Is it possible to lose weight long-term on a LCHF diet? The scientific literature shows good results (better than on other diets) but the longest trials are two years in duration. What about the effect after that? We don’t know for sure.
However, it’s possible to look at people eating LCHF for a long time to get a general idea. One impressive example is my fellow Swede Tommy Runesson. He’s been eating a strict LCHF diet for three years, documenting everything thoroughly on his English blog. Today he sums up the results:
Eat Low Carb High Fat: Three years with LCHF and -203,3 lbs
Congratulations Tommy!
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I suspect LCHF will cause significantly less health issue long term... but time will tell.
I belive science regarding food and it's effects om human health is where surgery was in the 16th century, Gary Taubes et al is starting to bring more sciense in to it. And blogs like this helps too.
"is based on the commonest and most active cause of obesity, since, as it has
already been clearly shown, it is only because of grains and starches that fatty
congestion can occur, as much in man as in the animals"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Anthelme_Brillat-Savarin
"Brillat-Savarin is often considered as the father of low-carbohydrate diet. He considered sugar and white flour to be the cause of obesity and he suggested instead protein-rich ingredients."
Today, I'm about 120 lbs lighter than I was in 1999. Or, according to the anti-low-carb idiots, I'm down by 15 gallons (~54 liters) of water...
Still have more to lose, but 120 lbs has been a life-changer, and I have managed to stay fairly weight-stable for over a decade.
One hopes that real science will eventually rule the day, but the biggest problem right now is the large number of people whose livelihood depends on the status quo, many of whom are MDs who are taught in medical school that they cannot ever be wrong.
I think LCHF does work in the long term but one thing I wonder about is how low do I need to keep the carbs to maintain my current weight? I have no desire to start eating junk food or grains but I do wonder if it would be ok to add more fruit to my diet but I am also scared of regaining weight.
In rodents consuming the seed of graminacee must have gone on for quite a bit since these animals amongst other things have phytate inhibitors in their intestine which remove some of the antinutrients from grains. The other crucial thing to keep in mind is that before neolithic man started to grow and tend these grasses there would have been a short seasonal window of seed avaialability at the end of the hot season and great natural competition for it...not a year around supply.
So we humans have taken a very poor food source, a well defended toxin packed seed, modified it genetically greatly exaggerating seed size and number and have made it a staple. From never even figuring in our diet an average person today could easily eat grains at every meal from the breakfast cereal through the multigrain bar snack or the pasta/bread/pizza/pie for lunch/dinner. Congratulations homo sapiens! How clever we are!
We deserve top PRIZE; A life long supply of WHEAT! Congrats! Enjoy!