Energy balance
Low-carbohydrate diets produce significantly greater short-term weight loss (3-8 months) in obese individuals compared to non-carbohydrate-restricted diets, but this advantage disappears in the long term (10-30 months).
If you are obese, a low-carb diet will help you lose more weight than a standard balanced diet for the first 6-8 months. However, do not expect this advantage to last beyond a year; after 10 months, your weight loss will likely match that of someone on a balanced diet. The key benefit of LC diets in the long run is not weight loss, but improved lipid profiles (lower triglycerides, higher HDL).
Compared with controls, LC diets were associated with significant reduction of body weight at 3-4 (MD -2.59 [-3.93, -1.25] kg) and 6-8 months (MD -2.64 [-4.32, -0.95]), but no difference at 10-14 and 18-30 months
Why this rating
High quality evidence for short-term outcomes (GRADE: high), moderate for long-term (GRADE: moderate/low), based on 25 RCTs.
Source
Effectiveness of low‐carbohydrate diets for long‐term weight loss in obese individuals: A meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials
Giovanni Antonio Silverii et al. · Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism · 2022
DOI 10.1111/dom.14709
More from this paper
- Low-carbohydrate diets improve long-term cardiovascular risk factors (specifically triglycerides and HDL cholesterol) compared to balanced diets, despite no long-term difference in weight loss.Moderate
- The renal safety of long-term low-carbohydrate diets in obese individuals remains undetermined due to insufficient reporting of renal function data in clinical trials.Limited
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