What do you think of Low carb?

Maybe you just ate TOO MUCH food. There is a Harvard Study that says it is not important WHAT you eat but HOW MUCH you eat: www.news.harvard.edu/.../11-calorie.html If it's true that some people are "sensitive" to carbs and immediately gain enormous weight even though they eat moderate portions how come there weren't any overweight Olympic swimmers in the Seventies when athletes knew nothing about low carb and were all put on a high carb diet?:confused: Undoubtedly I ate too much food during that period because on low-fat I was always starving. Now that I eat low-carb, I am rarely hungry between meals. But, there's more to it than just the caloric intake. The Harvard Study you refer to was rather severely flawed in that their lowest carbohydrate diet still contained 35% of calories from carbs. On a 1200 calorie diet, that's over 100 grams of carbs. That intake is well above what is recommended for weight loss by most low-carb plans, and more than I'm able to consume and still maintain my weight. Since the researchers neglected to include a true low-carb treatment group it's impossible to conclude much from that study. Overall, the results of dietary comparisons are a mixed bag, although low-carb looks pretty good in numerous recent studies. The lack of severely overweight olympic swimmers in the 70's (or today for that matter) is probably just that any athlete is unlikely to reach an elite level of competition if they are on a diet that doesn't work for them. I don't think I claimed to gain "enormous weight immediately" with moderate portions of carbs, but it doesn't take much for the pounds to start creeping back. If I had continued down the low-fat path, I'd probably be over 300 lbs now, and unable to swim competitively. I'm satisfied that I've found a dietary regime that keeps me healthy and helps me to accomplish my (modest) swimming goals. I don't claim that a low carb diet will work for everyone, but please keep an open mind. Blanket recommendations that "athletes shouldn't eat low-carb" are a disservice to many individuals who could benefit their health and swimming performance by eating a lower carb diet. Oh- and the "Dr Atkins was obese and died of a heart attack" just isn't true.

Maybe you just ate TOO MUCH food. There is a Harvard Study that says it is not important WHAT you eat but HOW MUCH you eat: www.news.harvard.edu/.../11-calorie.html If it's true that some people are "sensitive" to carbs and immediately gain enormous weight even though they eat moderate portions how come there weren't any overweight Olympic swimmers in the Seventies when athletes knew nothing about low carb and were all put on a high carb diet?:confused: Undoubtedly I ate too much food during that period because on low-fat I was always starving. Now that I eat low-carb, I am rarely hungry between meals. But, there's more to it than just the caloric intake. The Harvard Study you refer to was rather severely flawed in that their lowest carbohydrate diet still contained 35% of calories from carbs. On a 1200 calorie diet, that's over 100 grams of carbs. That intake is well above what is recommended for weight loss by most low-carb plans, and more than I'm able to consume and still maintain my weight. Since the researchers neglected to include a true low-carb treatment group it's impossible to conclude much from that study. Overall, the results of dietary comparisons are a mixed bag, although low-carb looks pretty good in numerous recent studies. The lack of severely overweight olympic swimmers in the 70's (or today for that matter) is probably just that any athlete is unlikely to reach an elite level of competition if they are on a diet that doesn't work for them. I don't think I claimed to gain "enormous weight immediately" with moderate portions of carbs, but it doesn't take much for the pounds to start creeping back. If I had continued down the low-fat path, I'd probably be over 300 lbs now, and unable to swim competitively. I'm satisfied that I've found a dietary regime that keeps me healthy and helps me to accomplish my (modest) swimming goals. I don't claim that a low carb diet will work for everyone, but please keep an open mind. Blanket recommendations that "athletes shouldn't eat low-carb" are a disservice to many individuals who could benefit their health and swimming performance by eating a lower carb diet. Oh- and the "Dr Atkins was obese and died of a heart attack" just isn't true.