THE DIET: Protein Power by Michael R. Eades, M.D. and Mary Dan Eades, M.D.
THE CLAIM: If you cut carbs to make room for extra protein and fat, your body will be tricked into burning fat without making you feel hungry.
WHAT YOU EAT: A caveman's fantasy: Heavy on high-fat meat, low on carbs. In fact, you have to virtually eliminate high-carb foods such as potatoes, breads, pasta and some fruits and vegetables, to make room for all the fat and protein you're supposed to eat.
WHY IT SEEMS TO WORK: Like the Atkins diet, this diet relies on the process of ketosis to help you shed pounds: Without enough carbs, your body first burns its carbohydrate stores, then the protein in its lean muscle tissue for energy — both of which release a lot of water weight. Your body also starts burning some fat, but not as efficiently as exercise would, which then creates toxic by-products called ketones that build up in your bloodstream and need to be processed through your kidneys to be eliminated.
WHY IT ISN'T RELIABLE: Because you're mostly losing water weight, you gain it back very quickly once you go off the diet. If you don't exercise, the weight you gain back will be all fat; you won't recover any of the muscle tissue you lost.
This diet can also mess with your health. These are only some of the side effects and health risks of ketosis: diarrhea, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, dizziness, kidney damage or shutdown, weakening bones from protein blocking calcium absorption, kidney stones from too much protein or oxalate.
THE MEAT OF THE MATTER: "Calories still count," says Christina Stark, M.S., R.D., a nutrition specialist at Cornell University's Division of Nutritional Sciences. "Most of these popular diets simply restrict calories." Why put yourself through another round of yo-yo dieting?
This article was obtained from: http://www.phys.com/b_nutrition/02solutions/diet_debunker/protein.html
