Does Low Carb Dieting Work?
Moderate, long-term, low-carb dieting works well. The cases you here about people only losing muscle mass and water are short-term, zero-carb dieters who don’t know what they’re doing.
I started a moderate, low-carb diet (20 net carbs/meal maximum and 6 meals or snacks/day) and lost 30 pounds in the first year, 10 in the second. I never went hungry, and I ate as much as I wanted all the time. It changed my life. I still keep it up today.
I’m 6′0″ and started at 225 and maintained my weight at 185, dipping to a low of 183. I rarely exercised during that time, as I do not have the time for it.
Low-carb dieting works! Those who say it doesn’t are very naive or have an agenda.
Oh, and it is a serious mistake if you look at low-carb dieting as a short-term, problem-solver like low-fat diets. It MUST be a permanent, life-changing diet. You must go into it with the idea, “From this point on, I will rarely eat any meal with more than 25 net carbs.” That will not only lose weight for you, it will allow you to maintain the weight loss.
If you stop the diet, you will gain weight, just like low-fat diets.
Oh, and one more thing, a moderate, low-carb diet does allow the occasional high-carb, high-sugar, high-calorie snack. The best success stories I’ve seen were eating 1-2 high-carb foods per week, even things like chocolate cake. But it must be rare.
In the short term, most people who go on low carb diets do lose weight and they lose it very quickly. However, the majority of weight loss comes from loss of water and muscle tissue, not fat which is what you need to lose to keep the weight off. Also, if you’re trying to lose weight permanently, losing precious lean muscle tissue is like sabotaging your own body. Muscle tissue is metabolically active, and burns calories even when you are at rest. A decrease in the amount of muscle tissue you have will lead to a decrease in the number of calories you need each day to maintain your weight, making it much harder to keep your weight under control when you stop following the low carb diet.
This is the site I got that from and there is even more info on other parts of that diet if you would like to see what it has to offer.