Research
Adherence
The cardiovascular benefits of low-carbohydrate diets diminish after 2 years of adherence, with no significant difference from control groups in weight or lipid profiles at that duration.
If you plan to follow a low-carbohydrate diet for more than two years, expect the weight loss and cardiovascular benefits to plateau and potentially disappear, largely due to the difficulty of maintaining strict adherence. Short-term adherence (under 11 months) yields the best results.
GoodQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
The overall effect of a low-carbohydrate diet on cardiovascular risk factors tended to be favorable at less than 6 months and 6–11 months, but after 2 years of a low-carbohydrate diet, there was no significant effect on cardiovascular risk factors.
Why this rating
Based on subgroup analysis of included RCTs; limited data points for >2 years.
Source
The effects of low-carbohydrate diets on cardiovascular risk factors: A meta-analysis
Tingting Dong et al. · PLoS ONE · 2020
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0225348
Meta-analysis · 12 studiesCited 106×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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