“Advice to eat low-fat diets, especially low in saturated fat and cholesterol… has no basis whatever,” writes Joel M. Kauffman, PhD, the author of Malignant Medical Myths: Why Medical Treatment Causes 200,000 Deaths in the USA each Year, and How to Protect Yourself.

People assigned to eat a low-calorie diet of 1000-1200 calories per day lost nearly twice as much weight loss as those assigned to limit their fat intake to 22-26 grams per day according to a 1999 study by Jean Harvey-Berino from the University of Vermont.

Those assigned to the low-caloried diet lost an average of 24.6 lbs after six months versus 13.4 lbs for those assigned to the fat-restricted diet.

People assigned to eat a low-calorie diet of 1000-1200 calories per day lost nearly twice as much weight loss after six months as those assigned to limit their fat intake to 22-26 grams per day—24.6 lbs vs 13.4 lbs—and also maintained a much greater weight loss after 18 months—16.5 lbs vs 4 lbs—according to a 1999 study by Jean Harvey-Berino from the University of Vermont.

A high-protein, reduced-fat diet causes more weight loss and more belly fat loss than a moderate-protein reduced-fat diet according to the always interesting research group from Denmark which includes Arnie Astrup and S. Toubro.

People lost twice as much weight after three months and six months on a high-protein, low-carb diet than a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet, but the difference in weight loss was not significantly different after one year according to the first randomized, controlled trial of a low-carb diet that was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

“Participants on a low-carbohydrate diet had more favorable overall outcomes at one-year than did those on a conventional [low-fat] diet,” concludes a new study conducted at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. People who were assigned to follow a low-carb diet maintained a weight loss of 11.2 pounds after one-year compared to a weight loss of 6.8 pounds for people who were assigned to follow a low-fat diet. The difference in weight loss between the groups was not statistically significant, however there still was an 80 percent chance that this difference in weight loss was due to the diet. Some articles have concluded that this study shows that low-carb diets are no better than low-fat diets, however this was not the conclusion of the study.

Women lose twice as much weight—18.7 lbs vs 8.6 lbs—and twice as much body fat—10.6 lbs vs 4.4 lbs—on a low-carbohydrate diet as a low-fat diet according to a recent study.

Patients eating a low-carbohydrate group lost nearly twice as much weight as those in the low-fat group. Those in the low-carb group lost an average of 26.4 pounds versus 14.3 pounds for those in the low-fat group.

Twenty native Hawaiians lost an average of 17.2 pounds in three weeks or 6.4 percent of their body weight by following a traditional Hawaiian diet according to a 1991 study (Shintani et al, 1991).

A 10 percent reduction in dietary fat causes obese people to lose an average of roughly 11 pounds according to a recent paper.

A high-soy-protein, low-fat diet causes more weight loss than lifestyle education according to a study from Germany.

Low fat diets cause an average weight loss of 5.5 pounds according to a recent review by Arnie Astrup of sixteen low-fat studies.

Patients who underwent laparoscopic gastric bypass weight loss surgery lost a similar amount of weight whether they were following a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet or a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet according to a new study from researchers at the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.

Women following an “Atkins diet for a year not only lost more weight than the [women following The Zone diet, a low-fat diet or a balanced diet], but also experienced the most benefits in terms of cholesterol and blood pressure,” according to a year-long study from Stanford University published in the March 7th, 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Women on a low-carbohydrate Atkin’s diet lost roughly 10 lbs after one year vs 4-6 lbs for those on three other diets.

Women on a low carbohydrate lost an additional 7 pounds of body weight and 12 pounds of body fat in four months compared to women on a low calorie, low fat diet according to a recent study.

Men lose roughly 1.5 times more weight (22 lbs vs 14.5 lbs) and nearly twice as much fat (18 lbs vs 10 lbs) with a low-carb diet versus a high-carb diet according to a study from Australia.

People who ate a low-carbohydrate diet without any calories restrictions for two years lost an average of 12.1 lbs compared to 10.1 pounds for those eating a calorie-restricted Mediterranean-diet and 7.3 pounds for those who followed a calorie-restricted low-fat diet according to a study conducted by researchers from Ben-Gurion University in Beer-Sheva, Israel, the Institute of Laboratory Medicine at the University Hospital Leipzig in Leipzig, Germany and from the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Among the 45 women who completed the two-year study comparing a low-carbohydrate diet to a Mediterranean diet to a low-fat diet, women following a Mediterranean diet lost an average of 13.6 pounds versus 5.3 pounds for those on the low-carbohydrate diet and only 0.2 pounds for those assigned to the low-fat diet.

Among the 277 men in the two-year study comparing a low-carbohydrate diet to a Mediterranean diet to a low-fat diet, men following a low-carbohydrate diet lost an average of 10.8 pounds versus 8.8 pounds for those following the Mediterranean diet versus 7.5 pounds for those assigned to the low-fat diet.

A Mediterranean diet is better for reducing blood sugar levels in diabetics than a low-carbohydrate or low-fat diet according to a two-year study comparing a low-carbohydrate diet to a Mediterranean diet to a low-fat diet.


Among the 36 diabetics who completed the study, those following a Mediterranean diet had the greatest reduction in blood sugar levels (-33 mg per deciliter) versus an increase of +1 mg per deciliter for those in the low-carbohydrate group and an increase of +12 mg per deciliter in the low-fat group.

Comment: The lack of reduction in blood sugar in the low-carbohydrate group after two years is probably because they were not restricting carbohydrates as much as they did during the first year. At the end of the first year, blood sugar levels in the low-carbohydrate group had fallen by -18 mg per deciliter versus -23 mg per deciliter for the Mediterranean diet group.

“It is possible to achieve and maintain long-term weight loss using a low-carbohydrate diet,” concludes a paper from researchers at Brown Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island, USA.

People assigned to follow a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet containing about 30 percent fewer calories than normal lost slightly more weight than people assigned to follow a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet according to a study from Australia.

People lost as much weight with a high-fat diet as a low-fat, high-protein diet according to a study from the University of Adelaide in Adelaide, Australia.

It is easier to maintain weight loss by eating a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet than by trying to follow a fixed low-calorie diet according to a recent study.