February 5th, 2010
So you want to lose weight. The good news is that you probably can. In November, results from the first head-to-head study of four popular diets were reported. The Tufts-New England Medical Centre study found that when people stick to a diet for a year, they lose weight — on average about five per cent of their body weight. So, if you weigh 140 pounds now, you could be just 133 pounds by the end of the year.
Should that diet be low-fat, high-carb or high-fat, no-carb? It doesn’t seem to matter. The study compared Atkins (high fat, almost no carb), Ornish (high carb, very low fat), Weight Watchers (low fat, moderate calories) and the Zone (a system that tracks blood sugar levels). Which diet a person was on didn’t make any difference to total weight loss, although drop-out rates were slightly higher for Atkins and Ornish than the other two (50 versus 30 per cent).
Beginning today with Atkins for Life and The South Beach Diet and continuing tomorrow with Dr. Phil’s Ultimate Weight Solution and raw food diets, we look at four of the hottest diets.
ATKINS FOR LIFE
Where It Came From?
Astonishingly, the diet that came out in 1972 is The Big One today — even larger than its acolytes before they start dropping huge quantities of weight. In recent months, Atkins has been blamed for putting bakeries out of business, flattening tortilla sales and boosting the beef industry. Marketing groups estimate from seven to 12 per cent of the western world’s adult population had tried Atkins by the end of last year.
Dr. Robert Atkins died in April (following a fall; his death had nothing to do with what he ate), so he didn’t live to see a 30-years-later grudging vindication of some of his theories. But several studies, including a couple published in the New England Journal of Medicine, have confounded conventional nutritional knowledge by apparently backing the central claim that a low-carb diet can turn the body into a fat-burning machine. Not only did people lose more fat on Atkins while eating the same number of calories as on other diets, their cholesterol levels actually improved. “It’s making people re-examine dogma — and it’s not always appreciated,” acknowledges Eric Westman, a clinical trials expert at Duke University.
Celebrity Followers
Renée Zellweger famously shed her Bridget Jones pounds by going on Atkins. Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt, Geri Halliwell are all said to have lost weight on the diet. After reports that Catherine Zeta-Jones lost post-pregnancy pounds on the Atkins, the actress denied she’d followed the diet and threatened to sue any publication that repeated the claim.
How It Works
Dieters are encouraged to shun bread, pasta, fruit and many vegetables in favour of meats and fatty foods. For the first two weeks, you eliminate all but 20 grams of carbohydrates, which is supposed to force your body to burn up fat reserves.
Raps Against
Complaints by Atkins dieters range from fatigue, irritability and dizziness to bad breath and constipation. Scientists say that even if it’s healthy in the short-term, the long-term risks aren’t known: What about the fact that diets high in fat and animal protein are associated with cancer? What about all the vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants you’re missing out on? And, “unless you’re willing to throw out decades of research, you cannot ignore that diets chronically high in saturated fats are linked to heart disease,” says Dr. Keith-Thomas Ayoob of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
SOUTH BEACH DIET
Where It Came From?
Debuted in April, when it rocketed to the top of the New York Times’ bestseller list.
Celebrity Follower
Former U.S. president Bill Clinton dropped pounds on the diet.
How It Works
Three phases. During Phase One, you purge your system for two weeks: no carbs, no fruits, no alcohol but plenty of protein — a lot like Atkins. During Phases Two and Three, you add carbs back in but focus on “good carbs,” the complex ones that break down slowly. So whole grain bread, but no white pasta. You can eat an orange but aren’t allowed to drink a glass of orange juice.
Raps Against
“That initial phase is to get you all excited about weight loss, but that kind of weight loss is not meaningful,” says Dr. Patricia Byers, chief of nutrition at the University of Miami. “All you have to do is eat carbs the next day and you’ll gain it back.” Most dietitians concede that it’s a pretty healthy diet after the first two weeks of deprivation, but some warn that going back to Phase One for tune-ups can cause a dangerous yo-yo effect. Rachel Brandeis of the American Dietetic Association says that, like most diets, South Beach gives you just 1,300 to 1,500 calories a day — a difficult level to live by.