Low Fat Food Does Not Help

Low fat diets do not lead to greater weight loss in the long term compared to low carbohydrate or Mediterranean diets of similar intensity.

Clinical View

Reduced fat diets led to greater weight loss when compared with no diet at all, and resulted in less weight loss compared with low carbohydrate interventions, although differences in weight change were small. The science doesn't support low fat diets as the optimal weight loss strategy.

What Experts Did

A review of all randomized trials, comparing the effectiveness of low fat diets to other diets, including no diet, at improving long term weight loss in non pregnant adults. No difference found in the average weight loss between reduced fat diets and higher fat diets.