A New Study Says Low-Carb Diets May Help You Lose Weight. But Are Carbs Really So Bad For You?

A new study suggests that low-carb diets may help people keep weight off and even drop extra pounds, adding to the confusion about the health benefits — or detriments — of carbohydrates. For the study, which was published in The BMJ, researchers put 234 overweight adults on a 10-week weight-loss diet. More than half of them successfully lost about 10% of their body weight during that time. From there, they were then assigned to follow either a low-carb diet (20% of total calories from carbohydrates, 60% from fat), a moderate-carb diet (40% from carbs and fat) or a high-carb diet (60% from carbs, 20% from fat) for 20 weeks. Protein, sugar, saturated fat and sodium were kept fairly constant across diets. The researchers found that people on low-carb diets burned more than 200 extra calories per day compared to people on high-carb diets, avoiding the reduction in calorie burning that can follow significant weight loss. Over time, the researchers write, that enhanced calorie burn could not only maintain existing weight loss but also help low-carb dieters slim down more than people on other eating plans. They estimated that a person on a low-carb plan could lose about 10% of his body weight over three years simply by reducing his carb consumption — even if his total calorie intake didn’t change. The findings are compelling, but like all diet research, they’re not without controversy. Existing scientific findings and anecdotal evidence support nearly ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Diet/Nutrition healthytime Source Type: news