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Performance Nutrition
Reviewing the South Beach diet; plus the top nutrition and health story from the past year.
By Dr. Jeffry Life, M.D.
Is the beach diet going south?
Q: What is the South Beach Diet and is it any good?
A: The South Beach Diet was developed by Arthur Agatston, M.D., a Miami Beach cardiologist who claims he has developed an eating plan that will improve the cholesterol and insulin levels of his patients with heart disease. 
His book is in many ways very similar to most of the low-carbohydrate diets that have been promoted over the last several years. I believe The South Beach Diet falls somewhere between the Atkins diet and Barry Sears’ Zone diet. To Dr. Agatston’s credit, he pushes the "right carbs" rather than no carbs (or very few) like Dr. Atkins. He also promotes the use of healthy fats rather than an "any and all fats are OK" philosophy that had been touted in years past.
Everyone knows that proper nutrition is essential for good health but the other major factor in controlling body weight and preventing degenerative disease is exercise—specifically, the combination of aerobic exercise with strength and muscle-building weight training. Dr. Agatston, unfortunately, devotes only two pages of his book to this important subject.
In summary, I believe The South Beach Diet is just that—another diet program that is a quick fix for America’s growing epidemic of obesity and its related health problems. It falls short of what is really needed—a program that results in a permanent lifestyle change that will assure leanness, fitness and great health.
The straight story on nutrition and fat loss
Q: Do any of the top 10 health stories of 2003 relate to nutrition?
A: Yes. The number one health story, according to Harvard Medical School, is that obesity and being overweight kills people. This is not new information by any stretch of the imagination, but what is new is that in 2003 researchers made connections between being overweight and dying from cancer. Another study in 2003 looked at all causes of death and found the difference in life expectancy between obese adults and those of normal weight to be similar to those seen between smokers and nonsmokers.
Another group of scientists explored the causes of obesity and, not surprisingly, showed that the risk of obesity increases 23 percent for every two-hour increment in daily television watching. And finally, another study involving children blamed the increased consumption of soda and other sweetened drinks for the rapidly growing epidemics of obesity, overweight, and Type 2 diabetes we are now seeing in our kids.
The other important health story in 2003 that relates to nutrition is that low-carb diets are not so bad after all and they do help people lose weight. Two studies were published in the New England Journal of Medicine which showed positive results for the low-carbohydrate diet Atkins has been promoting for many years. These studies do point out, however, that about 40 percent of the people enrolled in the studies dropped out and that maintaining weight loss on a low-carbohydrate diet is a big problem for most people. I think a modified approach to Atkins in which you eat healthy fats and control your intake of carbs, limiting them to mostly low-glycemic choices, is clearly the best way to go to achieve rapid and permanent fat loss.
Go easy on calorie restriction
Q: I have really been restricting my calories, but I just don’t seem to be getting anywhere with my fat-loss program. What’s wrong?
A: When anyone severely restricts their daily caloric intake, their body rapidly goes into a starvation mode—a reaction we have all inherited from our distant ancestors who were forced to survive through long periods of famine. There is absolutely nothing that you or any of us can do to prevent this from happening except to never allow our caloric intakes to drop below 1,200 calories for women or 1,800 calories for men. When calories are restricted below these levels our bodies go into action to keep us alive by protecting us from starvation. In other words, the body instinctively kicks in all of its survival mechanisms to prevent death.
The first thing to happen when we enter the starvation mode is our basal metabolic rate begins to slow down. This occurs primarily by a reduction in the release of thyroid hormone from our thyroid gland. With severe caloric restriction our resting metabolic rate can drop by as much as 40 to 50 percent.
Next, our bodies begin metabolizing our own muscle tissue, converting it into glucose for its primary energy source in order to preserve fat stores that are essential for survival. That’s right—all that hard-earned muscle starts disappearing. And as if all of this isn’t bad enough, the activity of our fat-storing enzymes increases and our fat-burning enzymes decrease so we become very efficient at storing fat. This is the exact opposite of what we are trying to achieve!
The key to avoiding this all-too-common scenario is to stay out of the starvation mode by creating a small caloric deficit of only 500 to a maximum of 1,000 calories a day below your maintenance level—as long as you don’t go below the 1,200 or 1,800 I mentioned above. This will assure a 1- to 2-pound weight loss per week—the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommendation for a safe weight loss. Remember, this is just a guideline. If you have a low body weight or you don’t exercise much, a 1,000-calories-per-dy deficit may be too much. And finally, we must be sure to eat about every three hours. Our bodies will interpret any missed meal as starvation.
The bottom line is, the more slowly we lose weight the easier it is to hold on to our lean muscle mass and take the fat off!
Lose fat the fast way!
Q: Which is the best way to lose fat—more exercise or fewer calories?
A: Exercise is by far the best way to achieve a caloric deficit because it does not trigger the starvation response, it increases metabolic rate, it increases all of the fat-burning enzymes and hormones, it targets body fat rather than muscle tissue for energy sources and it increases the sensitivity of all cells to insulin so carbohydrates are burned for energy and stored as glycogen rather than being stored as body fat.
Most people in America today try to lose weight by cutting their calories way back to starvation levels and exercising very little. It is the combination of muscle-building weight training and aerobic exercise that is clearly the best and only way to rid yourself of excess body fat and retain or even increase your muscle mass and, most important, improve your health.
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