As anyone who’s gone on a diet knows, once you lose some weight, it gets harder to lose more. The “eat less, move more” mantra, as simple as it sounds, doesn’t help us deal with our bodies’ metabolic reality: As we shed pounds, we get even hungrier and our metabolism slows down.
But findings from a new study I led with my colleague Cara Ebbeling suggest that what we eat — not just how much — has a substantial effect on our metabolism and thus how much weight we gain or lose.
People have a hard time believing that weight control isn’t just a matter of calories eaten and calories burned. But there is an alternate hypothesis about obesity, which is what my group studies. The carbohydrate-insulin model argues that overeating isn’t the underlying cause of long-term weight gain. Instead, it’s the biological process of gaining weight that causes us to overeat.
Here’s how this hypothesis goes: Consuming processed carbohydrates (especially refined grains, potato products and sugars), causes our bodies to produce more insulin. Too much insulin, one of the most powerful hormones, forces our fat cells into calorie-storage overdrive. These rapidly growing fat cells then hoard too many calories, leaving too few for the rest of the body. So we get hungry, and if we persist in eating less, our metabolism slows down.
Our findings suggest that a more effective strategy to lose weight over the long term is to focus on cutting processed carbohydrates, not calories.
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Scientists have known for decades that diet composition, apart from calories, can affect hormones, metabolism and even the very workings of our genes. And a lot of research supports the carbohydrate-insulin model. But it hasn’t been rigorously tested before because high-quality clinical nutrition trials that control exactly what everyone eats for months are expensive — so they rarely get done.
For our clinical trial — one of the largest feeding studies ever conducted — we collaborated with Framingham State University and the company that manages its food service. We recruited 164 students, faculty, staff and community members who agreed to eat only what the study dictated for a full academic year.
We started the participants on a calorie-restricted diet until they lost 10%-14% of their body weight. After that, we randomly assigned them to eat exclusively one of three diets, containing either 20%, 40% or 60% carbohydrates.
For the next five months, we made sure they didn’t gain or lose any more weight, adjusting how much food they received, but keeping the ratio of carbohydrates constant. By doing so, we could directly measure how their metabolism responded to these differing levels of carbohydrate consumption.
Participants in the low (20%) carbohydrate group burned on average about 250 calories a day more than those in the high (60%) carbohydrate group, just as predicted by the carbohydrate-insulin model. Without intervention (that is, if we hadn’t adjusted the amount of food to prevent weight change), that difference would produce substantial weight loss — about 20 pounds after a few years. If a low-carbohydrate diet also curbs hunger and food intake (as other studies suggest it can), the effect could be even greater.
This result could explain in part why U.S. obesity rates have been going up for decades. Individuals have a sort genetically predetermined weight — lighter for some, heavier for others. Despite this, the average weight for American men has gone from about 165 pounds in the 1960s to 195 pounds today. Women, likewise, have gone from an average of 140 pounds to about 165.
The calories-in, calories-out view offers no compelling biological explanation for the obesity epidemic beyond “it’s complicated,” “many factors are involved” and ultimately, we eat too much. But if the type of calories consumed affect the number of calories burned, this trend starts to make more sense. The processed carbohydrates that flooded the food supply during the low-fat diet era of the last 40 years pushed the body weight set-point up across the population.
Our findings suggest that a more effective strategy to lose weight over the long term is to focus on cutting processed carbohydrates, not calories.
Of course, no one study can answer all questions about diet and obesity. Our study will have to be replicated, and additional research is needed to answer new questions the study raises. Will low-carbohydrate diets produce more weight loss over several years, if people are supported in maintaining them? Do certain people respond better to a low-carbohydrate diet; if so, can we identify them in advance? Do ketogenic diets, which severely restrict carbohydrate intake, offer advantages over more moderate regimens?
Our study does not conclusively prove the carbohydrate-insulin model is true. But it credibly makes the case that all calories are not alike to the body. These novel effects of food might make a big difference in our ability to lose weight — and keep it off.
David S. Ludwig is co-director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a professor of nutrition at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
I eat my main & usually only meal within an hour of returning from the gym in the morning. 50-75 grams of protein and a large pile of raw veggies including garlic, onions & ginger. I might have some more greens, maybe more protein or a shake later but on days I haven’t worked out, usually not.
Don’t touch pop, chips, fast food…anything like that, it’s fucking poison. Stucky said eat 1 ingredient foods and he’s spot on.
If you shovel garbage into your body, expect some bad results. People make a big deal out of this but it’s pretty simple.
Garlic is magic food. Garlic and chicken soup will cure anything short of a broken leg
speeds up bone mending too, I think
For me personally, carbs drive my weight. If i eat high fat i am full longer and eat less. I eat keto style monday to thursday so i can eat and drink what i want friday and saturday night. Keeps me ata a steady weight. And i can drink all the beer i want, 2 days a week.
My activity level soars over the winter sport time. I carry cooked bacon and eat it like hipsters eat power bars. Good all day energy for long days on the trails and slopes.
This type of diet will cure acid reflux or at least it does for me. If I wander off the diet I pay in lost sleep.
However I stick to a Paleo diet which allows for some natural sugars like maple syrup, coconut sugar, date paste but not high amounts of it.
About 4 months ago, my brother told me about this line of thinking. I decided to eat only fish, fowl, pork, steak, eggs,salad, vegetables,and fruit. Any quanity, no hunger. Went from 204 to 175lbs. in short order. But….I dream of pizza and french bread.
Look up the recipe for fathead pizza.
You would be amazed at what is in your food. Many foods, from Starburst candies to actual oranges you get from the produce section are infused with artificial colors made primarily from petroleum. Many of them are banned in other countries.
I don’t disagree with the carb argument. But if you want to address the chronic sickness and obesity in this country, you won’t get anywhere in any study unless you look at chemical additives.
Added for food company’s increased profits at the expense of the health and well being of their uninformed customers, all blessed by the bureaucracy that is the FDA.
Factory food is bad, period.
The problems caused by eating a lot of carbohydrates, particularly factory food carbs, have been known for a long time, but ignored. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and possibly stroke. But people keep eating them, because they are heavily advertised, and the government said they were good for you.
This diet stuff is just silly. How many thousands of diets have been promulgated over recent decades and nutrional studies done on the benefits or lack thereof and yet… we are fatter and less healthy than ever.
Human beings are omnivorous animals not a whole lot different than bears or dogs. Our ancestors ate what they could when they could to include rotting carrion left behind by more powerful predators. E-coli and salmonella didn’t much faze us in those days otherwise we would have gone extinct. Fat people didn’t exist because surplus calories were too hard to come by.
Look at old film footage of city street scenes from the 1920’s- up until the 1960’s. People weren’t overweight even though hamburgers, donuts, candy bars and coca cola were as ubiquitous then as today. It was TV and other sedentary entertainment that has done made us fat. Radio only required our ears so people could do other activity while they listened. If you liked sports you played them not wa tched others playing on TV. Moms didn’t drive their kids to their activities. Kids bicycled or walked to where they needed to go. If the lawn needed mowing you had a lawn mower that had to be pushed. If you were lucky it had a motor. Even our clothing required us to expend calories. Remember the ‘iron’? The washboard? The clothes line?
Mean to fat people comment deleted.
Remember when things were made without High Fructose Corn Syrup?
Between that, damn near all nutrition bred out of crops in the name of higher production, and the rest of the good stuff destroyed by microwave ovens, is it any wonder obesity reigns in an empty-calorie wasteland?
GMO’s & Aspartame, avoid them like the plague.
Back in May – June I was having problems with swelling in my left ankle and left knee. Doctors treated it as a injury although there was no known cause. I went on prednisone and it went away. Once I was off prednisone it would come back. This cycle went on 2 more times.
Finally it was decided to send me to a rheumatologist. After a long conversation about my general health and diet he ordered a huge batch of blood tests.
The next day he called me, not his office, him, personally. My fasting blood sugar was 251 and my A1C was 8.7. A normal fasting blood sugar should be 80-ish and a normal A1C should be below 5.7. Technically I was a diabetic.
After talking to my primary DR. Who is a close friend he asked me to do 2 things. Quit drinking beer, I did drink a lot of beer, cut back on the carbohydrates.
So I did. I have been on a Atkins/paleo/keto diet since the end of August. My weight went from 230-235lbs to 195-200lbs without dedicated exercise.
My fasting blood sugar is normal 80-ish and my A1C is almost back to normal
A few things happened.
I quit snoring according to the wife
I sleep through the night now
I am not tired (sleepy) during the day
I have had no swelling/inflammation issues
My cholesterol levels have normalized
I’m a believer in this style of eating now.
Processed Carbohydrates are evil.
As always YMMV
You’re telling me Frosted Flakes, Cinnabons, Mars Bars, and a mountain of mashed potatoes are bad for me? Piss off. Eating this crap is among my main joys in life. If I have to choose between living to 80 eating what I like and living to 82 eating what I don’t like, I choose door number one. At 63, retired with my kids grown and away, all I am is a useless eater, so I might as well do my best eating uselessly and vacate the planet earlier to save valuable resources.
Yet another food study. Oh, yippee!
This time it’s the EEEEEVIL carbohydrate. Be cast back to hell, ye Demon named Carb!
Let’s talk a couple of reasonable anecdotes.
— Both by parents ate tons of carbs; especially lots and lots of breads (every day) and potatoes (at least 4-5 times a week). Neither of them were ever overweight.
— I grew up in an era of high school (graduated 1970) where you could count the fat kids on ONE HAND …. literally. I’m pretty sure not one kid in that graduating class of about 450 teenagers gave a flying fuck about carbs (unless it was a triple deuce carb on a GTO).
Stucky Simple Plan To A Svelte Boldy:
— 1. Eat single ingredient foods as much as possible, including carbs.
— 2. Eat only when you’re hungry.
— 3. Stop eating when you are full!!!
Ya know Stucky – I think everyone’s body is just different. There is no one size fits all way of eating. I’ve learned over the last year that my body cannot handle most high carb foods. I don’t eat bread or pasta anymore and I eat potatoes sparingly.
I get my carbs mostly through fruit.
A few things are happening as I follow this way of eating.
One – my weight dropped basically back to what it was in university.
Two – I can run further and more comfortably than before.
Three – the inflammation in my joints caused by my AS is _almost_ nonexistent
Four- I have more energy and no longer get “hangry”. I just get hungry.
As soon as I touch breads, pastas etc I pay for it – mostly in pain.
Bottom line is I don’t think I’m designed to eat that stuff. I couldn’t tell you why but the evidence in my improved health is pretty compelling.
“I think everyone’s body is just different. There is no one size fits all way of eating.”
Truer words could not be spoken. It’s another reason (among several) that I now generally find all these food studies a total waste of time.
I ain’t no doctor … but it sounds to me like you have a sensitivity/intolerance to gluten. Good for you, really, that you figured it out.
Anecdotal: Every last friend I’ve had who did a protein-vegetable focused diet lost a shit ton of weight, kept it off, and still got to eat bacon.
Its worth pursuing if you are considering it.
I found out how well low glycemic diets work from a person I worked with. I was a picture of her after she had her daughter, she was huge. South Beach diet is how she lost all the weight down to size 6, and kept it off. It’s what I do when I feel that I want to shed a few pounds.
My old man was the same way – chronically overweight despite high activity. Tried every diet in the book as well as counting calories. When he started following Denninger’s simple plan (basically paleo diet) the pounds melted off and have stayed off. He’s gotten off a half dozen prescriptions as well. I’m a believer.
Cut out sugar bread and you will be good
I eat smaller meals and slowly so the brain catches up with the stomach. Italian and Mexican are a MUST but again smaller and slower. One desert a week and I swim a mile a day as I have one disk completely gone and a bone on bone situation in the low back. Stretching is a must also.
I maintain a 183 to 185 lb range at 5’10. Going rogue over the holidays gains the pounds fast and is a problem……I am 15 pound slighter than when I retired from the Army……
Any adult man of normal stature should weigh at least 200 lbs, if under that you are still a child. An average weight today of 195 lbs is still somewhat underweight, but a stark improvement from the 165 lbs average in the 1960s. The important footnote is that it needs to be a muscular 200 lbs, not 200 lbs of lard. Do barbell strength training 3-4 times per week (squat, press, deadlift, bench press, power clean, etc.) and it becomes far more important to ingest sufficient calories to add muscle. Just avoid the obvious garbage food like soda, chips, oreos, etc.
Takes too many fucking calories to maintain a low 190s weight for me. I just got tired of eating 200 grams/day of protein along with close to 3,000 calories, fuck that. About 3 years or so ago I said no mas.
Since then I’ve feathered down to low 160s(I’m 67), have a ton more energy, sleep like a champ, still murder myself(not fucking kidding, I’m as hard as a rock) 4+ x/week in the gym along with several hours/week of some kind of CV, usually swimming or tennis.
Eat a well balanced diet consisting of the 4 basic food groups. Hamburgers,frenchfries,soda pop and candy bars. The cardiologist will be glad to see you.
When I want to lose weight (say 17- 20 pounds within 30 days), I Start with 2 days of less than 20 carbs and some exercise that will quickly burn up the glucose in your muscles, blood and liver (and you’ll be in ketosis).
Then I eat less than 35 carbs (1 carb = 4 cals) starting from 8am to 3pm (usually as condiments or something)(carbs burn before other sources, except alcohol or sugar). I eat only enough calories (total 10hrs x 130cal = 1300 or (130/ hour)) from 8A-6P. (you must eat a larger percentage of fat/protein to satisfy your hunger; mostly eggs, beef, cheese).
By 8pm, I am at 0/0, (Zero carbs/Zero calories) to burn. Now I am in solid ketosis for the night, (and close to being in ketosis the other times), and without food calories to process during sleep (except normal food compacting) Your body burns straight fat the entire time you sleep and for long as you can go in the AM before you ‘break the fast’.
So from 8pm to 8am (with my BMR) I equal 1500 calories (1/2 pound of fat) gone every day. Because of the slow conversion rate from fat to glucose (usable energy) I don’t do much exercise to remain stable during this month. Coffee and Stevia will be a good friend.
Funny. I haven’t had a piece of bread since July. I work vampire shift and have been slowly creeping up in the weight dept. since my departure from the navy 20+ something years ago. Was dangerously approaching 300# and decided I’d had enough. My peak physical fitness was coming out of boot camp Orlando at 176 from about 210 going in.
Went on a meat and vegi only food regime with beef jerky as a supplement for cravings ever since with a minimal level of cheating. Perhaps about 5 mexican food dinners provided by work since July. No pop/soda, water only. The only real cheating still going on is latte’s…that’s a bridge too far.
The results so far have yielded roughly a 15# loss and the belt has been cinched up 2 notches from where it started. I’m sleeping better, and find myself eating less without a desire to eat more. 15 more pounds and I can reasonably feel safe to resume snowboarding which should help shed more pounds. Kids are now old enough that I can get them on the hill with me.
The mass market food really is poison.
After some health issues that piled on the pounds I was able to lose 46 pounds in about 4 months by controlling and cutting carbs and modest excercise . These calorie counting diets all left me miserable and hungry with little or no results . Cutting carbs and keeping them in check did the trick .