If you want to lose weight and improve your health, but aren't sure if you should follow a low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet, it's easy to understand your confusion. Research studies seem to appear almost daily, with often-contradictory views on which diet approach -- low-fat or low-carb -- will produce the best health results. Ultimately, both diets can impact your health in positive and negative ways, and you'll need to decide for yourself -- with advice from your physician -- which one suits you best.
Diet Basics
If you're following a low-fat diet, you should eat mainly carbohydrates, ideally in the form of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grain products. Aim to get less than 20 percent of your daily calories from fat and another 15 to 20 percent from protein, with the remainder coming from carbohydrates. In theory, a low-fat diet -- especially one low in saturated fats -- should help you lose weight and reduce your risk of heart disease by lowering your cholesterol.
If you're following a low-carb diet, you should reduce your intake of carbs significantly. Depending on which specific diet plan you follow, you might need to lower your carb intake to the point at which you're consuming just 20 to 25 g of carbs each day. Low-carb diets potentially can help you lose weight and lower your blood sugar levels, reducing your risk for diabetes.
Weight Loss
Low-carb diets appear to spur more rapid weight loss when you first start it, but those following low-fat diets catch up by the time one year has passed, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. Eventually, almost everyone regains some or all of the weight they lose when following a restrictive diet, so it's impossible to tell from the research that's been done which of the two diet programs will work most effectively to keep you slender long-term.
Heart Disease Risk Factors
The results of a 2006 study published in the "Annals of Internal Medicine" reveal a mixed picture for both diets' effects on heart disease risk factors such as cholesterol levels and blood pressure. According to that study, patients following low-fat and low-carb diets had no differences in their blood pressure levels after 12 months on their respective diets. The low-carb diet improved triglyceride levels and levels of so-called "good" cholesterol, but the low-fat diet improved total cholesterol levels and levels of so-called "bad" cholesterol. The study noted that low-carb diets seem to be "at least as effective" as low-fat diets for weight loss purposes, but that patients and physicians should carefully weigh all potential changes to cholesterol levels.
Other Factors
If you're eating a low-fat diet, you'll be consuming more fiber, which might protect you from colon cancer and other cancers, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. A low-carb diet might provide too much saturated fat because you're allowed more red meat and more fat overall. Researchers haven't yet determined the long-term health effects of eating low-carb diets, but some have expressed concern that following a low-carb diet for more than one year can lead to bone loss and kidney problems due to the high fat content. Ultimately, you'll need to discuss all the potential effects surrounding both types of diets with your doctor to make a sound decision.
References
- American Heart Association: Cholesterol
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Low-Carb Diets -- The Right Way to Go?
- "Annals of Internal Medicine"; "Effects of Low-Carbohydrate vs. Low-Fat Diets on Weight Loss and Cardiovascular Risk Factors"; A.J. Nordmann et al; Feb. 13, 2006
- Harvard School of Public Health; "Low-Fat or Low-Carb Diet?"; July 2004
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