A recent study put 4 men and 16 women with metabolic syndrome on the South Beach diet for three months. They weighed an average of 200 pounds and lost an average of 10 pounds each. During phase 1, their diet was 25 carbohydrate. Although they lost an average of 10 pounds each, the best news is half of them no longer had metabolic syndrome at the end of this three-month study. It turns out, that changes in hormone levels caused them to lose their appetite while they were cutting calories.
Metabolic syndrome is the name for a group of risk factors linked to overweight and obesity that increase your chance for heart disease and other health problems such as diabetes and stroke.
The risk factors include:
A large waistline
A higher than normal triglyceride level
A lower than normal level of HDL cholesterol
Higher than normal blood pressure
Higher than normal fasting blood sugar
Doctors know that these risk factors can be controlled through lifestyle changes. Now we can add a low carb diet the lifestyle changes that can help improve your health and maybe save your life.
