Very-low-carbohydrate weight-loss diets revisted

ABSTRACT
Much scientific and anecdotal data demonstrate favorable metabolic responses to very-low-carbohydrate diets. We believe that very-low-carbohydrate diets merit further study for weight loss, and that criticisms of these diets lack scientific evidence.

KEY POINTS
Most studies have found that people lose more weight on very-low-carbohydrate diets than on standard weight-loss diets.

Mechanisms of weight loss on these diets may go beyond water loss and include suppression of appetite, increasing the metabolic rate, decreasing metabolic efficiency, and shunting of nutrients away from fat storage.

Weight loss is usually associated with small to moderate reductions in lean tissue, but low-energy, very-low-carbohydrate diets may have a protein-sparing effect compared with low-fat diets.

These diets may also have favorable effects on specific risk factors for cardiovascular disease (eg, fasting and postprandial triglyceride levels, high-density lipoprotein levels, and low-density lipoprotein particle size).

Full article: Cleveland Clinical Journal of Medicine, Volume 69, Number 11, November 2002 [PDF File]