Are low carbohydrate diets the solution to obesity problems?

Obesity problems abound in today’s society. As an industrialized society, we are getting bigger. But is obesity just a combination of overeating and underactivity? We all know people who eat and eat and eat but don’t gain an ounce. Conversely, we also know people who eat small portions of bird food but are seriously overweight. Sometimes it seems that obesity problems have more to do with a simple matter of consumption and spending.

One of the problems with obesity has to be a problem with metabolic functions. Is it possible that people with obesity problems have such a metabolism that they do not process food normally? Does a person who weighs more than 300 pounds always eat too much and do too little? Gyms are full of people who want to lose weight and sweat it out only to find that they can’t take any steps towards losing weight. Many obese people have been referred to psychiatrists, psychologists, and dieticians to help combat the problem of obesity. They are put on low-fat diets, low-calorie diets, and told to exercise more. Many times these measures do not lead to weight loss and only increase psychological problems. Telling them they have to change their habits adds guilt to their already fragile egos. Does it make sense to tell an obese person that their obesity problem is the result of a lack of will power?

There are studies that have been done on obese rats. There is a genus of rats called Zucker rats that are genetically predisposed to obesity. It was found that these rats that followed a strictly reduced calorie diet turned out to be fatter than their cousins, who were allowed to eat as much as they wanted. Rigorous dieting was found to result in deterioration of vital organs and muscles, but did not reduce body fat.

One of the famous diet techniques involves severe carbohydrate reductions. The Atkins diet is quite famous for that weight loss plan. Low-carbohydrate diets were found to result in much greater weight loss than no restriction of carbohydrate intake. However, this study concluded that the scientific data was insufficient to draw a long-term conclusion. One study actually found that putting obese people on a high-protein diet rich in fatty meats and eggs resulted in much greater weight loss than diets that reduced any fat. These people were put on diets that encouraged patients to eat more calories than fewer. They received 3,000 calories per day, of which only 80 calories were made up of carbohydrates per meal. These patients were also instructed not to use sugar or starch.

In recent studies, researchers have found that low-carb diets work much better than low-calorie, low-fat diets. There is also evidence that they not only result in greater weight loss, but also maintain better lipid profiles.