One of the struggles new moms has to face is getting back into shape after delivery. It is normal for women to gain extra pounds during pregnancy; however, losing it is not as easy as gaining it. While many cut their carbohydrates in hopes of getting back their pre-pregnancy weight, a new study suggests that low-fat diet is better than cutting carbs for weight loss, per BBC News.
According to LiveScience, the study recruited 19 obese individuals with an average age of 35. The sample participants had an average weight of 230 pounds, per NPR.
NPR noted that for two weeks, two groups were provided "precise" diets. One group went on a low-carb diet while the other went on a low-fat diet, both had a reduced calorie intake of 30 percent. After two weeks, the groups switched diets.
While participants were on the diet, they stayed in the laboratory and were strictly monitored by the researchers.
Low-carb diet advocates claimed that reducing carbs reduces insulin production, which increases fat breakdown, leading to greater fat loss than the low-fat diet.
"We cut the carbohydrates, insulin went down, and fat burning went up, exactly the way that theory predicts, and people lost fat," Kevin Hall, a metabolism researcher at National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and study author, said in a statement, according to NPR.
However, that's not the end of the study. Researchers found out that although low-carb diet reduces insulin production and increases breakdown of fat, it did not necessarily increase loss of body fat as much as the amount of fat the participants lost when they follow the low-fat diet.
With this, Hall does not buy the idea that only low-carb diets can help people shed fat. "That theory, as it stands — that very strong claim — is certainly not true," he said. His evidence is suggesting that total calories matter when one wants to lose body fat. "All calories weren't exactly equal when it came to losing body fat ... but they were pretty close," Hall said.
Hall mentioned that some people might find it easier to cut calories by limiting fat, others might prefer cutting their carbs intake. He also cited examples when over a six-month period, people on a low-carb diet lose more weight than those in low-fat diet, but this is all he has to say, "We would suggest that that's probably because they end up eating [fewer] calories in total."
