Year: 2004

Another reader writes:

I always wondered why then peoples like the Italian or French tend to be a lot slimmer than Americans though their diet is definitely a lot higher on Carbs that most of the studies you are using recommend.

What is your take on this?

There are a number of factors that are potentially relevant here, but the big one is this: The traditional European diet–like the traditional American diet–is not as high in carbs (and particularly in refined carbs) as the one Americans now eat. People over there might be eating pasta, but in much, MUCH smaller portions.

But things are changing in Europe. Fast. The high-carb, high-sugar diet that Americans eat is now sweeping Europe, particularly among the young. The European overweight and obesity rates are spiking, and it has European health authorities very worried. They’re rapidly catching up to us.

A hundred years ago there wasn’t this difference, but America modernized its diet in the mid 20th century in order to maximize profits of the food industry, and Europe simply lagged behind doing so by a few decades. Now their diet is changing in the same way due to the same pressures (i.e., financial ones), and Europeans are starting to lose the battle of the bulge.

Here’s an article that explains it well.

Regarding my notes on the Kekwick diet research, a reader writes:

Very interesting results. However, if you take the same proportions of macro-nutrients in what you are currently eating, and reduce them all by the same amount (reducing calories, keeping same % of macro-nutrients), then you will loose weight acording to the usuall 3500Kcals = 1lbs formula.

I also wonder if there has been research where there was not such a huge differential (90%) to try to determine at what % the carb-insulin fat-increase effect takes place.

It is true that if you reduce calories far enough–regardless of the ratio of the macronutrients–that you will lose weight. The problem is what happens to your body as you do that. As the Kekwick research and other research has shown, a high-carb ratio has the effect of inhibiting weight loss in the calorie range where most people are comfortable. In other words, in order to consistently lose weight with a high-carb diet, many people have to reduce their calorie intake so far that the diet becomes torture for them to stay on, and they drop off it without making substantial progress toward their weight goals.

(Incidentally, the 3550 calories = 1 pound formula is an average based on the metabolism Americans tend to be in. For individuals, the actual amount will vary considerably.)

There has been research done on where the threshold is for weight gain, and the answer is interesting. First, there are two thresholds, one above which a person will gain weight (i.e., eat X number of carbs per day or more and your body will start storing new fat) and one below which one will lose weight (i.e., eat Y number of carbs per day or less and you will start burning fat).

Where these two thresholds are varies considerably from one individual to another. Some people are much more prone to weight gain or resistant to weight loss than others.

The thresholds also vary depending on the metabolic state that the individual is in at the time. This varies based on a variety of factors, including exercise and total caloric intake. For example, if you were to eat 10,000 calories per day, you’d probably gain weight even if none of them were from carbs, and if you ate 500 calories per day, you’d certainly lose weight even though all of them were from carbs.

FWIW, Atkins encourages people to find where their own thresholds are in the zone where they are comfortable eating (i.e., where they don’t feel like they are starving or gorging themselves). For most people, the number of carbs they can eat in this zone and still lose weight is rather low, but as one makes progress toward one’s weight goal the amount goes up until, when one arrives at one’s goal, one eats enough carbs to maintain one’s weight without losing further and without gaining weight back.

If you’d like the details of the approach, check out the book.

I did after my doctor recommended a few years ago that I go on the Atkins diet (which was much harder then than it is now, what with all the new low-carb products on the market). I lost seventy pounds before hitting a plateau (which I now think was due to slipping out of good diet habits), but I kept the weight off. Late late year I took a few months off from the low-carb approach to let my metabolism re-set, then went back on in mid-January. Since that time, I’ve lost over 40 pounds, an average of two pounds a week, without being hungry and feeling better than I had in years before discovering the diet.

Incidentally, the picture of me that you see on the blog is me before going back on the diet. I need to get a new one made, because I’m now quite a bit thinner than I am in that one.