Good News or Not Really News?

I caught wind of the BIG NEWS about calories and weight loss just released in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study’s findings may be leading people to believe that it doesn’t really matter what we eat; weight loss success (or failure) depends on how many calories we’re consuming. Newspaper articles and web postings all over the country last week had titles like “Consuming Fewer Calories Key to Weight Loss, New Study Says” found in The Baltimore Sun.

But if you read the rest of story before heading straight to the store to pick up a bag of gummy bears, you’d find that all four study groups started with the same basic heart-healthy foundation of fiber-rich whole grains, fruits, vegetables and little or no saturated fat. How the diets differed from one another was where the emphasis of the remaining calories were placed…on fat, protein, or carbohydrates. For example, one study group ate a diet that was higher in protein and contained more lean meats like fish and chicken while another was higher in healthy fats like olive oil and avocados. One diet had a higher concentration of fiber-rich whole grain carbohydrates. All four study group participants ate at least 1200 calories per day and all lost about the same amount of weight (13 pounds in six months) and two years later, participants from all four groups had kept about the same amount of weight off (about 9 pounds).

So what have we learned? That consuming fewer calories is the key to weight loss? I think we pretty much got that one already. The Balitmore Sun suggests that, “Scientists now say it really doesn’t matter as long as you consume fewer calories.” An article in The New York Timesstates, “For people who are trying to lose weight, it does not matter if they are counting carbohydrates, protein or fat. All that matters is that they are counting something.” I don’t think that’s what scientists are saying. I realize that newspapers are just reporting the news, but I think this study’s findings can be misleading.

Remember all four of these diets consisted of the same heart-healthy foundation of fiber-rich whole grains and fruits and vegetables and then more heart-healthy items were tacked on like fish, olive oil, and whole grain carbohydrates.  I think it helps to dispel the validity of fad diets like the Atkins, but other than that, to me it says; eat a well-balanced diet and don’t get too hung up on the ratio between protein, carbs, and fat…as long as your diet consists of foods that promote good health and don’t eat too much or you’re likely to gain weight or be unable to lose weight.

Let’s hear from Dr. Frank Sacks, professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of the study. “On average, no one diet is better than another for weight loss. The determining factor ended up being calories. It really comes down to people doing what is most effective for themselves, as long as they are healthy and prevent heart disease.”

I’m not going to say duh, but it seems like what was probably a very expensive study was just conducted at one of our nation’s most prestigious schools and what we learned is to exercise commonsense.