I just wonder what everyone's opinion is on this. I put it here in the WZ because I figure it may cause some controversy but if it should go somewhere else please feel free to move it.
I have been thinking about this question for awhile. It seems that I am just not able to lose weight on a low-carb diet. I have been trying on and off since I was in high-school (started atkins induction in 1996) I will admit I have a really hard time sticking with it but is it good to try to make a certain diet a way of life knowing that you are not satisfied with the food choices? I like high-fat foods but I also like other things too. I stick with it for maybe a month and when I don't lose any weight and I also don't even feel skinnier and sometimes I actually feel puffier than before I started, I get depressed about having to eat that way for life. I usually do great at first and then just give up because to me it doesn't seem sustainable or to be working.

Anyway, back to the original question. Do you think it's healthier to be low-carb and fat or to be higher carb and skinny. I have noticed a lot of people do great on induction and lose like 20 lbs but they are still overweight and they really struggle to get any more off. I can't even seem to lose more than 3 lbs on a month of induction level carbs ( and trust me, it's not because I am near a healthy weight or overly muscular). It's frustrating.

I think low-carb is healthy but maybe it is only if you can stick with it forever. I have had more luck in the past with high-carb diets as far as losing weight goes and I am getting kinda desperate to lose weight. My husband (a strict lc-paleo guy) seems to think that higher carbs may be okay if it means being able to losing weight because it is healthier in the long run to not be overweight. Opinions?

It may be part of that "What body type are you?" idea -- some people, according to that, do better eating more fruits and veggies and less meats while others do better eating more meats and veggies and less fruits and starches (which, ironically, was the category I fell into)... I know for me I get light headed when I dont have enough protein and too many carbs. I feel lethargic and out of sorts. And yes, I may lose weight slower than if I was eating "carbage" as some people put it, but I know my body likes low carb much better.

And I also know I'll never get to be 100 pounds unless I have no food for a year. I'm not striving for something that ridiculous (in my opinion). I'm thicker-bodied than some people, total hour-glass figure. I retain and build muscle easier. Yes, it's a genetic thing -- not the fat, but the thickness of muscle mass, etc. (which is why, when I do weights, I do the lighter ones -- because I don't want to look like the incredible hulk lol).

But factors other than just how skinny/fat you are come into play in your eating. How are your blood work numbers? Blood pressure? Blood sugar? that sort of thing. Do you get more light-headed eating one way than the other? Which WOE, after 2 weeks, gives you more energy and keeps your mind brighter and more on-task?

I think those are important questions to ask yourself.

This is a great question. I don't think I can answer the question with a simple answer though. I would say that the Atkin's approach to low-carb, while okay, is not the whole story. There are some things missing, so if you're referring to Atkin's way of "low carb", then probably not. There are not many people here that I see reach their goal by following Atkin's by the book. Now my way of eating "low carb" is not as strict as Atkin's. I do eat low carb, usually 60-100 g per day. That's not low to some people here, but it is low compared to the SAD. My carbs come from things like veggies, fruit, brown rice, and oats. I do not purposely go out of my way to increase fat in the food I eat. I lost all of my weight and have been maintaining for 18 months now. I enjoy my food choices and feel great. So to give you somewhat of an answer, I am healthier eating this way of low carb and being thin. I could not have lost my weight by following Atkin's. I tried a couple times and failed.

Personally, I'd say it's better to be overweight and eating low/no carbs than "thin" (thin =/= healthy) and eating high carb (poison). I know you've tried zero carb before, but have you actually gone down to brass tacks and done absolutely nothing but meat and water? No diet soda, no sweet anything at all, no dairy, etc. Some people can handle more carbs than others. My body can't handle any nor can it handle sweet

When we speak of our body as a "static" thing, such as "I can't handle as many carbs as someone else can", we're lacking an understanding of metabolic processes at various stages of health.

We can't compare from this point in time to the past or future times of our lives, things change and so do we, so we can't compare ourselves to others when we can't even compare ourselves to ourselves.

We're a lot more alike than we are different. The answer for better health and a normal healthy weight, lies more in the similarities, than the differences.

Most people when trying to correct any imbalance of their health and weight just go from one extreme to another. Too much or too little in any direction creates an imbalance. Eliminating and reducing and not achieving balance just creates a different imbalance.

To answer the orginal poster's question: In my opinion, from my personal experiences, both of the questions posed are wrong choices.... It is better to eat for balanced nutrition and do all the things that enhance my body's ability to absorb and utilize the nutrition (exercise, rest, sleep, supplemental herbs & vitamins, etc..), so that I achieve better health, which will result in a normal and healty weight.

Two cliches that my experiences seem to support:

Variety is the Spice of Life

Balance is Key

My way of losing and maintaining is very similar to LAwoman75's way.

As far as your original question

IMO, I think that your defintions of low carb need to be established as I consider the way I eat to be low carb albeit moderate low carb and not very low carb .
Yes, I do also eat any where from 60 to 100 grams of whole fresh carb foods daily and this includes veggies, legumes/lentils, dairy, some fruit and some starchy veggies. I am working my way to eliminating all grains from my diet and have knocked all wheat out already.

I would not be successful on an Atkins Induction type of eating long term as it just doesn't make me happy to eat that way. But Induction is not where atkins ends....atkins does give phases to go through to make it a more varied diet for long term success.

So to answer your question, I think that its always better for our body to get rid of excess weight. Finding a way you can eat and be happy, is what is key for all of us. This is barring that you have any conditions medically that need to be addressed, ie: PCOS, thyroid, diabetes.

IMO, getting fat is one of many side effects of a bad diet. Not everyone is going to get diabetes, heart disease, cancer, autoimmune diseases etc. etc. and not everyone is going to get fat.

I see it in my own family... 2/4 of us battle with our weight (obesity, not just 20lbs) and the other 2/4 of us battle with some terrible side effects of a bad diet. The fat ones (me being one) are only fat, we could function as fat people, and i use the term 'function' loosely LOL. The other 2 battle every single day with food intolerances that were life shattering and the youngest of the 4 merely got 20lbs overweight but the affects of a bad diet are far more severe than anyone could imagine just by looking at him.

I can guarantee that if the youngest could trade places, he would choose being fat and knowing what he knows now, than trying to 'function' after all that damage and try to repair what has been done to his body.

Some people say that only the lucky ones get fat.. I live and breathe that every day when I think about my brother and how he suffered. Luckily for him, he is on the right track (waving if he is here reading this, LOVE YOU!!!) and has made some major changes in his diet and has seen some amazing improvements in as little as 3 months.

That question has two assumptions. First, eating low carb keeps us fat or even makes us fat. That would be really hard to prove since most of us here cut out carbs to lose fat. Second, eating high carb keeps us thin or even makes us thin (do you mean lean?). Again, everybody here grew fat by eating high carb.

The question of thin. We can be thin two ways: Lean or emaciated. It's obvious which one is healthy. As Ancel Keys showed us in his semi-starvation experiment, we know that a high carb diet is what causes us to become emaciated. And neurotic but you didn't ask about that part.

The question of being fat. We can be fat two ways. Naturally like when a woman becomes pregnant and puts on more fat for example. Or artificially when somebody eats carbs, like fructose for example, which disrupts fat metabolism and produces obesity.

As you can see, there's a common theme with one way to be thin and one way to be fat: The high carb diet. It seems paradoxical until you realize that to be thin on a high carb diet, you must eat a semi-starvation diet (not enough food) and this means you must remain hungry continuously and suffer the neurosis that comes with this continuous hunger. Is that healthy?

You said you don't really stick to it for any length of time. Well, there's your problem right there. It's not low carb if you don't stick to it. Further, a woman's weight (not just body fat %) fluctuates with her menstrual cycle. If you stick to it for a month, then don't see any progress for a week, that might be why. Stick to it for 6 months, then see if you really stay fat on low carb. You said you can't see yourself eating this way for the rest of your life. Well that's your choice and I don't see how I can convince you otherwise. But there's the rub, low carb is not a permanent solution. The only way to benefit from it all the time is to eat like that all the time. But look at the flip side, the only way to grow fat from high carb is if you eat like that all the time. So maybe you could eat low carb during the week and high carb in the weekend. Of course, it all depends on how low carb you gonna eat and how high carb you gonna eat, and how much total carbs you gonna eat on average. If it comes out to more than about 100g per day on average (could be lower for you, I don't know, you gotta test), you probably won't lose much fat.

In my mind, there is no question that low carb is healthy, and high carb is toxic. If you want to really learn why this is so, then pick up the book Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. Another good book is Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston Price, it's free if you look a bit or you can order it from some online book store or something. Yet another book on the subject is Not By Bread Alone by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, you can get that one free if you look hard enough.

Anyway, even if you don't read the books, stick around and you might just pick up some good advice here.

I can't stick with a very low carb diet either. You can try my approach, it's been working fine for me. Eat as many carbs as you want, as long as they don't come from grains and added sugar. Don't overeat fruits. Vegetables and sweet potatoes are your friends. Perhaps other tubers are okay as well. Every day eat eggs, fish, meat, poultry etc. I also avoid dairy.

Is it better to be thin and eat high-carbs or be fat and eat low carbs?

Its fairly clear that obesity is not the only outcome of high carbs, excessive carb consumption results in a whole host of other health issues.

So the answer, IMO, is clearly a no-brainer.

Hmm, hubby and I are an experiment of two and I think we lean towards the second - better to be low-carb and fat than skinny and high carb. Hubby would agree, I think, and he's Paleo/LC, has many more health problems than me, especially with carbs but was never more than 20 pounds overweight nd has been about 135 lbs since going LC. I was arguably healthier at almost 300 pounds than he has been at half that weight. I feel everybody reacts differently and environmental and toxic effects are critical, too. I was born fat (OK, fat since I was about 4). I was a victim of high carb but it never did me in as much as hubby who needs to eat zero carb now and may never heal from the poisoning. He has awful blood sugar problems. I just was told by my doc that there is very little chance I will ever develop diabetes and I have no hint of even subclinical prediabetes that most docs would consider normal. He is more concerned about what the bloodwork says and less about the number on the scale. Sometimes I think a bit higher carb is better for me, but that I am more sensitive to inactivity. I crave things like distance running but don't get to do enough exercise for my taste due to a desk job. Maybe I would be thin if I had an active job?

To the best of my understanding the cause of obesity is linked to huperinsulinemia and to put it in simple term, it is largely caused by the huge injestion of carb. All carb is converted to glucose and in turn acts on the pancreas to produce more insulin, slowly loading the body with more insulin than needed. From there all the symtoms connected to heart desease become gradually worse as time goes on. To me, and from what I read, the only way to reverse the process is to reduce the carbs along the guidelines of PP Lifeplan thus reducing hyperinsulinemia. While maintaining a primary protein diet and reduced carb the body fat seems to melt away. It appears that's when the hormone glucagone is at work doing the fat burning job. It seem to work for me.

But there are some who are able to eat tons of carbs without putting on weight.
Even for them, carbs are harmful in other ways.

I don't think low carb makes us fat I think it makes me fat or better yet does not help me lose excess fat. I am aware that I cannot be on this diet for any length of time because it isn't satisfying to me and I constantly am looking for something else to eat to satisfy what I feel I am missing. But isn't that the excuse everyone uses for not being able to do low calorie diets? If I cant stick with it long term can it be any more successful? It seems to take just as much will-power as a low cal diet and to me feels just as unnatural. I also think low-carb is healthy IF you can stick to it. I realize it is not easy for me and I find higher carb diets to be easier to stick to and more reliable to make me lose weight.

The reason I turned to low-carb was because I read all the literature (including GCBD and NPD) and it makes sense to me and it scared me off of carbs. BUT I do not lose weight on low-carb, whether I am sticking to it or not. I have been doing low-carb for 14 years and have tried every variation and have read all the studies and I believe they are true but there also seem to be a piece of the whole health puzzle that is missing. Carbs cannot be the whole story.

My grandmother lives on bread and hershey bars and is pretty healthy for 85 yrs old (she still flips her mattress) DH's aunt lives on instant coffee mix, candy, cookies, whisky and cigarettes and is also rather healthy. The thing they both have in common is that they're thin and relatively active and neither of them restrict their calories. Even if I am eating theoretically healthy foods like meat and liver but I remain fat I'm not sure that is healthier than if I eat carby stuff but can be thin.

I think the real question in all of this is whether or not you can be thin with a high carb diet.

You state in your OP that you've had better luck losing in the past with high carb eating, but you don't say you've ever gotten to a satisfactory weight and/or maintained that weight for any period of time.

If you can drop the weight and maintain the loss with high carb dieting (read: stick to it long enough to get results) then I'd say go for it. The real point to any of this is to get the weight off and keep it off.

You don't need low carb dogma or low fat dogma. You need sustainable results. Figuring out what is going to get you those results is the hard part.