Low Fat vs. Low Carb . . . Again

There are many reasons to eat a low fat diet, but if losing weight happens to be your main reason for doing so, then data presented at the North American Association for the Study of Obesity’s 2004 annual meeting may give you some cheer. The findings showed that eating a low fat diet was more effective at sustaining weight loss than eating a diet low in carbs.

It seemed that no matter how people in the study initially lost weight, those who stuck with a low fat diet were more successful at keeping the weight off. Proponents of the Atkins Diet argue that carbs were not sufficiently restricted in the study to allow sustained weight loss. There may also be other, longer term studies that have yet to be completed. For now, though, the pendulum seems to have swung back in favor of eating a low fat diet.