Summer weather has arrived, and many are considering the best way to lose their “pandemic weight gain.” In terms of weight loss, a calorie may be a calorie. However, in terms of its effect on body composition, disease modification and prevention, this may not be true.
A low-carb, high-protein and high-fat diet
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet was more effective at burning calories after initial weight loss than other diets.
Twenty-one young, obese and overweight adults were given a 12-week period to lose 10 to 15 percent of their body weight. They were then put on three different diets and assessed over a four-week period with each: a low glycemic index diet, a low-fat diet and a very low-carbohydrate diet.
The diet that seemed to show the most benefit for maintaining weight loss was the very low-carbohydrate diet, which was high in protein and high in fat – an Atkins-type diet.
This diet lowered the resting energy expenditure the least, meaning that the body burned calories more efficiently. Patients expended 300 more calories on this low-carbohydrate diet than on the low-fat diet and 150 more calories than on the low glycemic index diet.
Why did the low-carbohydrate diet show the best results for maintain weight loss and burning more calories? Jules Hirsch, M.D., former emeritus physician in chief at Rockefeller University, responded in the New York Times when the study was published.
His background included 60 years of obesity research, and he believed that the difference seen with the Atkins-type diet was due to water loss. He wrote that, while weight loss is dependent on the traditional formula – the number of calories consumed minus the number of calories burned on a daily basis – diets’ compositions do affect patients’ overall health.
Low-carb, high-protein diet negative effects
Interestingly, another study published in the British Medical Journal the same week as the JAMA study showed a potentially increased risk of cardiovascular disease with a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet. This was a prospective trial involving 43,396 Swedish women with a 15.7-year duration.
There was a four percent increase in risk for every 10 percent increase in protein or, as the authors point out, for every additional boiled egg consumed. This is a modest, yet harmful, effect.
Low-carb, high-protein diets have also shown an increased risk of kidney stones. There was a doubling of uric acid levels and a significant increase in calcium levels in the kidney over a six-week period. The study was small, 10 participants, and short in duration.
However, it does make you think that low-carb, high-protein diets from animal sources may not be the best option for overall health.
Does protein source matter?
Interestingly, another study showed that a low-carb, high-protein diet may vary in its effects, depending on the protein source. If high protein levels and fat came from animal sources, then there was an increased risk of death from heart disease and cancer, 14 and 28 percent respectively.
However, if the protein and fat came from plant sources, such as nuts and beans, the risks of all-cause mortality and mortality from cardiovascular disease were decreased by 20 and 23 percent, respectively. The study was a meta-analysis of the Nurses’ Health Study, with over 85,000 women, and the Physician’s Health Study, with approximately 45,000 men, both long-term studies.
No one will argue that weight loss is important, especially for those patients who are obese. However, when choosing a diet, it is important to consider also its effectiveness for disease treatment and prevention.
Diets that are considered to be most effective are those that are plant-based and nutrient-rich. Why lose weight for vanity, when you can lose weight and gain health at the same time?
