High carb/lowfat vs High pro diets
 

This article says high protein/low fat diets work much better than High CARB/low fat diets....THIS we knew. And I do high protein/lowER fat diet and yes, it does work.

I think as long as you keep the carbs low - no matter WHAT else you do, you will lose weight because you are controlling your insulin.

What they forgot to test is these two diets compared to High protein/high fat - but wait - lots of people say Atkins is NOT high protein...
huh..

http://www.docguide.com/news/conten...05EBD19&abd=yes

It's all about ratios. If you want to lose weight, you take your daily maintainance caloric rate ( let's just say 2000 calories ) you create a deficit for weight loss by dropping it by a certain percentage ( let's just say 1800 calories ) and the you break that number up into percentages ( percentage of fat / protein / carbs )

You then divide the resulting number by 9 for fats and 4 for proteins and carbs and you get the number of grams of each nutrient that you can eat in a day ( this will add up to 1800, and thus you will stay below your maintainance level and thus loose weight )

In the above example if you broke it apart evenly and did 33 percent of calories from fat 33 percent from protein and 33 percent from carbs you would end up with

66 grams of fat per day
148 grams of carbs per day
148 grams of protein per day

you should be counting your calories by grams. Those numbers add up to 1800 calories so you will still be below your maintainance level.

The atkins diet ( or lower carb diets ) is simply a ratio where the fat percentage is very high, the carb percentage is very low to non existant and the protein percentage is low to moderate )

You can adjust the ratios to meet your needs. For example I want to lose fat but maintain muscle, I work out and I lift weights, to lose fat efficiently I need to drain my sugar stores in my muscles and liver by reducing carbs so my body uses dietary fat and body fat for fuel .. I want to maintain muscle mass ( but not add to muscle mass, you cannot lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, fat loss requires the absence of insulin, muscle gain requires the presence of it ) i need the right amount of protein so my body does not break down my muscle protein to use as fuel when it has no sugar coming in )

So i modify the ratios to somewhere around 75 percent fat, 20 percent protein and 5 percent carbs.

You can use the 'ratio method' to eat properly no matter what your goal is. If you want to 'gain' muscle you have to take in more calories, so you go OVER your daily maintainance calorie level and then you split that number into ratios .. high protein, moderate carbs ( good carbs ) and low fat percentage .

It's better to look at dieting like that, you count easier by grams than calories. and you can have whatever foods you want to meet these needs. If i'm on a low carb high fat , moderate protein diet and i'm eating at mcdonalds, i'll grab like 6 to 8 double cheeseburgers and take off the bun ( I have lost fat eating 12-16 double cheeseburgers daily from mcdonalds )

if i'm trying to put on muscle ( high protein, moderate carb, low fat ) and i'm still eating at mcdonalds, i'll grab a couple of plain grliled chicken sandwiches. ( carbs in bread, chicken has protein ) little fat in that whole meal.

It's all about the ratios and picking which foods meet those ratios. It's just important to make sure your food choices are good choices .. if you are eating carbs, eat oatmeal, brown rice, yams, whole wheats. These do not cause sharp insulin spikes and they are actually very healthy for you. If you are eating fats, eat good fats, supplement with healthy essential fatty acids, fish oil, borage oil, safflower oil, evening primrose oil, flax seed oil.


if i binge and gain weight liek I did in the 2 weeks ago, and gained 15 pounds, I just switch my ratios to fat burning ones , set below my daily maintainance level and voila, two weeks later i passed my 'original ' mark and have actually lost more fat.

It's all a game people, just play it the right way.

Actually mojoKID, that's not quite true. There is a metobolic advantage to high fat, moderate protein, low carb, so you can't draw exact parallels. This has been experimentally shown in the various studies comparing low fat and low carb diets. People on the low carb diets lose more while comsuming more calories.
Carbs are easily and cheaply (in terms of energy) broken down and turned to glucose. Of the 9 calories per gram of fat, about half is burned converting the whole to usable energy, which is ketones. Protein can be made into glucose in the liver, but this too is only about 50% efficient.
Nyah Levi

Efficiency of Protein/Fat vs. Carb digestion!
 

BlueSmoke! I'm been searching for information about the body's efficiency of using protein or fat vs. the efficiency of carbs.

I've always thought that the body is about 50% efficient in utilizing all of the potential energy (i.e. calories) in proteins and fat. And close to 100% in utilizing carbs.

From a molecular stand point, only a couple of bonds of the carb need to be broken to break it down into glucose. And its known that glucose is quickly used in the body. As compared to more complex reactions for protein and fat breakdown. What's not used is thrown out (in the usual way).

In short, a CALORIE is not always a CALORIE!!

If you have any studies or other information about this efficency, I would be very interested.

Thanks,
-Kragness

I keep loaning my stuff out and can't lay my hands on any direct sources at the moment. Try looking at the research section of www.lowcarbsuccess.net . A couple of other sites to check would be www.westonaprice.org and www.powerhealth.net . If these don't help, email me and i might be able to connect you to a source that would have primary evidence on the protein end of it. DLB