Losing weight isn't hard. It's keeping the weight off that's difficult. I've lost hundreds of pounds in the last 30 years following the "balanced diet" approach. The pounds always came back until I made a LC way of eating just that - a way of eating, or lifestyle change v. a diet. 7.5 years and counting for me. No longer pre-diabetic. Cholesterol ratios have moved from the "at risk" level to the "ideal" level.
For those of us that are metabolically deranged, it's much more than just weight loss - it's optimal health. I, and thousands like me, have found a LC diet to be quite easy to maintain. In the diabetes groups and forums that I belong to, the diabetics that have attained the best results (A1c 5.4 and below, and reduction of or complete elimination of diabetes medications) are those that eschewed the gov't recommendations. Those diabetics that have not been swayed and continue to follow what their misguided medical professionals tell them have increasingly higher A1cs, and are on ever increasing amounts of medications. The ADA claims that diabetes is a progressive disease. And it is, if you follow the recommendations that My Fitness Pal & the ADA promote. An encouraging trend I've noticed is that over the last 3-4 years, more and more new members to my diabetes forums & groups have been directed to a LC way of eating by their doctors, who have become enlightened to the fact that what they have previously been telling their patients is not working, and that a change in the recommendations is critical.
My 94yo T2 father-in-law lived with us for 4.5 years. He and his late wife followed the recommendations of their doctors. They ate very little meat or eggs. They increased their fish consumption. Lots of veggies, whole grains & legumes. Fats were feared by them - especially saturated fats. The only healthy fats they cooked with was olive oil. They used margarine instead of butter. Vegetable oils instead of animal fats. Their health worsened. My father-in-law had 3 bouts of cancer and a quadruple bypass.
After my mother-in-law died of heart disease & advanced congestive heart failure (having been bed-ridden for several years before her death) & my father-in-law moved in with us, we started feeding him a LCHF diet. In 6 months he lost 60 lbs, his congestive heart failure (he was on minimal meds to control the CHF) and kidney function improved (the CHF meds negatively affect kidney function, so by keeping his CHF stable, the reduced meds & reduced blood sugars improved his kidney function), and his post-prandial blood sugars ranged from the 80s-low 100s. His doctor took him off of the statins he'd been on for more than 20 years, and she was incredulous that instead of requiring diabetes medications (as she had warned him would happen), he was getting these results without any meds.
Last August he fell and sustained a head injury. At admission, his blood sugars were 83. They insisted on him eating a controlled carb diet (promoted by the ADA & approved by the hospital dieticians). In 3 weeks, his blood sugars were so high that he need 2 different oral diabetes medications. He was released to a rehab facility, and eventually had to move into the memory care unit of an assisted living facility. They are fed the gov't recommended diet. Seven months later he is on insulin, he's been admitted to the hospital twice because of life-threatening complications of congestive heart failure (he's on the maximum dosage of CHF meds he can possibly take) and his kidneys are failing fast, due to the CHF meds & high blood sugars). They are starting to talk hospice/palliative care, as his health will only continue to worsen. I understand that the man is 94yo, but the rapid and drastic decline in his health since he's changed his diet from 4.5 years of a LC diet that stabilized or improved his health, to the near death condition he's in now, all while following the recommendations put forth by medical professionals, is shocking and scary.
So, excuse me if I call BS on the "recommended balanced diet". I've seen what the LC diet has done for myself, my family and other diabetics that have rejected said balanced diet, and I'm not buying those recommendations. There's a reason that the body requires essential fatty acids and essential amino acids, but there's no such thing as an essential carbohydrate.
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