The Study
Macronutrient composition and its effect on body composition changes during weight loss therapy in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.
This study didn't prove that one diet makes you lose more fat than another — it just showed that both diets led to similar results when people lost the same amount of weight. It's like testing two different ways to clean your room: both worked about the same, but we can't say one is better because we didn't control everything perfectly.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
Two ways to lose weight—eating mostly fat or skipping meals two days a week—were tested in people with fatty liver disease.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 569 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes—losing weight, no matter how you do it, shrinks dangerous belly fat more than just eating less without structure.
- 2Both groups lost about 7–8 kg and reduced belly fat by 14–18%, with visceral fat dropping more than under-skin fat.
- 3Muscle also shrank a bit.
- 4Standard advice only lost 2.5 kg.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Nutrition
Year
2023
Authors
C. Lindqvist, M. Holmer, Hannes Hagström, Sven Petersson, V. Tillander, T. Brismar, P. Stål
Related Content
Claims (5)
When people consume the same number of calories, changing the proportion of carbs and fats in their diet does not change how much fat or weight they lose.
In adults with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, losing 7–8 kg over 12 weeks reduces both visceral and subcutaneous fat, with visceral fat decreasing more than subcutaneous fat, regardless of the diet's protein, fat, or carbohydrate content.
In adults with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, two different diets—intermittent fasting and low-carbohydrate high-fat—result in the same amount of fat loss in the abdomen and around internal organs, even though the diets have very different amounts of carbs and fats. The amount of weight lost, not the type of diet, determines how much fat is reduced.
Among adults with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, two specific diets—intermittent fasting with calorie restriction and low-carbohydrate high-fat eating—both lead to 7–8 kg of weight loss in 12 weeks, and this loss is greater than what people achieve with general dietary advice.
In adults with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, losing 7–8 kg in 12 weeks by reducing calorie intake without strength training leads to equal losses of muscle and fat tissue.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.