Low-Fat vs Low-Carb: Which Is Best For Weight Loss?
The authors of a new study have found that healthy low-fat (HLF) diets and healthy low-carbohydrate (HLC) diets result in similar weight changes, indicating that both are effective options for weight loss.
In the Diet Intervention Examining The Factors Interacting with Treatment Success (DIETFITS) randomized clinical trial, the researchers assessed 609 adults aged 18 to 50 years without diabetes and with a body mass index of 28 to 40 kg/m2.
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Each participant was randomly assigned to the 12-month HLF (n = 305) or HLC diet (n = 304). Over the course of the study, the potential effects of 3 single-nucleotide polymorphism multilocus genotype responsiveness patterns and insulin secretion were tested.
A total of 481 (79%) participants completed the trial. The researchers observed similar weight loss among HLC and HLF participants (-13.23 lbs vs -11.68 lbs). According to study findings, the mean 12-month macronutrient distributions were 48% vs 30% for carbohydrates, 29% vs 45% for fat, and 21% vs 23% for protein in the HLF vs HLC diets, respectively.
The researchers did not observe any significant diet-genotype pattern interaction or diet-insulin secretion interaction in this cohort over the 12-month trial period.
“In this 12-month weight loss diet study, there was no significant difference in weight change between a healthy low-fat diet vs a healthy low-carbohydrate diet, and neither genotype pattern nor baseline insulin secretion was associated with the dietary effects on weight loss,” the researchers concluded.
—Christina Vogt
Reference:
Gardner CD, Trepanowski JF, Del Gobbo LC, et al. Effect of low-fat vs low-carbohydrate diet on 12-month weight loss in overweight adults and the association with genotype pattern or insulin secretion: the DIETFITS randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2018;319(7):667-679. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.0245.