Low-Fat vs Low-Carb Diets - Is It Worth A Hassle?

by: Stefan Simonovic

Food image created by Nensuria - Freepik.com

Being in shape is definitely one of the most important things in our modern society. Millions of people are looking at those popular celebrity Snapchats in search of inspiration, motive or advice on how to lose weight and stay fit. Back in the 1970's, scientists and doctors connected fatty foods with heart disease and obesity and they urged people to reduce or completely eliminate fat from their everyday diet. After that, a lot of cooks and chefs replaced fat with carbohydrates. Back in the day this seemed like a healthier alternative, but new studies show that carbohydrates are also pretty harmful. This is exactly why we have so many low-fat vs low-carb debates nowadays. Which one of these two is more effective? Are they worthy of your time and effort? Stick around and find out.

The Benefits Of The Low-Fat Diet

This type of diet was established somewhere around 1977, just around the exact same time the obesity epidemic started in the United States. Doctors and nutritionists simply had to do something in order to prevent the massive spreading of this unhealthy trend.

Eliminating (or reducing) the fat from the diet is definitely decreasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Avoiding red meat, eggs, dairy products, and fried food is good for the overall health. This strategy will lower your odds of having a stroke or a heart attack. However, this diet plan is effective only if you don't replace fat with carbohydrates. Why are carbs so bad? We'll get to that soon.

The Benefits Of The Low-Carb Diet

Don't get us wrong, carbs are not necessarily bad, especially if consumed in reasonable amounts. However, carbohydrates can easily be stored as glucose in the human body and this may lead to serious health problems like obesity and diabetes. Both of these vicious diseases can ultimately lead to fatal heart issues.

So, it's clear that you shouldn't replace fat with carbs and vice versa. Instead, you should base your diet on proteins and vitamins. The biggest and most important benefit of the low-carb diet is the fact that it lowers the amount of sugar in a person's body. Therefore, it reduces the risk of diabetes.

What Do New Studies Prove?

It's safe to say that this particular debate is one of the most popular ones nowadays and that's completely understandable. There are a lot of different and opposite opinions and it's really hard to say which one of these two diets is more effective. We have to ask ourselves - what do new studies say about this?

New England Journal of Medicine, 2003 says that according to one study, 63 people were divided randomly into two groups - a low-fat diet group and a low-carb diet group. This experiment lasted 12 months. After the results came in, scientists said that the low-carb group lost 7.3% of total body weight, compared to the other group, which lost 4.5%. The difference was notable at 3 and 6 months after the experiment started, but not after 12 months. In the end, doctors concluded that both of these diets are actually rather effective and that the only difference is the pace of the weight loss. So yes, we can honestly say, these diets are definitely worthy of your time.

About the author:

Stefan is a writer and a blogger in his spare time. He also works for First Beat Media, a company that mainly focuses on the online dating niche and similar services.