Making Carbs Count

Here's an interesting twist in the ongoing debate as to what type of diet is best for weight loss: The journal Obesity published a study in which obese men and women were assigned either a low-calorie diet with carbs spread evenly throughout the day, or a low-calorie diet with fewer carbs for breakfast and lunch, and more carbs for dinner.

While both groups saw weight loss, the group that ate more carbs at dinner saw greater weight loss, lost more fat, lost more weight around their abdomen, and had greater improvements in blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, insulin resistance, and inflammation markers.

I definitely agree with the researchers' conclusion that this study requires more follow-up. The study doesn't appear to have taken any other factors (like exercise, stress, or hydration) into consideration, and that's critical in this study, because it would be difficult to control for the Hawthorne effect -- that is, people behave differently when they know they're being studied, and when they know that their particular dietary manipulation is supposed to "work," they may change their behaviors, often subconsciously.

It's still an intriguing study, though. If you're working with a health care team to balance medications and carbohydrate counting to manage your blood sugar levels, I don't recommend making changes without checking with your team first. The study's abstract doesn't clarify whether people with diabetes were included. However, if you don't have diabetes, you can easily experiment with a little more protein and a little less carb at breakfast and lunch, and less protein and more carbohydrates at dinner.

If you're interested in reading more about the study, here's a link to the Obesity abstract:

Greater Weight Loss and Hormonal Changes After 6 Months With Carbohydrates Eaten Mostly at Dinner