Weight Loss Plans
We all hear how high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets also refereed to as HPLC diets can produce dramatic weight loss. Robert Atkins first introduced this type of weight loss plan in the 70's and this diet was very fashionable at the time but started to fall out of popularity when people failed to achieve their weight loss goals.
This trend has reversed recently and the Atkins's diet has witnessed a resurgence in popularity. There have been several books that have sought to promote high protein, low carbohydrate diets including the "New Diet Revolution" and "The Zone" which have both been some of the best selling dieting books of recent times.
It is not only the ordinary man or woman in the street that has been enticed by this apparent panacea for weight loss. Sports professionals have also been drawn in by the claims of quick weight loss. Sports and fitness professionals have a duty to examine the empirical evidence to support these claims before making recommendations concerning the efficacy of these diets.
In order to lose weight in a manner that is not detrimental to your health you need to achieve a negative energy balance. To achieve this, three strategies are possible:
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Firstly, if you maintain your usual energy output, while decreasing the amount of energy consumed as food, a negative energy balance will result. High-protein, low-carbohydrate diets are typically low-calorie, thereby causing a negative energy balance and ultimately resulting in weight loss.
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Secondly, in order to achieve a negative energy balance you need to maintain the usual food intake, while increasing energy output by exercise.
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Thirdly, by creating a negative energy balance through a combination of diet and exercise, muscle can be retained while body fat is reduced.
It cannot be denied that the Atkin's diet and variations of it do promote weight loss. But what role does the diet's composition play?. The Atkins diet recommends that you consume 1,400 calories per day during the first two weeks. For an active 18-year-old woman who weighs 125 pounds, this is only 60 percent of her recommended level of energy intake.
Plainly the diet is achieving its effects by severely reducing caloric intake. This is irrelevant to the actual composition of the diet. Any high protein, low carbohydrate diet will produce weight loss, but it is the negative energy balance, rather than the diet's composition, that is responsible for the resultant weight loss.
It has been claimed that insulin promotes the storage of fat so if you limit your carbohydrate intake then you will decrease levels of insulin and body fat. Now insulin is an anabolic hormone released during the fed state that allows for the uptake of glucose into cells and promotes the manufacture of glycogen and fat.
High levels of insulin in the blood are associated with obesity. Because of insulin's effect on fat production, promoters of high protein, low carbohydrate diets have targeted insulin as a negative factor. But insulin does not lead to obesity in fact the converse is true - obesity causes high levels of insulin to accumulate. In short obesity decreases the ability of the liver to clear insulin thus resulting in increased levels of insulin.
It is commonly assumed that weight loss is the result of fat loss, but scientific research suggests that water loss is responsible for the rapid weight loss experienced when carbohydrate is restricted in the diet. In one study obese subjects lost 60% of their weight as water with the consumption of an 800-calorie, low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet. In another study subjects lost up to 4 kilograms of weight on a low-carbohydrate diet. After going back to their regular diet, they regained the weight within a day. This is so fast that water replacement is the only possible explanation.
The popularity of this diet often wanes due to its inevitable and undesirable effects. As early as 1973, doctors condemned the Atkins diet which has been called "potentially hazardous" and full of "theories that are at best half-truths" reported adverse effects include increased calcium loss, undesirable lipoprotein levels, and negative effects on the immune function - these are all important effects relating to human health.
High-protein diets significantly increase urinary calcium excretion. It is also known that athletes involved in high-intensity sports may experience high levels of sweat loss, which has been suggested to promote a loss of calcium. The loss of calcium through the combination of a high-protein diet and heavy sweating may create an undesirable calcium status for an athlete in training or any individual.
An accumulation of ketone bodies in the blood results from dietary carbohydrate restriction. Excessive levels caused by chronic carbohydrate restriction can be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. In view of these effects on lipoprotein levels, an HPLC diet could be viewed as more "heart damaging" than "heart healthy."
Rapid weight loss also relates to diet quality and affects the immune system. Hypocaloric diets, which may lead to rapid weight loss, contain inadequate levels of vitamins and minerals. Without supplementation, it is difficult to achieve an optimal level of essential nutrients when one severely decreases the caloric intake. Decreased immune function has also been demonstrated in subjects on low-calorie diets.
The combination of undernourishment and decreased immune protection does not promote good health, particularly for a young athlete. In addition, any rapid weight loss experienced by athletes can produce decreases in aerobic capacity, maximal oxygen uptake, anaerobic performance, strength, and the body's ability to buffer lactate.
A recent technique that is gaining popularity is called calorie cycling or calorie shifting. The principle behind this system is that you have different types of calories each day. This variation causes confusion in your metabolism to behave and forces FASTER fat loss to happen.
Because your metabolism always burns calories based on your eating habits during the past few days it assumes that you'll continue to eat in the same general way. Because your metabolism doesn't know how much food you'll eat tomorrow you shock your metabolism into doing something you've never tried before doing the reverse of what it expects you to do.
To make this work you need to shift the types of calories eaten then your metabolism will burn all of the calories eaten. Then, when it finishes burning those calories it will find the nearest available fat tissue on your body and burn that as well. To lose weight your diet menu needs to be cycled every few days.
Of course, in order for this dieting technique to work you also need to eat foods which have been rated "Fat Burning Compatible" -- because the foods you eat must be easy to burn (so that your metabolism will burn them entirely and then switch to burning your fat tissue after that).
This new weight loss plan is called the "idiot proof diet". In the idiot proof diet you constantly alternate your menu between every possible type of calorie, constantly shifting from one type of calorie to the next, ensuring that the scale keeps dropping. It is called the "Idiot Proof Diet" because everything is calculated for you, and there is no need for calorie counting or label reading. Find out more about the "fat loss 4 idiots" by clicking here.