More and more people think that they need to lose weight and start different diets, most of them based on the idea that in order to lose weight, they have to cut their calorie intake, exercise more or preferably both. It seems that people are increasingly aware of their health and willing to work towards it. But how come the obesity problem is still growing both in the US and in other Western countries? Are people lying about their exercise and eating habits? Are they doing it wrong? Why do they keep gaining pounds despite dieting and exercise?
Here is the answer: gaining weight isn’t about eating too many calories and counting calories is not the way to lose weight. Counting calories means counting the energy from the macro-nutrients: protein (4 cal/1 gram), carbohydrates (4 cal/1 gram) and fat (9 cal/1 gram), so based on this it makes sense that most of the low-calorie diets are high in carbohydrates and low in fat. But the thing is, not all the calories are the same. The human body processes the nutrients differently.
The only macro-nutrient causing weight gain is carbohydrate. People are also different when it comes to their ability to deal with carbohydrates. Some people don’t seem to gain weight, no matter how much or what they eat. The reason is that their bodies are able to work more effectively when processing carbohydrates. They are able to burn them all, and there is nothing left to store as body fat.
Then there are the people who gain weight. Their bodies are slow when it comes to burning carbs, and they end up putting on pounds. These people might gain weight even when being extremely hungry on a low-calorie diet like the 1000 calorie diet, if the diet is high on carbohydrates, like most low-calorie diets are. How to lose weight fast then? Like Edward Banting described already in 1863, the best way to lose weight is a high-fat, high-protein diet, the only restriction being the amount of carbohydrates (sugar and starches). If you keep the carb count below 60 grams a day, you should see fast weight loss. There is no calorie limitation in a low-carb lifestyle so you get to eat as much as you feel like while losing weight!