Low carb diet better for obese women with insulin resistance
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Physicians recommends obese women who want to lose weight use a low fat diet. But a new study suggests that for women with insulin resistance, the better option for weight loss is a low carb diet.The study showed obese women with insulin resistance who used a low carb diet for three months lost more weight than their counterparts who used a low fat carb diet.
The study was presented at the Endocrine Society's 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego, according to a press release issued by the Endocrine Society.
Insulin resistance is a common precursor for Type 2 diabetes and people with this condition metabolize carbohydrates or carbs abnormally, which researchers said affects their rate of weight loss.
For the study funded by Jenny Craig, Raymond Plodkowski, MD, at the University of Nevada School of Medicine and colleagues tested these two diets in 45 obese women aged 18 to 65 who had insulin resistance.
Each day for a period of 12-week, the researchers randomly assigned the subjects to either a low fat diet or low carb diet. Individuals in the low fat diet group and those in the low carb diet group had similar average body weight to start with, 213 pounds each versus 223 pounds each.
The low fat diet consisted of 60 percent of calories from carbs, 20 percent from fat and 20 percent from protein while the low carb diet had 45 percent from carbs, 35 percent from unsaturated fats and 20 percent from protein.
At the end of the study, both groups of women with insulin resistance lost weight, but those on the low carb diet lost 3.4 pounds more than those on a low-fat diet.
Specifically, those on the low carb diet lost 19.6 pounds compared to 16.2 pounds in the low fat diet group.
"These data have potential widespread applications for clinicians when counseling people with insulin resistance to help improve weight loss as part of a calorie-restricted diet," Plodkowski said.
David Liu
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