[JohnsonB]

I can't speak for the rest of the article, but this guy's take on low carb diets is a bit...odd:

>Unfortunately, it’s an approach [Low carb diets] that leaves the vast majority of frontline obesity experts gritting their teeth, because while the strategy sometimes appears to hold up in studies, in the real world such dieters are rarely able to keep the weight off—to say nothing of the potential health risks of eating too much fat.

So he's saying that studies do support low carb diets having high efficacy rates (for weight loss), but "in the real world" this doesn't pan out. What is this unbiased, statistically significant source of data on "the real world" that he's relying on? He's ruled out studies, and it's obviously not anecdotes because that would be even worse. That basically just leaves intuition. He then goes on to cite the risks of a high protein diet (while linking it as high fat only) by linking to a WebMD article which appears to be written by an unnamed author who has poorly collated the research on the issue and left out major advances of our understanding of issues like cholesterol levels.

[sp332]

Practicing weight maintenance before temporarily switching to a low-calorie, weight-loss diet helps dieters keep weight off. http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2012/october/stability.html

Low-calorie diets are good for losing weight, but physical activity is more effective at maintaining a target weight. https://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss/AN01619

Very-low-carb diets result in higher metabolism but might also increase stress and risk of heart problems. Low glycemic index diets might be healthier for long-term weight maintenance. http://www.nih.gov/researchmatters/july2012/07162012weight.h...

[anonymous]

I think he means that they work under controlled conditions, but it's hard to replicate them in the real world environment. Can't go to most restaurants, can't make a lot of dishes, can't do social gatherings, definitely need to cook yourself everything you eat, and so on.

[JohnsonB]

That applies to any diet though, if the advice is good, but people don't follow it, it's not the fault of the diet. The point is he is singling out low carb diets as if it's the diet itself that is at fault, not just the common problem of people not following through on a diet regimen.

[rafcavallaro]

It doesn't apply to any diet. For example, a simple caloric restriction diet might simply require that you leave half of everything you're served on your plate and never have seconds. This would allow you to eat anything in any social context, just not as much. A low carb diet would require you to forego the cake and ice cream entirely at your own child's birthday, etc.

[Snoptic]

Having a bite of cake is still low carb.

[lukifer]

Is it any harder than having a strong food allergy? It's only difficult when you're not used to it. (55 lbs on Paleo, kept it off, zero calorie counting, in fact downright gluttonous sometimes.)

[Snoptic]

It is far easier to psychologically comply with a concrete immediate severe allergy diet than a vague "analog" weight loss diet.

[speeder]

I understand why he is saying that.

I for example, "re-invented" a atkins or paleo diet of sorts (ie: I on my own drifted to that sort of died before knowing those terms or news on that).

And it is working...

But it is working not because I avoid carbs. But because I avoid non-meaningful calories, I avoid carbs, and most of the fat.

The difference is: When I think I need meat, cheese, etc... to reach a certain protein goal, I don't freak out because there are fat on it.

But I don't go around using mayo, huge cheese-only sandwiches, bacon like if there was no tomorrow...

I eat bacon? Yes... ALso eggs! In fact frequently I eat bacon+egg sandwich. But I do that keeping track of the fat I am eating and not eating too much fat (and keeping carbs very low as I can).

So, the study the guy cites work in theory? Yes, because it is tighly controlled, in real life people understand "you can eat fat" as "fat make you thin".

You know, like those people that buy dieting shakes, and drown themselves in shakes and manage to consume 1000+ calories in a day only in shakes, thinking that drinking the shake that will make them lose weight.