New Study: Quality of Calories Matters

[Telecide]

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/calorie...6#.T-yLOJFR2Sp

Interesting stuff. It appears to defy what I thought was the prevailing wisdom, that a calorie is a calorie. Apparently an Atkins type diet can account for an extra 300 calories a day burned vs a calorically equivalent low fat diet, with a low GI diet being right in the middle, without some of the potential problems of the Atkins approach.

[Robert2006]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0626163807.htm

From reading that I get the impression what the media is reporting isn't exactly what they found.

[COLOR=#000000]The researchers found that energy expenditure during weight-loss maintenance differed significantly among the 3 diets. The decrease in REE from pre-weight-loss levels, measured by indirect calorimetry in the fasting state, was greatest for the low-fat diet (average relative to baseline, -205 kcal/d), intermediate with the low-glycemic index diet (-166 kcal/d), and least for the very low-carbohydrate diet (-138 kcal/d). The decrease in TEE also differed significantly by diet (average -423 kcal/d for low fat; -297 kcal/d for low glycemic index; and -97 kcal/d for very low carbohydrate).[/COLOR]

If I'm understanding things. They say your body burns more calories with the "bad" diet. Least with the "good" diet.

They aren't saying Aikens burns more calories . They're saying your body burns the least calories with Aikens. Or more correctly they're saying your body slows down the most with an Aikens diet after having lost weight.

[Telecide]

Originally Posted by Robert2006

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0626163807.htm

From reading that I get the impression what the media is reporting isn't exactly what they found.



If I'm understanding things. They say your body burns more calories with the "bad" diet. Least with the "good" diet.

They aren't saying Aikens burns more calories . They're saying your body burns the least calories with Aikens. Or more correctly they're saying your body slows down the most with an Aikens diet after having lost weight.

If I understand it correctly it's the opposite. The decrease in Resting Energy Expenditure was greatest with the low-fat diet, meaning less calories were burned on that diet.

I agree though that the reporting on this was confusing. When I heard about it on the radio it sounded like they were saying a diet is more effective when the calories come from healthy vs processed foods. But they actually seem to be saying you'd lose more weight eating calorie restricted Big Mac diet. I mean... if you lived long enough to see the results.

That is a much better article you linked though.

[Robert2006]

I don't think the study was about weight loss. It was about post weight loss maintenance.

[Azure]

Not really surprising. There I have always said its possible to get where we want to be just by eating clean and not worrying about calories.