Is This the End of the Low-Carb Diet for Weight Loss?

Have you ever tried, or thought about trying, a low-carb diet for weight loss?

Well, you might want to think again…

…because according to new research, low-carb and ketogenic diets are in big trouble.

Today, doctors and nutritionists everywhere are recommending these diets more than ever before.

And this only continues to add to the misinformation and thyroid confusion.

In fact, just yesterday I received a comment from a reader who is just beginning to feel the difference that the right carbohydrates can make.

Yet all three of her healthcare professionals are unhappy with her dietary improvements. And they continue to push her toward a ketogenic diet even though she says the right carbohydrates “seems to work for me”.

(I’ll show you what I mean about “the right carbohydrates” in just a minute.)

I’ve written in detail about the dangers of low-carb diets and how they fail to properly support thyroid health.

Yet many are still clinging to low-carb diets in hopes of losing weight and keeping it off.

Now, new research has shown that low-carb and ketogenic diets may not be as effective for weight loss as once thought.

And that carbohydrates are NOT the cause of today’s obesity epidemic.

Debunked: The Low-Carb for Weight Loss Hypothesis

Meet Gary Taubes…

For years low-carb advocates, such as Gary Taubes, have claimed that carbohydrates are the cause of today’s obesity problems.

Taubes makes these claims based on the Carbohydrate-Insulin Hypothesis for Obesity.

The Carbohydrate-Insulin Hypothesis states that obesity is caused by high insulin levels.

It claims that insulin increases fat storage while starving the body. And that this leads to increased hunger and decreased energy expenditure.

In other words, Taubes claims that eating carbs:

Promotes fat storage
Prevents fat loss
Leads to overeating
Lowers your metabolism
All which results in obesity

Now, there has been plenty of previous research challenging this hypothesis.

But Taubes claimed that no study conducted has been able to disprove it…

… until now.

Meet obesity researcher, Dr. Kevin Hall.

Dr. Kevin Hall conducted a landmark study to end the debate over the low-carb diet hypothesis.

And this landmark study showed that low-carb diets are actually worse for fat loss than higher-carb diets.

Energy expenditure and body composition changes after an isocaloric ketogenic diet in overweight and obese men
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2016/07/05/ajcn.116.133561.abstract
“Body fat loss slowed during the KD and coincided with increased protein utilization and loss of fat-free mass. Conclusion: The isocaloric KD was not accompanied by increased body fat loss”

You can see Kevin Hall explain some of the results of this study in this video here:

The Low-Carb Study Results

There were two phases of the study:

The higher-carbohydrate phase (50% of total calories from carbs and 25% of total calories from sugar)
The low-carb phase (5% of total calories from carbs and 2% of total calories from sugar)

During the higher-carbohydrate phase, subjects lost 1.1 lbs. of body weight over the final two weeks of the higher-carbohydrate phase.

During the low-carbohydrate phase, subjects did lose weight quickly in the beginning.

Yet, it was NOT from fat loss.

With the low-carb diet, fat loss actually slowed significantly.

During the initial two week low-carb phase, fat loss slowed while lean tissue declined.

Researchers noted these changes were associated with shifts in energy stores and stress-related hormones such as cortisol.

During the final two weeks of the low-carb phase, overall weight loss slowed considerably. And fat loss remained lower than during the higher-carbohydrate diet.

Over the course of the study, the low-carbohydrate diet resulted in far less fat loss than the higher-carbohydrate diet.

According to Kevin Hall…

“…it took the full 28 days of a ketogenic diet to lose the same amount of fat as was lost in the first 15 days of the normal carbohydrate diet.”

Now, as expected, the low-carb ketogenic diet resulted in the following changes:

47% reduction in insulin secretion
11-fold increase in urinary ketones
Large increase in levels of circulating fats in the bloodstream

These were the exact changes that were expected by low-carb advocates.

Yet, they did not result in greater fat loss as expected, according to the Carbohydrate-Insulin Hypothesis for Obesity.

This is extremely important because it shows that low-carb advocates are wrong about insulin.

It shows that insulin doesn’t work the way many doctors and low-carb advocates believe it does.

This study showed that low-carb diets are not the answer to today’s obesity problem.

But more importantly… it showed that eating carbohydrates and insulin are not the cause of obesity either.

What This Study Means to You and Your Thyroid

This study adds to the discussion around how diet patterns may influence energy balance and thyroid support, while also supporting much of what we teach here at Forefront Health.

Researchers observed that lower-carbohydrate diets were associated with changes in liver energy stores and stress-related hormones.
These shifts can affect how energized and resilient you feel.

The low-carb diet also resulted in high levels of circulating fats in the bloodstream.These elevated fats have been explored in research for their potential influence on how efficiently cells respond to thyroid hormone.And when those circulating fats are primarily polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs), they may not provide the same nutritional support for overall thyroid health as other fat sources might.

These Are the Carbohydrates You Should Be Eating for Weight Loss

This study doesn’t mean that high levels of insulin aren’t problematic.

However, not all carbohydrates are equal when it comes to insulin response.

And this is why we focus primarily on fruit, and fruit-like sugars, for carbohydrates.

Fruits that contain fructose tend to have a different impact on insulin response compared to starches.

For many, this can make them easier to incorporate without the same spikes and crashes.

So, they can be used safely to help support healthy blood sugar handling.

It’s easy to become consumed in the search for some miracle weight loss diet that doesn’t exist.

And we now know that low-carb diets are not the answer for weight loss.

However, we also know that your thyroid regulates your metabolism. And anything that supports your thyroid function can help support a healthy metabolism.

And this can be accomplished through your diet.

You’ll learn one of the easiest ways to use your diet to support your metabolism and thyroid function when you download the 3 Food Triple-Thyroid-Boosting Daily Protocol.