High-protein versus high-carb diets
John Maday
| Thursday, November 19, 2009
Results of an Australian study indicate that high-protein, low carbohydrate diets and high-carb diets both can work for maintaining weight loss in the long term. The trials, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, followed 141 men and women who had completed the weight-loss phase of their diets, and evaluated how dietary composition influenced their ability to keep the weight off.
High-protein diets, the researchers note, appear to work better than high-carb diets for losing weight. But for maintaining weight loss, they concluded that controlled-calorie diets protein accounting for either 30 percent or 15 percent of calories worked equally as well. Participants on the high-protein diets, however, maintained the blood-pressure reductions they experienced as they lost weight, while high-carb dieters had increased blood pressure during the maintenance phase. High-protein dieters also found it easier to stick with the dietary guidelines.
An abstract of the research is available from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
