Consume low fat diets for weight loss

From the 53 studies reviewed and analyzed, the researchers found 19 studies that used a control group in which the low-fat diet is compared.

Previously, a small-scale study was reported wherein a low-fat diet was found to be more effective in losing weight when compared to a low-carbohydrate diet. The researchers discovered that low-fat diets were no better than other types of diet when it comes to long-term weight loss.

Compared with not dieting at all, avoiding fat resulted in 5.4 kilograms being shed after a year, while low-carbohydrate diets added another 1.15 kg of weight loss.

The lead researcher also highlighted that their study, which can be considered as one of the biggest of its kind, showed that there is not enough evidence that will prove that low-fat diet is the most effective way for weight loss.

Experts who analysed data on more than 68,000 adults concluded that curbing fat intake did not lead to greater weight loss than low-carbohydrate or Mediterranean diets. “Our findings emphasize why we need to start thinking in terms of foods and overall healthy patterns for maintaining a healthy body weight, rather than focusing on individual nutrients like fats and carbs”, Tobias said. “All of these prescriptions for dieting seem to be relatively ineffective in the long term”, Kevin Hall, a physiologist at the US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, said. Similarly, when just considering trials without a weight loss goal (eg, those assessing lipids or cancer endpoints), participants following a reduced-fat diet lost similar amounts of weight on average compared to those on other diets.

For successful weight loss, Diekman advises talking with a registered dietitian “who can design an eating plan for weight loss that meets your lifestyle”.

“Energy balance calculations suggest that at the point of maximum weight loss, diet adherence has already substantially waned”, he wrote.

“For decades we’ve been touting low-fat diets as the way to lose weight, but obesity has gone up”.

Dietary fat has always been targeted, said the study, for the reason that every gram (0.04 ounce) of it contains more then double the calories of a gram of carbohydrates or protein.

“Despite the pervasive dogma that one needs to cut fat from their diet in order to lose weight, the existing scientific evidence does not support low-fat diets over other dietary interventions for long-term weight loss”, lead study author Deirdre Tobias from the Division of Preventive Medicine at BWH said in a press release.