Of Mice and Men

Take a look at this graph. Ok, it might need some explanation. In a 2006 study some scientists took some identical mice and put them into four groups. One group ate normal mouse food (chow). One was fed high-sugar, high-fat chow (marked as simply high-fat). One was fed a low-carbohydrate, higher-fat diet (ketogenic). The last group was fed a restricted calorie diet that only contained 66% of the calories of the regular chow but was otherwise the same.

Based on what I thought I knew about how diet works, the group that stood to lose the most weight was the calorie-restricted group, followed by the regular chow group, the low-carb group, and then the high fat/sugar group, who I figured would gain the most weight. The high fat/sugar group did gain the most weight. However, the low-carb group and the low-calorie group lost the same amount of weight.

It wasn't that the low-carb group didn't like their new food and ate less. The study carefully controlled the number of calories--all the groups ate the same number of calories except for the reduced-calorie group. Replacing carbs with fat led to weightloss--the same weightloss seen in reducing total calories by a third. Unlike with a similar human trial, the mice couldn't have cheated. They couldn't have been sneaking food or hiding food or what have you.

If you take away someone's calories, of course they will lose weight. But they're going to be tired and cranky and eat as much as they can as soon as they can again. They'll gain it all back. Then there is the idea of a metabolic advantage, which is the suggestion that certain diets simply cause higher calorie burning regardless of similar caloric intake. This study suggests low-carb, high-fat diets have that metabolic advantage.

I've been reading all sorts of biochemical explanations of why this would be the case, involving insulin and glucagon and lipase and I admit I don't really understand it. But the evidence I've seen of the benefits of a higher-fat, lower-carb diet is mounting. So, I've decided to try it out myself. I'm a pretty healthy person, young, with a BMI of about 19, no major problems, so I figure there isn't much risk of damaging myself too badly.

This blog will serve to chronicle my experiences with following the recommendations of these low-carb advocates (which end up being quite a lot more than just "eat fewer carbs").