Low Fat, High Carbohydrate Diets for Weight Loss

With the advent of recent bestsellers such as Atkins and South Beach diets, the low fat, high carbohydrate concept has become passé with popular culture. But one should know that low fat and high carbohydrate has always been favored by the majority of health professionals in official responsibility and the medical community. The well-known official food pyramid for healthy living had been the official beacon for a long time although it that may be being revised in the light of new findings. The latest guidelines announced in January 2005, has not added major changes, except for the added emphasis on physical activity and calorie control for weight loss. See below for the food pyramid.

Popular diet books that support the low fat, high carbohydrate diets include Eat More Weigh Less: Dr. Dean Ornish’s Life Choice Program for Losing Weight Safely, The Fit or fat Target Diet, The T-Factor Diet, and The T-Factor Diet. Essentially, these books follow the government food pyramid as the guide for healthy living; and the basis for weight loss are caloric restriction in various guises.

Low fat too brings with is some side effects. Prolonged restriction of fat to less than 10 percent or less of energy intake can cause problems such as amenorrhea – no menstrual bleeding. It can lead to a deficiency in essential fatty acids and reduces the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins such as A,D,E, and K.

Under this type of diets, carbohydrates form a large part of the daily requirement. Diets providing 800-1,200 calories a day should be supplying at least 55% of energy from carbohydrate. With a daily intake of 1,200 calories or more, at least 55%-65% in complex carbohydrate is desirable. They also recommend that a large proportion of the total content should be in the form of fiber from fruits and vegetable to foster satiety. Most proponents of these diets also include exercise and behavioral changes.

Low Fat Diets vs Low Carbohydrate Diets

The reason why low carbohydrate diets have been the trend recent years could be because many people just wanted something different from the low fat high carbohydrate regimen. The mainstream low fat high carbohydrate diet philosophy has been around for a long time and often had not work for many. There are several possible reasons for its failure. One explanation is that cutting fat (or any other dieting method) will not overcome overweight if the fundamental causes are not addressed – such as behavioral, environment or even biomedical reasons.

So, the question becomes whether low carbohydrate diets work better than low fat diets continues. A number of studies cited in the other chapters showed that there is no difference in the long term. Putting all the works together, one can conclude that no one has the clear advantage. However, proponents for low fat diets can pick one particular recent study to affirm their philosophy, discussed next.

A Brown University Medical School psychologist Suzanne Phelan presented a study that involved 2,700 people in the National Weight Control Registry who have lost at least 30 pounds and were able to keep it off for at least a year.

It was quoted that those who increased their fat intake over the year after their initial weight loss regained the most weight. The researchers were also quoted to have reported that only a minority of successful weight losers consume low-carbohydrate diets.

However, in a subsequent interview, the presenter, Phelan stated that those headlines proclaiming ‘low fat beats low carb’ were ‘somewhat misleading.’ “A review of the data showed there was absolutely no difference in weight re-gain between the ‘low-carb’ and ‘low-fat’ groups,”

So what if there is no difference?

When it comes to long term weight loss the low fat vs. low carbohydrate debate is a statistical tie. So what is the implication?

It implies that it matters little which type of diet one favors for weight loss. It also confirms that the energy equation rules. Ultimately it all comes down to the fact that weight is lost when the energy burned is greater than the energy intake.

To make the better choice, it then comes down to which is healthier in the long term.

Low carbohydrate diets proponents have claimed that many people on these programs reported lower cholesterol levels but the studies have been small and are not supported by the American Heart Foundation.

Low fat diets usually combine with more vegetables and fruits that offer more fiber. This system also has more nutrients and antioxidants. In most nutritionists’ books, they contain ingredients that promote good health and better eating habits.

Let’s look at a few other diet regimens that can be considered as low fat diets.

Volumetrics

Promoted by Barbara Rolls, the ‘Volumetrics’ diet method bases itself on the principles of the energy equation. Take in less energy and you will end up burning more stored energy. The trick is to reduce intake of energy by avoiding hunger. Volumetrics encourage this by encouraging us to eat more food with low energy density. The volume of low energy density food can make you full and yet, you would have consumed less energy. Low energy density food usually includes larger amounts of fiber, which is always good to promote a healthy digestive system. Fat, which is low in fiber, is clearly a high energy density item.

The promotion of fruits and vegetables is widely supported by research and common knowledge. The long term effectiveness of this method for weight loss may be lacking but there is little danger of this diet method putting your health at risk.

The Pritikin Diet

The Pritikin methods were represented by various books since 1979. Over time some modifications have been made and today, it distinguishes foods by their ‘calorie density’ – not much unlike the Volumetrics methods. Pritikin encourages a high consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole-grain bread and cereals – generally healthy foods. The guide to incorporate 10% fat and 70%-80% carbohydrate ratio in the earlier books is difficult to maintain for the long term. It is not a question of portion control. If you choose healthy foods with very low calorie density, you can eat until you are full.

There is some calorie counting involved but it is done on a meal basis rather than on individual food items. It aims for about 400 calories per pound of meal.

The Pritikin regimen has healthy principles but there is some calculation to be done. If one gets into the routine it probably gets easier to do that in estimation.

T-Factor Diets

When the T-Factor (‘thermogenic effect’) Diet book was first published in 1989 by Dr Katahn, it showed that reducing dietary fat is an effective way to lose weight and maintain the weight loss. The total number of calories you eat is less important than the source of those calories – calories from fat is different from carbohydrate.
In the meantime, it reduces the risk of heart disease and certain cancers. This concept was to be later picked up by various diet experts.

Other than advice about lifestyle changes, the T-Factor Diet book contains food guides and a lot of recipes that follow his low fat principles. A new guide book on fat gram counts later followed.

Summary

Generally, low fat high carbohydrate diets provide about 55%-65% complex carbohydrate, not simple sugars. They also add other whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Fat is kept low.

Statistics have shown that the low fat high carbohydrate regimens succeed no better than the low carbohydrate diets in the long term for weight loss. However, the low fat diets have the support of a larger number of professional practitioners as being the healthier choice.

The popularity of the low carbohydrate high fat regimens is fading. It is not because they are less effective than low fat regimens for weight loss. It is found that people are simply bored with the foods. This has also been the complaint of low fat foods because fat does make food tastier. So, neither has the advantage over the other by way of taste either.

As mentioned in the discussion on Low Carbohydrate Diets, the last word may lie with a new low carbohydrate vs. low fat diets study by Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health and Oregon Health & Science University who are enlisting 240 obese patients into this study.

References and credits are cited in the printable book.