Mike Eades tore this up yesterday or day before. It’s an interesting look at the heirarchy of studies and the gap between what’s important and what’s reported.

The study is, as noted, unpublished. If it were to pass peer review, the total macronutrient breakdown would be part of the publication. Mike runs through potential breakdowns of maintenance diets with 50% fat, and none of them sound very Atkins-esque or research likely. At 2400 kcals, 10% carb is 240 kcals/4 = 60g. That’s reasonable as a CCLM in Atkins phase 4. but that leaves 40% protein, which is 960 kcals, or 240g of protein, which seems unlikely to be used in a research setting, given the “panic” over protein.

Lastly, the methodology, as Eades points out from the abstract he obtained, is even more backwards than putting 6 people on each maintenance plan and watching for 12 weeks. Instead, they put them all on one plan for a month, checked their markers, and put them back on their regular diet for a month. Then plan #2 for a month, check markers, then back to normal. Finally, plan #3, check and enjoy your life. Since we are cautioned not to check lipid profile until 6 weeks into Atkins, and frequently 3 months, I don’t think anyone would be surprised by an increase in LDL after 4 weeks on the diet. It may represent an improvement in lipid profile, but it doesn’t really mean anything because it’s too short a span for anything reliable (as if cholesterol measurement by inference is reliable anyway).