Did you catch the latest diet study news that came out a week or so ago?
The National Institutes of Health funded a study called “Preventing Overweight Using Novel Dietary Strategies” or POUNDS LOST. Very catchy. Apparently science is better when attached to a cute acronym.
They certainly needed something going for them, because the conclusions the researchers drew from this study are so simplistic and asinine that I really thought my head was going to explode when I read them.
But I’ll get to that in a moment. First, here is the premise of the study.
Basically they took a group of 811 obese people, split them to four subgroups, and assigned a different type of diet to each subgroup.
The target nutrient compositions of the four diets were:
- Low-fat, average protein: 20 percent fat, 15 percent protein, 65 percent carbohydrate
- Low-fat, high protein: 20 percent fat, 25 percent protein, 55 percent carbohydrate
- High-fat, average protein: 40 percent fat, 15 percent protein, 45 percent carbohydrate
- High-fat, high-protein: 40 percent fat, 25 percent protein, 35 percent carbohydrate
The first point I’d make here is that I don’t agree that 25% protein would qualify as “high protein”.
The second point I’d make is that, despite the catchy name of the study, there is absolutely nothing “Novel” about these dietary strategies. Macronutrient manipulation isn’t novel. Ornish, Atkins, South Beach, etc. are all diets based on macronutrient manipulation. But, as long as we have a catchy acronym, who cares, right?
Anyway, the results of the study showed that, regardless of whichever novel approach the participants followed, they all lost about the same amount of weight after 6 months and 2 years.
At 6 months, the average weight loss was 13 lbs, and at 2 years it was only 9 lbs.
Based on this, the researchers concluded that macronutrient manipulation wasn’t important and that all you should worry about is focusing your “weight loss approaches on reducing caloric intake rather than any particular proportions of fat, protein or carbohydrate.”
The abject stupidity of this boggles my mind. Where do I begin?
Well, how about with the fact that they made no distinction on body composition and only looked at weight loss. So, a subject could have lost 15 lbs of muscle mass and gained 6 lbs of fat, but the study would just look at that as a 9 lb weight loss.
Next, if you take a group of 811 OBESE people and they only average a 9 lb weight loss over the course of 2 YEARS regardless of which diet they were on, you’re right, the diets pretty much worked the same. That is, THEY ALL SUCKED!
9 lbs in 2 years?? Are you kidding me?
And, after month 6, they actually started gaining back the weight they lost.
Hellloooo.
If someone is on a diet for 24 months, and they gain weight from months 7 through 24, well, I don’t think your diet is really working so well, do you?
Here’s the conclusion that my independent review of the study came to:
“Research shows that simply counting calories and not learning how to eat right sucks if you truly want to lose weight and get healthy.” Dave Soucy, 3/09.
To further that point, research shows that a loss of 10% of body weight will help reduce risk factors for heart disease and other medical conditions. In this study, only 15% of the participants achieved a 10% weight loss!
Let me do the math for you. That means that out of 811 people, 690 of them did NOT achieve the 10% loss needed to reduce those risk factors. Unbelievable.
Okay, here are a couple of takeaways for you. One, the news media reports on new diet studies just about every day, and just about every day the news media gets the story wrong.
Don’t just blindly take what some reporter (who most likely knows nothing about fitness and weight loss) spits out as fact. You need to really read through the details to get to the truth of the matter.
And two, if you’re obese and want to lose a little bit of weight and start gaining it back again in 6 months, just go ahead and cut some calories.
But, if you really want to lose fat, improve your health, look and feel better, and not start regaining the weight in 6 months, then admit to yourself that you need to learn to eat right, get the proper nutrients on a daily basis, exercise and stay away from stupid researchers from the National Institutes of Health.
~Dave
(12 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)About the Author
Dave Soucy is a coach, trainer, motivator, husband, dad, and former fat guy. His goal is to teach as many people as possible how to achieve a life of health, fitness, and wellness through simply eating right and exercising. Click here to learn more about Dave.
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