Weight Loss Diets Are They All The Same By John Foreyt Summary

Weight loss: Distinguishing fact from fiction

In the article “Weight Loss Diets: Are They All the Same,” the author Dr. John Foreyt studies the differences between the many weight-loss diets. With an alarming rate of up to sixty-eight percent of American adults being overweight or obese (Flegal, 2010), the amount of diets coming on the market each year is astronomical. In this article, Foreyt looks at two of the most common and widely accepted diets, which are the low-fat and low-carb diets. He also helps the reader understand the science of weight loss, so that people don’t get caught up in all the “fad” diets being promoted today. The low-fat diet has been promoted and recommended by many government bodies and scientific and health organizations all over the world (Foreyt, 2010).

What people don’t understand is that if your body is not burning more calories than it is consuming, known as a calorie deficit, it makes no difference what diet, shake, or foods you are eating, you still will not lose weight. An important point Foreyt makes is that “Calories are calories.” I believe different sources of calories can effect appetite, overeating, and overall health, but only a calorie deficit will truly promote weight loss. For example, eating more protein dense foods is believed to decrease appetite and prevent overeating (, et al., 2013). In a 2009 study in the New England Journal of Medicine, the experts studied the composition of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in one’s diet, and the effect on the participants weight loss (2009). The study concluded that no matter the nutrient composition, as long as the participants were in a calorie deficit, the weight loss was the same. This confirms Foreyt’s argument, that all the different diets are essentially identical, with the only variable being the caloric