Low carb article.......

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posted by lil bit

I found this on one of the women's magazine's websites. This was just part of an article called "The Only 7 Things You Need to Know to Get Slim"...I know, I know, I need to stop reading that women's crap, but since I found it I thought I'd see if you guys thought it was bunk or if it might possibly be legit...

Low-carb diets dont flush calories from the body. Proponents of low-carb diets claim you can excrete fat fragments (called ketones) in urine on this type of diet, essentially flushing calories out. But a recent study at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg found no correlation between urinary ketone levels and weight change in women on low-carb diets.

Obesity expert George Bray, M.D., of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University explains that since carb cutters restrict so many foods that are normally accompanied by fat, they end up slashing calories overall. The initial rapid weight loss some carb cutters experience is caused by the body draining glycogen stores for energy. With each gram of glycogen used, 3 grams of water are released, with the result being a rapid loss in weight due to increased urination, Bray says. After about 10-14 days, increased urination ends and so does the rapid weight-loss phase.

posted by Enickma

I smell motives. There seems to be a lack of objectivity there that I like to see in what I consider credible information. The reason I say that it seems like there are alterior motives is that what they're saying is actually true, but it doesn't mean what they're trying to lead you to believe it means. True indeed, rapid weight loss at the onset of a ketogenic diet is mostly due to water loss, not fat, and that does indeed happen because the body is using glycogen stored in the muscles for fuel, and water is stored with the glycogen. You've got to deplete all of that stored glycogen to get into ketosis. I do a cyclical ketogenic diet. I cycle in and out of ketosis every week, and I can attest to how much water weight gets lost entering ketosis. When I'm glycogen depleted I'll weigh about 15 lbs less than I do loaded. That's some serious water weight IMO. What they're not telling you though is that once all the glycogen is depleted and your body switches to breaking down fat into ketones to be burned as fuel you do start burning serious body fat...like crazy. I can promise you that 100% from repeated personal experience. The fat loss will not be as rapid as the water loss. If you completely restrict carbs it only takes about 3 days to drain stored glycogen and start to switch to ketosis...that's assuming no workouts. During those 3 days you'll lose all kinds of water weight. When that's over and the fat loss starts, the fat will not be burned as fast as the water was depleted, but it will be burned a HELL of alot faster than it would be burned on a normal carb inclusive, caloric deficit cutting diet. Muscle will also be preserved to a much greater degree. Another thing they're kind of misrepresenting in my opinion is the idea that urinary ketone levels aren't an indication of the amount of weight change happening. Once again, that's true, but it doesn't mean what they're leading you to believe it means. Urinary ketone levels (for fat loss intents and purposes) are only really useful to see whether or not you're in ketosis. Ketones are excreted as waste via respiration and urine. Seeing higher levels of ketones in urine only really means that there's a higher concentration of ketones...usually means you're not drinking enough water. So when they say that urine ketone level doesn't coorelate with amount of fat loss, they're absolutely right, but that doesn't mean that mad fat isn't being burned, it just means that ketone levels don't serve as an effective indicator of how much fat is being burned. Another thing to take into consideration is that ketones are broken down from fat. If you're taking in a good amount of fat in your diet then the ketones you're seeing are probably there as a result of dietary fat being broken down rather than bodyfat. You still have to maintain a caloric deficit on a ketogenic diet to burn fat...it's just easier to do so in ketosis for several reasons.

The bottom line in my humble opinion is that what you posted was written by an author with an agenda. They're stating facts and then spinning them to suit their needs. Either that or they just have no experience with, or didn't bother properly researching and learning about what they're talking about. I can tell you for sure from personal experience that if you do it right, a ketogenic diet is an extremely effective fat loss solution...the most effective I've ever found.

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