Study Zeroes In on Calories, Not Diet, for Loss

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.
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. M/ J& Q4 j( [3 M Post a Comment on Well That is the finding of the largest-ever controlled study of weight-loss methods published on Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. More than 800 overweight adults in Boston and Baton Rouge, La., were assigned to one of four diets that reduced calories through different combinations of fat, carbohydrates and protein. Each plan cut about 750 calories from a participant’s normal diet, but no one ate fewer than 1,200 calories a day.
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6 n2 B) ^8 ~) wWhile the diets were not named, the eating plans were all loosely based on the principles of popular diets like Atkins, which emphasizes low carbohydrates; Dean Ornish, which is low-fat; or the Mediterranean diet, with less animal protein. All participants also received group or individual counseling.

After two years, every diet group had lost — and regained — about the same amount of weight regardless of what diet had been assigned. Participants lost an average of 13 pounds at six months and had maintained about 9 pounds of weight loss and a two-inch drop in waist size after two years. While the average weight loss was modest, about 15 percent of dieters lost more than 10 percent of their weight by the end of the study. Still, after about a year many returned to at least some of their usual eating habits.

, e6 A% f1 B0 M* F# B' J2 ]The lesson, researchers say, is that people lose weight if they lower calories, but it does not matter how.

“It really does cut through the hype,” said Dr. Frank M. Sacks, the study’s lead author and professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at the Harvard School of Public Health. “It gives people lots of flexibility to pick a diet that they can stick with.”

; I7 T% O4 S  ?+ `8 G# O" k) u( vDr. Sacks said that to reduce bias the researchers avoided associating any of the diets with well-known commercial eating plans. While attendance at counseling sessions was linked with better weight loss, that was not true for every dieter. In some groups, people lost large amounts of weight even though they attended only a few counseling sessions.

, {3 N( K  m4 O3 H8 C  wThe real question for researchers, Dr. Sacks said, is what are the biological, psychological or social factors that influence whether a person can stick to any diet.
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“The effect of any particular diet group is minuscule, but the effect of individual behavior is humongous,” Dr. Sacks said. “We had some people losing 50 pounds and some people gaining five pounds. That’s what we don’t have a clue about. I think in the future, researchers should focus less on the actual diet but on finding what is really the biggest governor of success in these individuals.”

2 @: f7 [3 L8 z3 r& }http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/2 ... /26diet.html?ref=us

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对于那些想要减轻体重的人来说，有没有计算碳水化合物、蛋白质或脂肪的含量、比例并不重要，重要的是另外一些东西。
这是一项迄今最大的关于减轻体重的不同方法的对照性研究的结果，论文于本周三发表在《新英格兰医学报》上。800多名来自于波士顿市和Baton Rouge 。La.市超重的成人被分为四组，他们将通过接受四种不同的膳食模式——脂肪、碳水化合物、蛋白质的联合方式不同——来降低能量的摄入。每一种模式都可以较参与者原来的膳食少摄入750卡，但所有人没人的总能量摄入均不少于1200卡。
& t7 F+ l: L3 ~3 t6 d% s! Z这四种膳食模式并没有给予特殊明明，它们均是以平民的普通膳食模式为基础来制定的。比如基层人员膳食，强调低碳水化合物；牧师膳食，其膳食中脂肪含量很低；地中海膳食，其膳食中动物蛋白含量较少。所有的参与者还可以接受群体或个人形式的咨询服务。
7 }! C9 \" G( Z- k6 I两年后，不管参与者被分到哪一组，每一组所减轻或增加的体重是一样的。前半年，参与者的体重平均减少了13磅，且减少量维持在9磅，两年后，腰围减少了两英寸。虽然体重的平均减少量很温和，有15%的参与者在研究结束的时候体重减少了10%。而且，大约一年后许多参与者又恢复到以前的膳食习惯（而体重却没有太大变化）。
研究者说，其意义就在于:人们要减轻体重，降低总能量的摄入就可以了，这和用什么方法降低没有关系。
“这的确戳穿了原来的骗局”，弗兰克 M 赛克斯博士——该项研究的第一作者，同时也是哈佛大学公共卫生学院心血管疾病预防方面的教授——这样说道：“它使得人们在选择膳食模式时有了许多灵活性”。
赛克斯博士说为了减少偏倚，研究者们避免使用任何知名的商业膳食模式。虽然参加咨询会与更好的减轻体重有关，但不是每一个参与者都这样。在某些组里面，即使有些人只参加过寥寥几次咨询会，其体重却也减少了很多。
* v' X" E$ i+ P赛克斯博士说，对于研究者而言，真正的问题是影响一个人坚持一种膳食模式的生物学、心理学和社会学因素是什么。
“任何特殊的膳食模式的影响都是极小的，但个人行为的影响是极大的”，赛克斯博士补充道：“有些参与者在研究过程中减轻了50磅，而有些人则增加了5磅。对于这一点，我们还没弄清楚。我想研究者们以后应该少关注实际的膳食模式，而应该多关注这个问题，即，什么才是不同个体体内的最大的统治者。”
, v. D7 T8 Y- ?5 z- P" p; t文章来源：http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/2 ... /26diet.html?ref=us