I wouldn't go so far as to say low-fat weight-loss diets "cause"
overweight.  What I would say is that they aggravate the problem in that
they continue the insulin cycle and can cause the body to go into
starvation mode if they are low-calorie.  So what happens is that your body
then seems to more efficiently store what you eat.  (One of the times I
lost weight, I was eating 800 calories every OTHER day.  There were plenty
of weeks where I lost nothing!)

In other words, if you put someone who isn't overweight on a low-fat diet,
I'm not sure much would happen.  If you put someone who's already
overweight on a low-fat diet, it might help at first, but then in my
experience very strenuous daily exercise and Herculean caloric restriction
are needed in order to continue weight loss.  Also, much of the weight loss
will be muscle.  And if it's done repeatedly (I've lost significant weight
three times through this type of dieting), the body seems to learn how not
to lose weight, or even gain, on a low-fat caloric intake that certainly
seems like it should induce weight loss.

What I find disagreeable about the study (at least what you've quoted) is
that it "proves" that low-fat diets cause weight loss, but doesn't say if
the people studied were overweight.  The overall implication is that
low-fat = weight loss.  But the fact of the matter is who cares if a diet
causes fit people to lose weight?  It's meaningless, as they don't care,
and I truly think it means nothing to overweight people.  The simple fact
that we are overweight points to a physical difference between "us" and
"them".  And if anyone wants to argue that it's caloric intake, then I defy
them to explain Ray Audette and his 6500 calories a day to me.  (In fact, I
also have found that I can eat as much as I want and maintain, I just can't
seem to lose anymore.)

Also, if we're going on the assumption that overweight is caused by an out
of control insulin cycle (this is my working assumption), and that insulin
plays a significant role in cholesterol regulation as Dr. Atkins
postulates, then this study is also not necessarily inherently valid for
overweight people as regards cholesterol either (if the subjects were fit),
at least insofar as the overweight person and the fit person differ in
insulin production.  In fact, off the top of my head, if insulin has the
negative impact on cholesterol that Atkins says it does, then putting a
very overweight person on a low-fat diet could maybe worsen cholesterol,
unless the diet is so calorie-restricted that there are not enough sugars
and starches going into the body to trigger the kinds of insulin releases
that were happening before the diet.  An "ad-libitum" low-fat diet is
exactly what many of us with the weight problems were eating before
switching diets anyway!  That's how we got fat!  Or at least it's how I
did...

Boy, I can sure ramble...

Take care,
John Pavao



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I think "ad libitum" means "as much as you want", i.e. enough to satisfy
your hunger. I was intrugued by that
article because it seems to contradict the commonly accepted assumption
that
overweightness is caused by low-fat diets.