Low-carb diet better than cutting calories for long-term weight loss, study finds
- Researchers found that people on a low-carb weight loss diet burned as many as 278 calories a day more than those on a high-carb one
- The results could be especially useful for diabetics
A diet low in carbohydrates could help obese people maintain their weight loss by increasing the number of calories their bodies are able to burn, experts said this week.
Presenting their findings at the international Obesity Week conference in Nashville, Tennessee, doctors said a low-carb diet could allow formerly overweight patients to live a healthier life by keeping the pounds off long term.
The conventional treatment for obesity, which costs US health services hundreds of billions of dollars each year, treats all calories alike – simply eat less and your weight will come down.
But several studies have shown that this calorie-deficit effect tails off longer term as an individual’s metabolism slows to conserve energy, making weight loss harder.
A team of researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital tried a new approach, comparing the effects of diets varying in carbohydrate to fat ratio over a 20-week period.
They trialled 234 overweight adults who had a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or higher and put them on an initial weight loss diet for 10 weeks.