Subjects were studied on one of three diets over a two-year period. One group went low-carb, another low-fat and a third group followed a Mediterranean diet. The original two-year study,
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0708681, published in 2008, clearly showed the obvious advantage of a low-carb diet. But, at the time, the media kept misrepresenting what the study really showed, so I corrected the record here:
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/weight-loss/low-carb-diet-trumps-low-fat-diet-yet-again
and here:
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/saturated-fat/follow-up-on-the-israeli-low-carb-study
After completion of the study, the researchers kept in touch with 95 percent of the subjects and were able to gather data from them four years after the end of the original two-year study.
What the researchers found is what you would expect if carbs really are more fattening. The low-carb dieters gained more weight after going off their low-carb diets than did the low-fat dieters after going off theirs.
The study gets really interesting when you start looking at what happens to lipid levels when people go off of either low-fat or a low-carb diets.
What the study found was that folks who improved their lipids on low carb but then stopped "low carbing" re-tained the benefits in their lipid profile for longer than did those who were doing low fat, even though they regained more weight than those who did low-fat, given that both quit dieting after the study.
The picture this paints is that even if you complete some periods of low carb, and then go back to eating SAD, there's a long term benefit; that picture is represented in other studies as well. IOW, better to have short term success and then go back to bad ways than never to have success in managing your weight/health markers.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0708681, published in 2008, clearly showed the obvious advantage of a low-carb diet. But, at the time, the media kept misrepresenting what the study really showed, so I corrected the record here:
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/weight-loss/low-carb-diet-trumps-low-fat-diet-yet-again
and here:
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/saturated-fat/follow-up-on-the-israeli-low-carb-study
After completion of the study, the researchers kept in touch with 95 percent of the subjects and were able to gather data from them four years after the end of the original two-year study.
What the researchers found is what you would expect if carbs really are more fattening. The low-carb dieters gained more weight after going off their low-carb diets than did the low-fat dieters after going off theirs.
The study gets really interesting when you start looking at what happens to lipid levels when people go off of either low-fat or a low-carb diets.
What the study found was that folks who improved their lipids on low carb but then stopped "low carbing" re-tained the benefits in their lipid profile for longer than did those who were doing low fat, even though they regained more weight than those who did low-fat, given that both quit dieting after the study.
The picture this paints is that even if you complete some periods of low carb, and then go back to eating SAD, there's a long term benefit; that picture is represented in other studies as well. IOW, better to have short term success and then go back to bad ways than never to have success in managing your weight/health markers.
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