The Secret to Long Term Weight Loss: Low Fat or Low Carb?

Low carb diets offer the advantage of more weight loss in the short run, but they don't provide the lasting benefits of a low-fat diet, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

By Dena Afrasiabi

Low carb diets offer the advantage of more weight loss in the short run, but they don't provide the lasting benefits of a low-fat diet, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. A group of 132 people participated in the study. Researchers asked participants to go on either a low-carb or a low-fat diet for a year and followed them over a three-year period.

While the group that went on the low-carb diet lost more weight than the low-fat group in the first six months, by the end of three years, the low-fat group had maintained a lower weight than the low-carb group. While the low-carb group weighed only 4.9 pounds less, on average, than they had at the beginning of the study, the low-fat participants weighed 9.5 pounds less than their original weight.

On average, the participants weighed 288 pounds. Those who followed the low-fat diet were asked to get only 30% of their calories from fat, whereas the low carb dieters were asked to get no more than 30 grams of fat a day.

The study coincides with the publication of The New Atkins For The New You, the book featuring a revised version of the Atkin's diet which advises dieters to incorporate vegetables into their diet and contains new recipes. Traditionally, the Atkin's diet excluded many vegetables and consisted primarily of meats and dairy, foods high in saturated fat.