Today we live a great crossroads in the world of nutrition: Are fats or is sugar the culprit of obesity? And within the same fats, since taking into account that there are several types, what kind of fat is harmful to health? With some of these issues in mind, a group of researchers at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases . They went to work to answer, at least, the question of what is better …
Low-fat diet or low-carb diet?
According to the study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism recently, the low-fat diet would be more effective at losing body fat (and weight, accordingly) than the low-carbohydrate diet .
This is what Kevin Hall, author of the study says:
“Many people have different opinions about what matters in weight loss, and the physiological data on which those beliefs are based are sometimes false or erroneous. We wanted to rigorously test if the theory of carbohydrate restriction was effective in losing body fat, since this idea has influenced the decisions of many people about their diets “
For the study, researchers recruited 19 obese individuals with an average age of 35 years. During the first five days, participants ate a basal diet of 2,740 calories a day, where 50% of them came from carbohydrates, 35% from fats and 15% from proteins. For six more days, individuals cut 30% of total calories, reducing carbohydrate intake.
After a few weeks of rest, participants returned to their basal diet for five days with 2,740 calories. This time, the next six days was reduced to 30% of total calories, but decreasing fat consumption.
Finally, scientists found that study participants lost an average of 89 grams of fat per day if they followed a low-fat diet for six days . In comparison, they only lost 53 grams of average fat a day if they followed a low-carbohydrate diet for the same time and reduced the same calorie percentage.
Low Fat Diet Wins Game
There are more and more advocates of the low-carbohydrate diet, as they claim that reducing them would also reduce insulin production, which in turn would lead to fat breakdown, and therefore lose more fat than with low-fat diets In fats.
However, in this new study the researchers have not detected that. Yes, insulin production was reduced and that caused an increase in fat breakdown, but ultimately this did not result in an increase in body fat loss . In comparison, participants lost more body fat if they were on a low-fat diet.
Still, and as the researchers point out, it is too early to give specific recommendations on what diet to choose to lose weight. In this case we talk about a study, where its participants are strictly controlled, and this is practically impossible to carry out on a real diet. In addition, the study gave no time to give data on whether it is easier to carry out a diet low in fat or low in carbohydrates in the long term, which in medicine would be called “adherence to treatment,” something very important if we want to lose weight . In the short term, we would not gain anything.
For more diabetic health information and low fat diet recommendation. Click here.