Low-Carb, Protein-Rich Diet With Exercise Works, Study Shows

An important new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign finds that exercise, coupled with a high-protein, low-carb diet can be especially effective in peeling off the pounds.

In fact, this new research demonstrated that participants lost more weight on a low-carb, protein-rich diet than those following a higher-carb, lower-protein plan based on the USDA food guide pyramid.

Yes, you’re not in a time warp. These new findings are reported in the August 2005 Journal of Nutrition.

Talk about an effective retort to naysayers, who’ve been repeatedly, obsessively, almost gleefully proclaiming that low-carb, ample-protein diets were dead!

The experiment yielded several intriguing results:

• The protein-rich dieters lost more body fat than muscle.
• Women on this protein-rich diet who exercised lost 20 percent more weight than did the more-sedentary women in the experiment.
• Women eating a carb-rich, low-protein diet who were on the exercise regimen didn’t lose any extra weight.

Fascinating, groundbreaking stuff here!

"There’s an additive, interactive effect when a protein-rich diet is combined with exercise," the study leader, Donald Layman, a University of Ilinois Urbana-Champaign professor of food science and human nutrition, said in a university press release.

"The two work together to correct body composition; dieters lose more weight, and they lose fat, not muscle."

In other words, this extra protein that women ate somehow worked in conjunction with exercise to reduce weight, Layman told Science News Online.

"This is really surprising, and, frankly, pretty important," Layman told the reporter, Janet Raloff, who notes that "this observation flies in the face of most nutrition guidelines, which advise dieters and everyone else in the United States to eat less protein, not more."

Frankly, I’m baffled by Layman’s surprise.

It seems to me that these results just confirm what we’ve been hearing lately about the efficacy of ample protein and exercise in weight loss, combined with less quickie carbs.

Indeed, Protein Power by Michael R. Eades, M.D. and Mary Dan Eades, M.D. has helped boost protein’s popularity for years.

Atkins was bullish on protein, too. (And no he didn’t push fat as much as the media and public generally believes.)

"The diet works because the extra protein reduces muscle loss while the low-carbohydrdrate component gives you low insulin, allowing you to burn fat," the university-issued statement continues.

The nutritionist then dishes criticism on the food guide pyramid, noting that "it doesn’t provide enough leucine for adults to maintain healthy muscle."

So what can we learn from this study?

• Quit eating all those sugars and refined, Much-Like-Sugar carbs if you want to lose weight — or be healthy for that matter, as I’ve been saying for years.
• Pump up the protein to peel off the pounds, as I often advise people I coach to kick sweets and quickie carbs.
• Get off your butt and exercise at the same time. (Speaking of which, the warm weather outside is beckoning me for a long, brisk walk.)
• My final tip: Remember that Life Can Be Sweeter Without Refined Sweets & Quickie Carbs!