[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Aug-21-02 AT 08:22PM (Est)[/font][p]Cynthia et al,
Just wanted to repost this from another thread. I'm going to write more soon on the pros and cons of high protein, low carb diets. For the record, I'm not a person who just goes by what everybody else says. I have a master's degree in exercise physiology--part of my schooling included graduate level courses in nutrition. And I am familiar with most of the fad diets out there. There's no miracle in ketosis or in high protein diets--it is still a matter of calories out vs calories in.
As Bryant Stamford, exercise physiologist at University of Louisville so aptly put it, "The first law of thermodynamics tells us energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but can only be changed from one from to another. If you are going to lose body fat, you must convert the chemical energy stored in body fat to mechanical energy used in muscular contractions and other bodily functions.
That's a tall order, because just one pound of body fat contains 3500 calories. If you are on a diet and you lose weight, and if the weight you lose is from stored body fat, you should be able to account for all the calories--every bit of stored energy.
This cannot happen on a crash diet that causes rapid weight loss. A look at the numbers reveals thay don't add up. If you lost six pounds in one week, and if all six pounds came from body fat, here's what would have to happen: The six pounds of faat, at 3500 calories per pound, would equal 21,000 stored calories. The first law of thermodynamics demads that you would have to burn off 21,000 more calories than you took in for the week, or 3000 per day.
Is this possible? Yes, if you ran more than 20 miles per day. When people inform me (Dr. Stamford) they have lost a large number of pounds quickly, I (Dr. Stamford) congratulate them. In my (Dr. Stamford) mind, however, I am asking 'how many marathons did you run last week that contributed to your wieght loss?' The answer is, of course, 0 marathons.
What's more, the weight is usually lost without any exercise at all. How is this possible? On any crash diet, the first weight you lose always comes from stored sugar (glucose stored as glycogen). One pound of stored sugar accounts for 1816 calories. But you also lose three pounds of water that is stored with the sugar, for a quick loss of four pounds in just a matter of two or three days. After that, you start losing muscle mass. One pound of muscle provides only 700 usable calories.
With these figures in mind, it's easy to see how you can lose six pounds in one week and appease the first law of thermodynamics. According to the first law, to lose six pounds of sugar, water and muscle, you only have to account for 3216 calories (1816 from sugar and three pounds of water plus 1400 from two pounds of muscle equals 3216 calories). That's a far cry from the 21,000 calories that would have to be burned if the weight loss were from body fat."
This was taken from Dr. Stamford's article "Beware of Rapid Weight Loss Ads" which appeared this past Tuesday in his weekly column "Body Shop".
I was so impressed, I had to e-mail Dr. S and tell him how glad I was that he had published the column. This should explain to anyone why the weight loss occurs with Atkins and all other rapid weight loss plans, and why such a loss is undesirable.
Maribeth
Stacy
