Something low carb dieters have known for a long time: of all popular
diet plans, low carb is best. Fastest weight loss, best blood test
results.
Stanford researchers followed 300 women for 1 year on either the Atkins, Zone, LEARN or Ornish diets. Atkins won.
But isn't the Zone low carb, too? Yes, but higher low carb (South Beach is in the same range) so weight loss is slower.
When you combine ultra low carbs with low calories -- think Kimkins Diet -- then you've got the best of all worlds! Our results prove it!
See what the researchers had to say:
STANFORD, Calif. -- The case for low-carbohydrate diets is gaining
weight. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine
have completed the largest and longest-ever comparison of four
popular diets, and the lowest-carbohydrate Atkins diet came out on top.
Of the more than 300 women in the study, those randomly assigned to
follow the Atkins diet for a year not only lost more weight than the
other participants, but also experienced the most benefits in terms
of cholesterol and blood pressure.
"Many health professionals, including us, have either dismissed the
value of very-low-carbohydrate diets for weight loss or been very
skeptical of them," said lead researcher Christopher Gardner, PhD,
assistant professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research
Center. "But it seems to be a viable alternative for dieters."
The results will be published in the March 7 issue of the Journal of
the American Medical Association.
The 311 pre-menopausal, non-diabetic, overweight women in the study
were randomly assigned to follow either the Atkins, Zone, LEARN or
Ornish diet. Researchers chose the four diets to represent the full
spectrum of low- to high-carbohydrate diets.
The Atkins diet, popularized by the 2001 republication of Dr. Atkins'
New Diet Revolution, represents the lowest carbohydrate diet.
The
Zone diet, also low-carbohydrate, focuses on a 40:30:30 ratio of
carbohydrates to protein to fat, a balance said to minimize fat
storage and hunger.
The LEARN (Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitudes,
Relationships and Nutrition) diet follows national guidelines
reflected in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food pyramid - low
in fat and high in carbohydrates.
The Ornish diet, based on
bestseller Eat More, Weigh Less by Dean Ornish, is very high in
carbohydrates and extremely low in fat.
Study participants in all four groups attended weekly diet classes
for the first eight weeks of the study and each received a book
outlining the specific diet to which they were assigned. For the
remaining 10 months of the study, the women's weight and metabolism
were regularly checked, and random phone calls monitored what they were eating.
One of the strengths of the $2 million study was that this setup
mimicked real-world conditions, Gardner said. Women in the study had
to prepare or buy all their own meals, and not everyone followed the
diets exactly as the books laid out, just as in real life.
At the end of a year, the 77 women assigned to the Atkins group had
lost an average of 10.4 pounds. Those assigned to LEARN lost 5.7
pounds, the Ornish followers lost 4.8 pounds and women on the Zone
lost 3.5 pounds, on average. In all four groups, however, some
participants lost up to 30 pounds.
After 12 months, women following the Atkins diet, relative to at
least one of the other groups, had larger decreases in body mass
index, triglycerides and blood pressure; their high-density
lipoprotein, the good kind of cholesterol, increased more than the
women on the other diets.
Gardner has several ideas for why the Atkins diet had the overall
best results. The first is the simplicity of the diet. "It's a very
simple message," he said. "Get rid of all refined carbohydrates to
lose weight." This message directly targets a major concern with the
American diet right now - the increasing consumption of refined
sugars in many forms, such as high-fructose corn syrup.
Beyond pinpointing this high sugar intake, the Atkins diet does the
best at encouraging people to drink more water, said Gardner. And
when people replace sweetened beverages with water, they don't
generally eat more food; they simply consume fewer calories over the
course of the day.
The third theory Gardner offered as to why the Atkins diet was more
successful is that it is not just a low-carbohydrate diet, but also a
higher protein diet. "Protein is more satiating than carbohydrates or
fats, which may have helped those in the Atkins group to eat less
without feeling hungry," he said.
Although the Atkins group led in terms of the average number of
pounds lost, this group also gained back more weight in the second
half of the study than those in the three other groups. Gardner also
noted that the women in the Atkins group had lost an average of
almost 13 pounds after six months, but ended the one-year period with
a final overall average loss of 10 pounds.
Though critics of low-carbohydrate diets say that such diets can lead
to health problems, none of the factors measured in this study was
worse for the Atkins group. Gardner cautions, however, that there are
potential long-term health problems that could not have been
identified in a 12-month study. Also, several basic vitamins and
minerals can be difficult to get in adequate amounts from a
very-low-carbohydrate diet.
In the long run, Gardner hopes to use the large data set generated in
this study to investigate why different diets might work better for
different people. "We're trying to see if we can learn more about the
factors that predict success and failure with weight loss," he said.
Regardless of what new insights are revealed, Gardner said the
message he hopes people take from the study is the importance of
eliminating from their diet, as much as possible, refined
carbohydrates such as white bread and soda.
###
Gardner's co-authors were Alexandre Kiazand, MD, postdoctoral
scholar; Sofiya Alhassan, PhD, postdoctoral scholar; Soowon Kim, PhD,
data analyst; Randall Stafford, MD, PhD, associate professor of
medicine; Raymond Balise, PhD, statistical programmer; Helena
Kraemer, PhD, professor of biostatistics; and Abby King, PhD,
professor of health research and policy and of medicine.
The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, and a
grant from the Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan.
Stanford University Medical Center integrates research, medical
education and patient care at its three institutions - Stanford
University School of Medicine, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile
Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. For more information, please
visit the Web site of the medical center's Office of Communication &
Public Affairs at http://mednews.stanford.edu.
Ever think of trying "dieter's tea"?
