MILO BRYANT: Low-carb diets zap people's energy

I've said it before: I'm all for anything that gets folks off their butts and moving. I'm also for things that hold us accountable for what we put in our bodies.

So, in the most basic sense, I don't mind "name" diets such as Atkins, South Beach, etc. They make us think about what we eat.

However, I'm not willing to go much further than that.

Which brings me to the results of a study released last week. It lasted two years and determined that the low-carbohydrate Atkins diet produced greater weight loss than the fish-rich Mediterranean diet and the low-fat guidelines suggested by the American Heart Association.

I have a huge problem with this study: The Atkins Foundation helped finance it. It doesn't matter where the researchers are from. It doesn't matter how much integrity they have. They are doing a study with money from a company that can and will gain financially based on the results. This study would have had much more credence if a group unaffiliated with Atkins had paid for it, orchestrated it and found the same results.

Several nutritionists and dietitians I know have almost convinced me that mutations of the Atkins Diet are great for those who aren't as active as others.

But that leads to my next point. Many of us want to be active but find it difficult to gather the energy to do so. Still, we want the weight loss. So we seek out diets such as Atkins. And it works. We lose weight. But we're not active. And Atkins doesn't provide the fuel to get there.

If you're on the Atkins diet and can still run marathons, don't bother filling up my voice-mail and e-mail boxes. I know you're out there - you're the unsilent minority. An overwhelming majority of the folks contacting me about low-carb diets are trying to find ways to be less lethargic.

Carbohydrates come in two basic forms: complex and simple. Complex carbs (such as broccoli, potatoes, rice, tomatoes) are hundreds to thousands of sugar units linked together in single molecules. Simple carbs (such as candy, gum, soft drinks) have one, two, maybe three units of sugar linked together in single molecules.

After digestion, carbs appear in our bloodstream as glucose, which our cells use as energy. Our body stores excess glucose as fat.

Theory time: Excess glucose is a small contributing factor to our expanding girth. Laziness is the biggest factor. We eat, but we don't get daily exercise. If we did, we'd use the energy-generating carbs. But in the low-carb world, how can we participate in physical activity when we don't have energy? Most of us can't - at least not at an enjoyable level.

I can say I'm not anti-lowcarb. But I'm bordering on it.

ONLINE > Blog • Strength Milo Bryant and has Conditioning two National Association certifications. He appears on KOAA's Comcast Channel 9 most Wednesdays at 4 p.m. You can contact him by e-mail at milo.bryant@gazette.com or read his blog at
milobryant.blogspot.com.