Losing Weight

How does one successfully and efficiently lose weight, anyway? Is dieting in fact very gruesome and difficult, should one even follow a diet at all? What should we be eating more of; fats, carbs, proteins, etc? Exercise, do you need to do it, and if so, how much? I am on a quest to find the answers to these questions.

This abstract is from a study done to find out which method of dieting is more effective for weight loss; Low fat or low carbohydrate. The conclusion was that both diets proved similar overall results in weight loss and macro nutrient distribution is not relevant to overall weight loss. Macro nutrients being; fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.

http://www.ajcn.org/content/63/2/174.short

This study compares low-carbohydrate diets to low-fat diets, with more participants dismissing the study in the low-fat diet, they concluded a low-carb diet might be more sustainable long term. Also, a greater amount of weight was lost on a low carb diet (12.9 v.s. 6.7%) after 24 weeks. On the low-carb diet, triglycerides decreased and lipo protein cholesterol levels increased.

http://annals.ba0.biz/content/140/10/769.short

Another study confirms that low carbohydrate diets are more effective than low fat diets over a short period of time, in this instance, 6 months. The participants lost18.7lbs v.s. 8.58lbs. There was no follow up observance done to monitor weight changes post-dieting.

http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/88/4/1617.short

Alright, we stand at 2:0 with low-carb dieting taking the lead. So let us now poke and prod our way into the realms of exercise. This next study compares men who ran(exercised) and men who Dieted (decreased their calorie consumption) over the course of one year.

Exercise V.S. Diet

Dieters lost 17lbs, 4.6lbs of this was lean mass (non fat)

Runners lost 10lbs, 1.5lbs of this was lean mass (non fat)

http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/88/4/1617.short

Dieters lost more weight although 27% of the weight was lean mass. Runners lost 53% less weight than dieters, but only 1% of the weight lost was lean mass. Could we argue then, that the men who exercised also gained lean body mass (muscle)? I think so, but feel free to form your own opinion! But, just to expand on the topic we should look at another article.

This abstract says that dieting produces more overall weight loss than that from exercising. However, the weight that is lost from dieting does include a substantial amount of lean body mass or muscle. The abstract continues by stating exercise helps with weight distribution but it is not the best formula for weight loss alone.

http://www.annals.org/content/119/7_Part_2/702.short

I personally think, it is the combination of both exercise and nutrition. Which still, leaves open the question of which types of exercise are better; cardiovascular (aerobic) or weight resistance lifting (anaerobic)? We'll save that for next time as I feel we have still yet to conclude what the perfect macro nutrient balance is and how our hormones come into the picture.