The Study
Greater Loss of Central Adiposity from Low-Carbohydrate versus Low-Fat Diet in Middle-Aged Adults with Overweight and Obesity
This study shows that people who chose a low-carb diet lost more belly fat than those who chose a low-fat diet, but we can't say for sure that the diet caused the difference because people picked their own diet. It's like noticing kids who pick broccoli eat healthier overall — maybe it's the broccoli, or maybe they just make healthier choices in general.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
Grown-ups with extra weight tried two diets: one with very few carbs and lots of fat, and one with less fat and fewer calories. The low-carb diet shrank belly fat more, especially in people whose bodies didn’t handle sugar well.
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 546 / 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, especially for people with insulin resistance—losing more visceral fat can lower the risk of diabetes and heart disease.
- 2The low-carb diet reduced belly fat by 15.6% and deep belly fat by 18.5%.
- 3The low-fat diet reduced them by 8.3% and 5.1%.
- 4Both diets lost about the same total weight.
- 5The low-carb diet made insulin work better, the other made it worse.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Nutrients
Year
2021
Authors
Valene Garr Barry, Mariah Stewart, T. Soleymani, R. Desmond, Amy M Goss, B. Gower
Related Content
Claims (6)
If you're middle-aged and your body doesn't respond well to insulin, cutting carbs and eating more fat might help you lose belly fat better than a low-fat diet. But if your body handles insulin normally, both diets work about the same for fat loss.
For middle-aged people with extra weight, cutting carbs a lot might burn more belly fat — especially the dangerous kind around organs — even if you lose the same total weight as someone on a low-fat diet.
Cutting carbs works better than cutting fat if you're trying to manage insulin-related health problems like type 2 diabetes.
Eating fewer carbs and more fat—without counting calories—can help people lose about as much weight as eating less fat and cutting calories. This suggests that what you eat might matter just as much as how much you eat.
In middle-aged people who are overweight, eating fewer carbs and more fat for 15 weeks might help their body respond better to insulin, while cutting calories on a low-fat diet could actually make insulin work worse — and these changes happen even if both groups lose about the same amount of weight.
If you're a middle-aged adult with extra weight, eating either a low-carb high-fat diet or a low-fat diet with fewer calories can help you keep your muscle while losing weight over about 4 months.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.