An Interview with Dr Donald Layman

[Mitra]

Jimmy Moore (of livin la vida low carb fame) has been doing a series of interviews (including a recent one with Dean Ornish!), but the latest (http://livinlavidalocarb.blogspot.com/2006/10/layman-low-carb-diets-need-protein-for.html) is with a low carb researcher called Dr Donald K Layman.

Some interesting points on exercise:For example, we had two groups that were diet-only treatment and two groups that were diet-plus-daily exercise. After 16 weeks of dieting, the group receiving the high-carb diet lost about 11 pounds of body fat, while the group consuming the low-carb, high-protein diet lost 13 pounds of body fat. The group that had the high-carb-diet-plus exercise lost 12 pound of body fat while the low-carb, high-protein diet plus exercise lost an amazing 19.5 pounds of fat!

So, the individuals eating a high-carb diet did 16 weeks of daily exercise and lost 1 pound of body fat more than just the diet effect, while the low-carb, high-protein subjects lost an additional 6.5 pounds of body fat doing the same exercise program. The higher protein diet maximizes the benefits of doing exercise.

And lots of other good stuff in there.

[Billie]

We know it is true glad others will hear it as well. It just makes sense that if you are working so hard at working the program, adding that one additional component will assist the weight loss factor to a much higher degree.

I don't know about anyone else but that whole low fat thing seems to be making a revival or sorts, at least with the people I am speaking to. STOP IT!

[Missy]

....sigh..........O.h.a.l.l.r.i.g.h.t.a.l..r.e.a.d .y.....http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/30.gif

I just KNOW they have a conspiracy going on back there.....I KNOW IT!http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/14.gif

[Bangs]

Love it when you can't argue with the facts. Thanks for the link and article.

[lyn64]

One day , hopefully soon, some bright researcher will actually take the trouble to investigate the third far less PC possibility - the lowcarb, HIGH FAT, moderate protein diet (isocaloric of course;) ). That will really set the cat amongst the pidgeons.

Lyn

[Mitra]

Lyn, I think he said that the "high protein" group were eating about 110-130g per day, so not much different from the amounts that many of us eat. He also said, "We use a ratio of carbs to protein in our teaching approach. At any meal or snack, the ratio of carbs to protein should be around 1 to 1. Since protein has such high satiety, this creates a self-limiting approach to carb intake." He didn't say how much fat they had, but that's say 1000 kcals from protein and carbs, so if they were eating around 2000 kcals, they were getting 50% of their intake as fat. That's a lower in fat and higher in carbs than many of us eat, but I think would still qualify as a high fat diet.

Did you see the thread a few weeks ago (http://www.proteinpower.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1195&highlight=phinney) about Stephen Phinney's work? I can't remember the details of the diets (I'll have to listen again), but from memory they were mostly fat, some protein, very little carb.

[lyn64]

Thanks Mitra, well if it was 50% fat it's fantastic. But I think it's tragic that we have to read between the lines to try to determine fat's role in the research results. It's almost as if fat musn't even be mentioned by name, when it may well be at the critical variable in the macronutrient adjustment. After all eating a low carb diet is about changing your energy supply to something other than carbs. Protein is not a particularly good energy substrate, and carbs set up a hormonal environment that tends to lead to overeating, degenerative disease, and unwanted bodyfat.

So it's fat all the way. If you've got bodyfat to spare, you want that to be used, so presumably (and assuming that you want to maximize the rate of healthy bodyfat loss) the only dietary fat you need is an adequate intake of EFA's. If bodyfat is already low, then dietary fat becomes a mainstay. It's always amused me that once bodyfat becomes the main fuel, you are effectively eating a high sat fat diet. So presumably the low (sat) fat whingers are against people burning bodyfat?

The Steven Phinney stuff was fascinating (so too Jay Wortmann):) .

I've never seen it clearly stated in the low carb literature (PP and particularly PPLP come close but even the Eades don't spell it out unequivocally) that for a good rate of weight loss (as opposed to just not GAINING) in a high BMI human body, dietary fat other than EFA's is probably not such a good idea. But getting adequate EFA's is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL.

Lyn