Low-Fat and Low-Carb Diets Usher In Similar Results, Study Finds
A new study recently found that low-fat or low-carb diets, when followed through, come up with basically the same results. What these findings suggest is that dieters could benefit from being less distracted about fat and carb counting and from focusing more on getting a healthy and balanced diet.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and was a randomized trial involving 609 adults which were considered overweight. They were then grouped into two, with one group doing a healthy low-fat diet, and the other going with a healthy low-carbohydrate plan.
Their weight changes after 12 months were monitored, and their family history of obesity and insulin tendencies were also taken into account.
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What the researchers found could be something that runs counter to popular diet plan advocates, especially those who preach severely cutting down on carbs or fat. The two groups, whether on low-fat or low-carb plans, essentially displayed no significant difference in their weight loss progress.
Also tellingly, each participant's genome or insulin levels did not significantly affect that person's weight loss progress at all.
"It's because we're all very different, and we're just starting to understand the reasons for this diversity. Maybe we shouldn't be asking what's the best diet, but what's the best diet for whom?" Christopher Gardner, lead author for the study, said in a statement via Stanford Medicine.
By the end of the year, participants of the study lost about 13 pounds on average, but their success greatly differed. Some went on to lose more than 60 pounds, in a few extreme cases, while there are those who gained weight instead,
"On both sides, we heard from people who had lost the most weight that we had helped them change their relationship to food, and that now they were more thoughtful about how they ate," Gardner noted, as quoted by the Business Insider.
