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Originally Posted by BlueSky  I find it interesting that the low-carbers lost and regained the most during the 2 year period. I wonder what the significance of this is?  |
I might actually expect this as low carb diets cause an initial disturbance in glycogen stores. May people going on low carb diets like Atkins report quick losses. Often people would claim that initial weight loss is water, and some of it is. I think part of the observed drop may very well reflect a recomposition of the body. As you read the study, the low carb is really based on an Atkins diet, which restores carb levels to 120 g/day at 2 months. This is also aligned with the point at which large weight changes stop and things turn around.
Now that I have finally read this paper, it actually is quite interesting. They had very high adherence, most dietary studies have real problems over the long term. It is also interesting that the classic biomarker for low carb, namely ketones was also basically not there. The low fat dieters had 3-4% showing ketones, and the low carb only had 4.5-8% showing ketones. One has to wonder what would have happened with a truly ketogenic diet. I wish the study had examined body composition with body fat instead of weight, but overall I am pretty impressed on this study. It seems to be of fairly admirable quality.
