Chennai: A new research observed improvements in body composition, fat distribution and metabolic health in response to an eight-week, very low-carbohydrate diet.
The study by a team of researchers led by Amy Goss, assistant professor with University of Alabama at Birmingham’s (UAB) Department of Nutrition Sciences, has been published in Nutrition and Metabolism.
Older adults with obesity are at particularly high risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Rather than total fat mass, deposition of fat in certain areas, such as the abdominal cavity and skeletal muscle, may confer this greatest risk of disease development.
The study aimed to determine if a very low-carbohydrate, or VLCD, high-fat diet would deplete these fat depots and preserve lean mass without intentional caloric restriction in older adults with obesity, thereby improving outcomes related to cardiometabolic disease, such as insulin sensitivity and the lipid profile.
“After the eight-week intervention, despite the recommendation to consume a weight-maintaining diet, the group consuming the very low-carbohydrate diet lost more weight and total fat mass than the control diet group,” said Goss.
“While eggs were a part of this study, we can’t conclude that our findings are a result of daily egg consumption; but I think what we can conclude is that whole eggs can be incorporated into the diet in a healthful way without adversely impacting blood cholesterol in older adults,” she added.
The primary difference in fat lost between the two groups was from the abdominal cavity and the skeletal muscle depots.
“We also found significant improvements in the overall lipid profile that would reflect decreased risk of cardiovascular disease,” Goss said. “Further, insulin sensitivity improved in response to the very low-carbohydrate diet reflecting reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes. Overall, we observed improvements in body composition, fat distribution and metabolic health in response to an eight-week, very low-carbohydrate diet.”
According to Goss, VLCDs are a therapeutic option for many conditions, including Type 2 diabetes, obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
“This study extends previous research to show that it can be a safe, therapeutic option for older adults in their 70s experiencing obesity,” she said and added:
“This is the first study to demonstrate depletion of metabolically harmful fat depots while preserving skeletal muscle during weight loss in response to a VLCD in older adults.”
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