Low Carb diets always make you gain weight in the long run. Here is why.

Americans don't even know what healthy looks like anymore.

People kept telling me I was thin even when I was 230 lbs. That doesn't mean I was. I sure couldn't run a marathon like I can now.

260 Pounds is obese for a 6 ft tall male. Unless he was a body builder. AND HE WASN'T.

Well considering people that were themselves frighteningly thin were among the first to tell me this I'd say their opinion was valid.

Not to mention the fact that despite I was supposed to be headed toward a 'healthier weight' I was increasingly feeling worse.Felt great at 240-250 though.

Once again the BMI index is bullshit so I could care less what it says.I would have had my ribs poking out at the ridiculously low weight it had suggested.

OP is full of shit. The fact of the matter is that a low carb diet can help folks loose weight and gaining it back is no more or less likely than with any other diet.

It doesnt appear that OP knows much about nutrition. Processed carbs and high sugar foods are terrible for you and your metabolism. Proper balance between fat, protien and carbs is key and low overall carb intake (especially white carbs like pasta, potatoes and rice) is best for long term health. The balance depends on your goals (lose or maintain weight/muscle) and your body type/weight/heigth etc.

I lost 30 pounds (215 to 185) in 8 months and went from 25 to 12 percent body fat on a low carb high protein diet. First two months I did not workout. Month 3 through 5 I worked out 3 days per week. Month 6 to present I work out 6 days per week.

Goal is sub 10% bodyfat and then to gain more lean muscle and maintain 10-12% body fat so abs are always visible.

Body is a machine and can be hacked. Calories in versus calories burned...deficit means weight loss. Not rocket science.

The reason people add more weight than they lost when they get off of any diet is that when they cut weight they cut muscle as well. This lowers metabolism and when they eat high calories again this makes them gain weight faster and they become bigger than ever. Viscous negative cycle. Lean muscle equals high metabolism equals fat burning.

Weight is meaningless without considering overall body composition. Lean muscle mass is critical. Body fat % is key.

I have done that before I was on a med that did not make me feel like eating. I drank a large iced coffee with cane sugar and skim milk for breakfast/lunch and then I ate a dinner salad and like chicken fish etc and I lost like 30 pounds. I don't even think I was doing any daily exercise. Whenever I want to loose weight quickly for something I do that diet it has always worked.

I've lost 40 pounds on a high fat, moderate protein, low carb eating plan, explain that OP. I eat at least 200 grams of fat per day.

The biggest difference between this and Atkins is with the fat added in, I suffer zero cravings.

Chest pains gone, random body pain gone, rash that I had for 20 years gone. Skin is super soft, getting ripped by doing ZERO exercise. I'm almost to my high school walk around weight but I actually look better now even though I worked out in high school. (sports, etc.)

The benefits of this eating plan are too many to list.

See this thread: Thread: If you want to be thin and stay thin (and avoid Metabolic Syndrome), then you have to eat high fat

Most everyone who diets in any fashion gains the weight back, my dear.

You are mistaken about low carb diets if followed intelligently, also the Atkins diet which meets the description of low carbs.

It is certainly not a starvation diet, quite the opposite.

They work really effectively and your blood sugar gets in balance as well.

If you do not like it don't do it but quit knocking it. It has been the only way I have ever gotten my husband's weight and blood sugar under control. His doctor loves the results.

In response to the OP's example of Japanese obesity vis-a-vis the U.S., and why the Japanese are thinner on average, a quick search online of the "average daily caloric intake by country" yields the (what should have been intuitively obvious) answer. The Japanese eat far less calories on average then Americans.

Low-carb diets have never been starvation diets, just the opposite in fact. Fat and more specifically protein yield much higher satiety than carbohydrates. It is actually surprisingly difficult to gain weight on a very low-carb, high-fat, high-protein diet, in spite of the caloric density of fat vs. carbohydrates.

A few simple points:
Low-carb diets effectively eliminate glucose/insulin spikes.
Low-carb diets result in higher levels of satiety for the same caloric intake.
Low-carb diets yield a higher loss of body fat vs. lean tissue compared to low-fat diets. Someone losing 5 lbs on a low-carb diet will generally enjoy a much higher percentage of the weight lost being body fat while preserving lean tissue, compared to a low-fat dieter losing the same amount of weight.

I won't post the studies but they can be easily found if you care to look.

Your examples with regard to "your friend who drinks 10 sodas a day", the overweight vegans pouring olive oil on their salad, and even with Atkins himself are irrelevant(Not to mention inaccurate). Genetics play a factor and always produce outliers. Pointing out one or two specific examples of those outliers proves nothing. You must look at research done on large data sets, preferably legitimate scientific studies.

By the way, Atkins actually weighed 195 lbs upon admission to the hospital and gained a considerable amount of water weight due to a combination of water retention and IV fluids supplied to him. Yes, it is very possible to retain 60lbs of water weight in this situation and is not uncommon. ~260 lbs is the weight you commonly see thrown around which was not his true normal body weight before he died. Furthermore, he did not die of Myocardial Infarction as most people think, but in fact from "blunt impact injury of head with epidural hematoma" (He slipped on ice and hit his head). People seem to get some intense satisfaction from saying "See? Atkins was fat and he died of a heart attack, isn't that delightfully ironic?". Spending 30 seconds to research whether that is true or not might rob them of said satisfaction, and so why would they bother?

As a very high level summation of the many studies conducted on this topic, in *general* most people fare better on low-carb diets with regard to almost all relevant factors: amount of weight lost, *type* of weight lost(profoundly important and too often ignored), general feelings of satiety, cholesterol, blood pressure, insulin resistance, etc, etc, etc...

All you have to do is look at how bodybuilders drop fat for competitions, as they are time proven professionals at shedding fat.

They temporarily carb limit, and it's a proven reality that it works.

However, sustained carb limited diets fail.

Temporary carb reductions are extremely effective, but so is the body at adapting.

You need the proper ratios of carbs, proteins, and fat, and eat frequent meals i.e. 6 times a day.

Eating infrequent large portion high calorie meals is what makes you fat. Especially with lack of exercise.

If you want to know once and for all, just read "burn the fat, feed the muscle".

It's the final word on getting your body to drop fat.

The rest is just noise.

tortillas . . .

1. Asian people are going to get fatter b/c now fast food is coming over there like it has here. OP just give them a decade or so and they will be like fat Mexicans and Americans..

2. Losing weight, when your obese or morbidly obese, TRUMPS everything. Having the weight gone has far more health benefits then any pill or exercising...could ever do

3. There is two ways to eat if you have weight issues. All Carbs and ABSOLUTE minimum fats/proteins or ONLY proteins and fats.

Eating calories equal to your maintenance you can eat what you want as long as you know what your limit is based on a week of balancing calories in and out. And this is just not going to work with fast food and chips in the long run.

Fast food makes you lethargic b/c is full with crap. It tires you out and makes you eat more for no reason other then it must be addicting b/c there is no other reason..

I would like to postulate that you are a shill : )

Most people on GLP are smart enough not to buy the standard mainstream health garbage (i.e. the food pyramid).

Since no one has yet shown evidence to your false claim, I felt I might as well do it myself.

The TRUTH about Atkins death:

He did not die obese.

"William Leith, an writer who interviewed him around the time of his cardiac arrest stated that "he looks to be just under 6 feet tall and around 200 lbs – not skinny, not thin, but definitely not fat." A report from Atkins Nutritionals states that he played tennis competitively and that his weight was frequently checked, and in the years before his death was below 195, and six feet tall. And a medical report at the time of his admission to the hospital, which was later made public by his widow, states that he was 195 lbs on admission to the hospital.

On April 8, 2003, at age 72, Dr. Atkins slipped on the ice while walking to work, hitting his head and causing bleeding around his brain. He lost consciousness on the way to the hospital, where he spent two weeks in intensive care. His body deteriorated rapidly and he suffered massive organ failure. During this time, his body apparently retained an enormous amount of fluid, and his weight at death was recorded at 258 pounds. His death certificate states that the cause of death was "blunt impact injury of head with epidural hematoma".
Following this, a Nebraska doctor known to be anti-Atkins, and associated with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, requested Dr. Atkins' medical records, which should not have been released, but which mistakenly were sent. The Medical Examiner's report had a hand-written note that Atkins had a history of myocardial infarction (heart attack), congestive heart failure, and hypertension (written "h/o MI, CHF, HTN"). The above Committee made much of this and began the rumor that Atkins had "died of his own diet". The misconceptions remain to this day.

The year following his death, his widow released a statement taking what she called "unscrupulous individuals" to task for spreading falsehoods about her husband.

Apparently, those individuals are still having a measure of success."

I eat a pure meat diet, minus milk and butter. I also never exercise, I feel great and do nothing but lose weight.

Without exercise, and eating small frequent meals your metabolism will adjust, and the weight loss will stop.

The human body is a master at defeating weight loss through diet alone, without exercise. It's called survival, and you body will try do it no matter how much your try to fool it with diet alone (i.e. it will store fat to survive).

Point being you're losing muscle mass continually as you age past 21, and that reality continually lowers your metabolic rate.

There is no such thing as sustained weight loss without exercise. Weight training in particular.

You body is in ketosis perpetually with a zero carb diet, and that is not healthy for you at all.

On top of that, your energy level will be terrible without carbs compared to a proper ratio diet.

People who "diet" for weight loss really have no idea what they are doing.

To the "561706" guy--dude, just shut up. That's my only argument against you. Just shut. the. fuck. up.

Anyways, I believe if you want to lose weight, you just have to exercise and eat healthy--3 meals a day and avoid too much processed crap (which is loaded with carbs).

Yep! Whole, unrefined carbs build up strength so that you can exercise. I tried low carb dieting and really did my best. Ended up getting sick on it. Went back to just whole carbs, fresh fruit, fish and organic, grass-fed beef and lost tons of weight. Have plenty of strength now too.

All carbs are not created equal and your comparison of a Japanese diet of carbs to an American diet of carbs is completely off base and irrelevant, they are nowhere near the same.

When you say 'in the long run' - how long are we talking...??

I only ask, because I did lo-carb about 5yrs ago - Admittedly I put some weight back on when I stopped dieting - but now, 5yrs later, I am still almost 20lbs lighter than my original starting weight.

OP is an idiot. Clearly if you consume more calories than you use you will gain weight. THAT is why donuts make you fat... tons of calories. However, when it comes to triggering your body to burn fat, a high fat diet is better than a high carb diet.

I know this is an old thread, but I'm going to throw in my 2-cents. I disagree - to an extent. Cut out the wheat products and walk 1/2 hour to an hour a day and you won't have a weight issue.

When you cut out the wheat products you are cutting out the processed carbs which are so bad for you. You are eating fresh fruits and veggies (which are, technically carbs but healthy, low calorie, and high-fiber).

Eat the meat, milk products, fruits, and vegetables you want - just cut out that bad-for-you wheat!

+1000 Exactly!

This ^^

The reality is a lot of people want easy diets when a more ideal plan is to work out and just eat right. Drink water, not soda. Eat fresh food, not processed food. Avoid red meat and cheese. I was fat up until my 20's when I started running every day and stopped buying frozen dinners.

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I just wanted to say, doctor atkins was 195 before he went into the hospital,and died weighing 260 something.when people are in the hospital for serious injuries they usually tend to swell up and gain weight.he died from a head injury.facts are simple.i for one did the atkins diet some years ago and kept it off.i exercise daily,eat my fruits and veggies,and some meat.as long as people know how to control their appetites then everything should be good.now the carbs you spoke of from different countries,asians for one,they have different sources of protein,fiber,and dairy then america.fish,pork,peppers.america is rated number one obesity for a reason.people have no self control and junk food is cheaper than the healthy food in stores.if anything we should be blamimg the government and not carbohydrates.

calories in<calories out=lose weight, no matter in what form those calories are taken in

I read an article about a man who only ate potatoes and lost weight. He did this after people were saying that potatoes make a person fat. It is all the fatty stuff that people put on the potatoes that make them fat. The man's health was monitored and he became very healthy. It was a boring diet for a while but he proved that eating plain potatoes will not make a person fat. Calories have a lot to do with it as well.