Energy balance
Low carbohydrate, low fat, and moderate macronutrient diets all produce modest weight loss and blood pressure improvements compared to usual diet at six months, but these benefits largely disappear by 12 months.
If you are overweight, switching to almost any popular named diet (low carb, low fat, or moderate) will help you lose a modest amount of weight and lower your blood pressure for the first six months. However, do not expect these benefits to persist without further intervention, as weight loss diminishes and blood pressure improvements largely disappear by the 12-month mark. The specific type of diet matters less than the initial caloric deficit and adherence.
Moderate certainty evidence shows that most macronutrient diets, over six months, result in modest weight loss and substantial improvements in cardiovascular risk factors, particularly blood pressure. At 12 months the effects on weight reduction and improvements in cardiovascular risk factors largely disappear.
Why this rating
Moderate certainty for 6-month outcomes, but drops to low/very low for 12-month outcomes and many pairwise comparisons.
Source
Comparison of dietary macronutrient patterns of 14 popular named dietary programmes for weight and cardiovascular risk factor reduction in adults: systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised trials
Long Ge et al. · BMJ · 2020
DOI 10.1136/bmj.m696
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