Can you diet your way to fitness? Last year, a study with the title, “Weight Loss With a Low-Carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or Low-Fat Diet,” published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported on the two-year effectiveness of these three types of diet for overweight people. It showed somewhat better results for low-carbohydrate diets, and there were no signs of the health risks that some people claim for these kinds of diets.
The results of this study are certainly encouraging. It looks like all we need to do is go on a low-carb diet and we’ll shed those excess pounds faster than with any other diet. Or is it? Unfortunately, there’s more to the story, and not even the best diet plan possible will give you true fitness and health.
One big problem with basing your fitness plans on dieting is that diets don’t take into account this muscle loss. Effective diets may take fat off your frame, but they don’t help prevent this muscle loss, and they certainly don’t help you add muscle. You might not know this, but starting at the age of 30 or so, we naturally begin losing muscle mass. Without taking steps to remedy this, a person is likely to lose 5 to 10 pounds of muscle for every ten years they age. That’s a lot of muscle, and something that diet plans do nothing to prevent.
Secondly, the results cited in this study are weak. The participants were overweight men and women, or people with Type 2 diabetes. They were placed on one of three diet approaches. They were also given instructions and materials specific to the diet they were to follow. Over the course of two years, each group of people had eighteen 90-minute meetings with a dietician to help them stay on track. People who had trouble sticking to the plan received motivational phone calls as well.
Here are the numerical results of the study. For people who stuck with it the entire two years, the average weight loss for the low-fat diet was 3.3 kg (7.27 lb), for the Mediterranean diet was 4.6 kg (10.14 lb), and for the low-carb diet was 5.5 kg (12.13 lb). There were also some positive changes in markers of health such as cholesterol levels.
These results are very discouraging. With a lot of support and professional coaching, the best diet only produced a 12 pound loss in two years. That’s about a half a pound a month. Of course for an overweight person to lose weight safely over the long term is a good thing, but we’re not talking about impressive results here. What about for you? Would losing 12 pounds in 2 years, while simultaneously losing muscle mass, make you feel better about your health and fitness?
A good diet is clearly an important piece of your health and fitness puzzle. And now we know that a low-carbohydrate diet is probably the best choice whether you want to drop some pounds or avoid putting on excess weight to begin with. Unfortunately, it’s also clear that diet alone isn’t enough to get you the kind of fitness you desire. You’re going to need to break down and go for a complete fitness program, one that combines exercise and good nutrition.
