Low-carbohydrate diets are hot, but are they effective and safe? Interesting enough, after reviewing more than 100 articles on low-carb diets, the authors of an article published in April by the Journal of the American Medical Association can't make any definite recommendations.
Why? Not enough evidence is available to make such a determination. There is not a standard definition of a low-carbohydrate diet. More research is required to study the long term effects or low carbs, low calories and exercise.
The researchers analyzed a total of 107 diet studies involving 3,268 people from around the world. They did find that weight loss was associated with starting weight, time on the diet, and number of calories consumed. Therefore, reduction in calories, not reduction in carbohydrates, accounted for the weight loss of people on low-carb diets.
People on diets of 60 grams or less of carbohydrates a day did lose weight, but the loss was associated with eating less and dieting longer, rather than carbohydrate intake. "The findings suggest that if you want to lose weight, you should eat fewer calories and do so over a long time period,"
Another conclusion they did make is: "The greatest predictors of weight loss appear to be caloric intake and diet duration," says Dr. Dena Bravata of Stanford's Center for Primary Care & Outcomes Research.
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