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Long‐term weight maintenance: does diet composition matter? A randomized, prospective trial
Author(s) -
Delbridge EA,
Prendergast LA,
Pritchard JE,
Proietto J
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
obesity reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.845
H-Index - 162
eISSN - 1467-789X
pISSN - 1467-7881
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7881.2006.00280_11.x
Subject(s) - weight loss , overweight , medicine , context (archaeology) , anthropometry , carbohydrate , obesity , zoology , randomized controlled trial , body mass index , prospective cohort study , randomization , biology , paleontology
Background: High protein diets confer weight loss and metabolic advantages over high carbohydrate diets in the short‐to‐medium term. Little has been published on long‐term use of high protein diets, especially in the context of weight maintenance following significant weight loss. Methods: The study consisted of two phases. The first phase saw patients provided with a very low energy diet for 12 weeks. Patients who lost > 10% of their body weight progressed to the second phase in which they were randomly allocated to a high carbohydrate (HC) (55% carbohydrate) or high protein (HP) diet (30% protein) to maintain their weight loss. Patients were followed up monthly for 12 months. Anthropometric and cardiovascular risk factors were measured. Results: A total of 173 overweight or obese people (88 males, 85 females) aged 43 years (SD = 10.6); weight 112.2 kg (±24.6); Body Mass Index 39.2 kg/m 2 (±7.7) were enrolled. 151 patients (87.3%) completed phase I and entered phase II. There was no significant difference between the weight loss recorded during phase I for each group after randomization (mean weight loss 18.5 kg ±6.9 kg and 17.7 ± 5.0 respectively). On average, patients from both groups were reasonably successful in maintaining their weight loss at completion of phase II (HC 14.7 ± kg 12.5 vs. HP 14.8 kg ± 9.7), with no significant difference between the groups. Conclusion: Although a high protein diet compares favourably to a high carbohydrate diet in the short‐to‐medium term, in this study a high protein diet exhibited no advantage over a higher carbohydrate diet in achieving weight maintenance over a 12 month period.