Low Carb versus Low Fat: Which diet is better?

• 2014

Study compares popular diets: low-carb, low-fat

The spirits are different: Should we refrain from fat or carbohydrates to lose weight? US researchers put the low-carb diet and low-fat diet on the test bench.

The agony of choice! Who wants to slim down a few pounds, has countless possibilities: the slim-in-the-sleep diet, the 5: 2 diet, the factor 5 diet or the detox diet ... By far the most popular methods include the so-called Low -Carb and the low-fat diet. So largely to do without carbs or fat. But which of the two methods is actually more effective?

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Researchers at Tulane University in New Orleans wanted to find out, and divided 148 men and women under 50 into two arbitrary groups. All participants were overweight (on average around 100 kilos with one in 35). However, nobody suffered from diabetes or cardiovascular disease.

The low carb group should not eat more than 40 grams of digestible carbs per day. The low-fat group daily not more than 30 percent of their calories in the form of fat to eat. Although the researchers had set no limits on the daily total calorie intake, both groups consumed a similar amount of calories: about 1, 400 a day.

Low-carb versus low-fat

Around 80 percent of the participants held the diet for a year. Who had reduced carbohydrates, weighed in the end on average 5.3 kilos less. The low-fat subjects had slimmed down only about 1.8 kilos after twelve months. Amazingly, the low-carb volunteers were more successful with their diet method, although they had kept less to the specifications and had consumed an average of 40 instead of 40 about 90 grams of carbs per day.

So you'd better do without carbohydrates than fat? That actually seems to be more effective than the other way around. However, the study results published on the website of the Annals of International Medicine on September 2, 2014 should be treated with caution. Because with only 148 subjects, it is a relatively small test group.

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