View Single Post
  #1  
Old May 14th, 2004, 07:16 PM
Chad C.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default How does weight loss work on a moderate carbohydrate diet?

(This is a repost of what I posted in sci.med.nutrition. I was looking
for a precise in-depth response but so far nobody has bitten. Can anyone
here offer some insight into the question I'm posting below? Thank you!).

Let's say you're a fairly healthy 25-year-old and you go on a, say, 40%
fat, 30% protein, 30% carbohydrate (typically) low calorie diet of about
1200 calories/day. A great many people do indeed lose weight on such diets,
and even with higher carbohydrate levels than that. My question is, how does
the chemistry of it work? When you're running a caloric deficit such is
that, your body dips into glycogen for energy stores does it not? And with
only about 350 calories/day cabohydrates coming in (under 100 grams), your
body will burn some fat (and protein?) for fuel, right? At a level of 100
grams of carbohydrates per day, is your body able to maintain a bare minimum
glycogen level, or does it use it all up like on Atkins' Induction? How does
it do this? Does it do it with great reluctance in some people, and great
ease in others? Or does it seamlessly slip from fat burning, to carbohydrate
burning, and back and forth within minutes and so forth, with minimal
effort? I'm curious how it works. I hear some people say that unless you go
on a super low carbohydrate diet that you simply don't burn fat, and I don't
really believe that *unless* you have a really screwed up metablism that
can't transition between fat burning and glucose burning without extreme
changes in macronutrient composition.

Thanks folks,

-Chad