Lose Weight, Gain Fat on Low-Fat Diets?

Low Fat Diets

Dr. Barry Sears, creator of The Zone Diet, (http://www.drsears.com) refutes a study that says women who follow the low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet that the US government recommends lose weight. A close look at the study indicates that women who followed the diet actually gain fat.

"I believe the study supports my contention that the low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet recommended by groups like the USDA and the American Heart Association have caused Americans to gain fat," Sears said.

The study, which appeared in the Jan. 4, 2006, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that older women who followed a diet consistent with the government's high-carbohydrate recommendations lost about two pounds over seven years. The implication is that after following such a diet for seven years the average woman can expect approximately 0.3 pounds of weight lost per year. This was taken as a major victory by the researchers as indicating that the government's recommended low-fat diets don't cause weight gain.

After inspecting the data in the study, Dr. Sears found that even though the women in the low-fat group lost a small amount of weight, they actually gained waist circumference. This is an indication that they were gaining dangerous abdominal fat, which is associated with increased diabetes and heart disease, Sears said.

The women in the low-fat group were consuming 361 fewer calories per day during the study, Sears said, which means that they should have lost approximately three pounds per month as opposed to the actual two pounds lost in seven years.

"This suggests that a calorie is not a calorie when it comes to weight loss and even less so when it comes with an apparent long-term increase in body fat," he said.

The Zone Diet recommends the same level of fat as used in the JAMA study, but with a very different protein-to-carbohydrate ratio.

"What works in the long-run is a diet that is moderate in low glycemic-load carbohydrates (primarily fruits and non-starchy vegetables), moderate in protein, and moderate in fat. The only dietary program that meets those criteria is The Zone Diet.

Every controlled study that has compared The Zone Diet to the standard recommendations of the nutritional establishment has demonstrated that The Zone Diet is superior in hormonal control, reduction of lipid levels, and reduction of elevated blood sugar levels, while generating greater appetite suppression and greater fat loss.

The Zone Diet is frequently misunderstood by the general public and the medical establishment. It's often mistakenly lumped together with the low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets such as the Atkins Diet.

More than 5 million copies of Dr. Sears' Zone books have been sold. They are published by Regan Books (an imprint of Harper Collins) and available in bookstores nationwide or from http://www.zonelabsinc.com