How many people do you know that are dieting to loose weight?  How many times have you felt you needed to?  According to national surveys 20 million people are dieting in the U.S. and almost 20 million more wish they were. 

With so many different commercialized diets promising a rapid weight loss and contradicting each other, it is no wonder we get confused and are sometimes forced to make choices that can be harmful in the long term.  In this article, I hope to explore the myths behind the very notorious fad—the low carbohydrates high protein diet.  Some of you may know them as ‘Atkins’, ‘Sugar Busters’, or  ‘Protein Power’ among others.

These diets target carbohydrates as the enemy and claim a loss of weight by decreasing and sometimes omitting your total carbohydrates intake—the opposite of the timeless ‘food triangle’.  The claim is that if individuals limit their carbohydrates, the rapid rise in blood sugar during metabolism is avoided and less sugar will be stored as body fat.  By eating high protein high fat, the body will preferentially metabolize fat instead of carbohydrates for energy—a claim that is not only false but can also be harmful. 

You may have heard someone say they are ‘hitting the wall’ or ‘bonking’.  These are terms used to describe our bodies when we use up our stored energy level.  Insulin is essential and has the important function of carrying glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream to the body’s cells for fuel.  Glycogen is the muscles’ preferred source of fuel during aerobic exercise, because it’s more efficiently converted to energy.  If you do not consume enough carbohydrates you will decrease your energy level stores and not be able to workout effectively. 

What we must understand here is that weight is gained as a function of caloric balance.  It is not about consuming carbohydrates. It is about eating more than the recommended food intake your body needs and not burning the calories through exercise.  In order to effectively loose weight for the long term, you should be concentrating on changing your lifestyle to a healthy balanced nutrition and regular fitness routine, not cutting corners by cutting out carbohydrates from your diet.  If you are going to cut down on calories, then you are better off cutting fat to the recommended percent of total food intake than carbohydrates.  Fat provides more than twice the caloric weight than carbohydrates (9 kcal / gram vs.4 kcal / gram) and the body converts fat into body fat more easily than carbohydrates into body fat. For example, if you eat 100 extra calories from dietary fat per day, it only takes the body 3 calories to transform it into body fat but takes 23 calories to transform a 100 calories of carbohydrates into body fat.  This does not mean you should eat more than the recommended carbohydrates intake, a typical misconception we find as Americans are gaining even more weight consuming endless amounts of fat-free foods (loaded with carbohydrates calories).