These are the promises made by all those weight-control fad diets available today.
There are at least 22 of them, including the Weight Watchers and the Atkins New Revolutionary Weight Control Program, which was discussed in this column last Jan. 21.
Today, we’ll discuss two more of these diets. I encourage you to take your time in reading them – and all other succeeding discussions on this vital topic.
You owe it to yourself and to your future. Maybe you’ll find the plan that works best for you.
How Tarnower says it works: The key, Tarnower says, lies in eating the right proportions of carbohydrates (34.5 %), fat (22.5 %), and protein (43 %). For comparison, the USDA recommends 60 percent of calories from carbohydrates and no more than 30 percent from fat. Tarnower claims his mixture turns the body into an efficient "fat-burning machine." He limits the amount of calories you consume to no more than 1,000 a day during the weight-loss phase of the diet. The average recommended by the USDA is around 2,000. If you restrict your carbohydrate and fat intake, Tarnower maintains, your body starts burning fat for fuel. When your body is in this state, known as ketosis, it releases cellular waste products called ketones. According to Tarnower, ketones suppress the appetite. Along with weight, he promises you’ll lose your craving for food.
The facts of the diet: Tarnower says the Scarsdale diet is based on personal "knowledge gained through the years of medical practice, day-to-day experience with all kinds of patients and just plain common sense." He provides no evidence for his claims about the role of ketosis in weight loss, or about the efficacy of a high-protein, low-carbohydrate regimen such as his for speeding up the metabolism. Instead, Tarnower settles for enthusiastic testimonials from patients who went on his diet.
How is it done?: The weight-loss portion of the Scarsdale diet lasts for two weeks. By that point, Tarnower says, your weight should have dipped and your body will need a rest from all its frantic fat burning.
On the Scarsdale diet, all your meals are planned for you. Your beverages are limited to coffee, (black), tea, club soda, diet soda, and water. Only lean, skinned and de-fatted meat are allowed, and veggies must be served without butter or margarine. Between-meal munchies are limited to carrots and celery.
Once you’ve gotten through your two weeks, you’re supposed to stabilize your weight by going on Tarnower’s "Keep Trim" maintenance program. This is still a low-carb diet (no potatoes, spaghetti, or rice, for example), but it does permit more foods and calories than the weight-loss program. If you want to continue losing weight, you go back on the crash diet after two weeks of maintenance. Tarnower calls this his Two-On-Two-Off program. He also advises people to walk at least two miles a day or find other non-strenuous way of expending about 300 calories.
Should you try it?: This can be the fast track to weight loss. But if you zap pounds, it’s not because of any other special ratio of fat to protein to carb, as Tarnower claims, but simply because your calorie intake has plunged. Almost anyone who takes in only 1,000 calories or fewer a day will lose weight quickly. Experience shows, however, that rapid weight loss often results in rapid weight gain.
Be sure to consult your doctor before going into this diet. If you have gout, kidney or liver disease, gallstones, diabetes or risk factors for osteoporosis, or if you’re pregnant, you should avoid this diet.
How Sears says tt works: Sears claims that when you eat carbs, your pancreas secretes insulin to convert glucose into energy for the use of your body’s cells. When there is more glucose than the body can use for energy, insulin converts the excess into stored fat. Protein has an opposite effect, according to him. It causes the pancreas to release glucagon, which increases blood sugar levels by releasing stored carbohydrates from the liver. Properly balanced glucagon and insulin levels open the portal to the Zone, Sears asserts. As for dietary fat, he goes on, it supplies you with essential fatty acids, which form the building blocks of the so-called superhormones, the eicosanoids. Sears says that these eicosanoids are the chemical moderators that supervise all the body’s hormonal reactions.
How is it done?: To enter the zone, you have to figure out how many grams of protein your body needs on a daily basis. You spread out your protein allotment like a prescription drug, distributing it over three meals and two snacks and never allowing yourself to go more than five hours during the day without eating. You also need to stick to a good balance of carbs and proteins. The ideal protein-to-carb ratio is .75, which means if you eat 7.5 grams of protein at one meal, you would have 10 grams of carb to go along with it. To simplify the math, Sears converts everything into micronutrient "blocks": One protein block equals seven grams, one carbohydrate block equals nine grams, and one fat block equals one-and-a-half grams. You eat the same number of blocks of protein, carb, and fat at each meal and snack, and this enables you to maintain the proper ratio.
Is it for you?: While Sears’ high-protein diet might work for some people trying to shed weight, the physiology behind his complex theory of good and bad eicosanoids has no scientific basis. Nor is there evidence that eicosanoids are synthesized by this diet or any other. Any weight loss on Sears’ plan comes from a drop in calories, not a hormonal sea change. The diet weighs in at about 1,000 to 1,700 calories daily.
One researcher actually undertook a study comparing a Zone-type, moderately-low-carb diet with a low-fat, high-carb diet of equivalent calories. The results? Both groups lost the same amount of weight. So much for intricate theories about "good" and "bad" hormones regulating weight loss. When it comes to shedding pounds, it’s simple: Calories count.
To follow the Zone approach, you have to be willing to think of food in a whole different way – not so much as a pleasure as a medicinal prescription. You also have to be rigorous about following a plan, constructing Zone-favorable meals with just the right ratio of ingredients. You’ll be cutting back on foods that might be favorites as well, such as pastas. On the other hand, Sears does recommend a relatively plentiful pantry of healthy foods, including lean cuts of chicken and fish, abundant fruits and vegetables, and healthy monounsaturated fats such as olive oil and canola oil.
Don’t follow this diet if you’re pregnant or if you have liver or kidney disease, or osteoporosis. (The more protein you eat, the more calcium you excrete.) Those with insulin-related disorders should check with their doctor before going on this diet because, contrary to common belief and Sears’ claims, protein can stimulate insulin secretion, and there’s protein in abundance on this plan!