Want to Lose Weight? Eat Some Carbs

A simple walk around the block made Sue Concard's legs feel like they were on fire.

"My legs would burn and hurt because I wasn't eating any carbs," Concard of Virginia Beach says. And that wasn't all.

"It wasn't a realistic life change for me," she says. "I like vegetables and fruit, but I wasn't able to have them on this diet."

So Concard went the old fashioned route - a simpler diet, plus exercise. She lost 40 pounds and has kept it off for more than a year.

But more than 30 million Americans are on a low-carb diet, according to a survey by Shape Up America!, a nonprofit organization that helps people manage weight.

Low-carb yummies

Studies have yet to show whether low-carb diets provide long-term weight loss. Yet hundreds of reformulated foods that were forbidden on Atkins and South Beach diets are showing up on store shelves. Americans are loading up shopping carts with low-carb ice cream, low-carb cakes, low-carb chocolate and more.

These new low-carb products encourage people to think they can eat all the low-carb foods they want even if these products are high in fat and calories. Some new low-carb foods have the same, if not more, calories than their counterparts. Sometimes they may have more fat.

"People are confused about what a carbohydrate really is," says Barbara J. Moore, Ph.D., president and CEO of Shape Up America!.

Carbs the new villain

"It's unfortunate that carbs are identified as the villain. It's just like fat was 10 years ago. People really don't understand the foods they are eating."

Adding to the confusion is a new term from food manufacturers: net carbs. "Net carbs have no meaning. Consumers are being led down the garden path," Moore says. The Food and Drug Administration has not set regulations on these claims.

Following a low-carb lifestyle, particularly one that is haphazard, is dangerous, Moore says.

"You are depriving your body of carbs, which your body uses for energy. It is the preferred source of energy for your brain," she says. "Because of this, the body is desperately seeking energy and turns to the body's own stores of carbohydrate to meet this need. Because carbohydrates are stored along with water, this water is released and excreted when you use up your carb stores. As a consequence, you lose water and your body becomes dehydrated, accounting for the extra weight loss."

Headaches, dizziness, high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and severe constipation are the possible health risks.

How to lose weight

The formula for weight loss is simple: Eat fewer calories, eat nutritionally packed, low-fat foods and exercise. All foods give us energy - to walk, to breathe, to think. The three fuel sources in food are carbohydrates, protein and fats. Carbs should make up 55 percent of your daily calories. On a 2,000-calorie diet, you should get 275 grams of carbs. Protein should be about 15 percent to 20 percent, and fats make up the remainder. Carbs are stored in your liver and muscles for vital energy reserves, needed for physical activity.

"We are eating too much fat and cholesterol. We need to be eating an abundance of fruits and vegetables, but these diets turn all that on its head. This flies in the face of the larger body of literature that demonstrates that this is not healthy," Moore says.

Here are tips for changing your lifestyle.

• Choose a diet with 55 percent carbohydrates, 15 percent to 20 percent protein and the rest from fats.

• Eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables along with three servings of low- or nonfat dairy foods a day. This helps with long-term weight loss, reduces blood pressure, lowers cholesterol and reduces risk for some cancers.

• Calories count. Learn about portion sizes, and make two-thirds of your plate fruits and vegetables. You can eat more while consuming fewer calories. But don't go back for seconds.

• Get your fiber to help fight heart disease and cancer.

• Eating healthy is a lifestyle change. There is no such thing as a good or bad food, but you could be eating too much of the calorie dense and nutritionally empty foods.

• Start an exercise program and build up to 30 minutes most days of the week.

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External Source Shape Up America!

This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.

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