Why do Protein Diets work?

I realise that my emphasis on the part the brain plays in dieting rather than an emphasis on the food types that we incorporate in our diets, is going against the whole ethos of the dieting industry — who want to sell you their pills, potions and foods. To me, it Is obvious — the dieting industry has failed us all miserably but still makes its billions every year.

Am I saying the type of food you eat is not significant? Not at all — it is very significant providing the brain accepts it for your own body: for example, celiacs cannot include gluten regardless of what the current crash diet proposes. You have to find your own way forward for your own brain and body by changing your diet a small number of changes at a time, otherwise the brain goes “eek, I am not standing for all this change”, and your willpower then launches a battle against your brain that your willpower is most unlikely to win in the long run.

When we grasp the overarching importance of the brain and its processes of returning you to homeostasis, a lot of things begin to make sense. The brain uses invisible weapons to our conscious minds to regain homeostasis. For example — manipulating our homones being one unexpected and invisible weapon, another the slowing of metabolic rate so that food is deposited in the body rather than burnt up, another the introduction of cravings and appetite enhancement. If you want to fight your brain daily and be miserable after the euphoria of the first few weeks, go for it and I hope very much that it works for you, otherwise adopt the Rudolph Diet that I am proposing.

Here is another recent research that has turned up an unexpected result, as commented on by Carmel Sparke on 5th November 2018. I will quote her whole article summarising the research below for you to ponder; but what it has found is that counting calories (energy potential) in diets does not necessarily correlate directly to losing weight — food is used in the body for much more than energy production!! Counting calories while a rough guide is one of the best tools on the diet market but has inherent inaccuracies — the assumption is that providing you keep below a certain calorific intake you will lose weight as a direct consequence.

The “biggest loser” research I quoted in Post 2 on Brainy Dieting disproves that assumption absolutely, for the reasons given in that Post.

Here is a further reason — food is used in the body for far more than simply energy production. For example, protein is the only food used for bodily growth and repair and much of it when needed is used for these structural changes rather than simply being stored, as happens to excess carbohydrates. Bodily growth and repair are high energy activities compared to bodily food storage, and slow-burning fats may provide energy more efficiently for these processes rather than faster metabolised carbohydrates. The Atkins high-protein diet illustrated this very well. Much more research needs to be done on this theme — but see how you go with Carmel Sparke’s article. Then please ponder your own eating habits when compared to my Post 3 — the Rudolph Diet — which is my final post on this theme.

Here is her article:

A low-carb diet could help overweight patients maintain weight loss, especially if they have high insulin secretion, new research shows.

Despite being on equal-energy diets, those on a low-carbohydrate diet burn more energy than those on higher amounts of carbohydrate, according to the study in the BMJ.

“Consistent with the carbohydrate–insulin model, lowering dietary carbohydrate increased energy expenditure during weight-loss maintenance,” say the researchers from Harvard Medical School, US.

“This metabolic effect may improve the success of obesity treatment, especially among those with high insulin secretion.”

THE RESEARCHERS WANT TO SEE WHETHER DIETARY COMPOSITION AFFECTS ENERGY EXPENDITURE IN PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY LOST WEIGHT.

“With weight loss, hunger increases and energy expenditure decreases — physiological adaptions that defend against long-term weight change,” they say.

In the study, they randomly assigned 164 adults who had recently lost 10% of their weight to three groups, who were then given either a high-, moderate- or low-carb diet for 20 weeks.

Subjects were paid more than US$3000 to participate.

The high-carb diets contained 60% of energy from carbohydrates, the moderate 40% and the low 20%.

Energy from protein was a constant 20% in all diets, and the energy from fat was adjusted to make up the balance.

In all three groups, calorie intake was set at level designed to keep the participants at their new lower weights.

The main outcome was measured energy expenditure.

The researchers also measured insulin secretion before the initial weight loss.

The less energy provided by carbs, the more energy the participants burned each day.

Those eating the moderate-carb and low-carb diets burned 91 and 209kcal a day, respectively, more than those on the high-carb diet.

And those with the highest insulin secretion at the start of the study burned even more kilocalories — 308kcal a day.

There were significant changes in the hormones that regulated metabolism, with lower levels of ghrelin and leptin in those on the low-carb diet, which could underlie the results, the researchers suggest.

“A low glycaemic load, high-fat diet might facilitate weight loss maintenance beyond the conventional focus on restricting energy intake and encouraging physical activity,” they conclude.