🥯The Low Carb vs Low Fat Diet Battle 🤺

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🎧 Why Muscle Matters and Your TO DONE LIST | VEN Podcast 49

Which is Better a Low Carb or Low Fat Diet?

The fight continues in the medical literature. A new study, however, gives a different perspective on longer term weight loss. This is a crucial vitality topic in the context of the rising percentages of people who are either obese or overweight.

Here is the primary conclusion of the paper below:

“Through systematic analysis of multi-domain datasets, we find that dietary adherence and diet quality, not just caloric restriction, are important for short-term weight loss in both diets.”

This comprehensive study collected dietary, metabolic, and molecular data “from 609 participants before, during, and after a 1-year weight-loss intervention with either a healthy low-carbohydrate (HLC) or a healthy low-fat (HLF) diet.”

Participants on the low carb diet lost more weight in the first six months. At 12 months, however, there were no differences in weight change in the two groups. (See charts below.)

A higher percentage of the participants lost weight but there were large differences in the amounts. Some lost more than 60 pounds while other lost only 20 pounds or less. The researchers were also interested in discovering a biomarker for why some people lost more weight or were better able to keep it off. The discussion section of the paper articulates an important problem.

“Many individuals struggle with elevated weight and are willing to make lifestyle changes to achieve sustained weight loss, but the success rate of their efforts is frustratingly low.”

They found specific data in the study suggesting that adherence to the assigned diet was more important that reported calorie restrictions.

Here is another conclusion from the study:

“Surprisingly, our analysis clearly shows that the reported caloric restriction achieved by individuals was not well correlated with their weight loss. Instead, the degree to which they adhered to their assigned diet was directly correlated with their weight loss during the first 6 months. Just restricting calories without adhering to the low-carbohydrate or low-fat instructions was not enough.”

The paper went on to discuss the non-caloric reasons why someone may lose weight. They also note some individuals do not see any weight changes despite significant changes in their caloric intake. These factors are quite interesting. Here is the part of that discussion:

“There seem to be a variety of counterbalancing physiological processes to prevent weight loss. Some of the physiological adaptations to maintain weight in the face of caloric deficit have been elucidated; these include perturbations in the levels of circulating appetite-related hormones, alteration in nutrient metabolism, effects of sleep debt, and iatrogenic effects of medications.”

The paper also explored a variety of other parameters associated with being able to sustain weight loss over time. These include specific proteins that are associated with obesity and metabolic dysfunction. Expression of these proteins may be under genetic or epigenetic control. More research is needed to better understand their role in weight loss in either a low carb or low fat diet.

The bugs that live in our guts also known as the microbiome was also explored in this study. The researchers concluded: “It is likely that the influence of gut microbiota on obesity is more complex than simply an imbalance in the proportion of these phyla of bacteria.” The means we will need a better understanding of the role of our gut bacteria beyond just the ratios of individual species.

The paper finished by stating that there is a potential for precision nutrition to augment the battle against obesity. Some of the non-caloric variables associated with enhanced weight loss success were identified.

Vitality Explorer Analysis and Recommendations

This is a complex but profound paper.

It provides data supporting with a low carb or low fat diet to lose weight. It also points to adhering to a diet as one of the most important predictors of long term weight loss. It also explored non-calorie related reasons for being successful.

Future research should explore some of the psychological reasons why people were either compliant or non-compliant with their low carb or low fat diets.

Exploring the genomic causes and relationships with our microbiome should help inform specific clinical strategies to combat the epidemic of obesity.

Please post your comments below and please share this post. More detailed analysis of this complex is below for paid subscribers.

Reference

SUMMARY

To understand what determines the success of short- and long-term weight loss, we conduct a secondary analysis of dietary, metabolic, and molecular data collected from 609 participants before, during, and after a 1-year weight-loss intervention with either a healthy low-carbohydrate (HLC) or a healthy low-fat (HLF) diet. Through systematic analysis of multidomain datasets, we find that dietary adherence and diet quality, not just caloric restriction, are important for short-term weight loss in both diets. Interestingly, we observe minimal dietary differences between those who succeeded in long-term weight loss and those who did not. Instead, proteomic and gut microbiota signatures significantly differ between these two groups at base- line. Moreover, the baseline respiratory quotient may suggest a specific diet for better weight-loss outcomes. Overall, the identification of these dietary, molecular, and metabolic factors, common or unique to the HLC and HLF diets, provides a roadmap for developing individualized weight-loss strategies.