Sioux Falls Health Reporter Should Do Her Homework On Low-Carb
This health report from KELO-TV in Sioux Falls, South Dakota makes a lot of assumptions about the low-carb lifestyle that have no bearing whatsoever on how well it helps you lose weight.
The segment was conducted by a woman named Jaine Andrews, an award-winning medical reporter for KELO who focuses on the latest health news. She uses her experience as a nationally-registered EMT-B to educate her television audience with the information they need regarding health and nutrition.
Unfortunately, Andrews apparently did not do her homework before airing this particular health story highly critical of the low-carb lifestyle.
She states in her piece that people who have been successful on low-carb over the long-term have actually learned to limit their fat and calories.
"If you've been watching someone quickly shed pounds on a low-carb diet, it's easy to assume that foods low in carbohydrates are also low in calories," she explained. "But doctors say that's not necessarily true. In fact, regardless of how they shed pounds in the first place, big losers stayed that way limiting fat rather than carbohydrates."
I'm sorry, Ms. Andrews, but that's just plain wrong information. As someone who has been on a low-carb lifestyle since January 1, 2004 starting out at a very unhealthy 410 pounds, I have been consuming more calories and much more fat than I have ever done on any diet plan in my entire life. After shedding 180 pounds in about a year, I have continued to eat a lot of fat and calories while watching my carb intake to maintain my weight loss over the past six months.
There is no correlation between low-carb and low-calorie foods in any form or fashion. And nor should there be! When you are livin' la vida low-carb, you don't have to pay attention to calories or even fat grams because it is the amount of carbs you eat that will determine whether your weight loss will continue or be maintained. As long as you limit your carb intake to the level of carbs you are allowed to eat in a day without gaining weight, you should maintain your weight fine. But if you start eating more carbs than your body actually needs, there will be a simultaneous weight GAIN that will occur.
As for the "big losers" comment about keeping the weight off, I guess my 180 pounds wouldn't be classified as such since I haven't been cutting my fat intake, but rather my carb intake! That ridiculous statement from Andrews shows just how incredibly uninformed she is about the healthy benefits of a low-carb lifestyle. But she can't help it, I guess, because that's probably what she's been taught in her education about health and nutrition. But as someone who has been reporting on the topic for more than a decade, I think Andrews should start relying on her own empirical research and studies to come to better conclusions that will help her viewers know the WHOLE TRUTH about the health opportunities available to them.
Quoting a local bariatric clinic doctor, Andrews said these findings about low-carb strengthen reports that their popularity has diminished and are not meant for long-term weight loss.
"What happens is they go through the diet and they lose a little bit of weight," the bariatric doctor told Andrews. "They get off the diet because these diets are not diets that you can live on forever. These are very restrictive diets in one way or another and, you know once they get off the diet their weight zooms right back up because they haven't learned how to keep the weight permanently off."
What's so hard about staying on low-carb? I have personally found it to be the easiest, best-tasting "diet" I have ever done in my entire life. Sure, you give up a few things that are detrimental to your health such as sugar and white flour. But, oh my goodness, look at all the delicious, mouthwatering choices you have at your fingertips when it's time to eat! Restrictive? Hardly. But a low-fat diet is about the hardest diet you could ever do because the choices are a lot more limited on that plan than any other.
As for getting off the low-carb program, of course you'll gain back the weight. But I contend there are millions of people just like me who have made this our permanent way of eating. Livin' la vida low-carb isn't just some fad we're doing for the sake of losing a few pounds and then going back to "normal" eating. We see low-carb as a way of life that we will do for the rest of our lives. We don't need any experts telling us it is wrong for us when all we have seen is tremendous and permanent success.
Supposedly a ten-year study by the National Weight Control Registry found that most people who have lost at least 30 pounds or more and kept it off for a year did it on a low-fat diet.
If that's the case for most people, then more power to them! But don't tell me sustained weight loss cannot be done using the low-carb approach. I'm just one of many who are living proof that this lifestyle works and works very well in the long-term.
"According to one researcher, most of the dieters who continued eating low-carb managed to eat enough calories to re-gain the weight."
What?! That's a bunch of psuedo-science, psycho-babble malarky! There is no evidence that shows low-carbers gain back their weight because they continued to eat more calories than they would on a low-fat plan. I've said it already, but I'll say it again. You don't count calories on low-carb. You just don't! As long as you keep your carb intake controlled, you will maintain your weight loss or even continue losing weight. Stating that low-carbers will start packing on the pounds eating the same way they lost the weight is just fearmongering by those opposed to this healthy alternative way of eating we have chosen.
Interestingly, the National Weight Control Registry is looking for anyone who has lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least a year. I signed up for the registry today since I lost 30 pounds in my first month on low-carb in January 2004. I think you could count my losing another 150 pounds as "keeping it off! :-) They are supposed to check in with you periodically to see if the weight loss has been maintained. I know it will for me as long as I keep on livin' la vida low-carb!
How about all of us who have been successful on low-carb signing up for this registry and prove to them that their findings are grossly inaccurate and obviously not based on real people who are making low-carb their lifestyle of choice?! Sign up by clicking here.
And as for Andrews, why don't you drop her an e-mail urging her to report the truth about the effectiveness of low-carb instead of heralding the failed low-fat/low-calorie weight loss diets! Tell her to study more about low-carb so she can better inform her viewers of the amazing weight loss and health benefits it has to offer them.
The segment was conducted by a woman named Jaine Andrews, an award-winning medical reporter for KELO who focuses on the latest health news. She uses her experience as a nationally-registered EMT-B to educate her television audience with the information they need regarding health and nutrition.
Unfortunately, Andrews apparently did not do her homework before airing this particular health story highly critical of the low-carb lifestyle.
She states in her piece that people who have been successful on low-carb over the long-term have actually learned to limit their fat and calories.
"If you've been watching someone quickly shed pounds on a low-carb diet, it's easy to assume that foods low in carbohydrates are also low in calories," she explained. "But doctors say that's not necessarily true. In fact, regardless of how they shed pounds in the first place, big losers stayed that way limiting fat rather than carbohydrates."
I'm sorry, Ms. Andrews, but that's just plain wrong information. As someone who has been on a low-carb lifestyle since January 1, 2004 starting out at a very unhealthy 410 pounds, I have been consuming more calories and much more fat than I have ever done on any diet plan in my entire life. After shedding 180 pounds in about a year, I have continued to eat a lot of fat and calories while watching my carb intake to maintain my weight loss over the past six months.
There is no correlation between low-carb and low-calorie foods in any form or fashion. And nor should there be! When you are livin' la vida low-carb, you don't have to pay attention to calories or even fat grams because it is the amount of carbs you eat that will determine whether your weight loss will continue or be maintained. As long as you limit your carb intake to the level of carbs you are allowed to eat in a day without gaining weight, you should maintain your weight fine. But if you start eating more carbs than your body actually needs, there will be a simultaneous weight GAIN that will occur.
As for the "big losers" comment about keeping the weight off, I guess my 180 pounds wouldn't be classified as such since I haven't been cutting my fat intake, but rather my carb intake! That ridiculous statement from Andrews shows just how incredibly uninformed she is about the healthy benefits of a low-carb lifestyle. But she can't help it, I guess, because that's probably what she's been taught in her education about health and nutrition. But as someone who has been reporting on the topic for more than a decade, I think Andrews should start relying on her own empirical research and studies to come to better conclusions that will help her viewers know the WHOLE TRUTH about the health opportunities available to them.
Quoting a local bariatric clinic doctor, Andrews said these findings about low-carb strengthen reports that their popularity has diminished and are not meant for long-term weight loss.
"What happens is they go through the diet and they lose a little bit of weight," the bariatric doctor told Andrews. "They get off the diet because these diets are not diets that you can live on forever. These are very restrictive diets in one way or another and, you know once they get off the diet their weight zooms right back up because they haven't learned how to keep the weight permanently off."
What's so hard about staying on low-carb? I have personally found it to be the easiest, best-tasting "diet" I have ever done in my entire life. Sure, you give up a few things that are detrimental to your health such as sugar and white flour. But, oh my goodness, look at all the delicious, mouthwatering choices you have at your fingertips when it's time to eat! Restrictive? Hardly. But a low-fat diet is about the hardest diet you could ever do because the choices are a lot more limited on that plan than any other.
As for getting off the low-carb program, of course you'll gain back the weight. But I contend there are millions of people just like me who have made this our permanent way of eating. Livin' la vida low-carb isn't just some fad we're doing for the sake of losing a few pounds and then going back to "normal" eating. We see low-carb as a way of life that we will do for the rest of our lives. We don't need any experts telling us it is wrong for us when all we have seen is tremendous and permanent success.
Supposedly a ten-year study by the National Weight Control Registry found that most people who have lost at least 30 pounds or more and kept it off for a year did it on a low-fat diet.
If that's the case for most people, then more power to them! But don't tell me sustained weight loss cannot be done using the low-carb approach. I'm just one of many who are living proof that this lifestyle works and works very well in the long-term.
"According to one researcher, most of the dieters who continued eating low-carb managed to eat enough calories to re-gain the weight."
What?! That's a bunch of psuedo-science, psycho-babble malarky! There is no evidence that shows low-carbers gain back their weight because they continued to eat more calories than they would on a low-fat plan. I've said it already, but I'll say it again. You don't count calories on low-carb. You just don't! As long as you keep your carb intake controlled, you will maintain your weight loss or even continue losing weight. Stating that low-carbers will start packing on the pounds eating the same way they lost the weight is just fearmongering by those opposed to this healthy alternative way of eating we have chosen.
Interestingly, the National Weight Control Registry is looking for anyone who has lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least a year. I signed up for the registry today since I lost 30 pounds in my first month on low-carb in January 2004. I think you could count my losing another 150 pounds as "keeping it off! :-) They are supposed to check in with you periodically to see if the weight loss has been maintained. I know it will for me as long as I keep on livin' la vida low-carb!
How about all of us who have been successful on low-carb signing up for this registry and prove to them that their findings are grossly inaccurate and obviously not based on real people who are making low-carb their lifestyle of choice?! Sign up by clicking here.
And as for Andrews, why don't you drop her an e-mail urging her to report the truth about the effectiveness of low-carb instead of heralding the failed low-fat/low-calorie weight loss diets! Tell her to study more about low-carb so she can better inform her viewers of the amazing weight loss and health benefits it has to offer them.
posted by Jimmy Moore at
5/28/2005 02:54:00 PM
1 Comments:
Just in case you missed my response to this ridiculous post, you can read it here.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home