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Researchers had volunteers eat diets that differed in proportions of carbohydrate, protein, and fat, and found that, while some were harder to stick to than others, all of them worked.

A new diet study just out from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition went to a lot of trouble to prove the obvious. When it comes to weight loss, how much you eat matters more than the proportion of fat, carbohydrate, and protein in your foods.

Researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center got volunteers to eat diets that were supposed to differ in proportions of fat (40 percent vs. 20 percent), carbohydrates (35 percent vs. 65 percent), and protein (25 percent vs. 15 percent).

The results of the study are consistent with the findings from many previous studies:

The major predictor for weight loss was adherence to the diet. People on all of the diets lost weight by six months, but regained some of it by two years. The study had a high drop-out rate (hence the importance of adherence). It was hard for people to stick to the diets, especially those at the extremes of one dietary component or another.

In my book with Malden Nesheim coming out on April 1, Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics, we review the previous studies of whether what you eat matters more to weight loss than how much you eat.

Some people find it easier to stick to diets that are higher in protein and fat. I'm guessing that proponents of low-carbohydrate diets will argue that none of the diets in this particular study was really low in carbohydrate.

But studies show that people have a hard time adhering to diets that are very low in carbohydrate. The low range in this study -- 35 percent -- is at the lower end of acceptability for many people.

The bottom line: All diets work if you stick to them.

Image: olly/Shutterstock.

This post also appears on Food Politics, an Atlantic partner site.

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All Diets Work if You Stick to Them

Here's something to think about as you're eating that sweet treat today: scientists say sugar is killing you.

A team at UCSF published a paper in Nature this week, claiming sugar is a toxic, addictive substance that should be regulated by the government, and even banned when it come to children.

The scientists claim sugar is primarily responsible for a multitude of chronic illnesses that are reaching epidemic levels worldwide.

Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF, co-authored the paper. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Lustig says the only way to reverse this trend is with a public health intervention.

"Everyone talks about personal responsibility, and that won't work here, as it won't for any addictive substance," Lustig said. "These are things that have to be done at a governmental level, and government has to get off its ass."

Lustig and his co-authors - public health experts Laura Schmidt and Clair Brindis - say sugar is a bigger health threat than obesity. They cite studies which show 40 percent of normal-weight people have metabolic problems that can lead to diabetes and heart disease. The authors say sugar actually alters the body's biochemistry, making it more vulnerable to chronic illness. So, even if people don't gain weight from consuming too much sugar, they'll still end up with chronic health problems.

Americans eat and drink about 22 teaspoons of sugar every day. That's three times the amount we consumed 30 years ago. Lustig, Schmidt and Brindis say the biggest problem is that sugar sneaks into our diet without us even realizing it. Things like breads, cereals and processed foods often contain things like sucrose maltose, hydrolysed starch, corn syrup, and honey, all forms of sugar.

While the authors make a sound argument, not all health experts are convinced. The Chronicle spoke to a registered dietitian about the study:

"When you get into this argument about sugar in the diet, you also have to look at the type of food that has a high sugar content," said Jo Ann Hattner, who teaches nutrition courses at Stanford. "Those foods have few nutrients and little fiber, and that's not good for you. So is it sugar itself that's harmful?"

Of course, food and beverage industries deny sugar has a significant role in America's health problems. Industry representatives point to an overall trend toward inactive lifestyles and increased calorie intake as the cause.

Lustig and his colleagues say a personal changes to diets won't be enough to improve the public health. In their paper, they argue for taxes on heavily sweetened foods and drinks, banning sales of sugary foods to children, and even restricting advertising to children and teens.

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Sugar Is a Toxic Substance: UCSF

There’s no shortage of diet plans promising to melt away the pounds by calling for strict proportions of protein, carbohydrate and fat.

But, according to a new study, it doesn’t matter where the calories come from. What matters most for shedding body fat is simply eating fewer calories – and sticking to your plan, be it high protein, low carb or low fat.

More related to this story

Some, but not all, studies have demonstrated that high protein, low carbohydrate diets work better than others at losing fat and preserving muscle mass over the short term.

There’s also debate over which diets, if any, are most effective for reducing visceral fat, deep abdominal fat that’s closely related to the harmful metabolic effects of obesity. Visceral fat packs itself around the organs and secretes chemicals that increase the body’s resistance to the hormone insulin and cause inflammation throughout the body.

The current study – called the Pounds Lost trial – set out to determine whether the composition of a weight loss diet affected the loss of lean muscle, total body fat, abdominal fat, visceral fat or liver fat in 424 overweight or obese men and women. (Excess visceral fat is thought to release fat into the bloodstream causing a build-up of fat in the liver.)

Participants were assigned to one of four diets: 1) low fat (20 per cent daily calories), average protein (15 per cent); 2) low fat (20 per cent), high protein (25 per cent); 3) high fat (40 per cent), average protein (15 per cent); or 4) high fat (40 per cent), high protein (25 per cent).

Each diet was low in saturated fat and cholesterol and high in fibre, included low glycemic carbohydrates and was designed to cut 750 calories a day. All participants were offered group and individual counselling sessions over two years.

Body fat and muscle mass was measured using CT (computed tomography) scanning after six months and two years of follow up.

At the six-month mark, participants had lost, on average, more than nine pounds of total body fat along with five pounds of lean muscle, but had regained some of this after two years. Fat loss or muscle loss did not differ between the four diet groups.

As well, the proportion of protein, carbohydrate or fat in the diet did not affect the amount of abdominal fat, visceral fat or liver fat that was lost during the study. After six months, participants shed about 40 per cent of visceral fat and 60 per cent of liver fat.

At the two-year follow-up, people were able to maintain a weight loss of more nine pounds, including three pounds of abdominal fat.

The bottom line: The major factor for weight loss was adherence to a calorie-reduced diet, not the proportion of carbohydrate, protein or fat it contained. People who followed their diets better lost more weight and body fat than those who didn’t.

These findings strongly suggest you’re better off choosing a plan that’s easy to stick to over the long haul – provided, of course, it’s a healthy diet.

An earlier report from the Pounds Lost trial revealed that all four diets were heart-healthy regardless of their protein, carbohydrate and fat content. Each diet reduced levels of triglycerides (blood fats), LDL (bad) cholesterol, lowered blood pressure and increased HDL (good) cholesterol.

That said, most people in weight loss programs gradually revert to their previous diets over time even if they do manage to maintain some fat loss.

If you’re 2012 goal is to shed excess body fat, the following tips will help you adhere to a healthy diet plan and increase the likelihood of success.

Plan in advance

It’s the most common blunder that steers people off-track: not being organized. On the weekend, spend a few minutes thinking about the week ahead. Map out your meals, healthy snacks and even your workouts.

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Just cut calories - protein/carb/fat ratio doesn’t matter: study

By Matt Fitzgerald Published 2 hours ago

Many diets will help you shed pounds. The crucial ingredients in all of them? Motivation and readiness. Finally: a scalable strategy for getting leaner in 2012.

In the summer of 2004, Jon Smith was as lean and fit as he’d ever been. Then he became a father and stopped training for marathons and triathlons. At the same time the New Orleans resident began dining out and eating mostly fatty foods due largely to his work in the wine business. Over the next two and a half years he gained 100 pounds. On New Year’s Day 2008, Smith got fed up with his condition and decided to make a comeback. He signed up for a triathlon and cleaned up his diet by removing the worst junk food from it, including fried foods and soft drinks. But by the time race day came around, Smith had lost only 15 pounds and he was not much fitter than when he started.

Smith knew he needed to raise his game. So the lifelong meat lover took the radical step of becoming a vegetarian. Within several months he was back down to his old racing weight of 180 pounds and finishing Ironman 70.3 events with ease.

The lesson is clear: To manage weight successfully, every triathlete has to become a vegetarian.
Wait a minute—that’s not the lesson at all. Because for every Jon Smith there’s a Christian Peterson, a runner and duathlete from Maple Grove, Minn., who struggled to lose weight on what he describes as a “typical runner’s diet” that was low in fat, high in carbs, and almost meatless before switching to the popular and meat-heavy Paleo Diet and quickly losing more than 20 pounds. And for every Christian Peterson there’s another endurance athlete who has lost weight on a high-protein diet, a gluten-free diet, a low-fat diet—you name it.

Triathletes are never more focused on losing weight than around the new year. If you’re looking to shed a few pounds ahead of the 2012 racing season, you’re probably looking for the best diet for weight loss. But as the examples of Smith and Peterson suggest, and as science affirms, there is no clear “best” diet for weight loss. There are many effective ways to lose weight.

In fact, real-world and scientific evidence indicate that the specific diet that a person uses to shed fat is not especially important to success in the effort to lose weight. What’s far more important, it seems, is the motivation level and attitude of the person seeking weight loss. Men and women who are truly ready to commit to a particular weight-loss strategy are almost certain to succeed, regardless of the diet they choose (provided it’s healthy and realistic). By the same token, those who are not prepared to fully embrace their diet are bound to fail, no matter which diet they’ve chosen.

Ever heard of the National Weight Control Registry? It’s basically a national database of men and women who have succeeded in losing at least 30 pounds and maintaining at least 30 pounds of weight loss for one year or more. Whatever these people do, it works. It’s not theory, but practice. So what do members of the NWCR do?

For starters, their diets are all over the place. Some are on low-fat diets; others are on low-carb diets; still others do Weight Watchers; some are vegetarians, and so forth. Another interesting characteristic of NWCR members is that the vast majority failed with weight-loss diets a few times before finally succeeding. The combination of these two characteristics—variety in successful diet approaches and failures preceding success—suggests that people succeed in losing weight when they are psychologically ready, and fail when they are not ready.

Other studies support this idea directly. For example, researchers at Italy’s University of Florence recently used a standardized scientific questionnaire to evaluate the “motivation and readiness” of 129 obese individuals starting a six-month outpatient weight-loss program. Weight-loss results at the end of six months were significantly greater for those subjects who earned the highest scores for motivation and readiness.

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14-06-2011 12:56 Asparagus and Cancer: Is It a Natural Cure? There are many foods that have special properties, nutrients, and undiscovered cofactors that can help the body in the healing process. When it comes to helping the body to recover from cancer, we will discuss some of the best foods to include in the diet. Let's first focus on Asparagus, as it has been suggested to be extremely powerful, and many reports suggest that simply eating 1 cup of asparagus every day will give enough support to help the body heal from cancer. Charlie had Prostate cancer advanced outside the capsule, diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. All diagnosed and documented on April 19, 2005. Documents show that one month later, he was off all meds because diabetes, cholesterol and blood pressure were normal with no meds. A month later, June 19, 2005, tests showed 'no evidence' of cancer, and there were no abnormalities. He is doing fine and still no evidence of any problems. To learn more about foods and supplements and how they can help the body to heal itself, visit our website. Gratitude Healing is an organization founded to put together information on mineral deficiencies and other approaches and to financially help those ready to take control over their own health with cancer survivors and patients who have improved their health and would like to share their stories. Those who follow these suggestions are showing success all around the world with helping to alleviate symptoms of Lymes ...

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18-10-2011 15:04 Welcome to the workout diary ep. 1 Subscribe to stay up to date with new diets and supplement reviews and take an inside look at the workouts in the gym as well Also look out for some funny videos of Louie! Workout diary Trying to gain weight and gain more muscle Three parts the work out the diet and the behavior The diet: The amount of meals you have in a day is going to depend on how many hours of the day you're awake The key is going to be having one meal every hour and a half to two hours It is necessary to have as many calories as possible and as many grams of protein as possible It is important to have as many meals as possible but also have a medium-size meal and it's important not to overstuff yourself I try to match my whole meals with my liquid meals being the shakes. for example if I have four whole meals in a day I will try to have for weight gain shakes Morning: Sample diet schedule: 8 AM have a bowl of cereal. Preferably a cereal that has protein. you can also try having a banana or some other fruit 9:30 AM have your first weight gain shake with about 900 to 1000 cal and about 50 g of protein. With this I consume one serving of multivitamin and two servings of vitamin C 10:30 AM to 11 AM have a protein bar somewhere between 15 g of protein to 25 g of protein. 12 PM to 1 PM have your first decent sized meal. I like to rotate between chicken and beef and rotate between white rice and brown rice. A simple diet with not much boil or fried food is always best and ...

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How to gain weight SAMPLE DIET - Video

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DENVER, CO--(Marketwire -01/31/12)- "Hey, do you have a brother who works here?" - It's a question that Andrew Casper, an employee of HealthONE in Denver, is hearing in the hallways at work often these days. Overweight for all of his adult life, 56-year-old Andrew has recently lost more than 40 pounds through HealthONE's incentaHEALTH wellness program -- and is now nearly unrecognizable to his colleagues.

Having previously tried countless fad diets and weight loss plans, incentaHEALTH's fully rounded wellness plan was the thing that finally clicked for Andrew -- guiding him to refocus his energy into making a complete lifestyle change. No longer could he sit on the couch watching TV all afternoon on the weekends -- downing bags of chips while cheering on his favorite teams. Instead, Andrew now rises at 5:30 a.m. every day, logging in a morning workout on the elliptical machine. In the evenings after working a full day as a Senior Telecom Engineer at HealthONE, Andrew unwinds by hopping on his bike and pedaling out to enjoy Denver's picturesque vistas.

A family history of heart disease and obesity had always weighed heavily on his mind, and incentaHEALTH has given Andrew the tools he needed to avoid the same fate as his father, who passed at the age of 58. incentaHEALTH is an employee wellness program emphasizing lifestyle changes that lead to life-long healthy weight. Participants have access to an online fitness guide, daily email or SMS text message coaching, communication with a personal trainer, an online success journal, and visual progress reports. Employee participants can earn cash rewards for both successful weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight. incentaHEALTH blends the science of behavior change with wellness incentive technology to provide a solution for obesity and rising healthcare costs.

"This truly is a case of 'If I can do it, anyone can do it'," commented Andrew. "In fact, I've challenged everyone in the office to join me in my quest to overhaul my lifestyle, improve my health and reach and maintain my goal weight. It's free for employees -- and incentaHEALTH actually pays us to lose weight!"

Andrew's employer, HealthONE, is one of Denver's largest employers and the largest healthcare system in the metro Denver area. HealthONE recently launched a new employee wellness program from incentaHEALTH. Andrew is one of 3,000 HealthONE employees that have signed up for the new program, and his results are attracting attention.

"My co-workers are constantly telling me that I am an inspiration to them," notes Andrew. "The incentaHEALTH program has truly been life-changing for me, since I started the program in August 2011; they have been there for me every step of the way -- with guidance on everything from what to choose for lunch to which exercise equipment would benefit me the most. I didn't want to become another statistic -- I want to be able to have a healthy retirement where I can enjoy all of the things I have worked so hard for. incentaHEALTH and HealthONE have made this possible for me."

HealthONE employees have access to eight incentaHEALTH patented kiosks across the Denver metro area, making it easy and convenient for them to chart their progress and stay on task. These kiosks, located in HealthONE hospitals, privately weigh and photograph each employee in under 60 seconds. This allows participants to view a visual progress report -- actually seeing their transformation over time as they improve their health serves as a big motivator, and helps keep them on track. HealthONE's incentaHEALTH program has been enthusiastically received by employees -- in the first few weeks since the kick-off, over 3,000 employees and their dependents are using the program.

Andrew is looking forward to his daughter's wedding next month, where he hopes to do what his weight prohibited him from doing at his first daughter's wedding -- put his arms around her during the father/daughter dance. He will hang a new photo of this special moment next to the old one that has hung on his refrigerator since the first wedding -- to serve as a visual reminder of just how far he's come.

For more information on the incentaHEALTH program, please visit http://www.incentahealth.com.

About incentaHEALTH
incentaHEALTH is an innovative healthcare technology company based in Denver, Colo. incentaHEALTH's fully outsourced, employee weight management program is designed to help organizations reduce their healthcare costs by offering incentives to employees for improving their health. This is achieved by helping employees manage their weight through the use of interactive email and text message coaching, workplace weigh-ins on private kiosks, and cash rewards for maintaining long term health improvements. For more information, visit http://www.incentahealth.com.

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Wellness Program From incentaHEALTH Helps Denver Man Drop More Than 40 Pounds

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