Most diets lead to weight loss and improvements in cardiovascular risk factors but the results may disappear within a year, say researcher, suggesting that people should choose the diet they prefer without concern about the size of benefits.
Published in the journal The BMJ, the research found that in most diets, weight reduction at the 12-month follow-up diminished, and improvements in cardiovascular risk factors largely disappeared -- except in association with the Mediterranean diet, which saw a small but important reduction in ‘bad' LDL cholesterol. Compared with a usual diet, low carbohydrate and low-fat diets resulted in a similar modest reduction in weight (between four and five kg) and reductions in blood pressure at six months.
Moderate macronutrient diets resulted in slightly less weight loss and blood pressure reductions. Overall, weight loss diminished at 12 months among all dietary patterns and popular named diets, while the benefits for cardiovascular risk factors of all diets, except the Mediterranean diet, essentially disappeared.
