Do Low Carb Diets Work?

It never fails. When January rolls around, and sometimes the week just prior, the low-carb boards and egroups fill up with folks who are returning to the low-carb lifestyle. Why? Because – despite their good intensions and strong determination to eat the low-carb way for the rest of their life, something caused the pounds to creep back on.

Sometimes, the detour was deliberate, but most of the time, something in themselves or their life caused them to lose sight of their goals.

Let’s face it: Eating low carb is not easy! Eating low carb is hard! It’s a radical switch from the way most people eat. It’s an almost primitive, backwards style from what health-conscious medical doctors and nutritionists recommend. It’s loaded with protein and fat, ignores the pleas from professionals and government agencies to eat lots of whole grains, and forbids almost all types of low-calorie fruits when you’re still in weight-loss mode. In fact, to most folks, it’s almost sacrilegious.

Those who enter into the low-carb world are deeply motivated to lose weight. They have to be to put up with all of the crap we put up with. Yet, all of those I-told-you-so taunts are not enough to keep us from putting the weight back on. “See, I told you: Low carb is not sustainable.” “A low-carb diet is dangerous.” “A low-carb way of life is boring.” Well, perhaps they got that one right – if your diet is as limited as mine is.

Here it is, almost January again. New Years’ resolutions bring us back for another low-carb diet round. Another year; another try to reach our goal weight.

In some ways, I can relate to the problem. Each time my body decides to start reacting to something new, I pack on a few more pounds. So my weight has slowly crept upwards from the 150 pounds I weighed when a low-carb diet stopped working for me, but that isn’t low carb’s fault. It’s mine. If I had listened Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution in the mid '70s and used Dr. Atkins’ advice to maintain that weight, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

But it’s hard for first-timers to believe that.

There’s a lot of opinion going around concerning the One Golden Shot Theory. Most low carbers don’t want to believe it. They can’t. It would destroy their hope, and hope is essential if we’re going to one day find and cross the finish line. However, I think it’s good to talk about it, rather than denying it exists, because people who are new to low carb really need to understand the risk they are taking if they jump ship.

A low-carb diet works. It works exceptionally well for those who have never low carbed before. I watched an uncle of mine go from severely obese to normal weight the first time around, and he is able to easily maintain it today by eating within reason. I, myself, lost all of my excess weight (about 40 pounds) back in the '70s within 2 months on the original Atkins diet – but I didn’t understand how important learning to maintain my weight was.

That doesn’t mean that if this is your second or third attempt you won’t do okay. You most likely will. It will come off slower, since your body already knows how many ketones to make, but it will still come off – provided your fat metabolism is in good working condition. A low-carb diet works for most people. It works particularly well if you’re willing and able to curb your fat and calorie intake to whatever is necessary to make it work.

And that seems to be the bottom line.    

Unless you have particular health issues and biological problems that interfere with the science behind it, a low carb diet works if you want it to work. It works if you do whatever is necessary to make your weight loss goals happen.