In a new study, published in the journal BMJ on Wednesday, researchers explain how the low in carbohydrates diet works perfectly if you want to lose weight.
There were 164 overweight or obese people who have taken part in the study for 20 weeks. The results proved a 12% loss in weight.
There were three diets made of 20% carbs and protein and 60% fat, 60% carbs and 20% protein and fat and 40% carbs and fat and 20% protein.
Dr. David Ludwig, principal investigator of the study and co-director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital reported that the study proofs that a certain type of diet in each people habit has a big impact on the metabolism. Even if all the groups had the same weight, the group on low carbohydrate diet was the one burning the most calories, 250 more than the high carbohydrate diet.
An interesting fact brought up by this study is that dieting can be dangerous for women’s hearts.
The results were taken down directly from the impact with the metabolism since is the one that makes it harder when trying to loss or maintain weight.
“These findings show that all calories are not alike to the body from a metabolic perspective and that restricting carbohydrates may be a better strategy than restricting calories for long-term success,” Ludwig explained.
Dr. David Ludwig who is also a nutritionist believes that in just a few years, around 20 pounds can be lost spontaneous if you do not control the calories in a low carbohydrate diet.
“This seems like an important finding BUT I would be highly cautious as the interpretation of the results seems quite incorrect,” said Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow who did not get involved in the research.
He also explained that the group with the low carb diet has been getting more calories from food that the other groups, in order to keep the similar weights. So the important fact while being on a diet is that the change in weight is mostly similar in all diets since there are no strong evidences in any results.
Researchers mentioned that the metabolic rate was the same for all the participants in the study and maybe the other unmeasured activities in the body made the differences in results. However, the high levels of fat in the low carb diet have cholesterol and heart disease risk.
Kevin McConway an emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University wrote that the different diets consists foods that may differ in carbohydrate and fat content so it is another fact that can influence the results as well as the energy level.
