Low-carb and low-fat diets have same effect on weight loss, claims study

Whatever diet you prefer, the key is to eat healthily

For anyone embarking on the beginning of their weight loss journey, it can be a daunting prospect trying to figure out which diet is best for you.

Diets are definitely not one-size-fits-all, as what works for one person may not prove successful for someone else.

Scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine decided to investigate whether following a healthy low-carb diet would be more or less effective for someone trying to lose weight than following a healthy low-fat diet, with their research leading to fascinating results.

Christopher Gardner, PhD, a professor of medicine and lead author of the study, understands that people’s bodies respond to healthy eating regimes in diverse ways.

“We’ve all heard stories of a friend who went on one diet - it worked great - and then another friend tried the same diet, and it didn’t work at all,” he said.

“It’s because we’re all 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?”

Gardner and his team of researchers assessed 609 overweight adults with ages ranging from 18 to 50 years old over the course of 12 months.

The participants, around half of which were men and the other half women, were randomly assigned either a healthy low-carb or healthy low-fat diet that they were instructed to maintain for a year.

The individuals began by limiting their daily carbohydrate or fat intake to 20 grams for the first eight weeks.

After two months they then began gradually increasing their daily carbohydrate or fat intake in small amounts in order to reach a sustainable balance.

By the end of the study, those following the low-fat diet consumed an average 57 grams of fat, with those following the low-carb diet recording an approximate daily carb intake of 132 grams.

The study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, discovered that both diets led to the participants losing a similar amount of weight.

The average amount of weight lost across both groups over the duration of the 12 months was 13 pounds.

However, the researchers did note that some of the results did differ greatly, with some people losing around 60 pounds and others gaining around 20 pounds.

Leading Harley Street nutritionist Rhiannon Lambert believes that becoming too caught up in a restrictive diet could be detrimental to your health in the long run.

“By becoming engrossed in counting calories and restricting our food intake, which is often what a diet requires us to do, it means becoming more and more confused in regards to what it means to be healthy,” she explained to The Independent.

“This will also encourage an unhealthy relationship with food.

“The idea that some new food discovery or new way of combining food will give you an instant fix to your weight or health problem is misinformed; there is no overnight fairy-tale ending.

“Weight loss at speed is never a good idea - slow and steady is the way to go.”

One of the key aspects of the study was ensuring that all of the participants did eat healthily throughout.

“We made sure to tell everybody, regardless of which diet they were on, to go to the farmer’s market, and don’t buy processed convenience food crap,” Gardner said.

“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."

Michela Vagnini, a nutritionist for Natures Plus, agrees that sourcing healthy food produce is of paramount importance.

“This is the key point not just for a weight loss diet but for a healthy diet to follow for life,” she said.

“If you start cutting out processed food and empty calories coming from junk and alcohol you will surely lose weight and feel better.”

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Britain is the most obese nation in Western Europe, with 63 per cent adults in the UK classified as overweight.