Low-Carb Diets May Make You Lose More Calories Than Low-Fat Ones

Losing weight, like any other goal, requires a good strategy. To start with, you need to identify which exercise regimen and dietary restrictions you’d be most comfortable with. Also, you might want to consider a low-carb diet versus a low-fat diet. According to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, people who follow a low-carb diet lose 350 more calories each day than those on a low-fat diet. In addition, a low-glycemic diet (e.g., taking brown rice over white rice) cuts down 150 more calories than a low-fat diet.

Researchers gave 21 overweight adults three meals a day for seven months and found that they all lost approximately 14 percent of their body weight. To maintain this progress, researchers then divided the group into three and assigned them low-fat, low-carb, or low-glycemic diets.

After month-long experiments, it turned out that a low-carb diet burned the most calories. However, it also came with a few health risks, increasing stress and inflammation. A low-fat diet, on the other hand, posed the worst scenarios for insulin resistance, lipid levels, and HDL or good cholesterol. A low-glycemic diet may seem like the best option as it burns a good number of calories without any of the serious side effects, but doctors are concerned that the fat-intake may be too much.

A month, however, is too short for the findings to be recommended to real patients. Kevin Niswender, an associate professor at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, believes that more controlled trials like this study should be conducted to better understand which diets work best for which body. In the meantime, the best course of action is to consult a doctor and a nutritionist about formulating a diet that works for you.

(Photo by Hotarugari via Flickr Creative Commons)