Low-fat diet not effective for weight loss: study

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Ditching the fats in one's diet do not contribute to greater weight loss cause in the long run. That is the findings of a new study, which was published in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal.

"There is no good evidence for recommending low-fat diets," said lead author of the study and epidemiologist, Dr. Deirdre Tobias from the Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Harvard Medical School, in a press release. "Behind current dietary advice to cut out the fat, which contains more than twice the calories per gram of carbohydrates and protein, the thinking is that simply reducing fat intake will naturally lead to weight loss. But our robust evidence clearly suggests otherwise."

According to a report from CNBC, the research team led by Tobias at the Harvard School of Public Health took into consideration more than 50 experiments, each of which has a study period of not less than one year. They also chose those experiments with randomized, controlled trials, which they believe can provide better results in terms of cause-effect relationships compared to other types.

The various experiments that the team analyzed subjected more than 68,000 non-pregnant participants to different types of diets with a number of fats and carbs as variables. Findings also show that diets which are high in fat and low in carbs were a bit more effective in losing weight in the long-term as compared to those diets adhering to the low-fat principle, wrote Time.

In the end, Tobias also emphasized the need to change people's mindset when it comes to diet and weight loss. She advised focusing on the actual food we eat and our eating patterns, as opposed to getting into the fat, carbs and protein debate.

She was also quick to caution that even though high-fat diets may not, necessarily, lead to weight gain, people should still refrain from taking in the so-called "bad fats" such as saturated fats and trans fats.

"This is not a free ride to go out and eat all the butter and bacon you want because we know these foods have other health effects," she said.

The researchers also recommend the cessation of various health and nutrition guidelines advocating low-fat diets to aid in losing weight. They emphasize that this form of diet has no proven long-term efficacy when compared with other, similar intensity dietary interventions. They also added that, in general, there are not many differences in the weight loss effects of the various diets in consideration, and recommending one cannot reverse the obesity epidemic in the United States.