Calorie Count, Low-Carb, or Low-Fat??? What Diet works?

[lady_fighter]

What's more effective for weight loss, a low-carb diet or a low-fat diet?

I read that the International Life Sciences Institute in Washington DC conducted a workshop last year to sort out the relative merits of low-fat vs. low-carbohydrate weight loss diets. This academic gathering surmised all of the research on this topic, here’s what they found.

On average, people that followed low-carb’ diets lost between 3-13% of body weight in five months. Those that followed a low-fat approach lost between 1.4-7% of body weight, but after a year there were no weight loss differences between the groups. Interestingly, follow-up reports clearly showed that very few people kept the weight off for two years or more unless a calorie controlled approach was taken for the long term.

For permanent results, the research suggests that a focus on calorie control is much more important than the manipulation of either fat or carbohydrate in the diet.

So don’t get caught up in the confusion about low-carb, high-carb, low-fat, high-fat diets. Stick to what is shown to work. That is, a structured, calorie-controlled diet. To be effective, this diet must provide just enough carbohydrates to fuel intense training but also be rich in protein, fiber and essential fats.

Happy Fitness Training,
From Ross TaeKwonDo Academy

[4Fuqua]

What is an example of an average calorie intake?? I would be curious to know what I am "supposed" to have and not what I do have! lol

[brad]

	Quote:	4Fuqua
	What is an example of an average calorie intake?? I would be curious to know what I am "supposed" to have and not what I do have! lol

Generally speaking (from what I have read and studied) you would take your ideal or goal weight and multiply it by 13. That would give you your daily calorie requirement to sustain that weight. A man who's ideal weight is 180 lbs would have to maintain a daily calorie intake of 2340 calories to maintain that weight. 3500 calories is equal to 1 pound of weight loss. So if you are overweight and can restrict your calories by 500 per day you would lose a pound a week. These are merely guidelines because if you cut too many calories from your diet your body will go into "starvation mode" and this shuts down your metabolism because your body thinks your starving and it will hold onto as many pounds as possible to keep you alive.

I believe that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables with protien coming from lean portions of chicken, beef, or pork and carbs coming from whole grains is the only way to do it. Moderate exercise (at least) will only help the process.

Now, that sounded really good. So why, oh why can I not keep myself out of the Dairy Queen, Church's Chicken, Sonic, etc. etc.??

[lady_fighter]

Well spoken.. err written Brad

The calorie intake you should consume, 4Fuqua, depends greatly on your height and size!!

[Testrackwoman]

The BEST diet ever is the food pyramid. Follow it and EXERCISE. If you want to keep the weight off exercise and eat. You can't lose weight by starving yourself. While I was in college I gained a bit of weight. I started going to the gym and just walking on the tread-mill for about 45 min a night. I ate what I wanted to eat but I ate it in smaller portions and I lost 10 lbs in a matter of a few weeks.

Oh and drink plenty of WATER!!

[brad]

	Quote:	lady_fighter
	Well spoken.. err written Brad The calorie intake you should consume, 4Fuqua, depends greatly on your height and size!!

Yes, I got to thinking about my math and you can re-calculate for your particular situation. Online calorie counters are all over the web and most are free.

If you are a man and weigh say 250 lbs, and have for a while, a good way to look at it is that you are averaging a daily caloric intake of somewhere around 3250 calories. (250 x 13 = 3,250) So if you could restrict your calories down to about 2500 you would create a deficit of 750 calories a day, or 5,250 calories per week. Since 3500 calories are equal to one pound of body weight you would see a weight loss initially of a pound and a half of weight per week. As the weight comes off your daily requirement to maintain your current weight comes down as your poundage drops.

For a 200 pound woman trying to get to say 135, she has been consuming 2600 calories per day and would have to cut that number back to no more than 1755 per day, everyday. Then it would still take nearly two years of hard work and dedication to reach the goal.

So many times when we "diet" we cut our caloric intake dramatically in the beginning and then slowly add back to our weekly average. Thats why so many "diets" fail. To be successful one should really go in the other direction. Cut back slowly giving your body time to adjust to what you are doing to it and also increase exercise slowly so you wont face injury.

Exercise helps tremendously in increasing the calorie deficit, but one pitfall is it increases appetite also. Just because you run 5 miles (burns about 700 calories for me) doesn't mean you can have a cheeseburger, fries, coke, and ice cream for supper. (2,000 calories) When training for a marathon two years ago I gained 20 pounds averaging 35 miles a week in training for the last two months before the race. All that running makes you hungry! It was then that I learned it is more about what you eat and how much you eat rather than how much exercise you do. It all has to work together.