Low carb diet wins over low fat diet in short term but is the same over the long term

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 18 May 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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According to some new studies the low carb diet is more effective than the low fat diet over the short term, but over the long term the two diets are pretty much the same regarding weight loss and the number of people dropping out of the diet. What all diets seem to have in common, are claims of being breakthrough methods of guaranteeing excellent health, permanent slimness and making you wake up in the morning full of energy and positive thoughts. Read any diet web site, be it Atkins, The Zone, Low Fat, Low Carb, Raw Diet - and they will all have that standard phrase 'Wouldn't you like to wake up in the morning full of energy….". It is as if one single writer created the sentences for diet inventors to use.

There are many ways to skin a cat, and apparently, many ways to re-invent the wheel.

The latest diet of reducing carbs seems to be no different from many of the others. Short term weight loss does happen, but the chances of long term slimness seems to be pretty similar to all other methods.

As Dr. David Katz, a nutritionist specialists from Yale University, USA, said "I don't care that low-carb diets produce short-term weight loss. All diets do. When you go out a year, the weight loss benefits disappear."

Dr. Atkins created a diet which many obese westerners, especially Americans, loved and love. It allows you to eat meat and fats to your heart's content as long as you avoid all breads and fast carbohydrates (carbs).

A year ago one study proved that an Atkins diet was twice as effective as a low fat diet in achieving weight loss over a six-month period. However, after one year the Atkins dieters had put on some weight and ended up losing exactly the same amount as the people on the low fat diet.

A new study has come to the same conclusion. You can read about the study in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

In the study carried out one year ago, which was funded by the Robert C Atkins Foundation (non-profit, not connected to Atkins Nutritionals, Inc) 120 obese people were monitored. Half were put on the Atkins Diet while the other half were put on a Low-Fat Diet. The Atkins people lost 26 pounds after six months while the other group lost 14 pounds. The Atkins people also had other benefits - they lost more body fat, had lower triglycerides, and higher high-density lipoprotein levels than the other group. The Atkins people also experienced more constipation and headaches. Fewer Atkins people had dropped out of the diet than low fat dieters.

Dr. William Yancy Jr., lead author on the study, Duke University, USA, said "I think there's been enough consistency to now say that the low-carb diet is more effective at six months. If it's not effective at a year, it negates what happens at six months."

The second and more recent study found that the low-carb dieters and low-fat dieters experienced identical weight loss results after one year. The number of people dropping out of their diets (abandoning their diets) was the same after one year, about 30%.

This second study was funded by the American government and carried out at Philadelphia Veterans Hospital. They monitored 132 obese adults who had experienced higher weight loss one year ago while on the Atkins diet for six months. They were followed until one year after they had started their diet. The Atkins dieters and Low Fat dieters, after one year, had all experienced an average weight loss of 10-16 pounds from their original weights. During the second six month period the Atkins dieters had put some of their weight back on.

The drop-out rates after one year was also the same in both groups - about one third. The advantage the Atkins diet had over the low-fat diet after one year was in the factors that increase heart disease risk - the Atkins dieters, even after one year, had better cholesterol and triglyceride levels than the low fat dieters.

Basically, what it comes down to is how many calories you eat each day, how varied and nutritionally valuable your diet is and how much exercise you do. As I said at the beginning of the article - there are many ways of skinning a cat and re-inventing the wheel - but at the end of the day a wheel is a wheel and the cat's skin is the cat's skin. As long as there are billions of dollars to be made every year, there will always be new diets and new exercise techniques and lots of people will get rich. Maybe the next one will be called the North Shore Diet.