We've known for more than a decade that the key to weight-loss is to consume fewer calories than you're burning--in other words, eat less, exercise more, or both. That dietary adage was confirmed last week by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, with a widely reported study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

有一个真理已经印在我们脑子里十多年了，那就是减肥的关键是吃进去的热量要比消耗掉的少才行，换句话说，要么少吃东西，要么多做运动，两者兼顾当然更好。上周哈佛大学公共健康专业的研究员们已经证实了这句饮食格言的有效性，并在《新英格兰医学期刊》上做了大幅报道。

In the study, researchers put 811 overweight adults on one of four weight loss plans, which were supposed to vary widely in fat, protein, and carbohydrate content. Most of the reporting discussed Atkins-style high protein diets as similar to the diet's high protein plan and Ornish-style low fat vegetarian diets as similar to the study's low fat plan. Since everyone who cut out 750 calories per day from their diets lost basically the same amount of weight, the take home message seemed to be that none of the popular diets are any better than any of the others.

在这项研究中，研究员们给811位超重的成年人制定了一个减掉四分之一体重的计划，这样一来，脂肪、蛋白质和碳水化合物的摄入量就都要较他们习惯的饮食做很大的改变。报道用了很大篇幅讨论两种饮食方式，一个是跟阿金博士食谱高蛋白质饮食法相似的高蛋白质摄入计划，另一个是跟欧宁胥节食法理念一致的低脂肪素食计划。因为每天从他们食谱中减少750卡路里热量的人也可以减少相同量的体重，因此，这项研究的结果表明这些著名的饮食法似乎并没有什么过人之处。

But upon closer analysis, a very different conclusion emerges.

但是随着研究深入，一种不同的声音若隐若现。

First, all the tested diets strived to be "heart healthy," which means that they limited saturated fat, limited cholesterol, and contained at least 20 daily grams of fiber (in the form of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables). Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Atkins-style diets knows that all three of these requirements are virtually impossible on such diets--so this study should not be read, in any way, as endorsing an Atkins (or similar high-meat) diet for weight loss.

首先，所有参加测试的人都要努力做到“心脏健康”，也就是他们要控制饱和脂肪酸，控制胆固醇，还要保证每天20克的膳食纤维的摄入（全谷物、水果和蔬菜中都有）。每个曾经试过阿金饮食法的人都知道这三个要求在阿金食谱中实际是不可能做到的，因此，要通过这个研究来证明阿金减肥法（吃肉疗法）对减肥有效着实是无稽之谈。

Second, although the caloric restriction worked for everyone who stuck with it--so it certainly is confirmation that caloric restriction is the way to lose weight--participants at two years were already consuming more than the allowed calories and gaining back weight. In fact, all four groups were on track to be right where they started by year three. In other words, for long term weight loss, all of the diets failed.

再次，尽管只要大家能坚持下来，控制摄入卡路里就能帮助你减轻体重（这也是证明控制卡路里就能减肥的理由），但是参与者在两年内消耗的卡路里在规定范围内，可是体重却又反弹了。实际上，所有四组参与者在第三年试验开始时全都恢复了最原始的体重。换句话说，每种减肥法对长期减轻体重都没什么用。

The reason for the high failure rate seems obvious to me: All four diets used similar foods and required precise caloric accounting, so all four diets were confusing and very hard to follow. Basically, adherents were asked to be absurdly careful with caloric counts (dropping precisely 750 calories per day) and proportions, but were told to eat identical foods--just in different amounts. So far, diets that require rigorous participant logs and calorie counting have always failed in peer reviewed studies, so this shouldn't have come as a big surprise.

到底为什么失败率这么高？在我看来很明显：所有的四组实验都在使用相同的食物，也同样对卡路里的摄入测量的精益求精，因此这四种食谱很容易被搞混，想要照着做也就有些难度了。基本上按照食谱减肥的人被要求过于精确的计算食物热量（每天精确的750）和各种比利，但是每天却都要吃一模一样的东西，只是量有所不同而已。到目前为止，食谱测试的参与者每天都要写日记、做食物热量计算，因此如此麻烦大家一批一批的放弃也就不足为其了。

In fact, there is a diet that works--consistently--at helping adherents to lose weight and keep it off, and which has a very high compliance rate: a very low fat, vegetarian diet, as recommended by Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Neal Barnard, and many others.

实际上，有一种食谱还真能让你一直在减肥——它能帮助使用者减轻体重并且维持这个体重，而且按照这个食谱做的大有人在们这个食谱就是欧宁胥和巴纳德以及其他专家都推荐的：脂肪量很低的素食餐。

The very-low-fat vegetarian diets work long-term because they focus on the consumption of fiber and complex carbohydrates, which make you feel full without a lot of empty fat calories, so adherents needn't keep food logs, restrict food intake, or count calories--in other words, they take advantage of the nature of food.

这种脂肪很低的素食餐可以长期发挥减肥功效，因为它主要是通过纤维和合成碳水化合物使人感到饱腹，而不是吃一堆高热量的东西来填饱肚子，因此，按照这个食谱做的人不用写日记，也不用严格控制食物摄取量和空是食物热量，这么说吧，这种方法刚好利用了食物的自然属性达到减肥的效果。

The Harvard study got off to a good start by requiring (in all four groups) 20 grams of fiber per day and by limiting fat and cholesterol, but the reason all four groups failed in the end is that all four diets included meat, which has no fiber at all, and which is packed with fat, relative to whole grains, beans, fruits and vegetables.

需要每天20克纤维摄入量以及要控制脂肪和胆固醇这个研究结果为哈佛大学的这项研究开了一个好头，但是最终这四组实验都失败的原因是它们的食谱中都有肉类，但是肉类相对于全谷物、豆类、水果以及蔬菜而言，不仅一点纤维素都没有，还都是大量的脂肪。

As explained by Dr. Ornish in the 2001 foreword to Eat More, Weigh Less, which is the Bible of this way of eating: "When you go from a high fat to a low fat diet, even if you eat the same amount of food, you consume fewer calories without feeling hungry and deprived. Also, because the food is high in fiber, you get full before you consume too many calories. You can eat whenever you're hungry and still lose weight."

欧宁胥教授2001年出版的书《多吃让你更苗条》可以说是如何吃这方面的权威，在这本书的序中他这样解释：“当你从一个高脂肪的饮食转变成一个低脂肪的饮食时，即使你吃的东西量是相同的，你也消耗了更少的热量但是你却不会觉得那么饿，而且，因为食物的纤维素含量很高，不用吃掉很多热量你就会觉得饱了，所以，你可以想什么时候吃就什么时候吃，而且就算这样吃还是可以减肥。”

Interestingly, in their review of all the past studies that have been done on diet and weight loss, the researchers note that "a very-high-carbohydrate, very-low-fat vegetarian diet was superior [for weight loss] to a conventional high-carbohydrate, low-fat [non-vegetarian] diet." But for some reason, they don't include this diet, which has been proven to work, in their study.

有趣的是，回顾一下过去所做过的所有饮食和减肥的研究，研究者们认为“高碳水化合物配合低脂肪素食的饮食是更有效的，而不是以前一致认为的高碳水化合物和低脂肪但是非素食的搭配。”但是鉴于一些原因，他们的四组实验中并没有这一项食谱，尽管在研究中这个方法很奏效。

In addition to the fact that Ornish-style vegetarian diets are easy to follow and work naturally for weight loss without calorie counting and food logs, adherence to the diet is high because results come fast and furious, and they include so much more than weight loss, from improved sexual function and greater energy to unclogged arteries and less need for sleep.

不仅仅欧宁胥的素食饮食法不用记日记、也不用做食物热量计算就能很方便施行也可以很自然的减轻体重，更重要的是使用者会发现这个方法见效也很快，而且除了可以减轻体重之外，还可以改善性功能，是动脉更加通畅，减少所需的睡眠时间。

And while it might seem challenging at first, it's actually quite basic--you eat all the grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables you want--from black bean burritos to three bean salads to pasta with (faux) meatballs to spaghetti squash and collard greens to apples and blueberries (basically, if it's a whole grain, bean, fruit or vegetable, you can eat as much of it as you want).

一开始这么做可能觉得很难，但是实际上还好，你可以吃你想吃的所有谷物、豆类、水果和蔬菜，不管是黑都做的墨西哥卷还是三种豆子做的沙拉，或者有肉丸的意大利面，当然肉丸是假的，还有鱼翅瓜，甘蓝叶，苹果，蓝莓……（简而言之，只要是谷物、豆类、水果、蔬菜中的任何一种，那你就尽情的吃吧）