. It seems to me it would be very risky for me to return to low fat dieting.

When I read these negative lc articles I feel like "establishment" - some medical as well as retail food manufacturers just don't want to acknowledge that low fat eating was a health mistake for many of us. Thank goodness many doctors are now encouraging their patients to eat lc.

Personally, when I read the controversy all I have to do is remember the part in Atkins book where he discusses three types of people. I was clearly group B - the carbs were causing me to crave more carbs - it was a viscous cycle. When I brought my carbs way down and focused on protein, vegies and fat I felt much, much better and cravings disappeared.
Karen

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Please read my article, just posted on

http://www.lclmag.com/news.php

Note the following information, told to me by Suzanne Phelan over the phone yesterday:

THERE WAS NO DIFFERENCE IN WEIGHT RE-GAIN BETWEEN THE LOW CARB AND LOW FAT GROUPS.

none. However, because when they looked at all the data in aggregate over the years they saw that people who increased fat, lowered carbs and increased calories re-gained weight,

and because there is a much much lower percentage of "low carb" people in the national weight control registry than low fat people, and the registry accepts only those who have lost 30lbs and kept it off for a year or more, they also draw the conclusion that low fat must work better.

I point out the problems with this reasoning in my article.

This is exclusive, important stuff, and I would ask you to spread the link to the article around on any forums, newsgroups, etc. that would allow it. (Please don't spam anywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Thanks! and enjoy!



Chalk up another one for low carb!!!

Good article Andrea. Now if the media would just publish a correction as prominently as they printed the misleading story. Yeah Right.

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my blog

Thanks, here's the press release. this may be copied and redistributed:

November 18, 2004 11:11 AM US Pacific Timezone

Low-Fat Vs. Low-Carb Study Results Mis-Reported: Study Revealed the Real Enemy is Junk Food

BERKELEY,Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 2004--Recent headlines suggesting low-carb dieters were more likely to re-gain weight than low-fat dieters resulted from misinterpretation of a study presented earlier this month at a major conference on obesity. In fact, the study showed no difference between the two groups of dieters. The real "enemy" revealed by the study was junk food consumed after subjects had lost weight.


According to Catherine LaCroix, editor in chief of LowCarb Living magazine, the study presented earlier this month at the North American Association for the Study of Obesity was widely misreported. "A review of the data showed there was absolutely no difference in weight re-gain between the 'low-carb' and 'low-fat' groups," said LaCroix. "So we talked to Suzanne Phelan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Human Behavior at Brown University, who presented the study. She admits that those headlines proclaiming 'low fat beats low carb' were 'somewhat misleading.'"

Phelan presented data gathered from the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR). The data showed dieters who had lost 30 pounds or more and kept it off for at least a year regained weight when they increased fat consumption, decreased carbohydrate consumption somewhat, and increased total calories over and above what they had been eating to lose the weight.

According to LaCroix, only a small percentage of subjects in the NWCR database were even using a low-carb approach, and because the subjects were self-selected and the data self-reported, the data may not statistically represent the general population.

According to Carol-Jane Segal-Isaacson, EdD, RD, Assistant Professor of Health, Behavior and Nutrition at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, however, NWCR researchers revealed the source of extra fat and calories wasn't butter, oils or red meat - the items one might expect would account for a higher fat intake on a low-carb plan - it was "junk food."

Segal-Isaacson, at the conference to present results of another study (with data from over 1,300 low-carb subjects) found that eating foods with added sugar was the greatest predictor of weight gain. Participants in her study, known as the CCARBS study, who did best were those who controlled their carbs best, ate slightly more protein than the other groups, and who ate a lot of high-fiber vegetables, especially dark leafy greens. She points out that those who lost the most weight had the lowest calorie intake. Segal-Isaacson feels either plan, low-carb or low-fat can work. "Calories count, but controlling carbs does work, too."

LaCroix said the widely-documented popularity of low-carb diets in America starts with their initial impact. "The success rate of low-carb dieting is what has created this phenomenon," she said. "People of all ages really do lose weight quickly and easily without feeling hungry. But what these studies prove, and what we, as the nation's leading publication for people living the low-carb lifestyle, advocate is the importance of developing healthy eating habits for life. Nobody stays thin -- or healthy -- eating junk food. As you add back carbohydrates, they need to come from complex sources like whole grains and vegetables, not from refined sugar."

A detailed article on both of these studies was posted today on the magazine's Website: www.LCLmag.com.