Is it possible to diet your way into shape? Last year, a study titled, “Weight Loss With a Low-Carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or Low-Fat Diet,” published in the New England Journal of Medicine gave the results of a study on the effectiveness of three types of diet over a two-year period for overweight people. It showed somewhat better results for low-carbohydrate diets, and there were no signs of the health risks that some people claim for these kinds of diets.
This is exciting. Just go on a low-carb diet for a while and you’ll soon have the body you want, right? Not exactly. We need to look into this a bit more to see why dieting alone isn’t enough to get the body you want.
One major concern is that dieting alone doesn’t do anything to preserve your muscle mass. As you may know, once people reach the age of 30 or so, we tend to start losing our muscles. An average person will lose five to ten pounds of muscle for every decade they age beyond the age of 30. And dieting does nothing to change that. A good diet will reduce the amount of fat concealing your shrinking muscles, but it won’t do anything to build new muscle, or even retain what you already have.
Secondly, the results of the diets are pathetic. The participants were overweight men and women, or people with Type 2 diabetes. They were placed on one of three diet approaches. Each person also received instructions and information related specifically to the type of diet they were on. Over the course of two years, each group of people had eighteen 90-minute meetings with a dietician to help them stay on track. People who had trouble sticking to the plan received motivational phone calls as well.
So what were the actual weight-loss results during this study? When people stuck with the diet for the full two years, the low-fat diet gave the worst results, followed by the Mediterranean diet. The low-carbohydrate diet gave the best results. In addition to weight loss, the diets also caused some welcome changes in blood chemistry, such as lower cholesterol levels. As far as total weight loss goes, the people on the low-carbohydrate diet lost just over 12 pounds across the two-year study.
This looks good, but think about it. The best performing group, with more support than most of us would have, resulted in a loss of just over a dozen in 24 months. One type of diet (the low-carbohydrate diet) may be better than the others, and for overweight people to lose weight safely is great. But that’s not a lot of weight to lose over 2 years, and would it really give you the body and fitness you’re looking for?
A healthy diet is surely a good thing, and a key element in building the body you want. But as this study shows, dieting alone isn’t enought. The key to getting fit at last is A complete fitness plan.