In an earlier article I pointed out that diets with 15% or 25% protein resulted in the least amount of loss of lean muscle mass while dieting. An article published June 27, 2012 in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that the optimal diet for weight loss is a low-glycemic load diet. The study itself was quite interesting. Between June 2006 and June 2010 21 overweight and obese young adults were put on a diet so that they would lose 10-15% of their body weight. This run-in phase primed them: once a heavy person loses weight, they are much more likely to gain weight than someone of the same weight who was never heavy. So it truly takes less for them to gain weight. The participants were than randomly put on one of three diets for 4 weeks and then moved onto the next diet for another 4 weeks and so on. One diet was typical low fat diet (20% fat, 60% carbohydrate, 20% protein), another was very low carbohydrate (10% carbohydrate, 60% fat, and 30% protein), and the third was the high glycemic index diet (20-30% protein, 40-50% carbs, 30% fat). People expended the most energy while on the very low carbohydrate diet and the least energy on the low fat diet. The high glycemic index diet split the difference, burning 150 calories more at rest than did those on the low fat diet. The low fat diet exacerbated risk factors for metabolic syndrome, such as insulin resistance, triglycerides, and lower HDL and higher CRP, a measure of chronic inflammation. Stress hormones were also elevated on the low fat diet.
Studies such as these show that calories are not all created equal from a metabolic perspective. The low glycemic index is the one most recommended by Functional Medicien practitioners.
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