Combining the best components of low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets could be the most effective way to lose weight and keep it off, a leading obesity expert said on Thursday (June 2). Low carbohydrate diets such as Atkins, which largely exclude fruit, vegetables and grains, produce a greater weight loss initially than reduced-fat plans but in the long-term they are no better and may have side effects.
Professor Arne Astrup, of the Institute of Human Nutrition in Copenhagen, Denmark believes adding the best aspects of both could be the answer.
"Combining some of the good things from the low carb with the good things from the low fat diets seems to be satiating and also to enhance weight loss," he told the European Congress on Obesity.
The more extreme the diet is, the less likely people are to adhere to it, he added.
"You cannot live without carbohydrates for years."
Astrup and his colleagues, who carried out a comparative study of different diets, also found side effects such as diarrhoea, muscle weakness and dehydration in people on low carbohydrate diets.
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