Drew Baye’s High Intensity Training

Low carb eating has one primary factor that might contribute to it’s success:

The body must consume external sources of protein -the 8 necessary amino acids. It can manufacture other amino acids from that.

It can manufacture lipids and other fatty acids from proteins. While other sources of lipids are desirable, they’re not necessary…sorta.

The body can manufacture carbohydrates from protein and fat.

The body NEEDS protein consumption. It does not NEED carbs or fat. It does better with balance (unless you’re Nordic, Siberian, or Inuit).

The HIT crowd, and other dietary conservatives maintain that a calorie is a calorie. In terms how how much energy it takes to heat water, this would be true. But, when you apply a simple calculation to an incredibly complex biological environment, you’ll encounter more variables than your great-great-great grandchildren will be able to deal with.

That said, I’m not maintaining that low carb eating is a better choice for fat loss. It might be for some, might not for others.

In my experience, the single best tool/method for fat loss is to plan your daily eating at least one day ahead of time.

If the participants followed even a simple meal plan, THAT was the contribution to their success. The same with any diet plan.

Greetings Mr. Baye, I’ve read your other articles and I was hoping you’d post something on the high/low carb debate. I’ve read some of the study in your article (haven’t had time to read it all) and I was wondering about your interpretation of the following:
The low fat group had 30% of its calories from fat, higher than most low fat diets, do you think that played a factor in its poor performance? Personally, I still think energy balance is king in terms of weight loss, so I don’t know if this mattered much.

I’ve read that protein has a higher ‘thermic effect’ than either fats or carbohydrates, so you effectively net fewer calories in terms of energy for fat storage or use than an equivalent amount of fat or carbs, do you think this is why high protein/low carb diets outperform other diets?

One final question, are you aware of any studies examining the effects of low carb/ high protein diets on blood chemistry (triglycerides, cholesteral etc)in healthy subjects not trying to lose weight? I ask because I think weight loss is a significant factor in these measurements so to speculate if low carb/high protein diets are healthy long term, I would think weight loss would need to be eliminated or controlled so as not to confound the results.

Ryan,

I think the poor results were due to non-compliance in all groups. If the subjects in the Mediterranean and low-fat groups consistently consumed the amount of calories they were supposed to the weight loss should have been much greater.

Higher protein intakes provide several benefits. The greater thermic effect may make a difference over longer time periods. The increased satiety with higher protein intakes helps to reduce total calorie intake. Higher protein intake should help offset the increased rate of protein breakdown resulting from the reduced calorie intake, helping to maintain lean body mass.

Often, when people diet, they make the mistake of reducing intake of all macronutrients proportionally. A better approach would be to maintain or even increase protein intake while calories are reduced. Lyle McDonald talks a bit about this in his Protein Book, which I highly recommend. I will be posting an interview with Lyle on this and a few other subjects within the next few weeks.

The body NEEDS protein consumption. It does not NEED carbs or fat. It does better with balance (unless you’re Nordic, Siberian, or Inuit).

Danny,
I’m curious about this statement. Could you elorate, as Iam od Swedish extraction I would enjoy learning something about mt possible “different” dietary needs.
Thanks.
I do appreciaate it.

Bodies need protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Without any one of the three you will die. The main advantage I see with a low carb diet is that it forces one to eat well-balanced meals. Very few foods have only protein, but lots of (refined) foods have essentially only carbs. So fewer refined food leads to a diet closer to what our bodies are designed to consume.

The quality of protein from animal versus plant sources is probably not a major issue. Eggs might be the richest source of digestible protein, but legumes are still very rich sources of protein. If you have a well varied diet, your body will make everything work.

The body does need carbohydrates, but it can make these out of protein (gluconeogenesis) so they do not have to be consumed in the diet. The only things that need to be consumed are protein (essential amino acids), fats (essential fatty acids), water, vitamins and minerals.

Really interesting study. This coincides with information i have read out about the history of research into diet. For example, an interesting but little known fact i know concerns a quote from Hans Krebs (discoverer of the Citric Acid Cycle/ Krebs Cycle) on energy metabolism in the muscles and indeed the body as a whole. He’s quoted in ‘The Diet Delusion’ by Gary Taubes, which by the way is an immense tome on all things nutrition with 60 pages worth of scientific references, i cannot recommend it highly enough.

Quote: ‘Krebs had initiated his his research assuming, as was common at the time, that carbohydrate was ”the main energy source of muscle tissue”. But he came to realize that fat and protein also supply fuel for muscle tissue, and that there was no reason why carbohydrates should be the preferred fuel. ”all three major constituents of food supply carbon atoms…for combustion,” he wrote.’

This contradicts a popular notion amongst nutritionists that you must have 60% of your daily intake from carbohydrates.
The book also contains many examples of research which again demonsrates the apparent effectiveness of restricting carbohydrates, be they simple or complex.

thanks for reading

Chris