Weight loss has become an important topic as more people struggle to maintain their normal body weight. The exact causes of obesity are complex, but one of the main drivers is the presence of high amounts of refined crystalline sugar in the diet. The realisation that sugar is an obesogenic compound and also a metabolic poison has lead to a large body of research evidencing the detrimental effects of a high intake of sugar. Mammalian studies show that addition of sugar to the diet of humans, rats, mice and dogs causes the rapid development of insulin resistance and weight gain, and these changes can be reversed when the sugar is removed from the diet. Low carbohydrate diets are successful and have shown large amounts of promise because they allow the individual to remove sugar from their diet. This goes a long way to explain how such diets are effective and how they can significantly improve a person’s health. Studies have compared low carbohydrate diets to various other kinds of diet for weight loss.
Low carbohydrate diets are at least as effective as low fat diets for causing medium term weight loss. However, for weight loss to occur on a low carbohydrate diets, there is no requirement for energy restriction. Low fat diets appear to require a component of energy restriction in order for them to have an effect. This make low carbohydrate diets easier to follow and creates a situation whereby they are more likely to be effective in the long term. Most diets are effective because they eliminate or reduce the amount of sugar consumed. Sugar is highly obesogenic and reducing intake can significantly reduce insulin resistance, the primary driver of weight gain and obesity.
One meta-analysis study compared the effects of low carbohydrate diets to low fat diets. The interesting thing about this study was that the low carbohydrate diets did not involve an imposed energy limit, whereas the low fat diets were energy restricted. The results of the study showed that after 6 month of following the low carbohydrate diets, the subjects had 3.3 kg more weight loss compared to those following the low fat diets. However, at 1 years that difference was no longer statistically significant, although weight loss was still 1 kg greater in the low carbohydrate subjects. The triglyceride and high density lipoprotein components of the blood changed more favourably in the low carbohydrate group, although the total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein component of the diet changed more favourably in those subjects consuming low fat diets. Therefore, over the course of one year similar improvements in health can be obtained from both low fat and non-energy restricted low carbohydrate diets.
Eat Well, Stay Healthy, Protect Yourself
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