Trouble Losing Weight? Try This

Individual variations in biology, not just willpower, may play a role in weight loss.

Beyond Convention
Have you ever tried to drop a few pounds and blamed yourself for not having enough motivation or discipline? Well, maybe it's not entirely your fault. Individual variations in biology, not just willpower, may play an important role in weight loss, says David Ludwig, MD, a respected obesity researcher at Harvard.
In his new book, Ending the Food Fight, Dr. Ludwig, director of the Optimal Weight for life Program at Children's Hospital Boston, shares effective strategies for helping you lose weight and keep it off. I talked with him recently about his work.

Dr. Ornish: In your study, you found that the type of food, not just the amount, plays a role in weight. Why?

Dr. Ludwig: The conventional wisdom is that it's all a question of behavior, that people vary in their ability to stick to diets. However, biological factors other than genes could also play a role. To examine this, we assigned 73 obese young adults to either a conventional low-fat, high-glycemic-load diet (foods high in sugar and refined carbohydrates such as white flour) or a low-glycemic-load diet (one that stabilizes blood sugar after meals).

D.O.: What are some low-glycemic foods?

D.L.: Whole foods that digest slowly and release nutrients into the body in a slow and sustained fashion. They include non-starchy vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and grain products in their least processed state.

D.O.: What did the study show?

D.L.: People who secrete insulin slowly lost the same amount of weight on both diets. In contrast, people who secrete insulin rapidly and who were on the low-glycemic diet lost five times more weight, and kept all the weight off throughout the 18 months of the study.

When it comes to healthy eating, one size may not fit all. It may be unwise to recommend decreasing fat without adequate attention to the carbohydrates that replace them, and vice versa.

D.O.: So it's not low-fat versus low-carb -- both are important.

D.L.: Yes, an optimal approach may be a diet that pays attention to the quality of fats and carbs: high-quality, uNPRocessed low-glycemic carbs and plant-based proteins and fats.