Research
Macro partitioning
Low-Carbohydrate Diets (LCDs) produce greater short-term weight loss than Low-Fat Diets (LFDs), but this difference disappears after 12 months when both diets are isocaloric.
If you prefer eating less bread and pasta, a Low-Carbohydrate Diet will likely help you lose weight faster in the first 6 months than a low-fat diet. However, after a year, your results will likely be similar to someone eating a low-fat diet, provided you are eating the same number of calories. Choose the diet you can adhere to long-term.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Compared with LFDs, LCDs produced 3.3–4.0 kg greater weight loss at 6 months... However, at 12–24 months, differences between these approaches declined to only 2–2.2 kg in favor of low-carbohydrate regimens... weight loss did not differ between groups at 12 months
Why this rating
Based on multiple meta-analyses of RCTs.
Source
Dietary interventions for obesity: clinical and mechanistic findings
Ariana M. Chao et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 2021
DOI 10.1172/jci140065
narrative_reviewCited 241×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Very Low-Energy Diets (VLEDs, <800 kcal/d) produce significantly greater short-term weight loss than Low-Energy Diets (LEDs, 800-1800 kcal/d), but this advantage diminishes and becomes statistically non-significant after 12 months.Good
- Intermittent Energy Restriction (including Intermittent Fasting and Time-Restricted Feeding) produces similar short- and long-term weight loss to continuous daily energy restriction when total caloric intake is equal.Good
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