All right, lets get to The One Step Secret to Weight Loss! You are going to love this even more after I tell you that it doesn’t involve you doing ANYTHING! What? How can I lose weight, for free, and without putting out any effort? Sorry, but this sounds far too good to be true! It does sound too good to be true, but sometimes most simple and effective things in life are most easily overlooked.

The One Step Secret to Weight Loss: Do not eat three hours before you go to bed. That’s it! No fancy pills, no excruciating workouts. Simply stop eating three hours before you retire for night. This means that if you plan on going to bed at 11pm, last item of food that you will eat that night will be no later than 8pm. To help you in this process try brushing your teeth at 8pm to remind yourself that you are done eating for day. I know this sounds too easy to result in major weight loss, but after doing this for 30 days you will find yourself laughing at diet pill commercials as you celebrate your newfound weight loss!

To be fair, there are significant and many research papers that support and argue against low carb revolution, as yet wider medical community has not fully made it’s mind up as to whether diets are something that is favourable in long term.

Recent research by Layman et. al., and Saris have found that low carb and high protein diets provide little benefit to dieters. Researchers found that when protein was moderately increased and carbohydrates proportionately decreased, insulin levels stabilised but no significant weight was lost. Saris in his review concluded that it is probable that a low carb, high fat diet will increase likelihood of weight gain.

While there is a lot of evidence against low carb philosophy, there is also a lot of evidence to support it. Research published in May, 2004, found that when patients on a low carb diet were compared with patients on a low fat diet, those patients who had consumed a low carb diet had a greater weight loss, decreased triglyceride levels and increased levels of HDL's - in other words their cholesterol levels had improved. To put icing on cake research has just been published to support long term efficacy of eating a low carb diet.

Despite evidence to support low carb diet plans, mainstream medicine still does not recommend them. The main points of contention with low carb, high protein diets is that they don’t offer balance and variety and could prove dangerous for people at risk of heart disease. Particularly with low carb diet plans such as scarsdale diet, they are not realistic and cannot be maintained in long term causing yo-yo dieting and no one wants that !

References:

Wim HM Saris Sugars, energy metabolism, and body weight control Am J Clin Nutr 78: 850S-857S

Donald K. Layman, Harn Shiue, Carl Sather, Donna J. Erickson and Jamie Baum Increased Dietary Protein Modifies Glucose and Insulin Homeostasis in Adult Women during Weight Loss Nutrition.org

Yamashita T, Sasahara T, Pomeroy SE, Collier G, Nestel PJ. Arterial compliance, blood pressure, plasma leptin, and plasma lipids in women are improved with weight reduction equally with a meat-based diet and a plant-based diet. Metabolism. 1998 Nov;47(11):1308-14.

Yancy WS Jr, Olsen MK, Guyton JR, Bakst RP, Westman EC. A low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet versus a low-fat diet to treat obesity and hyperlipidemia: a randomized, controlled trial. Ann Intern Med. 2004 May 18;140(10):769-77.

Copyright © 2004 Jenny Mathers. All Rights Reserved.