The FastDay Forum

Thought some of the nerds and low carb eaters would be interested in this article. Makes a lot of sense.

http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130607-904498.html

I participated in one of the long term (2.5 years) studies comparing Atkins with the low fat DASH diet, and Atkins 'won', hands down.

But, in my opinion, the problem with Atkins, and any other diet, is that it is very, very hard to follow for the rest of your life. All diets cut out food you love, and ask you to eat foods you don't.

5:2 solves those issues by allowing you to eat the foods you want while still controlling your caloric intake. If you look around the posts on this site, you will find proponents of almost every major 'diet' - that are doing 5:2 to not only lose weight, but to keep it off.

That is why, in my opinion, 5:2 is so revolutionary.

[carorees]

Here's the link to the abstract: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/di ... id=8897890

The study did a meta-analysis of studies that compared a diet with no more than 50 g carbohydrates/day with conventional low-fat diet (less than 30% of energy from fat). 13 studies met the inclusion/exclusion criteria. Weight loss was significantly greater in the low carb group (by just under a kilo) kg, there was also a significantly greater improvement in triglycerides (0·18 mmol/l better with low carb) and diastolic blood pressure (1·43 mmHg better) and HDL cholesterol (0·09 mmol/l improvement). However LDL also increased (by 0·12 mmol/l).

So the differences between the two, although statistically significant seem hardly clinically significant! Though I expect most of the studies were quite short term, so if these trends continued the differences might become clinically relevant (but there is no way of knowing if that would actually happen).

I have tried Atkins and found it quite doable "for a while." I did lose more weight than I would expect to lose on a low fat type of diet and I lost it more quickly BUT, as everyone finally admits, it just isn't sustainable for the long-term and severely restricts your social life and life in general.

Since Atkins, and then trying just about everything else, 5:2 seems to be the only WOL that has got me losing weight again and, more importantly, feeling good and positive about continuing this way of life as long as I want to and need to.

I am very pleased.

I agree. Even if it is a good way to lose weight (although I don't think that restricting food groups IS a good way to do anything good to one's body) it is not a diet to follow for too long. You'd have to adjust your life to the diet and that makes it undoable, in my book.

I agree that Atkins is just not sustainable. Who wants to live life with no carbs? It is just too hard in the long term for me. The important thing is to find a method for long term weight loss. Hopefully we have all found it!

There are people who manage to maintain on Atkins/low carb. I'm sure the numbers are similar to or better than low fat diets. The verdict is still out on IF.

It is interesting to see attitudes about Atkins/low carb changing. Back when I did this diet, in its second (or third?) wave in the early 2000s, the mainstream media was still calling it pseudoscience and unsafe. I'm glad to see that changing, since its ideas about blood sugar and insulin were on the mark, and studies seem to suggest it isn't unsafe at all.

I remember doing the Atkins, weight loss was fantastic and I made loads of great recipes but once I got to my desired weight I just went back to eating the foods I love and the weight went back on. For me I love my carbs and lived without them for a while but couldn't do it for life. With the 5:2 I can really have my pasta and eat it, I know my fluids would drop 5lbs if I stop eating things I love but after given up dieting for 5 years and throwing away the scales as I was sick of the constant up and downs, i now feel like i'm in control, after the Atkins i didn't go down the hill but down mount everest. I have learnt my lesson well as my weight went through the roof with no scales to check myself and now I'm near my healthy bmi thanks to 5:2 and being a lurker on this site getting inspiration from all you lovely ladies and gentlemen