Quote Originally Posted by Hmac View Post
Low carb diets have been around since about WWII, commercially popularized by Robert Atkins in the late 60's. The most current iteration of the fad is the ketogenic diet. Those fad diets are effective as a means of short-term weight loss. They are not effective as a means of sustainable, or long-term weight loss, at least...no more effective than dietary counseling aimed toward so-called "healthy eating". In other words, low carbohydrate diets don't do anything to address the actual problem driving obesity....unhealthy lifestyle...eating too much and exercising too little. Without permanent lifestyle change, permanent weight loss won't happen.

Many people want to believe that it's about the food. "McDonalds is bad". It's not. the obesity epidemic in America is about the volume. The problem with fast food isn't the nutritional value of the food, it's that the high-fat/high carbohydrate food that they sell tastes good, so you eat more of it.

I'm not saying that short-term weight loss is bad...it's not. I'm saying that in terms of overall health, the lack of sustainability of fad diets means that their overall effect on a person's health is limited.
I’ve not been quite as strict with myself as the Adkins or Keto diet. I have just mentally assigned some carbs as worthless and some as allowable. I have cut back on portions and I’m now down by 31 pounds. I find it much easier to work around my property or go hiking in the National Forest with my wife. This will be a long term effort to make me better.