Research
Energy balance
Low fat diets do not provide a benefit for weight loss or prevention of overweight compared to low carbohydrate diets.
You do not need to follow a low fat diet to lose weight. Evidence shows that low fat diets are not superior to low carbohydrate diets for weight loss. Focus on diet quality and what you can sustain.
GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
Taken together, the evidence does not support a benefit of low fat diets for weight loss or prevention of overweight compared with low carbohydrate diets.
Why this rating
Supported by randomized trials and prospective observational studies.
Source
Dietary fat and cardiometabolic health: evidence, controversies, and consensus for guidance
Nita G. Forouhi et al. · BMJ · 2018
DOI 10.1136/bmj.k2139
narrative_reviewCited 308×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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