7) THE MANY WEIGHT LOSS DIETS POSSIBLE
i) Fad Diets and Pills
All fad diets, especially the "lose weight while you sleep pill", that claim you can eat as much as you like and lose weight, are simply smoke and mirrors (some would use less flattering terms, such as "scam"). The simple fact of the matter is that any successful diet consists of reducing total caloric intake and increasing total caloric output, period! Most successful diet programs are really based on this basic truth. They may use "points" or "exchanges" but it all relates back to calories. In order to lose weight you HAVE TO EAT LESS CALORIES! Some diets, even some of the legitimate diet's shown above, seem to feel required to claim that their particular mix of ingredients gives a magical "hormonal balance" or "metabolic advantage" that allows you to simply remove calories from your body as water and carbon dioxide without using the calories the original food contained. There is no such magical hormonal or metabolic mechanism. Even low glycemic index foods should be consumed only in moderation. Even if you ignore this book's advice and go to Atkins' ketosis diet, don't eat all the protein and fat in sight. No matter what the diet you have to reduce the calories going into the mouth!
One recent piece of recent research supported this "calorie in, calorie out" rule and didn't even realize they supported it. The research was on whether or not a low glycemic diet was better than a high glycemic diet. The research incorrectly concluded that a low glycemic diet did not help with weight loss. Their data showed that, if you eat the same amount of calories and exercise the same amount, you will lose the same amount of weight on a high glycemic or a high fat diet as you would on a low glycemic diet. They then incorrectly conclude a low glycemic index diet is not beneficial.
What their study should have concluded is simply that calories in versus calories out determine weight reduction. What they completely ignored when they included a negative reference to the glycemic index in their conclusion is that the high glycemic index foods increase your appetite (i.e. low glycemic foods simply make it easier to diet) and low glycemic index foods help control type 2 diabetes. Weight loss is still based all on calories but why make it hard on a person by increasing hunger? In any case, a person with diabetes has the additional problem that they shouldn't allow their blood sugar to get too high, so they have two very good reasons not to eat high glycemic foods; satiation and blood sugar levels.
Some of the low carbohydrate diets claim that carbohydrate calories are worse that fat calories, and that you can eat more fat calories than carbohydrate calories and still lose weight. Something about fat requiring 3 calories per gram to digest so the net gain is only 6 calories per gram. They are wrong; fats have 9 calories per gram of weight, period. Proteins have 4 calories per gram, and carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram.
One legitimate but minor exception to the "calorie in versus calorie out" rule is ketosis, a very undesirable condition (excreted ketones have more calories in them than excreted water and carbon dioxide). But the calorie reduction in ketosis is tiny, especially compared to the health risks. Another exception to the calories in versus calories out rule is where someone with diabetes eats a lot of carbohydrates at one sitting; the body will excrete the excess carbohydrates in the urine as glucose, which means some of the calories eaten will be excreted (most of the excess calories will end up in fat cells). Unfortunately this process severely damages the kidneys and is the major factor behind kidney failure in individuals with type 2 diabetes. Still another exception is the ketosis induced muscle wasting mentioned above. But no one wants to lose muscle and not lose fat!
Next Chapter: 8) THE RECOMMENDED DIABETES DIET
a) Moderation Type 2 Diabetes Diet
b) Moderation Food Pyramid
c) Foods to avoid
d) Foods to eat in Moderation
e) Good Foods to eat Regularly
f) Recipes
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