Want to lose weight? Opt for a Low Carbohydrate diet, says study

If you want to undergo a substantial weight loss, then you better opt for a low carbohydrate diet rather than a low-fat diet. This was suggested by a new study that was financed by the National Institutes of Health.

The study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and provides strong evidence suggesting that low-carbohydrate diet is a very good option when it comes to weight loss, much better than low-fat. This conclusion is the outcome of a number of observational studies.

In one such study, a very diverse group of 150 men and women was assigned specific diet to follow for one year. The diet limited their intake of carbs or fat, but didn't put a cap on overall calories. For a year, the researchers observed the regime and improvement of all these 150 participants and they found that obese people who were given the low-carb diet had lost an average of about eight pounds more than those in the low-fat group.

In a report by the New York Times, Dariush Mozaffarian, the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, stated that this study is one of the first long-term trials that provide diets without calorie restrictions.

He said, "It shows that in a free-living setting, cutting your carbs helps you lose weight without focusing on calories. And that's really important because someone can change what they eat more easily than trying to cut down on their calories".

Besides analyzing the weight-loss aspect, this diet study was also conducted on 148 obese adults who had diabetes but no heart problems. It was observed that all the diabetic people who were given the low carbohydrate diet lost at least 12 pounds as against those who were put on a low-fat diet and lost just 4 pounds.