What's the Best Weight Loss Diet?

by Yuri Elkaim, BPHE, CK, RHN
Author, Eating for Energy

Determining the best weight loss diet for you can be challenging, especially with all the conflicting evidence and advice that overwhelms us each day. For instance, calorie restriction can achieve short-term weight loss but the weight loss has not been shown to be sustainable in the long-term. An alternative approach to calorie restriction is to lower the fat content of the diet. However, the long-term effects of fat-restricted diets on weight loss have not been established.

Thankfully, recent research has revealed some startling finding about two very common diet approaches- the low-fat and low-carb diet.

Low Fat Diets Don't Work

This "meta-analysis" was meant to assess the effects of low-fat diets as a means of achieving sustained weight loss, using all available randomised clinical trials. This review focused primarily on participants who were overweight or clinically obese and were dieting for the purpose of weight reduction.

Four studies were included at the six month follow-up, five studies at the 12 month follow-up and three studies at the 18 month follow-up. There was no significant difference in weight loss between the weight loss diet groups at six, 12, or 18 months leading the researchers to suggest that fat-restricted diets are no better than calorie restricted diets in achieving long term weight loss in overweight or obese people.

These findings have also been supported by numerous other studies. Let's have a look at one more.

Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb Diets

The researchers of a recent study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, previously reported that obese women randomized to a low-carbohydrate diet lost more than twice as much weight as those following a low-fat diet over 6 months! The difference in weight loss, they concluded, was not explained by differences in energy intake because women on the two diets reported similar daily energy consumption.

These findings led them to conduct a new study in which they compared the effects of a low-fat vs. low-carb diet among 50 healthy, moderately obese women. The women were randomized to 4 months of an ad libitum low-carbohydrate diet or an energy-restricted, low-fat diet.

Once again, their results showed that the low-carbohydrate group lost more weight and more body than the low-fat group even considering that there were no differences in caloric intake between the diet groups.

These results confirm that short-term weight loss is greater in obese women on a low-carbohydrate diet than in those on a low-fat diet even when reported food intake is similar.

The only question I have about this study is that there is no mention as to which carbohydrates or fats were consumed and limited. One can only presume that starches such as bread, pasta, and whole grains would have been reduced instead of fruits and vegetables.

Nonetheless, these results reveal that many of fad diets are not necessary. All that is needed is to lose weight is to reduce your calories, remove allergenic foods (which also retain more water) such as wheat and other grains, and focus more on natural whole foods.

Really, at the end of the day, whether a 2000 calorie/day diet is made up of 70% fat, 20% carbs, 10% protein vs. 55% carbs, 30% fat, and 15% protein, matters little. It's still a 2000 calorie/day diet! Obviously there are health considerations for both but if your goal is to find the best weight loss diet, then all you have to remember is to reduce the number of calories you are eating and move your body more often!

One of the best ways to eat less is simply to eat more nutrient-dense foods. This includes vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Doing so will provide you with more than enough nutrients and will prevent your body from "craving" foods (and calories) that it really doesn't need.

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