4 ms·

What I find odd about the level of debate on this topic is that Taubes' thesis is easily tested empirically. Give up grains & carbs for a couple of months and s

What I find odd about the level of debate on this topic is that Taubes' thesis is easily tested empirically. Give up grains & carbs for a couple of months and see what happens. If, like me, you lose 30 pounds and lower your cholesterol significantly, then all the better. But if not, at least you'll be arguing from something other than "this violates the conventional wisdom." (Remember when the conventional wisdom promoted margarine and said eggs were bad?)

lukevdp 16y ago
That doesn't show anything empirically. You can lose the same weight on a twinkle diet. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.profes...
kscaldef 16y ago
I think you need to look at outcomes over 5-10 years, not a couple of months. As far as I can tell, radical diets pretty much always work over the short term. I'd speculate this is some combination of: you're not actually replacing all the calories you removed, and your body needing some time to adjust to the right mix and quantities of enzymes to fully metabolize your new diet. (Also, I'm fairly skeptical that you're really losing 10 pounds of fat, or anything other than water, per month.)
- msluyter 16y ago
  The 30 pounds is over a total period of 1 year, actually. In the first couple of months I lost around 3-4 lbs/month, without exercising.
matwood 16y ago
What do you think you have shown? Did you make sure to maintain the same caloric intake when you gave up carbs? You lost 30lbs so how do you know that your lower cholesterol was due to no carbs and not simply weight loss? Most people on low-carb diets end up eating less calories, thus weight loss occurs (pretty basic, but it doesn't sell pop science books very well). I agree that no-carb is a viable strategy to cutting calories in a not have to calorie count way [1], but I'm willing to bet if you simply cut your calories and kept the same macro (P/C/F) percentages as before your diet you would have lost the same amount of weight. [1] Going no-carb cuts out LOTS of the typical snack food that people eat and don't realize all the extra calories they are picking up.
- msluyter 16y ago
  I didn't go into a lot of detail in my original comment, but basically before going low carb a) I was doing a low fat, almost vegetarian diet, b) I was always hungry, c) I was losing weight, but very slowly. When I went low carb, a) I stopped counting calories entirely, b) I stopped feeling hungry (in fact, I rarely feel like snacking), c) I lost weight effortlessly (without even exercising!), and d) there were lots of other side benefits, such as elimination of the post lunch sleepies. So, no, it wasn't a scientifically controlled experiment, and perhaps you could theoretically achieve the same results via a standard calorie restricted diet. (I'm not willing to regain 30 pounds to rerun the experiment... ;)) All I can conclude that in my case, low carb works and is much easier to maintain than a low fat (high carb) diet. And it's really easy to try.

lukevdp 16y ago

That doesn't show anything empirically. You can lose the same weight on a twinkle diet. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.profes...

kscaldef 16y ago

I think you need to look at outcomes over 5-10 years, not a couple of months. As far as I can tell, radical diets pretty much always work over the short term. I'd speculate this is some combination of: you're not actually replacing all the calories you removed, and your body needing some time to adjust to the right mix and quantities of enzymes to fully metabolize your new diet. (Also, I'm fairly skeptical that you're really losing 10 pounds of fat, or anything other than water, per month.)

msluyter 16y ago
The 30 pounds is over a total period of 1 year, actually. In the first couple of months I lost around 3-4 lbs/month, without exercising.

matwood 16y ago

What do you think you have shown? Did you make sure to maintain the same caloric intake when you gave up carbs? You lost 30lbs so how do you know that your lower cholesterol was due to no carbs and not simply weight loss? Most people on low-carb diets end up eating less calories, thus weight loss occurs (pretty basic, but it doesn't sell pop science books very well). I agree that no-carb is a viable strategy to cutting calories in a not have to calorie count way [1], but I'm willing to bet if you simply cut your calories and kept the same macro (P/C/F) percentages as before your diet you would have lost the same amount of weight. [1] Going no-carb cuts out LOTS of the typical snack food that people eat and don't realize all the extra calories they are picking up.

msluyter 16y ago
I didn't go into a lot of detail in my original comment, but basically before going low carb a) I was doing a low fat, almost vegetarian diet, b) I was always hungry, c) I was losing weight, but very slowly. When I went low carb, a) I stopped counting calories entirely, b) I stopped feeling hungry (in fact, I rarely feel like snacking), c) I lost weight effortlessly (without even exercising!), and d) there were lots of other side benefits, such as elimination of the post lunch sleepies. So, no, it wasn't a scientifically controlled experiment, and perhaps you could theoretically achieve the same results via a standard calorie restricted diet. (I'm not willing to regain 30 pounds to rerun the experiment... ;)) All I can conclude that in my case, low carb works and is much easier to maintain than a low fat (high carb) diet. And it's really easy to try.