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Medical Weight Loss Updates: Part 3 – Carbohydrates

Posted: Nov 12 in Medical Weight Loss News, Nutrition, Obesity Medicine by

Medical Weight Loss Updates CarbohydatesFor many years, Dr. Lazarus and the staff at CNC have utilized low carbohydrate diets to achieve weight loss. This remains a common practice among medical weight loss doctors. But what about long-term maintenance of weight loss?

Even after a successful weight loss with a low carbohydrate diet, many individuals struggle with weight regain. A common explanation is that we go back to our old habits, thus returning to our former weight. Part 1 of this series casts doubt on this explanation (read more about the energy gap here). But, really if a low carbohydrate diet was used for weight loss, the low-carbohydrate diet should be continued. Why are low carbohydrate diets helpful for long-term weight loss? Here are several explanations:

  • Assuming adequate protein on the low carbohydrate diet, there is less loss of lean body weight preserving metabolism. This study was published earlier this year (Ebbeling CB, JAMA 2012).
  • It takes a lot of energy to process protein. In fact, more energy is used to process protein compared to carbohydrates or fat.
  • With low carbohydrates available, our body’s must make glucose from protein, which also utilizes a lot of energy.
  • The foods we eat suppress appetite differently in this order:
    Protein > Fat > Carbohydrates
    (Batterham RL, Cell Metabolism 2006)
    So, high protein diets are much more satiating than high fat diets or high carbohydrate diets. In fact, the more fat is present in a meal, the more fat we will eat, without even being aware of the calories we consumed.

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