Six common beliefs addressed, Part 229

1. You can get fat more easily on carbohydrates than on fat.

That depends on your metabolic state. If you are already overweight/obese you can easily get fat on both. If you have great leptin expression, whether overweight/obese or obesity resistant, you won't be able to get very fat off fat alone. You would need a catalyst like carbohydrates to hurry this along.

2. There is a difference in fat loss between diets that were high in carbohydrates versus those low in carbohydrates.

No. All diets fail and when I say all diets, I mean it. There is no one diet that will be successful versus another one. The body is too smart for that. This is why I don't feature any one specific diet or protocol. Instead, I recommend a variety of them that span anywhere from just the restriction of sugar and grains to full ketogenic. There are even several other protocols that you can use which go beyond the scope of low carb, such as low-fat, protein sparing modified fasts or Mediterranean Diets. Even classic Paleo can work.

The advantage of low carb is not in the fat loss, though that is the ultimate goal, since excess body fat is a symptom of metabolic dysfunction. The problem is that no one has yet come up with any one protocol that successfully reduces body fat enough, or for the long term, in the overweight/obese. All diets cause weight loss but that's not what the goal is. The goal is to become lean (fat loss) and stay that way. Unfortunately, obesity is still a condition with no known cure.

So, the advantage of low carb is to stabilize your blood glucose regulation so that you can more efficiently handle your body's energy requirements. This will help you to manage weight in the long term. For this to occur you have to set up a metabolic environment that is conducive to blood glucose homeostasis. You are basically giving your body the information it needs to have a healthier metabolism.

The theory is that if your metabolism can become healthier by reducing its adaptation to spare body fat and store more of it, then weight loss would be easier and more sustainable. It is smarter to build your house on bedrock than on sand. You can build a house on sand, but it won't last. A healthy metabolism is the bedrock so the body can keep its trajectory of body fat loss.

3. There was a "study" that showed that low fat diets achieved a slightly better body fat loss than low carbohydrate diets, when the calories and protein were equated in both. 

I don't debate studies. I only guide myself by biology. This is why I don't link "studies" because studies can be interpreted any way you want and there are endless studies for you to go back and forth on forever, with your opponent. For any one study that shows something, there are five more showing the opposite. Then the debate goes from the study to who conducted it and so on and so forth.

I don't know what study you're referring to or what its methodology was or who they used as test subjects or who conducted the study and what they intended to show, etc. There have been other studies that have shown greater body fat loss for low carb diets, rather than low fat diets.

Regardless though, it doesn't surprise me that this would be the case, since leptin is under expressed in most overweight/obese people, making dietary fat a contributor to body fat gain. I am assuming the study used overweight/obese people if it was trying to show body fat loss. So, whatever study this was, it most likely showed just what you're describing.

Low carb diets are not in any way superior to any other diet for fat loss. Low carbs diets are superior for metabolic homeostasis, so that fat loss and management is more likely to be sustained in the long term.

4. Counting calories will wreck your metabolism.

No. "Counting calories" will not automatically wreck your metabolism. It might wreck your calculator but not your metabolism.

Calories are benign or malignant depending on how they are being used and for what goal they are applied. When they are misused and/or misapplied, they can absolutely wreck your metabolism. Many people have intractable obesity, which was caused by decades of using badly formulated calorie centered protocols.

5. Low carbohydrate diets cause eating disorders.

Eating disorders are caused by numerous things. There is no one cause. Some people are more susceptible to developing these disorders than others. Eating disorders can be habitual, behavioral, psychological, hormonal and everything in between.

Most eating disorders are caused by an obsession with weight. Does this mean we can't watch our weight? No. When low carb diets are followed correctly and are well formulated, they do not cause any more eating disorders than any other type of diet. Restricting carbs is no different than restricting fat or calories or soda intake or any other item in your diet that can be blamed for weight issues.

6. My neighbor is in his 60’s and can jog for miles. I was formerly obese in my 40’s and can’t seem to go past jogging half a block, no matter how “healthy” I get. 

Obesity has long term health consequences which linger even after the weight is lost.

Your always-lean, obesity resistant neighbor spent decades acquiring the lean muscle mass you were losing. That lean muscle mass allowed him to be active the decades you were sitting. This activity helped his heart and lungs gain the stamina and endurance yours never did. You can’t get back the lost years because his metabolism will always work more efficiently than yours as it had decades to adapt to do this and yours didn’t.