Active Low-Carber Forums - View Single Post - New Study: Low-Carb Diet More Effective Than Low-Fat Diet (+better for blood lipids!)

http://healthorbit.ca/NewsDetail.as...nltid=119170504

DURHAM, N.C. -- People who followed a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet lost more weight than people on a low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-calorie diet during a six-month comparison study at Duke University Medical Center. However, the researchers caution that people with medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure should not start the diet without close medical supervision.

"This diet can be quite powerful," said lead researcher Will Yancy, M.D., an assistant professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center and a research associate at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham, N.C. "We found that the low-carb diet was more effective for weight loss," Yancy added. "The weight loss surprised me, to be honest with you. We also found cholesterol levels seemed to improve more on a low-carb diet compared to a low-fat diet."

The study is the first randomized, controlled trial of an Atkins-style diet approach, which includes vitamin and nutritional supplements. Along with losing an average of 26 pounds, dieters assigned to the low-carbohydrate plan lost more body fat, and lowered their triglyceride levels and raised their HDL, or good cholesterol, more than the low-fat dieters. The low-fat dieters lost an average of 14 pounds. Though the low-fat diet group lowered their total cholesterol more than the low-carb dieters, the latter group nearly halved their triglycerides and their HDL jumped five points. The low-carbohydrate group reported more adverse physical effects, such as constipation and headaches, but fewer people dropped out of the low-carbohydrate diet than the low-fat diet. The results appear in the May 18, 2004, issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The research was funded by an unrestricted grant from the Robert C. Atkins Foundation. The study authors have no financial interest in Atkins Nutritionals, Inc.

Full scientific article (may require subscription):
http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/140/10/769

Setting: Outpatient research clinic.
Participants: 120 overweight, hyperlipidemic volunteers from the community.
Intervention: Low-carbohydrate diet (initially, <20 g of carbohydrate daily) plus nutritional supplementation, exercise recommendation, and group meetings, or low-fat diet (<30% energy from fat, <300 mg of cholesterol daily, and deficit of 500 to 1000 kcal/d) plus exercise recommendation and group meetings.
(comment: For the first time, this sounds like they actually got real information and support!)
Results: A greater proportion of the low-carbohydrate diet group than the low-fat diet group completed the study (76% vs. 57%; P = 0.02). At 24 weeks, weight loss was greater in the low-carbohydrate diet group than in the low-fat diet group (mean change, –12.9% vs. –6.7%; P < 0.001). Patients in both groups lost substantially more fat mass (change, –9.4 kg with the low-carbohydrate diet vs. –4.8 kg with the low-fat diet) than fat-free mass (change, –3.3 kg vs. –2.4 kg, respectively). Compared with recipients of the low-fat diet, recipients of the low-carbohydrate diet had greater decreases in serum triglyceride levels (change, –0.84 mmol/L vs. –0.31 mmol/L [–74.2 mg/dL vs. –27.9 mg/dL]; P = 0.004) and greater increases in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (0.14 mmol/L vs. –0.04 mmol/L [5.5 mg/dL vs. –1.6 mg/dL]; P < 0.001). Changes in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level did not differ statistically (0.04 mmol/L [1.6 mg/dL] with the low-carbohydrate diet and –0.19 mmol/L [–7.4 mg/dL] with the low-fat diet; P = 0.2). Minor adverse effects were more frequent in the low-carbohydrate diet group.